Your whole pregnancy and early days of motherhood are filled with tips and advice that other parents give you, most are really useful (e.g. buy lots of muslin squares) but not all are true (e.g. ‘sleep when baby sleeps’ isn’t helpful when your baby sleeps best while you’re walking him up a big hill or driving down the M4!)
Anyway this got me thinking about things I WASN’T told but wish I had been!
- Get fit – as soon as you find out you’re pregnant (ideally before, if you’re planning!) get as fit as you can – in the third trimester I had some real achy days where I ached from head to toe, and by then it was too late to do anything apart from pregnancy yoga – I should have done lots of swimming…. Being fit will also prepare you for labour which is the biggest workout of your life!
- Bump photos/Cinemama – I used an app called CineMama which joined all my bump photos into a little video – a nice little momento of your pregnancy journey 🙂 (I wish I had taken more/better photos – I was always in my PJ’s lol!)
- Join a community – ok so this is a tip I was given (but only by one person so it doesn’t count!) which was to join a Facebook group called ‘Due in May 2014’ which I did and it ended up being a great resource where you could ask stupid questions that you might not want to ask friends/family etc. And actually even more than, you could see questions that other members were asking that you hadn’t even thought of! By now it feels like a proper little community and I would recommend you find something similar whether it be Facebook, forums or *gasp* a real-life group!
- Everyone tells you to stock up on nappies and fill your freezer etc but I think you should also stock up on everything from loo roll, toothpaste, cat food to shower gel – your ‘nesting’ time is a perfect time to do this and fill up all your cupboards so that in the first few weeks you only need to worry about getting fresh food in – the more prep you can do in those last few weeks of pregnancy, the easier the first few weeks of parenthood will be!
- Leave tags on stuff/keep packaging – during that nesting period you will have the urge to make your nursery as beautiful as possible even though the little munchkin won’t be in there for another few months…. in doing so, I took some bedding, blankets out of its packaging but I’ve since realised we won’t need it as we were given so many so I could have taken them back. Ditto clothes – I would never exchange any gifts, but I could have exchanged stuff I’d bought that we wouldn’t end up needing….
- Get your screwdriver kit handy – for some reason, everything from our play gym to our sleep aid needs a screwdriver to change the batteries which reminds me…..
- Buy a range of batteries when you’re doing #4! AA, AAA, C, D… the list of battery types in baby equipment is endless!
- Get a copy of your yellow folder – when you’re pregnant, you get given a folder to take to every appointment. This becomes a record of your bump and scan measurements, and details of your labour…. when you’re signed off by the midwife about 10 days post-labour, she will take this folder with her and I so wish I had taken a copy before she had… so many memories!
- Breastfeeding is messy and smelly – you will get it all over your clothes and bedding! I was given all sorts of breastfeeding hints before baby arrived but nobody told me about the mess, or leakage… or random spraying! (Still well worth it mind!)
- The nights will be surreal – In those early few weeks I used to wake so often thinking that baby W was still on me, and said to my other half on a few occasions ‘can you take him off me?’ even though he was sound asleep in his basket! The sleepless nights are tough, but you’ll cope and get used to it!
- Poo comes out in the rain – despite having an expensive washing machine, the best thing I’ve found to get poo out of muslins and clothes is to leave them out in the rain- I think it’s the combination of UV light and volume of water that does it!
- Don’t buy too many shoes until baby has arrived – my shoe size has gone up one and when I mentioned this on Facebook and Twitter, turns out it’s quite common for your shoe size to go up or for your feet to get wider while/after you have a baby! (Wonder if it’s because you’ll be carrying a heavy load?!)
- Your beautiful baby might be spotty, have gammy eyes and have skin falling off – this is all normal during the first few weeks and will all clear up 🙂
Mums – have you got any tips/things that you learnt the hard way to add to this list?!
yummyblogger.com 
This is a great post and I agree with all of these tips. I was especially upset when the midwife took my maternity notes away. I didn’t realise I no longer had them until a day or so after I’d been discharged from hospital and was gutted. I just assumed it was something I’d get to keep afterwards. If I have anymore babies I’ll definitely make a a copy of my notes! x
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Me too! I think it would be such a lovely memento to go through with them when they’re older 🙂
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The notes were one I sadly parted with, I thought they would mine forever! LH discovered the screwdriver and batteries the hard way. I still keep seem to always need them.
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I know…. Every new thing we buy we need to dig out our batteries and screwdriver lol! Thanks for calling by xxx
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I didn’t realise the midwife would take my notes away and I was genuinely devastated when I realised they’d gone 😦
x
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I know – it’s gutting isn’t it?! Let’s spread the word so that everyone else takes a copy of theirs 🙂
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Some great points here which both the missus and I can relate to. I think the get fit thing is important – Hay was pretty fit during pregnancy and did pregnancy yoga / pregnancy exercise DVD’s throughout which helped during the birth and in the first few weeks of parenthood. We did a photo each day during pregnancy and I turned it into a 10 second video which is here if you’re interested http://thedadventurer.com/pregnancy/video-204-days-of-pregnancy-in-10-seconds. We didn’t know about the notes, so that’s a good point. Plus will have to try the poo in the rain sometime (preferably the baby’s not mine!)
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Oh wow that video is awesome! Love the ending 🙂 See mine only has about 20 photos instead of the hundreds you took! Next time….. (if there is one!)
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I wish I’d copied my notes too! You can request a copy from the hospital but I bet they’re expensive xx
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I didn’t realise you could do that… I don’t know why we can’t keep them as the midwife told me that all the info is put onto computers and then the yellow folder filed away…. So once it’s on the computer system they should let us have it back I reckon 🙂 xx
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I didn’t know you could do that! We should be allowed to keep them I reckon, apparently once the notes are to put onto computers, the folders are just filed away somewhere 😦 xxx
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To addition to the leaving tags on one, I wish somebody had told me not to buy all that stuff! If I did it again I’d buy it when/if I need it. I haven’t used half of this stuff!
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I actually did quite well on that one – we didn’t go too mad buying stuff, and we borrowed some things like moses basket, and I think we’ve used pretty much everything! Although we did spend about £80 on a monitor system that I still haven’t worked out yet – so complicated!! What stuff did you buy too much of?!
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I haven’t even used the cot we bought. And decorating the nursery was a waste because we just dump laundry in it! We had mostly handed down clothes so at least we didn’t have to buy much for her to wear.
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Great tips! I will definitely be doing one and two next time. I put on far too much weight last time and was really unfit. I found labour a lot harder than I did when I was slimmer and fitter! I don’t usually like getting my photo taken but I would like some bump photos.
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Yeah I can imagine labour being easier the fitter you are – it’s very physical!! I was determined to get fit after having him but apart from yoga I still haven’t done anything although pushing the pram up our hill is a workout… as is picking him up all the time 😉
thanks for calling by x
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The one thing i wish I had known was some babys bleed (like a period) it was utterly frightening opening up my newborns nappy and finding blood! But some of your hormones are mixed up in your new baby (even if you don’t breast feed) and so there body ‘has a mini period’ and sometimes they produce milk and get ‘baby boobies’!!! X #NewbieTuesday
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Wow – thanks – I never knew that!! I swear you learn something new everyday as a new parent! x
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Scary isnt it! X
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Great post, and yes I found it such a major shock these tips are great x
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thanks Sarah!x
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Because I’m pregnant with number 2 (due early February) I am more relaxed now. I haven’t bought anything yet as you would have everything from the other child.
I did join a community group and we are still great friends and talking on it every day.
I am not so good with the exercise but my toddler keeps me on my feet. #thelist
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It must be nice going into number 2 with so much more knowledge… and stuff!! Good luck with your pregnancy and thanks for calling by – I will check your blog out later! xx
PS I STILL haven’t really done any post-labour exercise apart from yoga, lol!
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The smelly breastfeeding thing is dead on…weird smelling cleavage! #thelist
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Lol glad it’s not just me then 🙂
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Gosh what a fabulously useful post – you are so right about loads of things I had forgotten…the weird dreams and smelly boobs and scabby skin, all so true!
thanks for linking up to #Thelist! loved it xx
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Thanks Hannah – glad you liked it and I enjoyed linking up – will try and link up again soon although I don’t often find the time! xx
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