All the thick, luscious pregnancy locks that faithfully stick by you for 9 mths, all decide to depart around 3mth postpartum, leaving you with thin, straggly ‘mum-tuft’ hair!

Pregnancy brain, turns into baby brain, turns into toddler brain.Basically it will takes long time to regain full use of all your memory & facets! 

No matter how soundly you slept before – you will now wake to a mere pin drop. This will probably stay the same for the next 16yrs. 

During pregnancy you naively think that babies need a ton of clothing & accoutrements. Let me save you a lot of money: They do not. People gift an obscene amount of stuff and an array of hand-me-downs. A few sleep suits/baby grows, a cardy or two and several pairs of socks will do in the beginning.

Trust yourself. You know what you’re doing, even if you dont think you do and find yourself typing random worries into google at 3am. 

Don’t stress about the randomness of your babies moods/habits. Just like the rest of us, some days they’re cold, some days they’re hot, some days they’re grumpy, some days they’re not, some days they’re not hungry, some days they’re not!

Your relationship with your partner will change. Some days for better, some days for worse. It is tough. It is emotional. Remember you love each other, remember what you were both like before the personality altering sleep dep set in. Deep down you are both still those people – ride it out!

You will become a giant walking napkin Milk, puke, snot, poo, wee, food etc etc. Don’t even bother with the dry cleaners, a baby wipe will do for most substances…embrace the crud, no one will judge you for it! 

No matter how many times you do it, putting sunglasses on your baby will never stop being funny!  

Eating out is also a whole new experience. An embarrassing amount of food on the floor, annoyed looking fellow diners, barely getting to eat anything yourself, constantly scrambling around your bag for extra bits – bibs, food, toys, bottles, dummies, wipes etc. Employing your Go-Go-Gadget arms to stop crayons from rolling off the table, water being spilt or food being hurled! Fun times.

 No amount of parental ‘non-reaction face’ willpower can stop you from laughing when your child first swears.

Once the extreme tiredness, newborn wobbles, sense of loss of identity & general nutsness of having baby subsides, you realise the incredible empowering nature of become a mother.

If you can get through childbirth & the first months with a baby, you can do anything. If you ever pondered setting up your own business or starting your own venture, now is the time! You own that sh*t…go be a #mumboss! 

* All the negative stuff on this list, as frightening and as messy as they sound, will never really bother you in the long run. You’ll discover many new things about yourself, your partner, your own parents, your priorities. These experiences make you stronger, yet more vulnerable at the same time. I read something somewhere once that said ‘Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart walking around outside your body.’ That about sums it up!