Things All Moms Know...But Won't Tell You When You're Pregnant

This is a list of things that I'm fairly certain people knew, and didn't tell me while I was pregnant for the first time, because they were trying to be nice.  (Which is ridiculous because they don't mind telling you how huge you are, how swollen your face is, or how horrendous THEIR pregnancy was...) 

My school of thinking is this:  you need to know this stuff NOW, so that you don't think there's something horribly awry with your postpartum experience.  There's enough to be insecure about those first days (weeks... months...), without thinking you're all alone in what you're going through!

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Things all moms know, but won’t tell you when you’re pregnant….

1. You WILL get pooped on. (And peed on. And thrown up on. And sometimes all on the same day.)  In fact, most of your life will revolve around those 3 things from now on.

2.   You will feel annoyed when the baby wakes you up.  I don’t know what saint out there set the standard for patience, but the 3^rd or 4^th time they wake you up in one night, it’s ok to cry a little yourself before you get up.  

3.   Your kid will get hurt.  He will bump his head, shut his finger in a drawer, and maybe even fall off of something before the age of one.  It happens.  You lose 5 years off your life every time it does (especially when you’re RIGHT THERE?!) but it doesn’t make you a bad mom.  If anyone says it does ask them if their kid’s ever had a bruise.  That’s what I thought.

4.   You and the hubs will fight.  You’ve created a precious new life and it’s been a very “romantic” concept up to this point.  You’ve daydreamed and imagined what your baby would be like together.  Then you give birth and you’re both in love and in awe of this tiny person.  Then you go home...and you start getting on each other’s NERVES.  Whose turn is it to change the poop diaper?  Whose turn is it to get up at night?  Just know that once you start getting sleep again (as opposed to being cranky zombies) you will magically start to get along better.  Which leads me to…

5.  GO ON DATES!  (I know, I know, I need to take my own advice too.)  You and the hubs MUST still have some alone time.  Sometimes you won’t even realize how bad you just needed a dinner with your husband until you DO IT!  (dinner, I mean… *mischievous face*)

6.  Some days, no matter how much goes right…or wrong…or wronger….you will just feel like a crappy mom.  You will beat yourself up.  You will take every little thing personal.  You will think crazy things like “Does this kid even like me?!” or “I will never get to sleep again. Never.”  It’s ok.  That’s why God made wine and bathtubs.  And “Daddy Duty.”

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None of this is to scare you or to take away from how magical of an experience this truly is.  I only wanted to share with you the things that made me worry whether I was “normal” or “a bad mom” after I had my babies.  Everyone is different and everyone’s experiences are unique.  There is, however, one thing that is ALWAYS true…your world is about to get turned upside down.  And that’s not always a bad thing.  You will experience a new kind of love that you won’t remember how you lived without.  You will also amaze yourself at how natural being a mom becomes.  That doesn’t mean you won’t have to Google stuff or call your mom in a panic for advice sometimes.  Loving your baby, though, will be the easiest, most wonderful thing you will ever do with your life.

Good Luck Mama!

♥M