5 lies I seriously believed when I first became a mom

Let’s be honest—the first few weeks and months of your baby’s life can be the worst. We all know it’s true, but for some reason, many moms downplay this in order to play up the beauty of the newborn.

Yes, it’s magical when your child is born.

Yes, that “newborn smell” is unlike anything in the world.

Yes, we are lucky to be moms… Yadda, yadda, yadda.

But for me, especially as a mom battling chronic Lyme disease and postpartum depression, it was one of the darkest seasons of my life. Having come out of the darkness, I now know that many of the things I believed those first few weeks and months of my baby’s life were flat-out not true.

If you are in the newborn season right now, do yourself a favor and keep reading.

These are 5 thoughts you may be having that seriously aren’t true:

1. “I’ll never, ever sleep again.”

It would be physically impossible for any mom to never sleep again or to keep up with a newborn’s schedule forever. The newborn phase—is just that—a phase. Your child will sleep at some point. You will sleep at some point. There will come a time when you will sleep all night and wake up refreshed again. It won’t always be this way!

2. “I will never travel or do anything fun ever again.”

Moms are people too. Yes, you will need to stay closer to home for a while, but there will come a time (sooner than you think), when you will be able to do fun things again. You will go out on dates again. You will take trips and have new adventures. You will feel like yourself again. Seriously. Your fun days aren’t over.

3.“My body is ruined.”

So your body looks like a stretched out sack of potatoes, your face has large brown patches on it, and you feel like you’ll never be able to sit without first putting down an icepack on your chair. Guess what? You will. It’s amazing how the body changes to make a baby—and it’s even more amazing how it all comes back into place. Your body may not be exactly the same as it was pre-baby, but you can get pretty close with some work—just give it some time.

4. “I’ll never be alone with my man again.”

Babies don’t just invade our homes, they invade our bedrooms too. But guess what? This is temporary. Your baby will move into their own space eventually. They will take naps and someday, and even go to school. Don’t give up on time with your man just yet.

5. “I’ll never get out of these clothes or leave the house again.”

When you first have a baby, it feels like you will always be in spit-up-covered “sweatpants purgatory.” Your days of spit-up-covered sweat pant outfits—and eight loads of laundry per day—are numbered.

At some point in the near future, you will get dressed, put on your makeup and rock the world again.

I promise.