Advice, the useful and the not so useful!

BAnnouncing a pregnancy to the world is like sending out an invitation asking for advice, however you didn't ask for any advice yet everyone seems to provide it to you anyway.  Some of this advice is useful and you are grateful for receiving it, other advice you just listen to and politely nod, thanking the person for this completely useless advice. The advice doesn't stop once you've had the baby either, in fact people suddenly feel the need to offer you more advice, everyone has an opinion as to how you should be raising your child because of course anyone that has already had a child is suddenly the expert in babies!

The most useful advice received

1. Approach child birth like a triathlon, go into it with a race day plan but be prepared to change this plan at the last minute should the conditions not be what you had expected (thanks Jacqui).

Extremely useful advice for any pregnant ladies! There is no point spending hours on a detailed birth plan, sure know what you feel strongly about and share this with the birth team but on the day be prepared to change your plan should you need to, at the end of the day all you will care about is ensuring the safe arrival of your precious baby.

2. The best advice I received whilst pregnant was from an eccentric dentist who was the father of 4 children.  He said to me "don't listen to anyone's advice on raising a child and don't compare your child to any other as all children are different". How very true! I have taken to raising my daughter the same way I would approach a problem solving exercise, I use trial and error! I certainly do listen to the advice of others but as all babies are different what works for one won't necessarily work for another. 

3. There is no need to sterilise bottles used for expressed milk (advice from a midwife in the early days). This advice early on has probably saved me countless hours of time sterilising everything.

4. "You will be a great mum, not because you will always know what to do but because you will always figure it out". Awesome advice from my best friend and so very true. It's been a huge learning curve since bub came along and she certainly didn't come with an instruction manual but somehow you do just figure it out! Words of encouragement such as these always go a lot further than unwanted advice!

5. Make the cot up with a mattress protector and a sheet, followed by another mattress protector and a sheet. That way if during the night there is a mess and you need to change the sheets you can just rip off the top layer and you have a ready made cot underneath. A very handy tip from an experienced mum!

The not so useful advice

1. Sleep when the baby sleeps, everyone loves to provide this advice to new mums, but how do you sleep when the baby sleeps when you have a baby that likes to take cat naps during the day and you never know how long they will sleep for. Not sure about everyone else but I can't just will myself to go to sleep at any time of the day, by the time I lie down and unwind it can often take awhile to actually fall asleep and by that time the baby is probably about to wake up. Also if I sleep when the baby sleeps then when does the housework and other tasks get completed??

2. When seeing baby sucking on hand "She must be teething". When baby is crying "She must have wind". When having baby standing up "Don't do that, it's bad for their legs". All of the comments you receive because as a new mum you of course mustn't have any clue about your own baby.

3. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. This advice doesn't go down so well with me, as I always strive to be the best at what I do and motherhood is no exception to this, in fact with motherhood I put even more pressure on myself as this is the most important job I will ever have in life. I want to be the best mum I can possibly be and raise my little girl to be the best woman she can possibly be.