13 thoughts for 13 months of motherhood

1. The first thing that surprises me is the bleeding. The doctor tells me it's normal which is why it strikes me as strange that no one warned me. There was talk of pads and ice packs, but as I lie in my hospital bed in the hours after giving birth, I wonder why no one spelled it out: You are going to deliver a baby, and then also the placenta, which will …