I know, I know. Two posts in one day - it's not decent. But I just had to relay this conversation I had a few minutes ago.
A friend of mine, C, is newly pregnant - for the first time. C has the address of this blog but I don't think she ever reads it; however, if you are doing darling, I'm laughing with you (or with the 'you' you will be in 6 months time when the baby arrives) - not at you...
C: "... and can you believe it, one of my friends who's just given birth has someone to come into her house 10 hours a day for the next 3 months, just to help with the baby!"
Me (thinking, the lucky devil): "Really? Sounds like a good idea. If someone offers to pay for that for you, I suggest you bite their hand off."
Silence.
Me: "C?"
C: "You can't be serious. I mean, feeding a baby every 3 hours and preparing a meal - how hard can it be?"
I was like that once.
Annoyingly, there are occasionally babies who are very easy, and mums who have them have NO idea what it normally is like. She MAY be one of those...
ReplyDeleteOh Iota - I hope not. I will go mad with envy...
ReplyDeleteTeehee. My daughter is the occasional baby who is very easy, and I still find myself tearing out my hair at times.
ReplyDeleteBy the way - you made my day with the whole how young I am thing. Touched and tickled. I've been feeling very old lately, as I approach my 33rd.
omg. i was like that once too. before i crossed the great divide.
ReplyDeletedon't remind her of it, just tell her to use a thermos flask to keep her tea hot. how i wish someone had told me that at the moment of birth. i threw away cold tea for three years.
I'd agree with Iota. Even worse, she will probably be a naturally fabulous mother. A good friend of mine found having one baby so easy that she went on to have two as soon as she could (i.e. well under two years apart) and then added two more. It's not fair, is it. (PS she's also blond with a fantastic figure. But I think that's quite enough).
ReplyDeletePPS I was not one of those mothers. Nor am I blond with a fantastic figure. But I imagine you guessed all these things.
Hee, hee, she will come home from a cold fair, as they say here in the Netherlands, and then she will not be a very happy camper. Women have such wonderfully naive thoughts and expectations about motherhood. It's what allows them to get pregnant. And then they go and do it again, that's the mystery of it!
ReplyDeleteOne extreme to the other there. I would have hated having someone else in the house. (My mother stayed a few days after I came home with #1 and I couldn't wait for her to go home so we could just get into our own routine and handle our baby our way...)
ReplyDeleteThat's an intriguing saying "she will come home from a cold fair" !! I like it. And agree with it. I don't think I was ever quite that naive about what it could be like. We saw these videos in the prenatal classes, and so went into it with our eyes wide open. The only thing my husband then hoped of me was that I could manage not to still be in my dressing gown when he got home from work.
But, those of you with more than one, you do look back now on when you had the one baby and think 'what did I think was so hard about that, then?' don't you? After you've juggled a toddler and a baby, one baby, in hindsight, does look easy doesn't it! Hah!
My goal was just to get a shower every day. She'll learn sooner or later, most children are difficult at one point or another. We all just hope it doesn't last too long.
ReplyDeleteShe's so sweet.
ReplyDeleteI'd love for those days of being naive once again....those days I just didn't know the truth of it all....the horrible truth of not having time to do anything without a child screaming and crying to be held.
Iota...there are such babies? Get out!
So, you're young AND you have a dream baby TC?...
ReplyDeleteGrit, no-one ever gave me that tip either... Unlike you though, I didn't work it out for myself. So nice to know I can now drink tea again!
OM - women like her give the rest of us a bad name. Am just off to get my hair higlighted and book some laser lipo-suction sessions in the hope that the rest will follow automatically!
Irene, so true! The moment I walked out of the jungle after having Boy #1, I forgot all about it and went back in for Boy #2!
Tracey - definitely, too easy. Which is why I'm lucky to have Husband here to remind me why I don't want to go back for No 3!
Ped, you and me both!
J's Mommy, I agree. Iota must be making it up...
OHMYGOD! I sooo thought this before I gave birth to my munchkins. Now I employ an au pair, a full-time housekeeper, a cleaner and a part-time gardener. I ran back to work full-time as soon as I could as it was all so very difficult indeed. Just sit back and smile knowingly sweetie, all new mums think that anyone with a child over four is sooo old hat!
ReplyDeleteI love your friend C...i love her naive innocence. I wonder how long until she becomes a bitter hag like me?!
ReplyDeletePigx
DM, you're so right. Let's not disillusion the poor things too early though, or everyone will stop having babies we can coo over - and then hand back...
ReplyDeletePig, hi. A bitter old hag? I don't think so. Just perhaps a little wiser than we all used to be. And a little saggier - though let's not dwell on that part too much.
That's quite funny. I say this as an expectant first time mum- even I'm not that....naive. Someone wants to pay for me to have help every day once she's born, I'll give them my second born!
ReplyDeleteAh well Kelly - maybe she'll wise up as she gets closer to her due date. Something about being 36 weeks pregnant will do that to you!
ReplyDeleteShe will learn. She will learn to get hubby to leave sandwiches before he goes to work, to have a one min shower, to sellotape the phone to your wrist (it's always on the other side of the room when breastfeeding), etc, etc. I did!
ReplyDeleteHi WM, thanks for the visit, and yes, I remember (from between kids) how that worked. Though I'm not sure I ever persuaded Husband to make sandwiches (and since he's Dutch they would probably have been filled with peanut butter - pre nut-allergy - and hot sauce in any case...)
ReplyDeleteare you calling me saggy? Buns of steel me, buns of steel...
ReplyDeleteI would never dream of it Pig. As firm as a 21 year old, you. Just like the rest of us.
ReplyDelete