So, I mentioned that you should expect the worst, right?

You can't come back to me and say, "Nobody told me this would be so hard!!"

For the record, I told you.

Here is what else I am going to tell you:

The first two weeks of your baby's life will be the hardest two weeks of your life.

Did you hear me?

The first two weeks of your baby's life will be the hardest two weeks of your life.

I don't care if you have pledged a sorority or fraternity, gone through basic training, earned your medical degree, pulled 24-hour shifts at work, or gotten a neck tattoo.

The first two weeks of your baby's life will be the hardest two weeks of your life.

Why? Because not only will you be utterly exhausted, overwhelmed, in physical pain, and scared shitless. Not only because you will have the most severe hormonal shifts for the first few weeks postpartum that you will ever have in your life (it trumps PMS and menopause). But it is because you will also be overcome with the weight of the responsibility that has been laid upon your shoulders.

You have never loved anything like you will love your child. (I know, I know, you love your dog. Just wait.)

You have never been responsible for not only keeping something so important to you alive, but also for keeping him out of jail and hopefully for struggling to put him through college.

In my opinion, there is only one sacrifice when you have a child. It isn't sleep, it isn't your body, it isn't sex.

The biggest sacrifice in becoming a mother is the loss of peace of mind. Forever.

Okay, so we have established that for a number of reasons, the first two weeks will be the hardest two weeks of you life, right?

DO NOTHING DRASTIC IN THE FIRST TWO WEEKS.

Don't quit your job. Don't divorce your husband. Don't sell your house. Don't send your dog to the SPCA...

... and don't quit breastfeeding.

The first two weeks are critical to this entire breastfeeding relationship. If you mess up the demand and supply in the first two weeks, we may not be able to fix it.

So, do whatever it takes. But just don't quit. Not in the first two weeks.

Once the dust settles and you feel like you are coming out of the earthquake that was your baby's arrival, then we can talk about quitting.

But chances are that by that point, you'll be able to say, "Well, I made it through the hardest two weeks... "