Teen Mom

I am a teen mom but I am not a classic teen mom that you see on TV saying "it's so much harder than I thought it was going to be".  I knew it was going to be hard and starting school in just a few weeks is going to make it even that much harder.  I'm going back to not only school but also work.  I know I'm going to miss my daughter so much while I'm there.  I know it's the right thing to do but it doesn't make it any easier.  She's the center of my universe right now.  I know for her father it's going to be even tougher than it is for me.  He goes to school on the other side of the state and will only be able to see and talk to her over Skype and every other weekend (hopefully) when he gets to come home.  I just want to try to do everything right.  Therefore I am going to start working on some home videos and I'm putting together a folder on my computer of pictures that I want to print out and put into a photo album (speaking of which I need to put that on my list of things to buy at the store tomorrow).
Everyone keeps asking me what's the hardest thing about being a new mom and honestly I can't give them an answer.  It just feels so right to be a mom, yea, it's hard, but it feels so right.  The hardest thing at the beginning that I still struggle with right now is trying to learn how to do things with one arm (for the times when she just doesn't want to be put down).  One thing I probably miss most is the fact that I can't just get up and go.  I don't have a husband that can watch the baby if I ever need to get out, yes, my mom can do that a lot of the time but she also does work a part time job.  I get out to the store about once a week because babies and moms need things.  I get a shower every other day.  You just learn how to manage though.  One challenge coming up quickly is that my parents are going out of town for an extended vacation, a time in which I won't have someone there to help a good portion of the time like I do now.  Single parenthood is tough.  I don't like to call myself a single parent because she does have a daddy that is very involved in her life and we live with her grandparents who are here for anything, also her other set of grandparents just down the road a little ways.  But I am a single parent, I'm not married and I don't have a partner that is there in the middle of the night to help with the 4 am feedings.  I feel like the teen mom population is so misrepresented in society and the media and I want to change that.  I expected parenthood to be tough and actually, I feel like I've adjusted.  I was given a baby who is really an angel.  Yes, she cries and yells and wakes up occasionally in the middle of the night but truly she is a good baby.  She will let me sleep for one good long stretch at night and then at least one more 2 hour stretch either in the morning or early afternoon.  I know I'm one of the lucky new moms but God knew exactly what I could handle and he gave my perfect little girl to me.