Three months. A quarter of a year. I’ve been fortunate enough to dedicate this chunk of time to our little super baby. As long as many days and nights have been, I can’t believe how quickly this time has gone. Three months seemed so lengthy before Landon was born. Now it seems so short.

Maternity leave is over and, as I adjust to being a working mom, I reflect about what I learned on leave.

1. Sleep: My elusive white whale.

First and foremost: I really thought Landon would be sleeping better by the time I returned to work. Although he’s given me a few five- or six-hour stretches, it’s more frequently a three- to four-hour stretch. Above everything else, I thought he’d be sleeping more. Send me all the coffee please, but not too much because I don’t want to inadvertently pass caffeine to Landon, further exacerbating the whole sleep problem.

People also told me to “sleep when the baby sleeps.” This is a lovely idea … if you don’t have laundry, cooking, cleaning, errands, phone calls, mail, thank you notes, personal hygiene or the need for a moment to yourself, just to name a few. This advice turned out to be largely impractical.

I really miss sleep.

2. Maternity leave: I got lucky.

As I mentioned above, I’m incredibly fortunate to work for a family-oriented company that provides a generous maternity leave (and paternity leave, too, for the dads there!) I’ve read many articles — and heard from many other parents — how abysmal the United States is with maternity leave laws. We’re the only developed nation that doesn’t require employers to offer paid maternity leave. It’s common in other economically prosperous countries to offer up to a year. Yet in the U.S., many women are lucky to get six weeks (eight weeks for a C-section) of short-term disability as their maternity leave.

At six weeks post-partum, Landon had been home for only a couple weeks and he hadn’t even yet hit his due date. I couldn’t have imagined going back to work then and leaving him in anyone’s hands, however capable. Dog breeders won’t even allow customers to take a puppy home as young as six weeks because it’s inhumane to separate it from its mother, yet many mothers are expected to leave their babies behind at this young age.

I was so fortunate to have a three whole months and it makes me sad for the thousands (millions?) of mothers who have come before me and who are coming after me who won’t be as lucky to have several months at home with their new babies.

3. Post-partum support is essential.

I had a very traumatic delivery thanks to eclampsia and HELLP syndrome (more about that experience at a later date). I met Landon only briefly in the hospital — and that was while I was on very powerful pain medication so my memory is foggy at best — before they transferred him to a downtown NICU. We were separated for five days until I was discharged from the hospital.

Approximately 10 percent of women experience post-partum depression, although the number could be higher because experts believe many don’t seek treatment. The circumstances around my delivery put me at increased risk for developing PPD. Although I didn’t screen positive for it at any of my many doctor appointments, the first couple months of motherhood were exceedingly difficult, further exacerbated by my brush with death and with some unique challenges that come with having a preemie.

Brian talked me off an emotional cliff many times, my mom spent many days at my house and I spent many days at hers, and, somewhere along the way, I adapted to motherhood and coming to grips with the tough entrance into it.

4. Love is powerful.

The love a mother has for her child, and I know a father has for his child, truly is in indescribable feeling. I still look at Landon and can’t believe Brian and I created him. That my body grew him. That he is ours to love and to nurture and to raise from this tiny infant into the adult he someday will become.

5. Thank goodness for Netflix.

Seriously, what did new parents do before Netflix? Before Landon’s occupational therapy to help with his eating struggles and his tongue tie clip and inguinal hernia surgery, it easily took an hour or more to feed him a bottle. I often spent 8+ hours/day just feeding him and went through a lot of movies and shows in the process. I finally got to watch the third season of Outlander, explored various nature docu-series, thoroughly enjoyed Call the Midwife but couldn’t get into The Crown. I don’t know what I would’ve done with all that time had it not been for streaming video.

6. Babies are hard. Preemies are harder.

This is a bold statement since I have no basis of comparison, but I’m going out on a limb to assert preemies take the difficulty of a newborn stage to a whole new level. There’s the initial terror of realizing your baby is born before he’s ready to come into this world. Then there’s watching him struggle in the NICU to eat, keep warm and gain weight. Landon qualified for Early Intervention and we’ve had an occupational therapist come once a week to work with him on eating and slight head turning favoritism issues. His suck-swallow-breathe coordination has improved immensely and he’s exhibiting exceptional neck strength. His inguinal hernias likely were a result of his prematurity, too, since those pathways don’t close until quite late in pregnancy and Landon was born before that stage.

We were a very fortunate family in that he had no major medical issues at birth other than being too small and under-developed. Any way you spin it, though, preemies are hard.

7. Mommy-hood is the best. thing. ever.

Simply put, being Landon’s mommy is the best.