10 things that I did not believe

After many weeks without, another 10 things... post comes to us.

People told me many things, some of which I believed and some that I didn't. Some turned out to be true and some to be false, for me. Today I present you with 5 of each.


First the truths...

1. "You don't know how much time there's in a day and how much you waste it until you have a kid."

I still can't believe how true this is. The day keeps on having 24 hours, but I do what I did before, plus some more, plus all the child-caring (which is a lot). I sure was a very lazy procrastinator!

2. "You don't know true love until your child is born."

I knew love. Deep love, burning love. But not as deep, as burning, as soul moving as the one I feel now when I look at Oath. It sounds sappy, but I don't mind. I can't imagine what will be having another kid (if we have another), but I'm sure it will be as mind-boggling.

3. "Of course you can function on less than 10 hours of sleep!".

I used to need 12 hours of sleep to not be a zombie. Now, somehow, I can sleep 5 hours an be perfectly functional all day. It must be hormonal or something.

4. "When you become a mother, you slowly get like your own mother."

Partner once even told me "If you keep on acting more and more like your mother, I think I'll despair." It struck me hard, but it was true: all the things that I did not understand about my mom, now I do... because I do them myself. Searing migraines? Check. Obsessed with cleaning? Check. Hates TV? Check. And so much more.

5. "You will soon forget how life was before him".

Remind me, how was life as a non-parent? Did it ever happen?



Then the lies...

6. "You don't know what you are getting into."

Oh, of course I do. I work with babies, toddlers and young children. I also remember perfectly my youngest sister's birth, and was old enough to change many diapers and wake up many times at night. I believed I knew what I was getting into, and haven't still changed my mind.

7. "It doesn't matter what you want or do not want now; when in labor you'll [do whatever it was that the person saying it did]"

They mostly told me I so would get an epidural / want to run to the hospital at the first contraction / give the baby the pacifier / stop breastfeeding soon. We'll have to see about the breastfeeding, but for now I am very sure I do not want to stop until he self-weans. Everything else I did it how I had planned to, and even though it would not have been a disaster at all if I had decided to do it another way, it bugged me that they assumed that their way was the only right or possible one.

8. "They call it quarantine, but that's a huge exaggeration!"

Umm... yeah. No exaggeration in the word quarantine (the meaning of which is related to "forty"), so if you are like me, do not freak out and believe you are dying. Talk with your doctor if you feel you need to, of course.

9. "Soon you'll want to leave the baby with somebody else."

Right, because I don't know where I am getting into and won't stand caring for my son. I work with babies, and love it, why wouldn't I love staying with my own? I still can't understand what drove some people to tell me this. Of course, there's still time for me to get tired, but I don't think it would qualify as soon if I did.

10. "You are not eating enough!"

Pregnant women do not need to look fat to be healthy. As with non pregnant women, we have a variety of different metabolisms and body shapes: the fact that I can fit in most of my pre-pregnancy clothes and me face looks as thin as ever does not mean I'm starving myself and the baby.

Oath's Mom