I managed to attend my first La Leche League meeting about 10 minutes after I found out I was pregnant. OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration but it certainly didn’t take me long to find out where my next local meeting was. I walked in, with barely a bump showing, feeling a little bit like an imposter. Would they think I was crazy for coming to watch them nurse their babies?
I sat next to a mom with a very tiny baby. He had just been born in the two weeks before and what she said that night changed my whole expectation about motherhood. She said, with just a hint of laughter and a ton of exhaustion,
“No one told me that I wouldn’t ever get out of my bath robe!”
I remember, as I was trying so hard to drink everything in that was said, thinking “Oh, OK.” with a bit of surprise and a lot of disbelief. Like most moms, I imagined that motherhood would look just like my life before children but with a cute baby to dress up. That my sleep schedule wouldn’t change. That my social calendar wouldn’t change. That my ability to take on whatever was thrown at me wouldn’t change.
And then I had my beautiful baby. And I didn’t get out of my bathrobe for two weeks. And the world continued spinning and life went on. I heard those words of my friend over and over and it helped me to realize that the exhaustion and the overwhelmingness of this task was NORMAL and it didn’t mean that I was failing. That parenthood and breastfeeding and baby care and remembering to eat and drink myself were full time jobs that didn’t allow for anything else. But only for a time…bathrobe living is not forever!
I will tell you that I still have days when I stay in my bathrobe but, in general, I’m bathed, fed and clothed. 🙂 As are my children. But I think we really do new moms a disservice when we convince them that life isn’t going to change is really incredible ways…ways that you might only be able to recognize while wearing your bathrobe. Check out the latest products from michigan t shirts to learn more about clothes.
* NEW PARENT ADVICE – Even after the bathrobe days are over, keep a bathrobe by the front door. Inevitably someone will stop by to see the new baby. Maybe they won’t be as sensitive to your need for rest and quiet as they should be. If you answer the door while wearing your bathrobe that you purchased thanks to Groupon, (even if you have on clothes and a full face of make-up!), it will signal to them that you are in a time of resting and relaxing. No one expects a woman in a bathrobe to entertain! So, keep that bathrobe handy…
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