Share with WaterWipes what you wish you were told before the arrival of your new born - chance to win £300! NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at WaterWipes would love to hear what you wish you'd been told before the arrival of your new born.

We all can recall those innocent days before the arrival of baby and the impact having a child can have on your life so please share on this thread what you wish someone had told you - or what you were told which was especially useful!

Here's what WaterWipes says: "WaterWipes contain only 2 ingredients: 99.9% Water and 0.1% grapefruit seed extract. Non-irritating to even the most sensitive of children’s or Mums’ skin, WaterWipes help prevent and alleviate nappy rash and other sensitive skin conditions. WaterWipes are the only baby wipe ever to be endorsed by Allergy UK. We think they're great for newborns and we'd love to hear what other pearls of wisdom you wish you knew before your baby arrived!"

Please share a comment on the thread: you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win £300 voucher for the store of choice (from a list). Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

It all passes, so go with the flow.

I wish I'd been told to get a good back up solution for my photos as I took loads on my phone but lost them all when my handset died!

To take loads of photos, and write down 'memories' because you do forget a lot.

Another one saying take loads of photos and then keep taking them. We took loads for the first couple of weeks then sort of dropped off a bit, so there are months with no photos.

The thing I wish I'd been told is "ditch the clock". As soon as I moved all the clocks out of the room and stopped clock watching, things became a lot easier.

Trust your instincts. Really.

I wish I had been told how hard it is to change a baby's nappy whilst they are trying to crawl away from you ????

That the first night out of hospital is usually awful. My midwife told me this the morning after our hellish first night at home. The sleepy newbornness has worn off them (as well as any drugs) and you're not in the tropical heat of the hospital. Apparently this is really common and midwives dont often tell you as the expectation will make you more tense and worried and aggravate the situation. I wish she had told me, when I was still awake with him at 4am having had NO sleep sleep thought I'd broken him.

I wish I'd known about WaterWipes because cleaning the first few poos with cotton wool and water was messy and took ages (usually resulting in DS weeing whilst being cleaned and needing a change of vest/ sleepsuit.)

Also wished someone had told me to step away from social media and take everything people post on Facebook with a pinch of salt- I spent months feeling inadequate and like a failure because it seemed like everyone else found motherhood so easy, whilst I found it more of a struggle and have had a messy house and greasy hair. It's only now that I realise Facebook only shows a glossy edit of people's lives with a newborn.

I wish I was told about the first night before the milk comes in when the baby is constantly on the boob. I was recovering from a section and a ppa and thought I was doing something really wrong.

I wish I had been told to keep a diary - I know there's not much time and you feel so tired, but I did start one with second baby, and love re-reading it now,so many things come flooding back. If only I'd done that with my first!

Night sweats! Good grief! I thought I'd wet myself the first night we were home, when in fact it was just litres of sweat and breastmilk we had a protector on the bed while I was pregnant in case waters went in bed and we really needed it for after, wish we'd have known...

I wish I'd been told that the effortless, blissful breastfeeding that had been sold to me does happen eventually, but can take a lot of time, anguish, pain and lashings of lansinoh to achieve. If you plan to BF research all the helplines, local support groups beforehand and have their details on hand so you know where to turn if things aren't going smoothly.

Also at some point the snoozy newborn who drifts effortlessly between sleep and wakefulness and back might well suddenly be replaced by a baby that will only sleep when you rock, pat, jiggle walk, push or drive them around. I didn't twig for too long that the reason my baby was crying was because he was getting desperately over-tired but needed a lot of help to get to sleep. A rough daily nap routine made a world of difference.

Make up your own 'rules' and routines. You'll find the best way that works for your family.

I wish someone had told me how to pick up a newborn out of one of those fishbowl cribs they put them in in hospital. I remember lying there looking down at tiny DD in a complete panic because she was so small and floppy I was petrified of picking her up.

Trust your instincts, never watch supernanny, do not trust the advice of older generations or those without children, because those with children will tell you to relax, go with the flow, pick your battles and enjoy your DC.

I wish I'd known how difficult the first night home would be - our peaceful sleepy newborn suddenly decided upon entering the house he would just wail all day, leaving us bewildered and exhausted.
I also wish I had really known just how wrecked you can feel after birth... I don't think it happens to everyone, but whilst the birth wasn't terrible for me, for the next month or more I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Several times. I couldn't walk easily and sitting was painful (unfortunate as that's all I could do for the first week). If I'd known I would've made sure I had somewhere easy and comfortable to sit and sleep (in both bedroom and living room), that was no trouble getting up from. As it happened our bed was too low for me to get out of without pain, which was terrible for all the nighttime BF, and I spent a lot of time each day trying to rearrange a comfy nest for my ass on the sofa.

I wish I'd known that newborns don't just wake to feed at night, they are awake half the bloody night and won't be put down asleep or awake!

I wish I had known that not being able to breastfeed didn't make me a bad mum. I had all these ideas about how perfect it was all going to be, baby latching on wonderfully, me being serene and earth mothery. When we had problems, and dd had to go on a bottle it sent me into a downward spiral that lasted months. Said dd is now 27 and you couldn't wish for a healthier daughter

That even as a new born, they are proper little people with their own personalities and ideas - you might want to wear baby in a sling but that's not gonna work if baby hates it!

Not to compare yourself and your baby to everyone else, each baby is different and the impression you get might not be true. Eg it may look from Facebook etc that another baby is happy and smiley all the time, whilst yours cries all the time, but in reality that is just a snapshot.

That if it's your first baby you should both invest in a chauffeur's peaked cap.

Practice doing everything one handed. Make a cup of tea one handed. Eat your dinner one handed. Go to the toilet one handed.. Get undressed one handed. Type one handed.

You will be holding the baby a lot.

It's completely normal for newborns to sleep on you and nowhere else!

That the awful sleep deprivation (that leaves you feeling like you'll never feel rested and normal again!) does pass.

That each child is completely different so what didn't work for one may work for another. Especially when it comes to feeding.

On a practical note I wish I knew that envelope vests are designed to be pulled down the body as well as over necks!