Some things new mothers cannot prepare for

Leading up to the birth of your first child is an exciting time. You've decorated the nursery, read all the pregnancy books and been to the pre-natal classes. Every second person you meet has some nugget of wisdom to bestow upon you about your impending motherhood but there are some things that new mums just cannot prepare for and do not expect!

1. The smell of nappies.

When I was in my last few weeks of pregnancy myself and my sister went shopping one day and found ourselves strolling around the Yankee candle shop. As you do, I spent ages smelling all the different candles trying to decide on which one to take home to put in my bedroom, where Ollie was also to be sleeping. My sister suggested the Baby Powder scented candle and I replied that " the room will already smell like baby powder" ha ha WRONG! A newborn needs a nappy change every 2-3 hours in the first few weeks, will spit up milk and the inevitable "poo-nami's". So if you don't keep up with the soiled clothes or nappies your room will most definitely not smell like baby powder!

How did someone this small make that much mess :)

     2. Baby hairs.

Some women are lucky enough not to experience these. I had never even heard of baby hairs. I had heard that during pregnancy your hair loss slows down leaving you with beautiful, thick, healthy hair. Lovely. Then about 4 months after the baby is born you loose a lot of your hair quite quickly as it makes up for lost time. Not so lovely but it was expected. What I failed to realise however that the mass of hair that fell out must grow back and painstakingly slowly. I only realised in my first week back at work when Ollie was about 7 months old and I had tied my hair up into a casual bun and I had what looked like fluff all along my hairline. Now nearly 9 months later this fluff is only about an inch long. On me they tend to stick straight out at a 90 degree angle to the rest of my hair (Whyyyy!!!) Oh and Do not attempt to straighten them- this only makes matters worse! This knowledge doesn't really help you in any way, so if you are unlucky to be one of the few that d get baby hairs, just sit back and enjoy the show! :) 

(haha) baby-hair sufferers unite!

   3. Your priorities completely change.

When I was in the hospital ward after having Ollie a woman opposite me was in having her fourth baby and was said to me " Motherhood is a full time job. No holidays, No lunch breaks or No such thing as calling in sick". To be honest I kind of rolled my eyes, thinking she was being overly dramatic but she could not have spoken the truth more. There are days when you spend so long making sure baby is fed, dressed and clean before you go out that you will end up leaving the house hungry, without showering and wearing a jumper with babies breakfast all over it. But it doesn't matter any more. You learn to survive on 4 hours sleep and still greet baby with a smile in the morning. The household chores will wait and some days I still need to remember to stop stressing over the full laundry basket and instead tip over the toy box and play together. My mum printed me this poem one day I was particularly stressed over the mountain of cleaning that had built up and I try to remind myself of it on the busier days. When I lived in Australia my lifestyle was weekends at the beach and cocktails on rooftop bars, now my days are filled with singing nursery rhymes, bath times and teddy-bears picnics. And I wouldn't have it any other way!

Swapping this

For this?... definitely! :)

Lots of love,

Rachael. x