Mummy Mondays: 5 Things that part time working mums feel guilty about

I love being mum it’s everything, I mean literally everything! You grow your baby and build this amazing bond before you’ve even met them. They completely turn your life upside down, I spent the first year being so sleep deprived that night became day, day became night and there was a general blur of how many days, weeks or months had passed. But at the same time it’s the most wonderful, fulfilling and joyful experience you can ever imagine.

I loved my maternity leave and never wanted it to end but like so many others I had to go back to work after 9 months. I remember being so fearful of it, dreading it even but found that when it came to it, it actually wasn’t too bad.

I could enjoy small things again like having a cup of tea whilst it’s still hot, going for a wee by myself, sitting down for longer than 2 minutes and speaking to other adults about non- baby stuff.

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Mummy Mondays: Why should we teach our children to share?

In a wild attempt to bring some order to my blog I’m going to start doing some regular themed posts each week. Obviously as a mum and as a baby massage instructor I have a lot of baby & toddler related thoughts everyday and find it therapeutic to write these down – so Monday will be the day you can read all of my mummy related thought streams- if you so wish.

So kicking off my Mummy Mondays I’m talking about sharing, when your baby is old enough to crawl about and walk you encourage them to play with different toys especially when going to a baby group. It helps their development and of course its fun.

Traditional sharing dictates that you encourage your child to give up their toy the moment another child shows interest in it and once you’ve set your child free in a grubby church hall with boxes of hand me down toys covered in dribble, its literally every tot for themselves.

Why baby massage helps babies sleep better

Newborn babies are beautiful little beings but they don’t always sleep well. They are used to being nice, warm and cosy inside their mummy’s tummy and now they’re out in the big wide world and need some help figuring out when is day and when is night. Sleep patterns often get confused and they can sleep more in the day than at night resulting in a very tired mumma.

Massage releases higher levels of serotonin in the body resulting in better sleep patterns

Baby massage is a wonderful way to bond with your baby and has many of the same benefits of massage as when you’re an adult. It relaxes you and allows you to forget the stresses of the day, how many times when you’re having a massage have you thought you could fall asleep?

Baby Massage and Mental Health

Having a baby is the most wonderful, joyful and exciting time and nothing can prepare you for the amount of love you feel for this little person that you’ve created.

At the same time it is the most tiring, frustrating and hardest thing you can ever do, no matter how many books you read nothing can prepare you for how much it can turn your life upside down.

All of your priorities change and every waking moment is spent at the beck and call of this tiny human. Trying to decipher their cries and constantly making sure they are dry, fed, happy and getting enough sleep. I remember thinking how strange it was that my life had gone from 24 hour days to 4 hour sections around Ollie’s feeds. And that was my whole life now, a series of 4 hour blocks feeding, changing, activity, sleep- repeat.

30 thoughts on motherhood

Becoming a mummy has absolutely changed my life, completely, in every way.

This is something I wrote when Ollie was ten months old and now that he’s two and a half and he normally sleeps through the night it’s still just as true. . .

It occurred to me at somewhere between 3am and 4am this morning whilst cuddling my 10 month old to sleep after two and a half hours of ‘partying’ between his cot and my bed, that this moment was in fact sacred. Despite being sleep deprived, having a banging headache and a dead arm, this is what being a mummy is all about. It’s being ‘there’ for your baby no matter the circumstances. Although these sleepless nights are well horrific, its a phase and I’m sure one day when I’m no longer needed I’ll long for a midnight cuddle.

So with these thoughts in mind I decided to write a somewhat thrown together poem of thoughts about what motherhood means to me, here goes.

The power of a mothers touch

The reason why baby massage is so beneficial to young babies is because touch is their most powerful sense, this is how they communicate with the world around them.

Touch is instinctive in both mother and baby, to comfort, to heal and to bond. When mothers touch and massage their babies the hormone oxytocin is released in both baby and mummy- this is the love drug! And it gives you that warm, snuggly and loving feeling.

Get to know me

Welcome to my brand new shiny blog!!! I thought it would be a good idea to do a ‘get to know me’ tag which will hopefully give you a bit more information about me, my vibe and what kind of thing you can expect from my blog.