The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block 2-Book Bundle pdfdrive com

2. Lower Your Expectations
You’ll see. Having a baby is like going to sleep in your
own bed and waking up in Zimbabwe!
Sonya to her daughter Denise a month before
Denise gave birth to Aidan
Becoming a parent is filled with all sorts of misconceptions
and surprises. And perhaps the biggest misconception of all is
that you’ll automatically know what to do the moment your
baby is born. Yet even after giving birth to her third child, Beth
quipped, “At the end of my first pregnancy about the only thing
I was really prepared to do was filling out forms and buying
maternity dresses!”

---

Parenting requires some practical experience (especially
when caring for challenging babies). Yet many pregnant
couples today have never even touched a newborn. Despite this
lack of experience, they expect themselves to instantly be able
to care for the babies and manage the household and have a job
and be lovers.
Unfortunately, these unrealistic expectations have been
growing in our culture for at least the past fifty years. Even
though people warned you when you were pregnant, “Your life
will never be the same!” you probably shrugged it off. Few
believe their baby will be tough. For most women, being
pregnant is so close to their regular life that they get lulled into
a false sense of security. Before delivery, you can still linger in
a hot shower and think, “I’m ready. I’m on top of this.” It’s so
automatic that many women are tricked into believing that
taking care of their newborns would be just as natural, but as
you now know, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s only
after your baby is born that you begin to see the demands of
parenthood more accurately. Suddenly, that long hot shower
you took a month before the baby came looks like a Caribbean
vacation.
Another expectation that may not immediately materialize is

---

loving your baby the moment you see her. Of course, many
parents do instantly fall in love with their new infant; however,
one of the little-told truths about becoming a parent is that
many new moms and dads don’t feel smitten right away. It
makes sense that falling in love might take a little time. After
all, few of us experience love at first sight. Don’t worry, like the
song says, “You can’t hurry love.”
And that’s not all. You may soon notice your brain has also
unexpectedly changed. Memory loss is one more proof that
your life is temporarily out of your control. One new mom told
me, “My best guess is that during the delivery a piece of my
brain came out with the placenta.”
Lots of moms feel that giving birth turns them into complete
“boobs”—and in a way it does! Lactation makes your body
awash with prolactin which, along with the other massive
hormonal changes going on inside you, probably is the basis for
this new forgetfulness. Finally, you’ll notice your ditziness is
made ten times worse by exhaustion. Clear thinking is terribly
hard to hold on to in the face of prolonged sleep deprivation.
So be patient and kind to yourself. In a few short months
you’ll have your feet on the ground again and, what’s more,
you’ll know your baby better than anyone else in the world!