So, filing this under the weird things I have learned in the last 24 hours...
Did you know breastfeeding is not as straightforward as you would think? I always assumed it was pretty much pull out titty and stick little human on it. Done. Not so fast. It appears sometimes the little cherubs don't latch right, or the nipple is unique and requires special techniques or some shit. Whatever the case, I was greeted this morning by a "Breastfeeding Consultant" who showed up to help CLS attain perfect latch. I am not making this up. There is actually a job where the sole purpose is to achieve better tit sucking. If Orkin doesn't work out I am pretty sure I have found my follow on career.
Wait until you get home and real life begins. It's a constant, frightening anxiety-filled existence you're about to enter. The first thought being why in the hell did the hospital allow us to take this thing home knowing we don't have a fucking clue on how to do this.
Sleep: don't even think about it for at least a year. You now have this live human thing in your house that has no concept or respect for what you have comfortably known as your routine. You know, wake up, go to work, come home, eat, watch TV, go to sleep. That's gone now. This new human thing is on it's own, random schedule. Schedule is a bad word, it's chaos, disarray and disorderliness. Things like day, night, sleep and eat are all mixed around. It will be a good 8 months before you and CLS will watch a movie without multiple interruptions, some lasting hours long.
In about a month you will begin to take this new thing out with you to visit people, shop, eat dinner, things you used[/i] to do. Oh, and it will be many years before these things go back to how you used[/i] to do them. Just getting out of the house is nothing short of a doomsday prep. The days of just spontaneously hopping in the car to go do X or Y or X,Y and Z are gone. The prep alone will soon suck the life out of you. And when you do decide to brave the rugged outdoors, be prepared to change a diaper out of your element. That neat little changing station you have all set up in your house with everything right where you need it is not there at the Costco bathroom. It's fucking rough. Oh, there's always the car, that's rough too, but this is where you're going to be doing practically all of your away from home diaper changes. Prepare accordingly.
The first 12 years with your daughter will be some of if not thee best years of your life. Know this and enjoy this. What comes next sucks. Given your age, you might be dead when this hits. This would be the best outcome for you. The fun, loving, beautiful little daughter you have enjoyed for more than a decade will completely shut herself off to you and probably CLS too. You will be dead to her, except for when she wants to fight. You will first think it's just a phase and everything will be back to normal in a few days or god forbid, a few weeks. No, it's about 5 to 6 years. She'll come back to you a little bit after this is over, but it's nowhere near where it was during years 0-12. Those years are special, like I said, best ever. But she will act like she has forgotten all about them like they never happened.
You can hope for a different outcome. I have heard of these but I think they are like unicorns and undefeated seasons.