Myth Busters

Hi All,

Okay, so these aren't exactly myths but rather opinions of parents and non-parents alike about each other. I thought that I would address these myths to help both parties in delicately handling situations in future. Here is my truth about them.

My lovebug and I

Sleep: I think the most common thing that parents say to pregnant women and or expecting families is “Enjoy your sleep while you can.” I have to admit when I was pregnant, and people said this to me it would irritate me (probably because I was running on sleep fumes). I barely slept at all during my whole pregnancy, but especially in my last trimester. I was incredibly uncomfortable, and I would be lucky to sleep two hours a night. The truth is, I personally sleep better now with a baba than when I did when I was pregnant. Yes, my sleep is interrupted, however, when my head hits the pillow I’m a goner. Oh and not to mention that I can now sleep on my back and stomach too. I swear it's the simple pleasures in life! I also feel that it’s almost a negative comment to say to expecting families who are so excited about their journey ahead. When I speak to first-time mamas and papas now, I truly just sing the praises of parenthood. For me, there have been adjustments (I would be lying if I said otherwise) but every single change has been positive and filled with growth for myself and us as a family. Prepare your loved ones for this incredible journey but do so with love and kindness. Not everyone will experience the same journey as you.

If only we could all sleep as peacefully as a baby

Stress: The stress before and after pregnancy is entirely different. Before pregnancy, I was completely career focused, and my stress was almost solely related to work. I undoubtedly had many high pressure and stressful situations. However, after Sutton, my stress feels more like life and death. All you want is for this new bundle of joy to be happy and healthy. As a first-time parent, it can be overwhelming and a little scary when your newborn won't stop crying and you cannot figure out why. I find it difficult to compare the stresses as they are just so completely different. Truthfully, I don't see why it should be a competition in the first place? Stress is stress and it's how you deal with it that counts.

I mean, how cute is our little man

Maternity leave is a holiday: One of my colleagues (non-parent) said to me ‘Enjoy the break’, and I could have climbed through my phone and strangled them. Granted this was ‘wished upon me’ on a day when Sutton did not stop crying the whole day. Maternity leave is by no means a holiday. I am not sleeping in, I am not catching a tan, an outing includes having to do nappy changes in strange places (including the car seat) and feed my baby whenever and wherever so he doesn’t go crazy crying. Sutton takes after me in that regard, he gets hangry. As a non-parent, you don’t quite understand the stress and pressure that parents are under. You would give anything for your child. I did not realise this until the moment that Sutton was born and I know that Damian feels the same.

This was on Friday - he would not sleep unless on me

Busy: I was indeed busy before Sutton. As I said, I was career focused and would burn the candle at both ends. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a complaint as I love my job and that’s why I chose to be up early and work late. With Sutton, again it’s a different kind of busy. Do you know that I haven’t even craved an adult conversation? I think it’s because I haven’t had time to even think about it. We feed Sutton every three hours. It’s not as simple as wake, change, feed, burp and sleep. After Sutton’s feed, I have anything from an hour of entertaining him to him not sleeping at all. During his sleep time (if he does), I need to clean and sterilize bottles, express milk, clean the house and do washing (we do not have help in the home), check emails etc. please keep in mind that sometimes (and a lot of the time) all your baby wants to do is be on you. So at times, I’m stuck to the couch with Sutton on me. He hasn’t exactly taken to being in a carrier so it’s not as easy as sticking him in a carrier. Oh and in between this I am meant to do personal things (eat, shower, change etc). Let alone head out of the house and go to the shops.

Isn't he handsome?!

You may be wondering where I find the time to blog now as I’m so ‘busy’. What I found is that I have so much more to share now than before. I also found that I wanted to be honest about my journey so that it can hopefully help someone else with theirs. My blogs take me a few days to weeks to write. I write a sentence and then he cries, I write a paragraph and it’s time to feed. As I said, life is just different now.

Last weekend Sutton met Santa. Man Santa looks awfully familiar

I think what I have truly learnt through this journey is to stop judging one another and to stop comparing. In this day and age, we are all stressed, we are all busy and truthfully we are all just trying to do our best for ourselves and our families. Let’s take the time to complement and praise one another rather than bring each other down.

This guy melts my heart every second of every day

So although we have missed the 25 days countdown, how about we spend the last 9 days before Christmas going out of our way to be kind to one another and offering compliments to our friends and families.

My family arrives on Monday for the festive season break so I may be a little more preoccupied. So if I don’t speak to you before then - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.