When I was pregnant I spent way too much time writing to-do lists, preparing things and generally trying to get on top of the impending life change that was looming.
But let's be honest, who can pre-empt the magnitude of what lies ahead? No matter how diligent I was, a week after the birth I found myself knee deep in laundry with no wipes and a broken dishwasher.
What I am telling you is that you can never be too prepared when it comes to having a baby, expect the unexpected and do WHATEVER it takes to tick jobs off your suddenly humongous list.
1. Do not run out of wipes
Buy shares in a baby wipe company - you are about to drop a whole load of money on these bad boys. Wipes will become your best friend and think of how sad you are when your best friend is not available at the flick of the wrist. You will use these for EVERYTHING. I cannot overstate the uses you will find for these wet wipes. Cleaning sticky hands, faces, noses, wiping tears (yours) wiping snot (theirs) countertops, scrubbing milk out of couches, giving the sink a quick wipe - you will never not have these in your hands. Stock up, ladies.
2. Enlist all the help you can get
Order your shopping online, sign up to anything and everything that is automatic - even sign up to get your cartridge ink automatically replaced because, girl, you are barely going to have time to shower, let alone leave the house to buy things that are not 'baby emergency related.'
This soon shall pass - but for now, take the easy option and say 'hells yeah' when your mum offers to pop in and hold the baby while you eat your first proper meal in two weeks.
3. Always have chocolate
Chocolate is what sustained me throughout the first precious weeks of my baby's life. Yes, I ate whole foods and as many veggies as I could to keep my milk production up but without that bar of, well, anything after dinner each evening I don't know how I would have survived. I am slowly easing myself off now but a sugar rush ahead of those long nights, for me, was everything.
4. Make sure you have clean clothes
I may or may not have had to wear my bikini bottoms under my clothes a few weeks into my baby arriving because laundry was slightly backed up. In my defence, I had had a c-section so shuffling and bending to the laundry was not my priority. Note to everyone - putting on a bikini mere weeks after having a baby is, in fact, as awful as it sounds.
5. Don't forget to giggle
It is a very confusing and insecure time when you don't know exactly what you are doing most of the time. It is obviously a time of great joy and discovery too but sometimes when I was on the verge of tears I would just try to laugh instead - especially at some of the more ridiculous times like when I had to pee but was trapped under the baby or when I almost broke down because I realised that I had never changed a boy nappy before and didn't really know what to do with 'it.'
Laughing saved my sanity and now, three children later, I often find myself halfway between tears and hysterical laughter.
My advice? Always choose the path of giggles.
