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

rest while you can. stop gazing at the baby and get some sleep!

Don,t panic

I wish I'd known how quickly the time they are babies really does go by in the blink of an eye

That babies sometimes like to be left alone to look around and listen without being fussed all of the time

That it doesn't matter if your house is a bit messy as long as babys well looked after.

Your baby will be sick, a lot, more than you think is possible. Your baby will poo, a lot, more than you ever think possible. It's fine! Mostly everything cleans well and stuff that doesn't clean well can go in the bin :-D

Sleep in the day while your baby is sleeping and don't worry about the housework

Make a video diary of major events in your child's lfe.

Nothing can prepare you for the change in routine and the effects of lack of sleep, but you'll soon adjust.

I wish I'd been told about water wipes and that hospitals do accept them now. Far better than cotton wool and water!

I also wish I'd been told about Lansinoh cream before and how hard it is to toughen up your nipples to BF, day 3 almost breaks you and this is normal.

That it really doesn't matter that everyone has an opinion on thins like breast/bottle feeding, weaning, putting the baby down to sleep etc; do things in the way you want - you are the mother - you will be much happier if you just nod and ignore all the well-meaning advice.

That you should sleep when your baby sleeps and don't worry about the housework!

The amount of leakage from breastfeeding - took me quite by surprise!

That every time your child laughs/smiles as they grow up pushes the memories of crying and sleepless nights to the back of your memory .... especially as a new born!!!

I wish I had been told to develop a few extra arms!

dont feeel guilty if you sleep every second you can as its never enough

I wish i had known not to be so stubborn and that accepting help wasn't a sign of weakness this time round I will be like yes you can do the washing for me

You won't use half the stuff you think you'll need so don't waste money buying it! Oh and machine washable items, wipe clean surfaces & WaterWipes are your friends!

I wish I was told that it is ok to be selfish. Especially when they are little, getting to all the groups is difficult. Having an afternoon in front of the television isn't anything to feel guilty about.

I wish I'd been given more help and information on how hard it can be to establish breastfeeding as I really struggled to feed my first born and I was totally unprepared for the difficulties we had. I had inverted nipples and he couldn't latch on to anything so it was a real struggle to feed him in the hospital and they sent us home with me barely able to feed him which was a constant source of stress and worry that he was actually getting anything from me. He struggled for ages and would fall asleep exhausted the minute he finally latched on! The only reasons I managed to continue was a 2nd time mum at the hospital saw me struggling for hours and gave me some nipple shields which gave my son something to latch on to & the other amazing person was a breastfeeding counsellor who I called in distress on a Sunday night (the day after I got out of hospital) who spent an hour on the phone with me guiding me with advice and positioning. Thanks to those 2 people I managed to continue feeding my son and have gone on to feed 8 more babies. I just wish that I'd known a bit more information in advance and had a lot more help to get it established in hospital before we went home & I wish I'd known more about nipple shields or what I could have done in advance to deal with inverted nipples as there were things on the market to help correct it!

I wish I was told that my baby will get here safely and everything would be fine (so I would have stopped worrying all through my pregnancy!)

To keep my knees together then I wouldn't be in this mess ... ;-)

Go with the flow, don't panic and relax

Go with what your little one wants - don't compare or judge, it will happen in their own time and believe it or not you do know what you are doing

I wish that someone had told me that babies are just little human beings with basic needs, they are quite easy to look after and nothing to be scared of. I just couldn't think straight and used to panic, by 2, 3 and 4 baby I was a pro.