10 things they never told you when you were pregnant...

Let me preface this by saying that when I found out I was pregnant, I knew nothing about being pregnant, carrying a baby, what to expect for childbirth, and let alone how to care for a baby. So I put on my learning hat and pressed forward. I subscribed to Mom & Baby & Pregnancy and also managed to walk away with another pregnancy magazine while at Longs. I bought What to Expect When You are Expecting, AND What to Expect Your Baby's First Year, I cut back my hours at work on Wednesdays to join a Mother's in Movement class which entailed one hour of birth stories and pregnancy stories from women who had either just given birth or were just about to go through it, and followed by another hour of making sure my body wasn't going southward while carrying 35 (ok - maybe 40...) pounds of extra weight. I asked endless questions of my mother, and my mother's mother and their birth stories, pleading for any wisdom they could impart on me. BUT with all that said, there were a few things about birthing and mothering that came as quite an unexpected surprise to me, so I decided to write them all down before they are a distant memory.

10. The bleeding after giving birth (I will spare you the details, but - WOW! Why did no one tell me this??)

9. The baby actually eats every two hours - this means that after you have been up for 48 hours pushing another human being out of your body, and then getting stitched up afterward, you still have to wake-up to try and feed this new human that completely depends on you for sustenance, and that means you waking up every hour and forty five minutes to feed this new human, followed by a feeding that may last 30 minutes, followed by trying to fall asleep in the next hour and forty five minutes, followed by, followed by....

8. Along with #9 - day is night, night is day. Your "day" no longer consists of 16 hours up and 8 hours sleeping. Getting your "8" (I say 8 loosely here) intermittent hours of sleep every night can come ANY time during the day.

7. Overwhelmed and Overjoyed can be simultaneous emotions - they no longer exist independently.

6. Changing a baby takes A LOT of work - I am not talking about changing a diaper, this is the EASY part. Getting a tiny and fragile, or tiny and squirmy baby into a nighty with 20 buttons may take you upwards of 20 minutes.

5. You do have the most intelligent, cutest, best baby in the world - every other parent is just lying to themselves. This is just fact.

4. The amount of hair you lose AFTER having a baby is incredible. I never knew that while you were pregnant you don't lose any hair, so it all comes out after giving birth. Holy Clogged Shower!!

3. Seeing your husband with your newborn/1 month/2 month/3 month/4 month..... old child is THE most heart-warming, amazing, fall-in love all over, insert another fuzzy line here, feeling a mother could EVER have (next to #1)

2. Having someone bring a hot/already prepared meal INCLUDING dessert the 2-3 weeks after having a baby is almost the same feeling of being able to get 2 hours of solid sleep - indescribable relief and happiness.

1. When your child smiles up at you knowing you are theirs and they are yours is the BEST feeling ANYONE could ever have (insert flowing tears here).

Ok - so some of these people did warn me of before I was pregnant or before I had Kaitlin, but wow - I still had NO IDEA.