by Michelle Stein posted in Parenting

When I was pregnant with my first child, I devoured the obligatory What to Expect When You're Expecting, pored through BabyCenter's resource pages and asked my Ob-gyn about a million questions. (I may have been slightly anxious about childbirth and impending motherhood.) Since I armed myself with all the knowledge I could get my hands on, I thought I had a decent handle on what to expect.
Wrong.
As it turned out, there were still plenty of surprises after delivery and well into those first few months with my newborn.

Been-there-done-that moms in the BabyCenter Community who are due in February have been sharing their hard-earned wisdom, in a thread titled, "Things they don't tell you after your first birth." And basically, this should be required reading for expecting parents. Here's just a sampling of the gems I found: 1) You might still look pregnant after giving birth. "Unless you have a semi-fanatical workout routine or a plant-based vegan diet planned after baby, (or are genetically lucky) that belly won't go anywhere."
2) Contractions continue even after delivery. "The after uterine contractions can hurt worse than labor. Especially if you nurse, AND they get worse with each baby."

3) Nurses will push on your uterus after delivery. "I didn't know a nurse will perform fundal checks after delivery. This can be uncomfortable. Basically the nurse will massage your belly. It helps to dispel c...