"You'll just know"

Our baby was born at just after 5:30 on a Thursday evening. She was held, introduced to family, then fed twice before I was led back to our room to be left for the night, close to 11pm.

"How will I know when to feed her?" I asked.
"Oh, she'll let you know".
"But how?"
"You'll just know."

I didn't.
It got to 5am and she had hardly stirred and I hadn't done another thing with her.

The nurse came in to check up on us as the shift changed.
I had hardly slept because every single noise she made was new to me - what did that mean? Did she want something? What do I do? When will I sleep? Would it be wrong to chow in to that bag of crackers? Is she hungry too? How will I know?

"She hasn't let me know that she's hungry, it's been six hours."

She was hungry, but she never let me know.

You just have to accept that you won't always know.