That baby girls sometimes have little periods because of the hormones.  If my HV hadn't have mentioned this as she was leaving I would have totally freaked out when I saw blood in Esme's nappy.

What???? I had NO IDEA that happens!!!

I didn't know that either Anais_B- or maybe I don't remember reading about it because it didn't happen to my little girl!!!  That's crazy!

The hormones can also cause babies to have what look and feel like little breasts--it's all because of all the hormones that you're giving to the baby right at the end.  It all goes away. 

Also--after giving birth your feet and ankles aregoing to be very swollen--especially if you're on an IV at all.  It took me about a month to get my feet back to normal.  It's also common for the size of your feet to permanently change.

That after you give birth your body feels totally foreign to you.. I wasn't able to walk right for a day because I didn't have all that baby weight I was use to.

And that its okay to cry over silly things and its totally normal to do so.

And engorged breast are the most painful thing to ever experience.. I couldn't even let water from my shower hit them.

I remember thinking about 1 hour after I gave both to odd that if anyone felt the way I did just then they wouldn't ever do this again.. my insides felt like they were falling out ( I'm assuming it was from all my organs going back to where they should ..lol )

Oh and the fish net panty things they have you wear are totally ridiculous but so nice to not bleed on your own panties!

Isabelle had blood in her diaper and I was so happy the ped told us about it at the hospital because it still freaked me out even knowing about it !

Ditto the not instantly bonding.  Apparently very normal, but so much guilt.  :(

That PP depression could hit so fast and be so bad. 

That you're going to be the only mommy.  The greatest blessing...but sometimes very hard too.

And a positive one...I didn't realize how much everyone in our circle would love P.  I knew we would, but didn't realize how much our friends would.  :)

And the best advice I was given (and took) was accept help.  Lots of it.  Your best friends and close family offer to come over and snuggle the baby while you take a nap? Yes please!  They are going to bring pizza with them?  Even better!  They are going to clean the house too?  Awesome!! 

I didn't know about the little girls having some bleeding. Something I will ask my pedi about... thanks for the warning, I would freak if I saw blood! 

Again, thanks ladies for all the open and honest comments. It really helps me start to visualize how things may be once LO is here. I know being a mom is all about 'on the job training' but it's nice to have some pointers to start off with!

I just posted this on the 'poop' topic.   But if you get an epidural....you might have gas that you can't control and the toots just come right out.  Including when the doctor is down there examining you, lol!

Figured I'd add to little girls having their 'periods'....they can also have a white discharge come out, which Danica had.  And for boys and girls, their nipples can swell and milk will come out when squeezed. 

TOTALLY agree with most of these!! NOBODY told me how hard the first week PP would be. Not because of baby, but the healing! OMG! Terrible. I just remember sitting in the tub, CRYING because I was in sooooo much pain. I had a tear and was so scared to bust my stiches that I got fecal impaction. That's hospital grade constipation. I ended up in the ER 4(?) days PP with a pain so intense, I couldn't even describe it. I think it ended up being gas. :/

Baby isn't the hard part. Healing is. Even if you don't tear, the soreness that your vagina experiences is intense.

Have a squirt bottle by the toilet and have DH fill it with very warm water so after you pee, you can squirt your bottom so you don't have to worry about wiping clean, you can just rinse clean, pat dry. That helped, A LOT!

Also, if you have a tear or 'rhoids, have tucks pads in the fridge and use them with an ice diaper. Tons of relief!

Use a blow up circle pillow thingy to sit on. Life. Saver.

If you're BFing, and you want to sleep through the night, co-sleep with LO and just keep the boobs out. I had no trouble sleeping through the night. But be careful not to roll over on LO. I sleep pretty still and even more so when DS was in the bed. But be ready for one boob to be more full than the other when you wake up. Unless you keep flipping sides but then that defeats the purpose (you won't get any extra sleep).

All this advice is great! NOBODY talks about this stuff.

I think the two biggest things I have learned as a mom that no one really told me before are (and I think this totally is the reason that some moms are exhausted and think their lives are over and other moms feel like having a baby is not as hard as they thought it would be)

1. You have NO CONTROL over who that little person is that will be handed to you in the delivery room. Whether they are a sleeper or not, whether they have colic, whether they like to nurse every 3 hours, or every 30 minutes, whether they love to be carried or have fun on the floor, whether they will take a nap in their crib or only in your arms. You just don't get to pick those things. I sort of thought what I did would have a bigger impact, but I now know that its really just figuring out what works for your particular baby. My SIL's first child WOULD. NOT. SLEEP. and I mean, until like 2. They took shifts sleeping - she would sleep from 7-1 and her dh would sleep from 1-7. And the other would be up with the baby. For two years. She did EVERYTHING. Everything. She is an incredible parent and really worked on everything she could possibly do - she talked to doctors, sleep experts. My cousin's baby has slept through the night since about 10 days. I mean really. And I guarantee you she did nothing to make that happen. Its just the kid. Once you realize that they are just who they are and you have very little impact on whether a 6 month old is going to like their carseat, hate sitting in their highchair, scream when someone else besides you holds them, bites, etc etc the better it will be. All the parenting books in the world won't be able to tell you what to do with YOUR kid because your kid is unique and special and totally different then any other kid in the universe. You may be blessed with a high needs baby, or blessed with a great sleeper, regardless - you don't get to pick. And once they are here trying to change who they are is just going to be a fight - and having a power of wills with a baby over their personality is just not going to be fun for anyone involved.

2. You also have less control over what type of parent you will be than you think you will. I totally thought I would be a schedule parent - I wanted her down for naps at such and such time. I wanted to go for date nights once a week. And yeah - how many times has that happened in 10 months - 3 times. Once for my birthday, once for our anniversary and once just randomly. And all the time we were out I was checking my phone every 30 seconds. Once you have your baby in your arms hormones and crap will just take over - that combined with not having really any control over what type of kid you get (see above) changes all notions of who you will be post baby. I am convinced that moms that think parenting is easy just got lucky and got a kid that fits into whatever they pictured mommyhood being like for them. I sort of thought I would be one of those moms who didn't really change all that much and that baby would just fit into what my life was already like. Sort of like "well if you just bring them every where with you than they will learn to be adaptable and so forth" except my kid wasn't into that, and my hormone driven mommy instincts wasn't going to make my kid cry just so I could go shopping. Or leave them with my dh for long periods of time when she refused to take a bottle because I needed to get out. I could of I guess, but thats not who I as a parent came out to be.

So I guess the best advice going into parenthood is just to go with your gut, ignore 99% of the advice you get, figure out what type of parent you are and then surround yourself with like minded parents. Know that its not your fault if your kid has colic or cries or your milk takes a long time to come in. Its not your fault if your birth doesn't go as planned or if you don't want to have sex with your husband for 6 months after you give birth. Its fine. It will be okay. You will be changed forever but you will grow into this new body and new life and you will love it.. maybe just for moments at a time to begin with, but then more and more and finally you will realize that your moments of bliss are happening more then your moments of "omigod what the crap is going on?"