Vanessa LacheyNick and Vanessa Lachey, one of Hollywood’s power couples, were thrilled to announce their first pregnancy. The pregnancy was described as a joyful journey. Lachey remembers feeling overcome with joy at the sight of husband Nick holding baby Camden for the first time, but the joy did not last for long. Early reports claimed Lachey felt the first pang of the baby blues just a few days after birth, but the star addresses that mistake on her personal website. She claims mommy brain caused the slip-up and the press ran with the story. Her bout with baby blues did not start until weeks after Camden was born.

Baby blues does not feel the same for all new mothers, but it is a common experience associated with quickly changing hormone levels. For Vanessa Lachey, the morning after giving birth to her new baby she overslept and woke in a panic – she had missed a feeding. It was 9 AM and the baby should have awoken her much earlier. Lachey was breastfeeding and breastfeeding infants feed more often than bottle fed infants. The feelings of panic soon changed to feels of sadness and inferiority.

Within two weeks of coming home Vanessa felt her mood change from happy and joyful to sad and dreadful. She admitted she felt like a machine being used for milk – a relationship she did expect to have with her baby. The former beauty queen tried to hold herself together, but she fell apart on September 29th. In an attempt to gather her emotions, Lachey gave baby Camden to husband Nick and left the house for a cup of coffee. She later returned to the house, showered and apologized for her constant mood swings and feelings of sadness.

Lachey believes her baby blues were caused by lack of control. She controlled everything in her former life as wife and television host, but this new life was plagued with so many new experiences, new struggles and new feelings; she was not sure how to handle them all as she had in the past. As Lachey revealed in one interview, “No matter how many books you read, NOTHING prepares you better than the real thing. I felt lost, unloved, alone and at my wits end.” She wanted to be a super woman, but she quickly realized that mothering is an experience that takes time, patience and resolve.

Vanessa urges new mother to take personal time and remember being a mom is not always easy. “It’s okay if [you] can’t do it ALL because…[you have] already done so much.”