I didn't have any pre-conceived notions really, so I guess there was nothing to live up to. I knew about the sleep deprivation etc because I read it everywhere and plenty of friends had babies before me, so I had heard a fair bit about the not-so-fun side of motherhood.

I am a fairly easy-going, almost lazy person, and I think that my parenting style is the same. Not to the detriment of the child of course, but if he wakes up and is being hard to resettle, I just get him out of bed. I curse myself for doing it, but I am not surprised that I am doing because I don't have much patience for 'standards' and people telling me 'babies should do this at x age and this at y age".