Every since announcing the pregnancy, people have been giving us the "your life will change" meme, in all sorts of incarnations. "Your life is over," "kids are life-suckers," "kiss your money good-bye," etc. Now, I made up two of those but the point is similar: kids throw a large monkey wrench into the thing you considered a life...forever.
I understand the sincerity of the point, but recently I've been wanting more from the platitudes. Now I want details. How will it change? What new thing will happen to us that hasn't happened millions of times over to others? We are reading the books, getting ready, trying to prepare. "You're never 'ready' to have a baby" is another line we hear all the time. Well, I'd like to disagree. I've done plenty of great things in my life and feel now is a perfect time to start raising a child. But I don't want to just read books about what to expect, I want stories, anecdotes, experiences, nightmares, the whole lot, from real people (you).
Being prepared for what's to come can maybe never be complete, but having a better feel for this big impending change will help a ton to avoid surprises. Things change at any moment, but knowing what most of those "things" might be should come in handy when a decision is needed. This can be regarding the water breaking, the delivery room, cutting the cord, baby car seats, being a man whose wife is breastfeeding, sexual relations after giving birth (sorry in-laws!), and most importantly -- SLEEP. Please let me know how the waking up at any hour of the night REALLY is, not just "value your sleep now while you have it." It's important to me to know the WHY.
I look forward to being inundated with stories. Maybe I'll post some of the better ones!
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Sleep: The first 6-8 months are a bit brutal, but you'll be surprised how your body will adapt to sporadic sleeping.
By 12-18months, he'll be going down at 730pm and sleeping til 630am, and you and A will have your evenings back.
Oh, and men who say that s.relations are immutably changed after witnessing childbirth are either total wusses, or they had some other issue with their wives long before the delivery.
You probably will need to wait 4-6mo after birth to re-engage relations, but barring any medical issues, everything returns to normal. :)
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