So now that I’ve told you all of that, it might come as a bit of a shock when you realise no one is coming to visit YOU.
As the crowds start to arrive, you’ll finally realise something that’s been niggling at you since you gave birth. Something shifted in those minutes after the baby arrived but you haven’t been able to put your finger on it until now.
It seems you have become INVISIBLE.
It can be quite a shock when you first realise it. You’ve gone from being a pregnant goddess, fussed and fawned over like a precious baby deer. People were genuinely concerned about your health and welfare. You were the most important person in every room you walked into and you kinda liked it. I do hope you enjoyed that.
What you didn’t realise is that as soon as that little person separated from your body, people stopped caring about you. You are no longer the most important person in the room; that is now The Baby. You are no longer ‘Jennifer’; you are: ‘Isabelle’s mum’.
Your visitors don’t want to see you, I’m sorry to say. They want to see The Baby. They don’t want to hear about you, they want to hear about The Baby. You will feel wildly popular and invisible all at the same time as people travel from far and wide to visit you-but-not-actually-you, just The Baby.
This lingers long after you leave hospital, by the way. If you visit someone and you don’t bring The Baby, the fallen smiles and quiet sighs will cut you like a knife. They’ll try to hide it but you’ll know.
The Grandparents won’t try and hide it at all. They’ll be openly hostile about the fact you’ve dared to arrive without their grandchild. They’ll sit and stare at you like a plug of green snot hanging from a toddler’s nose, wishing they could just grab a tissue and wipe you away.
For your own sake, I suggest you never be in their presence without your child. If you accidentally bump into them without The Baby, you’ll probably need to let them babysit to make up for it even though it wasn’t your fault. Actually, just let them have as much contact with your child as possible to safeguard against the resentment that could build when they don’t get enough time with their precious baby. And yes, I mean Their Baby. You didn’t think this was just your baby did you? Oh, pet.