To wonder what on earth Kate was thinking wearing a white dress less than 12 hours after giving birth

[malefridgeblindness]

Do royals not have lochia? I'm sure I was packing triple maternity pads at that point. It's a bit high risk for leakage on the way home, no?

"I thought it was a brave choice of dress both times, in fact so brave that it was almost rubbing it in the faces of us minions - 'look, not only do I swan out of hospital looking totally fabulous 10 hours after pushing a human out of my chuff, but I do it in the palest dress I can get my hands on, FUCK YOU ALL.'"

That's exactly how I read it. Only I don't think it makes her awesome, at all but insensitive and quite insecure. Why was prince William not dressed to the nines? I have no doubt that thousands of young women around the world will be disappointedd with themselves should they look and feel less than perfect after having a baby. Their partners also might expect this level of grooming and looking glam.

But that's the thing, isn't it, it's just an image, it's a bloody show sorry no pun intended. Because fuck knows how she actually feels, or if she crumbled into a heap as soon as the gates of Kensington palace closed behind her. We will never know if she suffers from pnd or if her baby is colicky and drives them up the wall or anything else. Not that it's any of our business either but that little twirl in from of the world media show only what they want us to see, a glamourous family. Like I said I understand why she would want to look nice and presentable but the high heels are completely ott and certainly don't promote or suggest a healthy self image. In a strange was I am remained of Michael Jackson, who always looked artificial, I thought she looked artificial too. Actually her media team should have advised her to play it a bit more down to earth.

it's a bloody show

I do understand what you are saying fossils. It's strange, because Kate and William have this 'oh we're so normal' thing going on, whilst simultaneously being totally boring unattainably perfect. She was never going to have a 3 day labour ending in the baby being wrenched out with forceps was she?! But, given that he is going to be king, it's hard to know how the media/public would react if she did come out of hospital looking a bit more normal, it must be a very careful line to tread.

I did smile when she walked back up the stairs with a tiny hint of a Post birth shuffle, as it was a little bit of proof that she is not in fact an android.

I don't know, she seems happy enough with her choices, and they have a lovely little family (one of each, of course, would it be any other way?!) so good luck to them.

It wouldn't have been my choice of going home outfit (I think I wore yoga pants and a t-shirt!), but I'm guessing they would have had all eventualities covered (so to speak).

I'm also in awe of a woman who can look so together so soon after giving birth. Wearing heels would have been an impossibility for me as I was still a bit shaky even a few days afterwards. I would imagine she was still in the euphoric stage and running on adrenaline and just wanted to get it all over and done with before collapsing at home.

I suspect Kate has some sort of cycling shorts/nappy combo going on under the dress. I bet she thought "right, let's get on with this and get home. I only need to walk 20 paces and smile/wave then we can bugger off". Hats off to her.

I did think however that she'd look more normal in smartish jeans, stripey Breton top and flats though. She can still have glam hair and make up done by her stylish to look presentable.

Why not high heels? I wore them all through pregnancy and afterwards too, flats used to kill my calves as I wasn't used to them.

As a posy natal supporter, I always use to say to mums, get yourself dressed washed and presentable first before the baby, then you will fell fantastic and able to answer the door. Someone will alway volunteer to wash and dress the baby for you!

calves? calfs?

There was no way I was answering the door-no visitors allowed.

Heels post birth with DS1 would have been problematic because I felt faint for 24 hours.

Actually, I could cope with the dress and the heels and the hair etc.

What I absolutely could not cope with and woukd probably tip me over the edge is making a 3.5 hour journey to Norfolk with a 2 day old newborn

Maybe it was just me but on day 2, both DC woke up and decided they were starving and wanted to feed all day and all night

How the hell do you deal with that in a car driven by (or at least having as a passenger) a close protection officer so it's not just you and your DH. Do they have to make multiple stops? And the stress of getting said newborn to latch on etc. It all takes ages. How do they stop the press spotting them? Plus you can hardly tell the close protection officer to totally piss off whilst you faff about and relatch the baby 25 times

That is making me come out in a total cold sweat just thinking about it

And it just seems totally unnecessary. I'm sure Kensington Palace is fairly comfortable (well I would hope so after all the refurbs). Why not just stay there for a few weeks, get everyone sorted and then go

I can just imagine the AIBU thread: "my DH says we need to make a 3.5 hour journey to see his granny and I'm two days post-partum and trying to establish breastfeeding. Not to drop feed but his granny is in good health and quite wealthy so has her own driver. She also often pops up to London as she has a big house there so we could see her in a few days. AIBU to say no?!"

Maybe she's mix or bottle feeding or expressing so it's not such a big deal? I think shes just wants to be "home" and would grit her teeth and get on with it.

I exclusively expressed for both from day 4 due to tongue tie issues. Managed til one was nearly 6 months and the other nearly 8 months

I had to express on day 2 for DS as he was in SCBU. You can only really hand express tiny amounts of colostrum into a syringe at that stage. It's really hard and I needed to be stripped off and for DH or a midwife to help me and hold the syringe whilst I aimed!

I think that would be even worse to do in a layby!