First there is the hospital and that passes in a blur.
Then there is the second week and we hit the first weirdness about not working – there are of course the hormones, and the new schedule to adjust to, but the rules of the game have changed. The goal has changed.
What does success mean now? What’s a good day at the office – a marker to show how well we’re performing?
How do you tell what you’ve achieved in a day? Whether it’s been good or bad now depends on such a different set of parameters. You look for patterns of behaviour; try to rationalise inputs and outputs. You muse over tactics and strategies and then of course the midwife blows your list of questions apart with the sage answer: she’s a baby. Doing baby things. On a baby schedule – and this point, not even at her due date yet.
“She’s being a baby.” In other words, go with it. She’s too small for us to do anything else at this stage. We have to try and go with it. Relax…