What they don't tell you after the birth of a baby

Of all the books about raising babies, being pregnant, and birth, there are a few things they forget to tell you -- well, either that, or I skipped those chapters -- or, I had stopped reading before I got to that point because let's face it - there was a point in my pregnancy when I really had to stop reading for the anxiety I was putting on myself.

At any rate, things that I didn't know until I had a baby of my own:

1-C-section recovery HURTS - like you think (well I thought) that you'll never walk normally again, and by normally, I mean at a medium to fast clip down the street, and totally pain free (and not toting an IV bag and a bag of your own pee)

2- Your belly still looks like it's about 6 to 7 months pregnant for a good week (maybe more) after you've given birth (okay, maybe I read that but still...I kept feeling it like 'whoah, is this for real still there!?')

3- Your belly naturally shrinks down and then wobbles like a bowl full of jello when you walk (I've heard a girdle can help with this? anyone?)

4- Take the pain medication after the surgery, don't wait 2 days to accept the percocet the nurses have been telling you about since day 1, and then take the whole thing, not half to 'ease into it' - yeah that's what I did. Then I took a whole one the next morning and felt like a new woman! Seriously, no weird side effects (my fear) and it really helped! And I only needed to take it for like a week before it felt better.

5- Take the GasX the nurses offer you on day two - trust them - it also helps! Oooh so that's what those pseudo baby kicks were on day 2. Interesting!

6- The disposable nursing pads work better than the reusable ones. The reusable ones lead through the pad, to the bra, and to the shirt. Yeah, this happened to me, luckily it was a black shirt. Nuk makes awesome reusable pads that I swear we should buy stock in - don't they come in more than 60 per pack b/c I'm blowing through them, not only for leaking but for sweating and just keeping myself fresh n' clean (and yeast be gone!)

7- Same goes for nursing bras - leaky boobies means wet bras, especially at night with longer stretches between feeding (in our case). Stock up -- Wal*Mart has great deals on two packs of cotton nursing bras (and tanks too if they only had my size!) sleep bras and daytime bras.

8- Breastfeeding is awesome - yet exhausting - every 2 to 3 hours in the day, and every 3 to 4 hours at night. You think it'll be easy, just latch'em on, feed for 15ish minutes, burp (or in our case spit up), change the dipe, and put him back down. But yeah, it's hard! But stick with it, because looking down at your baby nursing and knowing he's getting his nutrients just from you is the coolest thing ever!

9- Breastfeeding hurts - at the beginning, and if you get a yeast infection, but then it gets better - you just gotta stick it out.

10- Finally -- maternity leave is offered for a reason -- um, it is exhausting and hard to take care a baby! feeding, changing, playing, scheduling, not scheduling, sleeping, not sleeping. It takes a good 3 to 4 (maybe even 6!) months to get your body and your family adjusted to all this newness.

11- Parenthood is the greatest thing ever! So rewarding when your baby smiles at you, and notices things for the first time - a whole new set of eyes looking at the world in a whole new way - and opening up his parents eyes to this newness!