One of the not so pleasant things to prepare for after giving birth that a lot of people don't talk about is just what happens to your body afterwards. It doesn't snap back to when you first found out you were pregnant. It takes a while; it took your body almost a year to get there and it's going to take your body almost a year to get back, a lot of the time. You won't leave the hospital in your tiniest little jeans looking like you never had a baby. This is your body's way of letting you know that you're a caretaker right now; right now your whole job is to take care of your child. There's engorgement and let down if you're nursing, which has its own unpleasant wardrobe that goes with it. But that's a temporary thing as well. There's cramping and there's feeling that your joints are all over the place and your body isn't quite your own again yet; and bleeding and a whole host of things that are temporary but are also an indicator to you that right now, what your body needs to do is heal and rest and take care of your baby and let other people take care of you, and deal with it all with a really good sense of humor, and know that it's temporary.