Ten things I have learned since last Monday

1. Babies do smell nice, and not, as I have maintained for years, of melon.

2. I can type with my left hand.

3. When people say, 'you'll forget all the pain as soon as you see your beautiful baby', they are either lying or freaks.

4. Poo is not cute when it belongs to your own baby. It's still gross.

5. We have never really given the cat enough props for her self-cleaning abilities.

6. It is better if, when you are told you require emergency surgery, not to have that statement followed up with 'but you'll have to wait a short while, because someone else is in there having it right now, and she's having a haemorrhage'.

7. Babies are 100% feeling, 0% reason.

8. Major abdominal surgery, care of a newborn, and visiting hours which require your support network to disappear for 12 hour stretches, are not a happy combination.

9. Sleep is not overrated. As Joni once said, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone...

10. My baby really IS the most beautiful and intelligent one that ever there was.