I am certain that I was not the only first time mum to be who lived in a world with rose coloured glasses when it came to thinking of how life would be post baby. I recall the endless daydreams I had when it came to my thinking of what I would be doing as a new mum. Oh the naivety of it all, now it makes me smile when I hear other expectant first time mums and their views on how motherhood is going to be for them. Ignorance most certainly is a blissful way to live. In my head I had a list of things on how it was going to be with my baby. These ranged from my birth plan right up to not letting my child watch TV or any other devices at a young age, how my baby would sleep in his cot at all times, and I would let him self settle from early on. Just like my birth plan it all went out the window
pretty darn quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that I am incredibly fortunate to have such a good baby who sleeps well, feeds like clock work and makes my job of being his mummy a pretty cruisy most of the time, I am merely saying once I let go of my ideals and daydreams I had a better grasp on it all.
My day usually starts out with my baby waking anywhere between 5.30am 6.30am, this is generally following a full night sleep from him. It’s then up and time for breakfast and a play and back down to sleep, dependent on bubba of course. If Nanna isn’t here at the house I rely on my back up baby sitter/entertainment such as the Disney channel or a movie to occupy the baby so I can at least take a pee on my own, and if he is already a sleep it’s a hop and a skip to the bathroom so I can have a shower before midday. I was adamant my child would not become a TV head at such an early age, however he responds so well to the colours, music and content that I have now learnt to live with such guilt. (It’s not as if I sit him under the TV all day long, merely long enough for me to get a few things done, and I’m okay with that) I was set on my son having all of his naps in his own bed day and night; well this hasn’t been the case for us. He seems to prefer sleeping in the lounge room, or any room where the action is throughout the day. He likes noise; he loves his electric swing and his puppy dogs barking, or the vacuum cleaner going. This is fine by me, I am happy that he can fall asleep with all this chaos going around, because I’d be horrified if I was too scared to fart around the poor mite when he was resting, or telling visitors not to come during nap time. I am not a quiet person myself; I like noise and things going on around me. I also thought I would be a self-settling champion, that I could put my child in his bed and walk away from the crying and tough it out. This is not the case. Mostly my son puts himself to sleep with no assistance, but I tried the old let him cry until he exhausts himself, gives up and falls asleep and it sucked so bad and made me feel like a such a monster that I swore I would not do it again. My own individual opinion on this is that if my child is crying it is for a reason, and I am damned if I will leave him in a dark and quiet room to scream his little heart out thinking I have abandoned him, or that I do not love him anymore. I would prefer that he goes to sleep warm and happy, knowing he is fed, dry and knows how loved he is when I put him down for the whole night. I couldn’t care less about the
thoughts of anyone else on this matter, and if I have made a rod for my own back by doing this then so be it. I have a happy, beautiful baby that is growing far too quickly already and I want to enjoy every minute I can, giving
him all of my love and attention. The love and affection I didn’t know existed until I had this little Cherub.