When you have a baby, a long line of people rock up to your house with gifts for said baby. This is all well and good, but what about gifts for new mums? While the baby is lovely, it’s unlikely to care if you’ve bought it yet another cute outfit or it’s tenth Jelly Cat […]
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.
Things you Only Know if you Have a Big Baby
My first baby weighed 9lbs 7oz. Not ginormous but definitely a big baby, known as Macrosomia. I was reliably informed that, as a newborn, he looked three months old (I myself had no idea what a three month old baby looked like). I was fairly concerned when I was pregnant the second time as baby […]
Why New Parents are a Marketer’s Dream
We all know that having a baby is expensive. Before the baby comes we spend hours making lists, comparing products, ensuring our new baby gets the best of everything. What we don’t always realise, is that the spending doesn’t stop once the baby arrives. Thrown in to the unchartered territory of new parenthood, our instinct […]
The A-Z of Becoming a Parent
A is for adult conversation Unless you want to burn a hole in your other half’s eardrums when they get home in the evening, find a way to get out of the house and meet other adults you can talk to. Babies are cute, but are very poor conversationalists. B is for bathing The baby […]
Parenting a Sicky Baby – Why it Sucks and How to Cope
My first baby was a sicky baby. He didn’t have reflux (although he did have colic) he was just sick on a far too regular basis. It varied between just a bit of “spit up” (what a lovely phrase that is!) to full blown projectile vomiting across the room. As he was my first baby, […]
