All the things I’d forgotten about having a newborn.

We’re almost two weeks into this newborn gig for the second time around now and there are so many things that I’d forgotten! You would think I’d have remembered more given it was less than 3 years ago that Eamon was this small but it appears my baby brain is worse than I thought. So in an effort to remember it all this time… I’m writing it down.  (Seems like a bit of a theme for this baby, yeah?)

+ How sweet newborns smell.

+ How often to change a newborn nappy. (I’m not even kidding when I say I googled this on the first day!)

+ How you can lose hours just staring at newborns.

+ How to feed an awkward wriggling little bundle who just wants to keep jamming his fists in his mouth.

+ How weird your lungs feel on day 2 after giving birth when suddenly there is all this room in your belly/ chest.

+ How strange and empty your belly feels after having a baby, especially when you walk.

+ How at first, the initial contact of a newborn to breast makes you hold your breath in anticipation of pain.

+ How snuffly and noisy newborns are.

+ How quiet newborns cries are! I remember thinking Eamon was so loud but in comparison to an almost 3 year old this one is as quiet as a mouse. *(Edit. I wrote this down on day 3.  He has since found his lungs.)

+ How hard it is to eat one handed and how the baby ends up wearing half your meal.

+ How after a few days of little sleep every question feels like it is covered in a thick fog. The answers are right there in my mind but I can’t find the words. (Which feels worse than last time as now I have an almost 3 year old who asks constant questions, and often quite hard to answer ones at that!)

+ How thirsty feeding makes you.

+ How newborns will wee and poo at the exact moment you remove their nappy.

+ How one minute they can be a crying screaming mess and the next they are sound asleep.

+ How hard the prospect of leaving the house with a newborn seems.  (It took me weeks to get out with Eamon. I have yet to get my head around how I will manage to do a solo outing with two kids in tow).

+ How some nights it’s really hard to pull yourself out of the sleep coma to get out of bed.

+ How some nights you lay awake just waiting for the baby to wake up.

+ How adorable milk drunk babies are.

Did you find yourself having to relearn everything again second time around? What had you forgotten?