Yes indeed. After pregnancy comes motherhood (God willing). This shouldn't come as a surprise to any of you, let alone me, and yet I found myself completely and utterly unprepared for the whole motherhood thing. In the last stages of pregnancy I spent quite a lot of time thinking about the upcoming labour- as one does- and not a lot thinking about what comes after. Some clever person in a maternity class said that labour is like a high mountain standing between the pregnant woman and life after birth, and I have to agree.
So labour. It was tough, but not tougher than expected. I didn't expect a walk in the park. Baby Oscar turned up a fortnight after his due date (on january 5th to be precise) after labour being induced (pretty much as anticipated) and was a very sturdy baby (pretty much as anticipated since the midwife had to plot the growth of the belly outside the graph paper in the last checkup) at 4,5 kg. Lovely, beautiful and nice smelling (pretty much as anticipated).
But the whole motherhood thing: I want to say that no one told me it would be this tough, but I would be lying. Everyone told me, they all tell you, don't they, it's just that you aren't able to understand it. Oscar's seven weeks soon, and things are becoming less tough, but wowie! what a lot we've had to learn in the last two months and wowie kazowie! what a lot we're still not even close to mastering.
At least now I know how to change a nappy (not that hard actually), how to deal with mastitis (wear all the wool you can get your hands on to prevent it, massage your boobs a lot if you get it and if all else fails get antibiotics after the first day), how to tie a carrying shawl (I'd have to show you), the rules for storing breast milk in the fridge and/or freezer, how to dress and undress the baby and how to make my way around with a buggy. Still to learn: how to get him to settle down and have a good nights sleep without too much bribery and trickery. And about one million other things.
