Just how little I knew about pregnancy/birth/babies!! Some things I've realised just by growing up and seeing others go through it, but a great deal comes from BB - thank you all!! Here's a few of my realisations:

- When I was younger, I thought you just decided to have a baby and it just happened. Well I now know there's a LOT of work that goes into it and it's very rarely easy!
- I didn't know about HPT's. I thought the only way to find out was to go to the doctor - that's the way they do it on TV and movies lol. Or there's the one that sticks in my head a lot - on 101 Dalmations (the movie with real people and dogs) the nanny or someone realises the woman is pregnant just from a contented little sigh!
- Based on that, I then thought pregnant women floated around on a blissful little cloud for 9 months. I didn't know about the worrying cramps during early pregnancy, the scary spotting, the morning sickness, tiredness, and threat of miscarriage. I thought it would be so simple, and hey, no AF to worry about!
- I never realised people generally weren't announcing their pregnancies until after three months, so it seemed so fast to me!
- The big one for me - I didn't know what a birth plan was. I had no idea there were options. I thought it was just on your back, on a hospital bed, legs in stirrups. Thanks to BB my eyes are now wide open!
- I thought labour would be so fast. The story from my Mother is that she woke up one night when her water broke, so she jumped in the shower, trotted off to hospital and two hours later had a baby (both times with me and my brother it happened this way). So this lead me to believe the waters breaking was the first sign - I had no idea contractions could go for days first!

I reckon that's about it, but I want to thank everyone for the various realisations I've had just from this site