Dear Pregnant Me,
People will tell you to make the most of your sleep, you will laugh along with them and smile knowingly as if you know how bad it is going to be. You don't. And you didn't take their advice. Or maybe sleeping when you're the size of a whale and it feels like a pack of ferrets was let loose in your belly wasn't as easy as they thought. (Or remembered.)
You know the nursery that you have spent hours/days preparing and getting ready? It will be trashed within a day or two. There will just be so much stuff and so little time. Those cute little drawers from Ikea will soon be piles of 'newborn' 'first size' and '0-3/3-6' as you need things that will fit the baby to be accessible and close at hand.
Those date nights you have been trying to make the most. Well really make the most of them. Never again will you just be able to go and see that new film that came out at the Hyde Park Picture House or go to Pizza Express on Orange Wednesdays on a whim. Date nights will become military operations. Sorting a babysitter weeks in advance, getting The Baby ready, bathed and in bed, leaving lists of instructions and then staring at your phone all night worrying. It will feel forced and you will often be too sleep deprived to enjoy it. So yes, really, make the most of them.
Spend time with your friends without babies - although the gap may already be apparent. Because when you become a walking, talking baby making machine you will find their eyes glaze over and you've become a little less interesting in their eyes. When you cancel your lunch date cos you've had a bad night or The Baby has a cold they won't get it - just like you don't now.
Your whole life is about to change in a big way and you have no idea. You have no idea how hard it will be. How relentless it will be. How it will test your relationship. But also how much love you can feel for this tiny baby squirming in your arms. How much it will rely on you. Need you. Love you in return.
Yep nothing can prepare you for that.
Love,
Sleep-deprived me
P.S You have a boy so not the future crafter you were expecting. Get lots of good washing powder. Lots of muzzies, Lots of energy and embrace the madness!
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This post was largely sponsored by a serious lack of sleep. We have started sleep training here and when we see some success I will do a post on that.
I wouldn't want to go back to the days before children now. my only regret is that i never started early enough.....Had i, then i think i would have had more....four boys no doubt! My outlook on life changed and those date nights never seemed important when the family came along....or maybe with a lack of babysitters we never had a choice x x Your P.S made me smile......it only gets madder as they get older xx
ReplyDeleteThis all rings farrrr too true! I love how I thought I was "exhausted" heavily pregnant in Summer and couldn't sleep.....it really was nothing in comparison! Ophelia was basically nocturnal for her first few weeks and it was utter madness! We started sleep training very early and it really paid off because she would self settle quickly and sleep mostly through. Until last week, when she got ill and is now back to AWFUL sleep patterns and we have lost the routine we had! Of course, this made work today fun when I had basically had about 2 hours sleep! Good luck, that increased sleep makes SUCH a difference. xx
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