When you’ve finally managed to get your baby or toddler sleep through the night, you’ll be overjoyed. Baby sleep is the holy grail of parenting. To start with, even if your baby wakes up at 5am, you’ll be over the moon if you get 6 hours hours of unbroken sleep. However, after a while, you’ll […]
Life with Babies and Toddlers
I found the baby years challenging to say the least. I had postnatal depression, struggled to bind with my babies and found the sleep deprivation very hard to cope with. Both of my babies had colic which meant hours of screaming every night and one was particularly sicky so I smelt of vomit for a good six months.
By the time they were toddlers I was coping a bit better but still found parenting relentless. As an introvert, I need a certain amount of alone time to function and unfortunately toddlers, who like to keep you company even on the toilet, don’t really allow for that.
Despite the challenges, we did have some good times. After my second was born I knew it was important for me to get out of the house so started attending a toddler group. I made friends and eventually ended up running the group which gave me a sense of purpose.
Society still pushes the image of women who are happy and fulfilled simply because they have had a baby however this isn’t the case for most women. Motherhood manages somehow to be both the hardest thing I’ve done as well as being mind numbingly boring for much of the time.
There is a big difference between loving your baby and loving motherhood. While I did slowly fall in love with my babies, I’ve never fallen in love with motherhood, and that’s ok. There are a hundred different ways to be a good mum, finding parenthood so tough in the early years has taught me not to judge others and I hope people afford me the same courtesy.
I found that the best way to cope with motherhood was through honestly and humour so many of the posts in this section laugh at the challenges or give honest accounts of them along with some advice on how to cope.
The Transition to One Nap
Having spent months getting your child sleeping through the night and into a good napping routine, the thought of making changes can be horrifying. At some point your toddler will need to make the transition to one nap and getting them to sleep less can actually be as tricky as getting them to sleep more. How […]
Circle Time Activities for Toddlers – Ideas to Engage Large Groups
Circle time activities are a great way to bring a group of children and adults together. Large group activities for toddlers need to be simpler than those you would use for preschoolers or school age children. These circle time ideas for toddlers will work well for toddler groups where children have a parent with them, […]
Choosing a Play Kitchen
Toddlers love play kitchens. It was always one of the most popular toys at toddler group and my children absolutely loved theirs. We kept it until they were 7 and 9 because until they age, it still got played with from time to time. If I’m honest, I was a bit jealous, I would have […]
Second Hand Baby Items: How to Shop Nearly New
Ok, so I am a bit biased. I run nearly new sales so obviously I think they’re great, but I have loved nearly new for much longer than I’ve been running the sales. Before I had children, other than the occasional car boot sale (occasional because that was a time when Sundays still meant a […]
