10 things I though about babies (before having one)

1. Maternity will be really nice break from work. Imagine all the time! Baby sleeping and house cleaned. I could just take the baby and go for shopping and for walks. Maybe could buy one of those running pushchairs and do some running. Hmm, that was before baby. At the moment I work 24 hours a day on No sleep and covered in all baby fluids.

2. Less sleep is not too bad. I did some nights with only a few hours of sleep. Really? Try every night to have only about 2-3 hours of sleep and now imagine that for a 6 months! Sleep deprivation is a form of torture!

3. Post-partum depression? That will not happen to me. Yep, no sleep, screaming baby 20 hours a day, when no screaming, then munching on your sore boobs and no time to even go to the bathroom. You will go mad!

4. I will be ready to go to work after 6 months. Oh well, I went back to work, but nothing is the same!

5. I will be back in shape in no time. Still have about 4kg of baby weight. No time, no sleep, 2 jobs and tired all the time. Who has a time to think about weight?

6. I will be naturally good mother and I will know what to do in any situation. Only one answer. THANKS GOD  for smart phone! It kept my sanity. At 3:00 breastfeeding very unhappy baby on one arm and holding the I-phone with the second. I did a lots of shopping that way. :-)

7. I will not need any help. I needed all the help. Unfortunately 3 visits from Health Visitors are not cutting it. Screaming baby, no sleep, infection, antibiotics - and feeling really horrible as lost a lots of blood and being most of the time on my own. I would be grateful for any help or visit.

8. To care for baby will be easy. They eat, sleep and poop. Correction: They cry/ scream, they do not sleep, they want to eat (breastfeeding) all the time and also poop.

9. I will bond with the baby the second he is born. I expected immediate big Love feeling towards our baby. So you can guess that I was a little bit surprised that all what I felt moments after a birth (through a gas & air) was chaos of relief (he was OK and healthy), feeling of big responsibility and then being just scared that for next 18 years I will be responsible for this little bundle.

10. Breastfeeding will be nice and quiet time with my baby. It was, for first 4 days than my milk came and nobody will tell you that breastfeeding bloody hurts!. Thanks to Medela pump and also topping up baby with formula I managed to go through the first weeks of breastfeeding. It got better and I kept breastfeeding for another 5 months.  I can now understand why so many new mums will give up breastfeeding.