Bringing Home Baby – 10 Things I wasn’t Prepared for
You can read book after book, talk to all your friends and family, and look up tons of blog posts, but nothing will truly prepare you for bringing home baby. Here are 10 things I totally wasn’t prepared for.
Cluster Feeding
I’m going to keep talking about cluster feeding ya’ll. Mainly because no one warned me and it was one of the biggest shocks of breastfeeding. In the first few days home from the hospital, I was nursing my new baby all the time. Don’t worry moms, this is normal. You can read more about this breastfeeding phenomenon, here!
Six Full-Fledged Weeks of Postpartum Bleeding
When I read that postpartum bleeding could last up to six weeks, I automatically assumed it would end before then (or at least slow down a lot after the first couple weeks). Nope. Not for me. Every mom is different, but I was in no way prepared for the aftermath of childbirth. Get yourself some postpartum underwear and a Costco supply of maxi pads because you’re gonna be in it for the long haul! If you want to know exactly what to expect when it comes to postpartum, check out The Postpartum Handbook. It shares tips and tricks for managing pain and speeding up recovery. It covers all the “hush hush” things that no one talks about like the first postpartum poo, postpartum sex, postpartum hair loss, mental health, and more. It even includes a postpartum exercise plan, tips for preparing your return to work, and tips for new stay at home moms!
Actually Wanting Visitors
I always hated the idea of having lots of visitors in the first weeks home with baby. Then I had a baby. It was the end of November, it was cold outside, and I had no desire to leave the house with a new baby. Enter the parade of visitors. I get cabin fever… bad… so having people come over and tell me how cute my baby was, was actually welcomed. Not to mention, several people brought food. Win, win, win.
The True Extent of Sleep Deprivation
Look, people try to tell you how tired you’re going to be once your baby arrives, but you never truly understand until it’s 4am, you were just up an hour ago, and your baby is ready to eat again. If you plan to breastfeed, be prepared to have extremely hateful feelings toward your significant other during late night feedings. I would scoop Weston up, latch him on, and look over at my husband sleeping peacefully while I geared up for a 20 – 40 minute nursing session. It doesn’t last forever, your baby will eventually sleep through the night, but those first few weeks (…months) can be brutal.
So Many Dirty Diapers
Yes, I knew babies pooped a lot, but I didn’t expect my newborn to poop EVERYTIME HE ATE (which was like… all the time). Apparently breast milk is to babies what coffee is to moms. It goes right through them. Every time I would feed him, he would simultaneously start pooping. Since I was responsible for all the feeding sessions, my husband took on the all the diaper changing. It worked for us (he definitely drew the short straw on that one).
The Baby Blues
I’ve always considered myself to be a mentally healthy person, so I kind of assumed I wouldn’t have to worry about the baby blues or PPD. Surprise! It doesn’t matter who you are, those evil pregnancy hormones can make anyone an emotional mess. Lucky for me, I only had a few crying spells. They always happened in the evening, lasted about an hour, and were done in about a week. This is a prime example of the baby blues. When it happened, I didn’t tell anyone, not even my husband. He would go into the basement to study (or have fantasy football meetings) and I would get super emotional. I just told him about it a few months ago. Lesson learned for the next time around.
How Anxious I would be About Sleep
I was so paranoid about SIDS when Weston first came home from the hospital. All the safe sleep information they drilled into our heads at the hospital paired with terrifying articles that were suddenly all over my Facebook newsfeed made me a nervous wreck. At night, if Weston wasn’t up eating, I was up looking over to make sure he was still breathing. Having him right next to our bed helped me relax a bit. Once we transitioned him to his crib, we hooked out our Angel Care monitor which was a full on LIFESAVER! It has a motion senor pad that goes under the crib mattress and alerts you if there is no movement in the crib. Peace of mind is priceless when it comes to sleep.
Milk Everywhere
Why didn’t anyone tell me that breastfeeding is messy? During those first few weeks, I was leaking milk onto my sheets throughout the night, onto my clothes during the day, all over the baby when he ate, onto the couch, the boppy, and just about any other thing I came into contact with. I had an overactive letdown and it felt like I was having letdowns all the time. Because of this, Weston would unlatch every time a letdown occurred, causing milk to spray him in the face or all over the couch. I quickly learned that going even a few minutes without nursing pads was not an option for me. I also learned that I had to tuck a burp cloth into the bottom of my nursing bra and tuck it under Weston’s chin every time he ate. I’m not sure how many shirts and baby onesies I rescued using this strategy.
Tummy Time
Did you know that you’re supposed to start doing tummy time right away? I was clueless. I don’t think we laid Weston on his tummy for the entire first week. Once we did, he hated it. Of course it wasn’t the end of the world that we didn’t start straight away, but I quickly had to figure out ways to get some tummy time in that didn’t have him screaming at the top of his lungs. Here are some great tummy time alternatives if you’re little one is anything like mine.
Parenting came Naturally
In the weeks leading up to my due date, I started to worry that I wasn’t ready. I’m sure this happens to lots of moms as they enter the final stage of pregnancy, but I was full on freaking out. Friends and family kept dropping these newborn truth bombs on us and I was worried we weren’t prepared to be parents. The good news is, all that worrying was for nothing. Once we got Weston home, it almost felt like he had always been there (with the exception of the extreme sleep deprivation).
DISCLOSURE: Coffee and Coos is not intended to replace the advice of a medical professional. Always consult your doctor for medical advice.
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