May
I know we all read the books and world wide web articles when we were pregnant to get as ready as we could for childbirth and child rearing.
What was the one thing about raising a baby that you were just not prepared for?
For me, I didn't realize that I spend more time awake peering into the bassinet worried about her health then I did feeding her. Nothing I read even mentioned that.
I also didn't realize that newborns don't know the difference between night and day. Hence, my child spend her days asleep and evenings awake until she was about 8 weeks old.
You return…
Answer:
For me it was the worrying. I was prepared for the fact that I would have sleepless nights, but I wasn't prepared for the poor quality of sleep. I would toss and turn when the baby was asleep because I would feel the need to wake up and peek into the crib and see how the baby was doing. Put my hand on my babies back to make sure they were breathing, make sure they didn't have any kind of fever, or just to look at how beautiful they were to me. The thing was after the first 2 weeks my children were great sleepers, but I just couldn't help but wake up in the night to make sure they were okay. Nothing really prepares you for the emotions and the feelings.
I had taken care of babies in the past. My cousin used to leave his son with me each weekend over night from the day he was born. I knew what to anticipate . . . but I never had that emotional bond before. I never had that mothers instinct where each tiny noise that doesn't sound right makes you go running. When I had my children, I did have that mothers instinct and the worrier came out in me. I guess its hard to be prepared for something like that, but I was absolutely unaware of how having children would make me feel. I still get up in the night and check on my kids and they are 3yrs old and 18 months. I could stare at them for hours.
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i had the impression that babies slept through the night after 6 months at the latest……shes 17 months now and im just tagging along after given up hope of a complete nights sleep haha
breastfeeding did not expect it to be so hard, it is the most natural thing ever and presumed it would be so when put into practise, boy was i wrong.
also the nights where id over worry about her sleeping soundly and end up poking her…'just to make sure' lol poor kid!
Answer:
I wasn't prepared for how INSANELY exhausted I would be. I couldn't believe that I only got to sleep in 1 1/2 hour increments for about 6 weeks!
People told me it's hard, and to sleep when baby does. It's never the same as experiencing it though. But it gets better and it's SO worth it.
I also wasn't prepared for how much I could love my son. My heart aches, I love him so much. And when I watch him play, or toddle around, or do funny things, or come to me for a cuddle, it's like my heart can't contain all the love. That, I wasn't prepared for!
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The constant worrying about whether my child was normal or not…..head circumferance, weight, height, development, teething, eating, drinking, etc etc etc. I worried so much the first year, and still do! I'm tired of it, just want to learn to accept him for who he’s…..no matter what!
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Teething. I've never spent too much time around kids, and with my first child I was shocked at how young they have the ability to be when they start teething. It's AWFUL, probably one of the few things I hate about having children… next to my daughter having acid reflux and colic when she was younger. That was horrible…
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I didn't know that babies (especially breastfed babies) poop out of their diaper, and all up their back. For a while I had to change my son's clothes everytime he pooped. I have had to throw away so many poop stained onesies.
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I knew babies can have colic, but I was never knew how much and how loud a baby can scream when they’ve it! My daughter had it, and all she seemed to do the first 5 months was scream/cry her head out!
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Honeslty?…This might be TMI, but I had no idea how much I would bleed, and for weeks! Seriously, nobody ever mentioned that to me, not even my own mother. I guess I didn't read the right books.
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I really wasn't prepared for just how tired I was. My daughter wasn’t a good sleeper for her first six months and we spent sooo many nights up with her for hours that she just wouldn’t go back to sleep.
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Lack of sleep (even after they’ve left the baby stage). I also never imagined that I would dream about my child anticipating his needs right before he woke up crying (that is a serious bond)…….
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I wasn't prepared for so many recommendations of my mom or my MIL for that matter ! They were helping, okay, but constantly telling me what to do !!
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Children when they are grown up. Babies are the easy part.
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I wasn't prepared to find out my child was autistic.
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Mommies are a breed apart. The salt of the earth ….