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Question for NEW Parents

What surprised  you most in the first few weeks of becoming a parent?

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1.  How I didn't truly connect with my daughter for a while. I thought it'd be easier the second time around, but it was harder, even though I had my husband helping me. Everything was challenging, from healing to getting back into a routine. I think I had a bit of PPD as well, but didn't know it. It was tough.All the yellow seedy poops that came after every breast feeding session.

 

2.  Breast feeding is not easy at all, breastfeed poop actually didn't smell bad at all. Went through 12-15 diapers a day. The fact that my baby getting poop of spitup on me actually didn't disgust me like I thought it would. Etc.... Oh and that the first few weeks were pretty boring actually. My babies always slept threw the whole day unless they wanted to eat.

 

3.  How exhausted you really are. I never knew that kind of tired existed. And post pardum depression. It can get bad.

 

4.  How noisy newborns are and how hard breastfeeding is to begin with.

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5.  Breastfeeding sucks! I nursed my first for 2.5 years (part of that was into my second pregnancy) and am now nursing my infant. It’s what’s best for them so I do it, but I don’t like it at all. It’s time consuming, messy, and exhausting wish someone would have told me not all moms enjoy it.
 

6.  How much a newborn can poop hahahahaha

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7.  How little I was able to sleep.

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8.  Lack of sleep with my first my hubby did the night time feedings because he was on an off shift this time I did them oh it was rude awakening.

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9.  How easy my baby was lol.

 

10.  How much hair fell out of my head.

 

11.  How hard it was to breastfeed.

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12.  How little sleep babies expect moms to be ok with while being so demanding.

 

13.  Pain from c-section / lack of sleep / breastfeeding.

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14.  How much time is spent nursing and how out of wack my hormones were....my emotions were all over the place.

 

15.  How much I could love such a little person!

 

16.  How much easier it was than people said.

 

17.  How much breastfeeding hurt, yet was the most amazing thing once I got the hang of it. And how constantly babies eat and poop, pretty much nothing else but sleep at first, yet they're the most fascinating person you've ever met.

 

18.  How hard breastfeeding was and how little help I found available. Although There was a plethora of misinformation.

 

19.  How a human can survive on only 2 hours of sleep.

 

20.  The emotions I felt after the baby.

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21.  #1 & #3 were such a breeze. #2 train wreck from hell.

 

22.  How little doctors listen and how often we have to advocate.

 

23.  How much my V would feel like it was on fire haha.

 

24.  The lack of sleep was insane - & still functioning regardless. "Mombie" is a real thing! haha.

 

25.  That the lack of sleep would make me dream with my eyes open. How horrible my hormones change and took time to adjust.

 

26.  How much love I instantly felt for my baby girl.

 

27.  Poop Spray

 

28.  How hard recovering from an episiotomy was. 2. The challenging breastfeeding. 3. How overwhelming loving someone that much is. 

 

29.  How everything wasn't anything like what is in the books or what people tell you. Disclaimer: I think mom's are much more open now than when I had my son.

 

30.  How tired I was, yet I had the energy to get up and care for that baby on like two hours of sleep all night.

 

31.  That I always slept like a rock. Now just hearing suckling wakes me out of a dead sleep. Any little noise from their bedrooms across the house, I'm up!

 

32.  How long it takes a baby to eat!!!!

 

33.  Since this is my first boy, I was surprised by pee the first diaper change.

 

34.  How crappy cluster feeding can be

 

35.  Sorry but nobody tells you how hard breastfeeding is for the first few months. Rewarding once you get through the tough part but it’s hard for a while. Parenting books say a few days to two weeks of soreness but nope not the case for most women I’ve heard including myself l

I was told it was hard but was way harder than I thought it was going to be. Took me a month to push through and now enjoy it, but was not easy getting there.

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36.  How easy it is in the beginning.

 

37.  How much love you instantly have for a tiny little human....like heart overflowing & bursting love.

 

38.  Lack of sleep

 

39.  How fast they grow and change.

 

40.  That taking a shower would require having a third person home!

 

41.  How much they poop and pee lol.

 

42.  How horrible the first poopy diapers smell.. Lol, how when others offer to help you they really mean watch you handle it all. Lol

 

43.  That my first born only weighed 2 pounds and 15 ounces . And the love for this precious little baby was unbelievable.

 

44.  I had pulled all-nighters in college, so I figured I could handle functioning on little sleep. But nothing prepares you for the level of sleep deprivation that you will reach. I regularly chose sleep over food lol.

 

45.  How fast they grow and how alert they are. And how easy it is and your parental instinct kicks in.

 

46.  How easy it was.

 

47.  How long I was willing to let myself go without a shower in the name of sleep.

 

48.  Definitely how hard breastfeeding is, I almost quit so many times. By far the hardest part.

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49.  How much laundry there was. This was pre-Pampers!

 

50.  The amount of diaper changes were unreal.

 

51.  How difficult and rare it would be to ever sleep or shower or go to the bathroom, ever again!!! Haha!!!

 

52.  How the Disney channel was on ALL night long.

 

53.  How quickly you can start loving a person that can take away a lot of things that u never think u can give up.

 

54.  That I actually do have a 6th sense.

 

55.  How much I could love someone.

 

56.  I would do anything for my kids! Ohana means family!!

 

57.  I never realized how deeply I could love another person.

 

58.  I can function on very little sleep.

 

59.  Every time I heard my baby or another baby cry in a store my boobs would start pouring milk! It does not matter what you're wearing or where you're at, if your boobs hear it your shirt will be wet and smell like milk!

 

60.  1 year after stopped nursing and i can still feel the sensation. I'd get in a hot shower and I literally turned into a lawn sprinkler!

 

61.  Projectile vomiting.

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62.  How tired you are! How much responsibility it is! Like how worried/careful you are!

 

63.  Every time I sat down to dinner my baby woke up hungry! I guess she smelt my cooking and still does 1,500 miles away at college!

 

64.  How much you bleed after birth. How little sleep you actually need. How you never really knew what unconditional love was. How you thought you needed SO MUCH when they really don't require much at all.

 

65.  Had thoughts about not bonding or what if I don't care or feel much. When my youngest was born I was there the whole time. I cut the cord and all that no fear. Immediately in my mind I could feel an overwhelming sense to protect. My body language and following the nurses everywhere without asking showed this need to protect as well.

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66.  How long I could go without showering and learning to choose between sleep and food.

 

67.  How awesome fatherhood is and the amount of love I had for my son followed by a close second of how little most other things mattered now that I was a dad and had a responsibility that wasn’t just going to go away.

 

68.  Zero sleep life.

 

69.  I could no longer do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it.

 

70.  The fact that when they are 8lbs and have four legs rather than two they are super fast and their energy battery never end.

 

71.  How far pop can squirt out of a babies butt.

 

72.  When mom is breast feeding child eats what mom eats. Taco Bell for lunch=PROJECTILE POOP.

 

73.  How angry boobs could be.

 

74.  How much I could love someone that hadn't been in my life that long.

 

75.  How it wasn't actually as hard as everyone made it seem lol, I actually got to sleep thanks to my hubby.

 

76.  How hard it was to breastfeed and then accepting the fact that my milk just simply never came in. Felt like I couldn’t provide for my children...

 

77.  The life I knew was over. But I didn't care. I loved each second of it.

 

78.  The love you feel, like something never before!

 

79.  Besides breast feeding being harder than I expected- no one told me my hair would fall out! About 1 month after I gave birth the hair around my forehead and temple fell out - my hair line moved back about an inch. I kinda freaked out.

 

80.  How expensive diapers, wipes and formula really were.

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81.  Nothing! I loved every minute!!!

 

82.  Your motherly instinct. All babies you see on your first week after birth are adorably cute. No exceptions.

 

83.  Best post in a while, sent us all back to those days, no matter how long ago. You just have to laugh at the pitfalls and the weirdness, and marvel at the unconditional love. We didn't have internet, the whole boobs doing waterfalls, learning over a sink was beyond hysterical

 

84.  How much you can love a person.

 

85.  How much I valued my sleep.

 

86.  How much nursing really hurt in the beginning... but I made it through it...twice.

 

87.  Gotta burp'm after they drink milk.

 

88.  Your time is now their time but that bond that grows between mother and child is well worth that time.

 

89.  How physically limited you become and how much you miss regular sleep and showers!

 

90.  Exhaustion like I'd never known before. Breastfeeding is painful and extremely difficult in the beginning but nourishing your baby from your own body is indescribably wonderful.  Pregnancy anxiety is just traded for new mommy anxiety. Is she breathing? Is she growing? Did that person just sneeze on my baby?? it's flu season! Is green poop normal??

 

91.  How much I utterly loved her and would do anything for that little bitty human’s happiness and safety.

 

92.  How much my love for her consumed me and how I loved every minute of it.

 

93.  How far up their back side the poop could travel.

 

94.  How quickly my camera roll filled up with baby photos lol.

 

95.  The “baby blues” with my first shocked the hell out of me. Like why am I constantly crying and why did no one tell me this was the norm. Turns out it stopped after about 2.5 weeks and I began to mentally feel normal but my gosh. Warn your friends!

 

96.  Just how important sleep really is!

 

97.  That you don't want to blink because they leave to go to college.

 

98.  How much it SUCKED waiting for my husband to come home 2 months(ish) after our first born was born. and doing it without him there.

 

99.  How effective sleep deprivation is as a form of torture!

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100.  How important it is to trust your gut feelings when inundated with opposing advice.

 

101.  How much you could love another person completely!

 

102.  A completely new, different love that you have never experienced before and how quickly sleep deprivation ages you.

 

103.  The best sleep ever next you your newborn. It is amazing, breath taking and even though my kids are older and they want to lay down with mommy I feel the same things as I did when they were born.

 

104.  How alert I was when he was out like a light and vis versa!

 

105.  No matter how tired I am I stay awake to watch her sleep and just look at her face. Sometimes it lasts an hour or more.

 

106.  Lack of sleep!

 

107.  How much love i could have for my tiny offspring.

 

108.  SLEEP DEPRIVATION.

 

109.  1- Mama bear mode... the instant obsession and uncontrollable over protectiveness of your baby. 2- Sleep deprivation... not only because baby wakes up but because you literally cannot staring at your little miracle. 3- Oh and Diaper explosions... there were times I wondered why i even bothered with the diaper because it all shot out the sides or up the back anyways lol.

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110.  No sleep but all so worth it.

 

111.  I realized I could die to save my child life, without my children I be lost.

 

112.  The sleep deprivation, ohhh yes lol.

 

113.  How much you love a person before they are born and how you never thought you could love anymore until you meet your baby and then you know what real love is.

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114.  I was surprised at how well the Chancla works lol. To this day I cannot remember a single tantrum from any of them. I’m being real, they are so well behaved I’m so proud.

 

115.  That the hospital actually lets you walk out with the baby. For the first month we expected the baby police to show up, call us frauds and take the baby to a competent adult.

 

116.  Sleep deprivation.

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117.  Everyone is saying sleep deprivation. You go in to it knowing you’ll lose sleep, but you don’t realize how real this is until it happens. Sleep every instant you can!

 

118.  What was I going to do when the help left and I had two babies.

 

119.  Lack of sleep.

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120.  That post partum depression is a REAL thing!!!

 

121.  Everyone will tell you about their actual birth, but no one tells you about the recovery. I mean, the placenta being born, stitches, having to use a perry bottle, all the “products” you have to use for the first couple weeks. I wish I would’ve been more prepared for all that.

 

122.  The amount of pressure on the mom.

 

123.  Having one at age 15 lol. I think everything and the huge responsibility.

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124.  Little boys can pee straight up in there own face if the diaper isn't fastened correctly. Yes I cried for an hour.

 

125.  What a nervous wreck I became.

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126.  How life changing it was. Created focus.

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Copyright 2017 Anne Sommers

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