Mum, mother, mam,
mammy, whatever you want to call it; I've been rocking this motherhood lark for
a whole month now, and wow what a journey it's been! There have been ups and
downs & it’s been the hardest, yet the most rewarding month of my life to
which I’m still trying to get my head around. I definitely feel like I’m
winging motherhood, but here’s what I’ve picked up so far.
Sleep.
There's no question
about it, the sleep deprivation
when you have a newborn is real & whenever we've introduced
people to Amelia it's always the first thing they ask. That's of course after
cooing over her for a good twenty minutes, because (and I don’t mean to boast
but) she’s definitely the cutest baby ever. The thing with Amelia is that when
she gets into bed she's such a good sleeper, it's just getting her in there which
can be tricky. During the night she can go 4-5 hours without waking, meaning
Dan & I are still getting a decent amount of sleep. Heck, some nights I'm getting more kip than I
would when I was at work, which I’m definitely thankful for. Five weeks in
& I feel like we're finally sussing out the best way to get her in
the Moses basket as she seems to be settle much easier, however we're both very
aware that this could change at any given moment. Babies can be very unpredictable!
My relationship with Dan.
Seeing Dan being a
father is honestly the best thing - I love it! Last week while I was in the
bathroom mid pee, I overheard him singing to Amelia downstairs and I had a
little moment to myself where I was thinking 'how on Earth did I get so lucky?' I must have been a saint
in a past life! We're still at the stage where we're being very polite with
each other, which to be honest I thought would be long gone by now, I thought
we’d be screaming and getting frustrated with one another, but we make the best
team… And fingers crossed, long may it continue that way.
Routine.
We've read that
newborns are unable to get into a routine until they're around 6 weeks old, so
when it comes to it we've been living our lives dictated by Amelia... You could
say that we’re slaves to our baby. From day one we’ve written down times of
feeds, how much she was feeding and how many bum changes we’ve done. It’s been
super handy as first and foremost as new parents we’ve suddenly become the most
forgetful people in the world, but secondly its super interesting to see
correlations, and even though we haven’t lived each day by a routine, if you go
by our notes it seems we are already sort of on our way there. Over the next
couple of weeks I’m wanting to get a little bit stricter with feed times and a
sleeping routine as the dream would be to put Amelia to bed a couple of hours
before we go up. We absolutely love the bones of her, but it’d be nice for Dan
& I to have a couple of hours to ourselves on an evening. If you have any
tips for this please holler them my way.
Finding time.
I think I was quite
naïve pre-Amelia, I had it in my head that I was going to girl boss maternity leave & it was going to be time for me to finally get my shit together. Now
however I’m five weeks in and I can already see it being totally unproductive
and flashing before my eyes - it’ll be over before I know it if I’m not
careful. My days go super quickly as I’m constantly thinking when the next feed
or nappy change will be; I don’t particularly look at the clock anymore as my
day is more judged by how many bottles Amelia’s had, for example 5:00pm is now
‘5 bottles in’, six if she’s been particularly grizzly. I’ve also found that
everything takes ten times longer with a baby in tow, if I’ve got to be
somewhere I’ll make sure I set off an hour in advance, firstly because I hate
lateness, but secondly because you never know when the next poo explosion is
going to happen. Baby butts are unpredictably deadly.
Juggling the baby
& the dog.
If you think finding
time to do your own thing with a baby is hard, imagine having a super
energetic, super boisterous lemon beagle to contend with too. Willow’s taken to
Amelia so well though and I’m so pleased it came so naturally for her as I was
really worried to begin with. Worried that puppy would feel left out or pushed
aside. And worried that she was going to resent this new bundle of joy we were
bringing home. Truth is I needn’t have worried, I just needed to get smart. Iordered a baby wrap from Joy & Joe which has been an absolute Godsend forwalking Willow, and if there’s one thing I could recommend to new parents or
parents to be it’d be that! I just wrap it around myself, slot Amelia in and
away we go, not only is it super handy for getting shit done, it’s also a way
for me to sneak a couple of extra cuddles.
Meltdowns.
In honour of being
100% honest about motherhood, I wanted to just touch upon how difficult I’ve
found it at times. There have been a handful of moments where I’ve sobbed
uncontrollably because I’ve had moments of madness where I’ve thought I’m not
cut out to be a mum. I’ve only had a handful of meltdowns, and said moments of
madness have always occurred during the night, when Amelia’s trying her best to
scream the house down and I’m feeling shitty about myself through sleep
deprivation and exhaustion. Understandably it just all gets a bit much
sometimes and the only thing I can do is let go, get all of my emotions out,
have a damn good cry and start over again. I don’t know about you but when I
need to cry, I NEED to have a good cry. There’s something about totally letting
go & succumbing to your emotions, heck it almost feels like cleansing. Once
that’s done with though I find it really easy to get my head back in the game
and tackle whatever life has to throw at me. But yes, there have been hard
times, ridiculously hard times, but they’re all 100% worth it for our sometimes
spawn of Satan, sometimes angelic little girl.
Like I say, I
definitely feel like I’m winging this whole motherhood thing and yes some days
are easy and what I’d call a piece of piss, but others have been really hard,
and I think it’s good to talk about those really hard times. I’d like to think
I portray a really real life online when it comes to being a mum, my Instagram photos are super cute yes, but the messages behind them are really real and it’s
amazingly heart warming to get a conversation going because truth is, we’re all
in this together. Nobody really knows what they’re doing, and if they say they
do then they’re lying, so reach out to your parent friends, ask for advice
& talk about the hard times. We’re all here to help each other.
What do you think is
the hardest thing about being a parent?
Claire.X
Have you read my child birth posts?
My labour story - Welcome to the world Amelia May Chircop.
Did hypnobirthing work for me?
Claire, we're all winging it! And anyone that says other wise is well, lieing!
ReplyDeleteEvery baby is different, apart from general needs, so as you say, you are literally a slave to a boss baby.
It's great you're working as a team together, as it makes the whole thing a hell of a lot easier, even if it's just 5mins to yourself. Communication is key.
Routine will come. But, good and the bad, just enjoy and embrace it, as it will soon be gone and you'll have the house on lock down for a crawler - like me, this weekend!
Caroline.xx
I've definitely learnt that along the way! Haha. Oh yes, we keep saying that already, like I can't believe how quickly this month has gone, my maternity leave will be over before i know it & next thing I know she'll be at school! Eeek! Oooh. Good luck! X
DeleteThis was a great read and I love that we're on this parenting journey together! We had a bit of a shit start to becoming new parents with time spent in hospital that we'd rather have spent at home! Some days have been SO hard and others have been great. I've had a few meltdowns too and I think it's so important to stay open and honest about how we're feeling - especially to our partners because they're there to support us no matter what! Luckily I have family close-by to help out if needed too. Can't wait to read more and get more blog posts up too!
ReplyDeleteEmma xxx
www.lifewiththebruces.co.uk
Me too! I'm gutted you had to spend your first week in hospital, she's home now though and you can fully enjoy her! The good, the bad, and the disgusting. Haha. I can't wait to start reading your baby posts!! X
DeleteLovely to read such an honest take on motherhood Claire. It’s the hardest job in the world, you’re doing brilliantly.
ReplyDeleteLauren x
Thank you so much - That's lovely of you to say. X
DeleteI love your blogs so much, everything you say is so true. Even second baby in I’m winging it and can I say trying to throw a school run into the mix first thing on a morning is what I can only say as ear steamingly fun the only bonus is Harry generally falls asleep on the run to school lol. Your doing amazing and yes we all have them blow outs when we just want to run for the hills and bawl our eyes out god me more than most but it truly gets more amazing each and every day! My top tip for bedtime routine is bath, massage, story and bottle. If I’ve not signed up to a baby massage class it’s a must and really helps with the settling process! Harry’s been in a great bedtime routine since 4 weeks even when he was suffering from silent reflux his bedtime was never effected he was just the devil during the day haha. Although advice is great always follow ur instincts mums know best and each baby is different keep the fab posts coming I get excited when you post, so very real life compared to the ‘perfection’ we see over social media! Xxx
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah - Thank you so much for you kind words! Amelia's definitely getting better with her night time routine... We don't have as much of a battle on our hands now *touch wood* I've heard loads of people rave about baby massage, but it's something we haven't looked into yet. I might try and youtube it first. I've got a 'week in the life of being parent to a newborn' post going live soon which I hope will be just as relateable. Thank you again! X
Delete