10 things to expect after having a baby

Skipper has arrived!

Lily-Rose Hutton was born 10:58pm on Tuesday 3rd May and changed my whole world. It took an entire week to stop feeling as though I was in a dream and to realize that actually, she is here and she is mine

With her beautiful entrance has come a lot of changes, many of them instant. Here’s my top 10 things to look out for once you’ve “popped”.

1. Heartburn disappears. Thank goodness for this – no more Rennies!
2. Pelvic pain vanishes and for me, I almost felt like I could get straight back into yoga. I can’t explain how nice it is to roll over in bed and not feel any tinges of pain. I feel like a spring chicken again.
3. You feel lighter, obviously. It was quite a surreal experience having my first shower after birth and being able to see my toes again; To be able to put on clothes without having to hold onto something and to be able to get up from a seated position without making any extra breathing noises.
4. Your body can’t tell you when you need the loo or if you are hungry. You’ve just pushed out a being and all that pressure does something to the body. For the first week, I had to put a timer on loo trips because I just couldn’t tell when I needed to go. I still don’t feel hunger, I just get light-headed and I’ve only just started to know when I’m full. Biology man, it’s weird.
5. Some people will piss you off. It’s going to happen, you’re going to get the occasional “entitled” few who think that they have a right to be in your face as soon as you give birth and will try and dictate visiting hours to you. You just had a baby, you’re a freakin’ warrior so you put them promptly in their place and believe me, whatever you say to them, you have the backing of every mother out there because this is YOUR time. You worked 9 months for this and so you deserve to be treated like royalty.
6. You’re going to feel so much more in love with your partner. *warning, emotional overload ahead* I can’t help but gaze at Mr H and just thank God for how fortunate I am to have him and to be blown away at how our genes have created something so precious. 5 years of marriage and I feel like we’ve only just gotten started.
7. You can’t plan anything. This again is an obvious one. Baby has no sense of time so she/he really doesn’t care if you wanted to go to the shops at 10am or if you need to make yourself some lunch.
   Don’t make yourself stressed by trying to honor any commitments or trying to keep to a routine you had before you gave birth – relax and enjoy your miracle.
   
8. You might not still be able to eat anything you want. 9 months you’ve been keeping away from certain food because they were deemed unsafe and you might think that as soon as the baby is out, you can eat whatever you want…slow down mamma. On the second night, I had a Nosh bar and LR had horrible cramps the entire night. Chocolate is now off the menu and it brings a fat tear to my eye. So, be careful with what you consume if you are breastfeeding because it can affect baby.
9. Your breasts become crazed beasts that have a mind of their own. They will roar when they are full and will demand to be emptied. This might not coincide with your babies awake patterns but sometimes it is a good indicator that baby is due a feed…or it’s just the Hulk boobs wanting to smash their way out of your bra.
   
10. Breastfeeding can get your body back on track in weeks. For all the exercising I did before birth, I didn’t expect to have my pre-baby body back in two weeks! I now know what it’s like to eat mountains of food and not see an inch added to my thighs, it’s glorious…the only downside is that one can’t wear your old clothes again because one needs to have access to the boobs. Basically, your boobs are everything.

And an added extra – you’ve got this. I started to worry in my last month that I wouldn’t know what I was doing but maternal instinct is AMAZE-BALLS. You’ll just know. No way to explain it, you will just know.