Baby Blogging - 10 Things I Never Knew Before Becoming A Mum!

Obviously being a new Mum is a learning curve. Obviously there are a ton of things that you think you should know but don't. And obviously no two days are the same.

I was expecting to be bored on maternity leave. It that an awful thing to admit?! I thought the lack of adult conversation would drive me crazy especially as my conversation would be with a crying baby. I was wrong though.

Annabelle is 3 months old and I have had 2 days of being bored. And those two days were when she slept most of the day. When she is asleep I usually rush around getting things done but occasionally she'll sleep a little bit too long and I'll start walking around slightly lost.

Mainly though days fly by, what's that phrase- the days are long but the years are short. Well in my world everything is fast. I mean I look at this picture and our daughter is definitely a growing girl.

What I have also learnt is that remortgaging takes AGES as does doing taxes and I'm not sure how I would have done it with a full time job. I mention it at this point as I have done our remortgaging while Annabelle has slept.

But when it comes to Annabelle I am learning so much about her and about myself!

For example I am right-handed but when Annabelle needs comforting (awful cold) I am able to write an entire blog post left-handed. Sure it takes longer but I don't think I would have ever attempted/ bothered to try it previously.

My body is older than I remember it being. Spending so much time on the floor is not great on my knees or hips. It has helped getting back to yoga but getting up and down is seriously a work out in itself. Who knew!

Babies are heavy. Okay that might be obvious but at baby development class they do an exercise that involves lifting the baby out in front of you - after a minute with Annabelle my arms are shaking! I thought babies were always fairly lightweight.

Nappies - who knew I would get to a point where I can 'feel' a nappy and tell if it needs changing. At the start I really appreciated the blue line that appeared on the front when dirty and when we jumped a size in nappies and lost the line we were lost. Now however I can 'feel' a dirty nappy. Crazy!

Also I can be thrown up and not want to wretch! That never happened before....not that many people threw up on me but it had happened on occasion.

I can get great satisfaction in a spotless kitchen. This surprised me. I always tidied up after Laura's cooking but it was always a basic tidy up. Now I tidy and clean the kitchen, daily. It's like my mission to get the kitchen back to 'normal' so that Laura can cook again. I was never previously bothered and I hope to go back to being not that bothered but while I am spending time at home that kitchen will be cleaned - frequently.

Days where Annabelle does something new are filled with excited messages to everyone - she's smiling, she's babbling, she's grabbing, she's hitting, she laughed, she's sitting up - whatever it is I am suddenly the proudest Mum in the world and everyone will hear about it.

On the other side when we get through the day in one outfit - her and me - it is noted as an achievement. I used to be all about targets and deadlines and plans of action at work, now my main target is de-robing Annabelle if I sense an explosion and making sure I don't have to do extra washing.

I never knew that raising Annabelle with Laura would be as great as it is. I knew it would be good but I expected us to be tired and irritable with each other but like when we got Bisbee it has bought us together as a team. Even when we are both sick we work together to make sure we get rest. Annabelle is constantly surrounded by love, someone to chat to and someone who wants to make her smile. If anything we are probably exhausting her. We are both enjoying it so much more than we thought though.

Who knew that a baby cold would be heartbreaking. Unable to communicate that she'll be okay and having to comfort her while she struggles to breathe in her sleep took more courage that I knew we had. I cried that I couldn't make her better, I empathised with every frustrated cry and I hugged her - a lot in the hope that it would comfort her. On that note I also didn't know that Laura and I could survive on 5 hours of interrupted sleep with full on colds ourselves. Turns out when we need to, we really can push though.

Annabelle being ill has also taught us how strong we can be when giving a baby medicine - both physically and mentally. Our little girl can really kick and she loves to do that 'rigid as a board' pose when you want her to sit, it takes a lot of physical strength to control her. Add in to this giving oral medicine when she is wailing to the point of going red when the syringe is barely at her lips and you have our challenge. Our poor little girl is taking medicine to regulate her liver readings and for 14 days we have to give her a whole syringe of medicine twice a day. It is one of the most awful, heart wrenching things we have had to do so far (alongside them drawing blood from her heel - that takes ages, 3 times now). We know it is for the greater good so push through but it.is.AWFUL.

I am sure there are plenty of other little things but these came to mind first....are you a new Mum? What do you know now that you didn't before?