Parents! What was one thing that you didn't account for with your first child?

I thought that I was going to have an easy and natural delivery. When I was 38 weeks pregnant we found out that the baby was in distress and needed to be born immediately. I had an emergency c-section and he was born and on life support for 3 weeks. I expected to have a healthy baby. I remember when my son was still in the hospital my mother took me out to dinner. While we were sitting down, a couple came in carrying their newborn baby in a carrier. When I saw them, I burst into tears and had to leave. It broke my heart to see other happy couples enjoying their new bundle of joy.

When my son was one week old, his doctor told me that he was going to be in the NICU for at least 6 weeks! I was not prepared for that! My son was born in another county and I had only 6 weeks maternity leave. I had no idea what I was going to do when I had to go back to work while he was in the hospital 2 hours away!

Luckily, my son dramatically improved and was released when he was 3 weeks old so at least I had 3 weeks left to get used to him being a member of the household.

Another thing I was not prepared for was the lack of sleep! Once my son was sleeping, I couldn't go to sleep because I was paranoid and had to check on him every 5 minutes to be sure he was still breathing.

Also, they poop ALOT! Especially if you breastfeed. We would change a nasty poopy (it always went up his back-yuck) and then 30 minutes we would hear this disgusting sounding bomb going off in his diaper! LOL

Get someone to watch the baby once a week, so you can go out, or get some rest. The number one thing which all new parents are never prepared for is the amount of time it takes daily to care for a newborn.

That my personal life would get shot to hell.

You simply get absorbed by baby. Sure you can go out sometimes, but it's rarely on a whim anymore. Your schedule revolves around the baby's schedule. And yes, they're much more "portable" those first couple months than they will be later on, so if you want to go out then, it's much much easier when they're crashed out asleep in the carseat at 1 month old, than it is when they're 8 months old.

Costs and late-night up-time. I thought I knew all I needed to know about the personality of a baby. But there is no way I could have known who they really are.

well, i'm not sure i was actually prepared but if you mean in terms of material things for getting ready, nothing. one of the things that surprised me (and is totally contrary to the big lists you'll see that various marketers claim you need for getting ready) is that babies really don't need much. some simple outfits, diapers, carseat ... virtually everything else is just frills.

There IS such thing as explosive poop, lol. Make sure you don't dilly-dally too much when changing a diaper, cuz they might not be finished, and then you will have a huge, smelly mess to clean up.