Post-Birth Advice from the Midwife

Her cold is abating, and I’ve avoided it as well. Mostly. I had a bit of a sore throat and cough, but nothing like hers.

Today was another visit with the Midwife. This visit was different – more about what to expect once the little smurf arrives. She talked about the realities of having a new-born – the lack of sleep, the regular feedings required, how to cope and generally giving us some reality checks on what’s going to happen vs. what people believe.

For instance her best piece of advice (as far as I’m concerned) was that Mom-to-Be will not have the energy nor strength to do much for the first week or so. She told us to follow the baby’s rhythms and sleep when baby sleeps, and eat when you can. We were told not to worry about trying to keep to a pre-baby lifestyle or even expect to be able to, at least for the first month.

She also asked about our support network (we don’t really have one here – neither of our parents live anywhere close and we don’t have any siblings nearby either). It’s just reinforced my concern about how we’re going to cope – more how Preg-o is going to cope when I’m back to work and she’s spending the day by herself with the new kid. Peach, please be kind!

The other part of the appointment was more tests. This time urine tests for protein and glucose, then some swabs to check for various STDs and other latent infections that could cause complications. Neither of us are worried about them but we had the tests done – better safe than sorry.

After we left we talked a bit about the post-baby future. I have to admit that I’m concerned about how it’s going to affect us and more specifically how I’m going to manage keeping a balance between work and family. The demands of my job leave me drained and grumpy by the end of the day. My long-term goal is to be self employed, but even though the steps for that are in place it’s going to be at least a year before that generates enough cash to justify quitting this job.

Then again, after thinking about some of the items we talked about, I think I’ll plan on traveling for work for the next 18 years.