What was the biggest shock after having a baby?

[Thefaceofboe]

Mine was that babies don’t necessarily go to bed around 7pm. I always presumed bath and bed would be done at 7pm and baby would wake up for the day at 7am. My 3mo does 11pm - 11am

The worry that never goes away

Hallucinations from tiredness 😳

Lots of friends send you a card then you never see them again.

Postnatal wards are horrendous hellsites.

The way we design housing so everyone is isolated from each other is dumb.

You're somehow trusted to take care of a complicated fragile creature with zero training or supervision.

That babies don’t easily sleep in cots. That it’s not as simple as feeding the baby and then placing them down lovingly while they sleep. That they wake up every time you try to put them down.

How truly amazing and the tolerance our bodies show.

The lack of sleep, but your instinct (in my case) just took over and your body just "auto pilots" to tend to the baby.

That your body has just given birth, and yet the pain afterwards (weeing etc) is secondary to just getting on with caring for the baby.

It amazed me the resilience our bodies can show and the love it can feel.

Early on, the forgetting basic things. I forgot teapots existed, was always thirsty, made tea in a pyrex jug for weeks until I remembered I had a teapot. You'd think a need for safety (or warm drinks in winter) would have won out. Fucksake.

"Postnatal wards are horrendous hellsites" YES. Yes.

Yes.

The loneliness.

That a lot of the stuff people I still fear into you about having a baby isn’t necessarily true.

I never had any real tiredness as I caught up with my sleep during the day by napping when my babies did.

I never had any problems breastfeeding either despite nurses at the hospital telling me that they all bottle fed!

What I did find shocking was that after having a baby everyone is suddenly a self proclaimed baby expert, and will offer advice without your even asking , often something that sounds downright dangerous!

The postnatal sweating! I soaked through my nightie and bedding multiple times a night for the first couple of weeks!

Black poo after iron tablets
The blood clots after
That id loose the ability to hold a wee in for just 1 minute
Tiredness, they tell you but nothing prepares you for it.
How much poo comes out of them

@JhsLs

How terrifying pooing is after childbirth. If you are currently pregnant, please stock up on lactulose and dulcoease. Don’t leave it until after the birth to get some. I ended up with a pile from trying to pop postnatally, rather than from the actual birth…

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!

11 years later and I'll never forget that first poo, I literally had to birth it, sobbing my heart out in the bathroom for hours. I swear it was as big as the babies head

The after pains when child two and so on is born, which don't happen with the first.
No one told me that labour would continue after the birth and that you would only be offered co codomol for it. I wanted the gas and air!
I thought I was in labour with a twin that no one knew about! I asked my mum why she didn't warn me and she said that she didn't want to frighten me. Bah.

a)That a difficult teenage stage is harder than any earlier stage and can involve sleep deprivation (again).

b) that no stage lasts forever (so far...).