There are certain things that I really wish someone had told me while I was pregnant. The main one being that breastfeeding can be an absolute nightmare. But apart from that, here are 3 things I wish I’d known about post pregnancy.
The mum tum
While pregnant I did swimming and yoga. Now I do nothing except walking the pram around. I always said that I’d give myself until after Christmas to shift the weight. Three months later and I still have that weight! I went for one run and then I had a month long period (see below) and would rather curl into a ball than don my trainers (my running trainers that is, I live in my Sketchers now). I wrote a whole post on how I’d battle the mum tum afterwards.
I’m supposed to be running the New Forest 10km in September in under one hour… I don’t know if that is actually feasible without some magic in those trainers. I wonder if you could have electric powered trainers like an electric bike. You know, to help you get up the hills!
My house is a pigsty
I thought I would be able to catch up on the cleaning and tidying when Eleanor is asleep or keeping herself entertained on her mat or jumperoo. But oh no, she likes attention and only sleeps for 30 minutes. She naps in her snuzpod so yes I could quickly run the hoover around or mop the floor. But generally in those 30 minute nuggets I find myself curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea wishing that I could be asleep too.
I am lucky that my mum pops over a couple of times a week to play with Eleanor so I can get some chores done. I am really debating getting a cleaner in! I think the lighter evenings will help too as it will be daylight when Eleanor goes to bed so I’ll want to do more in the evenings besides watching telly and eating winter comfort food.
The first period
Oh my god. I don’t know if I’m alone in this but that first proper period since having a baby was hell. And still is 4 weeks later! I swear the first few days were worse than the post labour bleeding. It was like something out of a murder scene on a TV show. I asked my GP and they said it was normal for the first one to be horrific. I’m just hoping the rest won’t be so bad.
I really wish someone would have just mentioned it to me so I could have been prepared! And my god it hurt too. It throw me back to the pain I felt at the beginning of labour.
What did you wish you’d known about post pregnancy? Any surprises?
