The things they don't tell you ..

before you become a mother:

• The pregnancy and birth are the easiest parts.
• What you want out of life changes the minute they put that little person in your arms.
• You can survive on three hours sleep. Admittedly not well, but you can do it.
• How one little person can require so much of your time and so much equipment too. And if you're blessed with two little people at the same time .. how everything seems to multiply by five!
• If you're breastfeeding, how the sound of someone else's baby crying can make you leak milk everywhere .. usually in the supermarket, bank queue, or some other suitably public place .. and it will be the one time you don't have any spare breast pads.
• All, or at least most, of those things you swore you'd never do with your child, go straight out the window once your child is actually here. "My child is not having a dummy/ pre-packaged food/ being rocked to sleep/ sleeping on their stomach/ etc."
• When they're little, a kiss and cuddle do fix most things. That and a bandaid with silly pictures on it.
• Even though there are never enough hours in the day, you should always make time for a cuddle.
• You are stronger, kinder, more patient and more loving than you ever thought you were.
• Your definition of a good day changes to become one where you get through the whole day without someone else's bodily fluids on you.
• There will be times when you hide in the toilet just to be alone.
• All those things you'd never thought you could do without throwing up, you do numerous times a day. Teething nappies anyone?
• You go from being 'cool' and 'with-it' to being the most out of the loop person on the face of the planet.
• One day you will be having discussions about the facts of life and where babies come from, and you will need to be able to present the facts while retaining your sense of humour.
• You will never, ever, ever be cool in the eyes of your teenager .. in front of their friends. Behind closed doors, however, they may admit to you being the best mum .. subject to change at any time of course!

But of all the things 'they' don't tell you before you become a mother, the hardest one for me to deal with is how your heart breaks when you can't just make things all better for them.

“Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart walking around outside your body.” Elizabeth Stone