things they never tell you

Funny thing about having a baby, there are a million things that they don't tell you. the obvious on e for me was that labour for your first baby could be really quick and you may be extremely close to giving birth in your car if you don't really know the signs and take it a bit too easy. witness me reading the paper and drinking coffee, preparing myself for a 12 hour marathon but an hour later battling Glasgow's peak hour traffic, panting with Mel to ensure the baby wasn't born either on teh backseat of the Skoda or in a wet gutter somewhere near Corkerhill. i have since had several conversations with women who had quick and (relatively) easy births and it seems that antenatal classes are all about preparing you for the worst.

i also never expected that one small body could generate so much washing. now granted we are using real, cloth nappies (not as hard as everyone makes out) but even so the washing machine is on a constant cycle with nappies, spew rags, swaddling wraps, baby-grows, sheets. we are thankful for the newly installed clothes pulley, a crucial bit of kit to dry clothes indoors when it's -4 degrees outside.

i don't think i realised how dependent newborn babies are, and if truth be told how boring. cute but boring. Grace is gorgeous and i love her til my heart explodes but there's not much going on except lots of reflexes. yesterday, tho, i got a glimpse of that parent i think i will become as Grace was lying happily after a feed and threatened to smile, suddenly all thoughts of boring babies were gone and she was smiling- at me! well i thought she was, more likely it was wind- most of the books say you have to wait 4-6 weeks for real smiles but i can see that i will become useless when it starts to happen.

i definitively didn't expect Mel to be so sexy either after giving birth and it's not just due to fabulous breast feeding figure. not just but a bit. quite a bit.

P