When you're pregnant, all those pregnancy books talk about your changing body, labor, delivery and postpartum. The hospital offers classes to prepare for child birth, breastfeeding, and basic newborn care. But there is no class that helps prepare you for the extreme lifestyle change you will undergo. Sure, there is the basic you wouldn't get any sleep and baby eats every 2-3 hours, but the education seems to stop after week 1. There are so many things that I feel like I was never prepared for in parenthood.
- How difficult it is to keep a clean house. I love a clean house. I used to be able to come home from work, workout, make supper, clean while I cooked, eat, clean-up the house and then still have 2 or more hours to relax or do my own thing. Not anymore! A clean house for me now is equivalent to a messy house pre-baby.
- How difficult it is to keep up on laundry. Sure laundry is my Achilles heel of housekeeping and it doesn't help that I absolutely hate doing laundry before I had a baby. But, after having a baby it's become almost impossible to keep up on laundry. And if it's possible, I've learned to hate laundry even more. You go through so many clothes between baby getting dirty and mommy holding a dirty baby or getting food chucked at her by that lovely little baby. Plus it probably doesn't help that I have a great little helper when it comes to laundry and she thinks she's being a huge help when she 'folds' the laundry. :)
- Going out in public can be stressful. If you're brave enough (or stupid enough) to take a baby out to eat with you, you tend to choose fast food. Going out to eat to a sit down restaurant can be stressful with an active baby, especially when service is slow. If you're nursing, people feel uncomfortable with you feeding your baby in public, even if you're covered up. If you're bottle feeding, people think you're a horrible mom for not nursing. Let's just be honest, in general you'll find two types of people, either people can't stand you because you have a child no matter how well behaved they are. Or people love your baby and think (s)he is the cutest thing in the world. I like the 2nd type of people. :)
- Working out is hard to do. I thought working out after a baby wouldn't be that hard to keep in my life style because it was apart of my life style before baby. Well I was wrong. Somehow time just slips away. Now, I'm not saying that I'm a complete couch potato. In fact, I only sit at work (sometimes) and for about an hour after baby goes to bed. When I'm home, I'm usually up and moving around. It's just not the same. And sure, I go for multiple walks (in one night) with my baby but it's not the same. I miss working out. It's been hard for me to pick it back up. Mainly my lack of time and the demanding attention of a toddler eats into my free time.
Having a baby isn't always that hard though. Other things people don't prepare you for:
- How much fun it is to have a baby or toddler. Sure it's a lot of work and sacrifice, but it's totally worth it.
- How amazing God is. It's so hard to look at a child and think there is no God.
- How smart babies are. Pretty sure my baby is smarter than me. People never give babies enough credit for their intelligence. Pretty sure babies are smarter than adults.
- Eating healthy isn't as hard as you may think. Since we started our baby on solid foods I started paying more attention to having a more balanced diet. Not as hard as one may think.
- Baby weight may not melt off for you (it didn't for me), but you don't have to force yourself to workout to make it happen. It can also happen just by eating healthy and do a lot of playing with your baby. There are also workouts that you can do to incorporate baby. Whatever you do, don't let the guilt get to you for not working out.
- Most importantly, no one prepares you for how much you're going to love your child.
