10 Crazy Hidden Truths About Motherhood

 These are 10 random points that I often judge myself on and feel in someways embarrassed about them and so I thought enough, embrace them, share them and take ownership of them because after all we are only human…

1- Cot cuddles; I’ve just put Hugo down for the second time tonight and I had to result in climbing into his cot to cuddle him asleep. This might sound crazy but I’m not even joking. Ayman also results to doing this at times, can you even imagine that? A 6ft 4 man all squished in a little cot, all in the name of love because Hugo absolutely loves it and helps him drift off.

Note to self: Take pictures of these moments so we can laugh about it later and remind Hugo of how needy he was hehe.

2- Boobs; They’ll all tell you that after breastfeeding your boobs will never be the same again and to be quite frank, they’re right. I never did believe my sister-in-law when she said ‘Yeah they’ll drop a size after you’ve finished breastfeeding.’ I haven’t even finished breastfeeding yet, despite my best intentions, but it’s fair to say I’ve experienced quite a change in the appearance of my boobs. I don’t even want to go and get myself measured as I think I’ll shock myself even more. Some say that it’s breastfeeding that causes these changes, others say it’s just down to being pregnant, whilst others never experience any real changes to their breasts – you’re the lucky ones! After research it actually says that your breasts don’t change because of breast feeding it’s because of pregnancy in general as they prepare for breastfeeding you can read this interesting article here to find out more.

Note to self: Celebrate that I only have to wear one sports bra instead of two now (that’s when I get round to doing a work out once a year oops).

3- Feeling sexy; I can’t remember the last time I felt sexy. I think underwear has a large part to play in this and I feel like none of my bras fit me properly anymore. The other thing that is putting me off buying new bras is that I think we’ll be trying for another baby soon and then I’ll be back in my lovely maternity bras again so what’s the point.

Note to self: Let’s treat ourselves to new bras ladies, the uplifting supportive types, we’re totally worth it!!

4- Tiredness; I’ve always thought tiredness is such a crappy excuse for anything but I tell you I’ve never felt more tired in my life than I do right now (well apart from after child birth). Every night I could quite easily sneak off to bed once I’ve finally settled Hugo. If it isn’t me doing the bedtime routine then you can be sure that daddy will have most certainly fallen asleep putting Hugo to bed at 7.45pm and that’s our night complete. Sometimes he wakes up at 2am still there in his work shirt and trousers!

Note to self: Drink more caffeine and go and wake Daddy so we can work on the next point below.

5- Date nights; these are all well and good but why does life get in the way of these beautiful nights where we look forward to just being us two again? You can guarantee that the moment we both park our bums on the sofa you’ll hear a wail from our little tinker upstairs. Let’s push that date night aside for yet another night shall we?

Note to self: Plan in more date nights where we get family to look after Hugo and always remember to have a little kiss and cuddle everyday.

6- Feeding time; you’d think this would be all plain sailing for a boy who quite simply LOVES his food. If you were to watch Ayman and I you’d be in hysterics with the antics we get up to just to entice him to take his first mouthful. We start chanting with eyes wide open in excitement and fists beating on our chests like some sort of wild tribe all to create the most exciting moment for Hugo to taste his first mouthful. Enough of the ‘nos’ and the head shakes and arms smacking the spoons out of the way. This is now becoming a wrestling competition just to get that first mouthful in because after that there’s no stopping him from gobbling the rest of it down. You may be thinking ‘well, just let him feed himself’ and we do but before he’s had that first taste he will often push it all away or throw it on the floor.

Note to self: Film these unforgettable crazy family moments that I’ll forever miss as he gets older.

7- Teeth; You have to make everything fun and exciting even laborious tasks like brushing your teeth. The only way we managed to get Hugo to love brushing his teeth was to firstly get him an extra special toothbrush and secondly singing and smiling ‘this is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth.’ We still struggle the odd night but I put that down to teething badly. Parenthood is obviously about making the normal mundane tasks the most exciting moments of the day!

Note to self: Keep reinventing boring ‘do I have to’ tasks to ‘yay, can I do it again’ tasks.

8- Face smacks; I know kids are kids and they don’t mean what they say or do but on Mothering Sunday just gone I was feeling extra emotional. First day of period, great, which probably explains why I suddenly burst into tears on the car journey to our lovely meal and ended up crying whilst also wailing out ‘and Hugo won’t stop smacking my face’. I felt rejected by my own baby, what on earth was I thinking, I need to flip reverse it and the reason why Hugo was smacking my face was because he loved me and wanted my attention. Even if they aren’t the actually reasons for the smacks, please let me just think so haha. After every few smacks, I would hold his arms down and say ‘no Hugo, stop smacking mummy, not nice’, and then he’d suddenly put both his arms up and say ‘ugg, ugg’ in desperation for me to forgive him. Any recommendations of how you’ve got your little one’s to stop this phase? Sometimes if I’m quick enough I high-five him mid way through his attempt to smack and it works a treat! Absolutely hilarious when you see his confused face that he hasn’t managed to do what he set out to do but how he quite enjoyed it anyway – I highly recommend attempting this!

Note to self: Master the art of intervened face smacks with high-fives and to conquer the face smacks altogether!

9- Middle of the night nursery rhymes; Guilty as charged! We’ve put ‘little baby bum’ nursery rhymes on in the middle of the night when all else has failed and we’re coming into our nth hour of being awake. Have you ever tried everything there is to try and still you have a screaming unsettled baby on your hands and it’s 3am in the morning and your counting down the hours when you’ll need to be getting up for work? If you have then you won’t be able to blame us for resulting in settling Hugo to bedtime nursery rhymes until his little eyes can’t stay open any longer and we all sleep soundly ever after.

Note to self: Embrace the night time cuddles more as I know I’ll miss them in a few years.

10- Comfort over style; yep I feel like it’s already happening but I am very aware that I don’t want to turn into that kind of ‘mumsy’ ‘frumpy’ kinda mum. Yes I love comfort but I also love style so whenever I go shopping these days I have two little voices in my head. One saying ‘oh that’s nice, I could totally see you wearing that styled with this’ and then another little voice saying ‘yes but realistically love, when are you going to wear it?’ the answer is always sadly ‘Never’. It’s saved me a lot of money to be honest and I know one day I’ll be able to wear white trousers again without worrying about muddy little feet dangling on them. I just want to say that I do have my frumpy side too, as soon as I walk through the door from work, I run upstairs and quickly switch my outfit to my comfy outfit, bra off, hair up and joggers on, it’s just the way I like it!

Note to self: Put my glad rags on more and get strutting in those heels!

So there you have it, I feel a little exposed now knowing that you know all that. Can you relate with any of these points? I really hope I’m not the only crazy mama over here! Please share in the comments below if you have any more wonderful crazy experiences that you’ve done and perhaps haven’t really shared before. I would love to know and will thoroughly enjoy reading if you do! Also any recommendations I’d love to read and try too so please share away :).

Much love as always

Sally

xxx