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Gretchen Rossi Opens up About the Struggles She's Faced in Her First Month of Motherhood
The RHOC alum welcomed her daughter, Skylar Gray, last month — and it's been a journey already.
Being a new mom is an adjustment, and in the weeks following the birth of her first child, Skylar Gray Smiley, Gretchen Rossi is feeling it — and she's not being shy about sharing with her fans the ups and downs of being a mama to a newborn. In fact, The Real Housewives of Orange County alum has been quite candid about all of it.
"In Honor of the last few hours of World Breastfeeding Week, I wanted to share a little bit of my journey thus far, and have some raw and real talk with you all," she wrote on Instagram, then sharing that before she started breastfeeding her tot she imagined it "would be, beautiful, peaceful, maternal, and glorious....me just calm and relaxed, looking and feeling great all the while bonding with my precious baby girl staring into her eyes while she feed from my breast."
But she quickly learned otherwise. "Breastfeeding has been no where near this magical as I imagined in my head. I have cried so many times from being frustrated, from being beyond exhausted, from the pain and horrible sore nipples (as they literally scabbed over and or were bright pink from all the skin being rubbed off), from the guilt of feeling like 'I don’t want to do this anymore because it is uncomfortable, exhausting, painful, takes way to much time, and quite honestly was not anything like I imagined in my head.'"
She opened up more about it in the below Instagram:
Gretchen, who welcomed her daughter with Slade Smiley last month via c-section, shared her story, hoping to empower other moms, adding, "Let’s all help uplift each other up as woman and Moms who are just trying to do our very best, at one of the toughest jobs in the world."
From there, the new mom opened up about how it felt to head out for work, which was also an emotional experience. "[Earlier this week] was the first day I had to be away from my baby girl for a work engagement, and I’m not going to lie I had so much anxiety over it," she wrote. "Even though she was with her grandparents (best people on earth for her to be with) I couldn’t stop thinking about her and missed her so much (even though it was only eight hours) I was so happy when I got home last night and got to see her and kiss and love on her! She is my sweet angel baby and now I know why they say there is such a bond with children and their parents! It’s just the best connection in the world!"
