Becoming a Mummy for the first time is just about as emotional as it gets, it’s exciting, it’s heart-explodingly amazing and frightening all at the same time. When you first get home from hospital with your little bundle of joy, you’re riding the wave. One minute you’re so happy and so in love with this amazing little person that you think your heart will burst right open and then in the next you’re wondering how on earth you’re supposed to look after them. I mean, how many times can one baby poop through a nappy or sick down your top? (The answer: LOADS!!).
Once all the visitors start to ebb away and Daddy returns to work, you’re home alone and if you’re anything like me as you sit there feeding baby you look around and see the housework building up, you worry that when people do visit they will think you’ve ‘let yourself go’ or even worse you’re ‘not coping’.
Sure I went through the times where I wanted my house to look like a show-home but then I remembered how people told me to cherish my babies because they grow up so fast. As long as my babies had been fed, were in clean clothes and got the sleep they needed, the rest could wait. I would pick them up and hold them as time slipped away, I would kiss them over and over and over again, I couldn’t even begin to guess how many times I have kissed my babies and I’m not stopping any time soon!
There comes a time with your newborn when suddenly everything slips into place, for some it’s around 6 weeks, for others it might not be until 6 months or even a year but one day you will find that you do find the perfect opportunities to get the ‘jobs’ done but in the meantime just enjoy your babies. I know I have and am continuing to do.
This Mantra was written by the fab people at Fairy Non-Bio and The Power of Soft because they know how perfect a cuddle can be thanks to their power of leaving clothes, bedding and towels supersoft.
Mumsnet carried out a survey of 1500 Mums with some very interesting findings;
• Almost 60% spent at least a quarter of their entire day cuddling their new born
• 74% of new parents most savoured “cuddle time” over any other moment in the day.
• 15% of parents with a baby aged 0-6 months found only an hour or less a day between chores and other pressures to enjoy cuddle time
• The number one piece of advice from more experienced parents to new mothers was to “forget the little things because time flies and you can’t get it back”.
• 70% of parents with babies 9 months+ said that the one thing they would have done differently as a new parent was spending more time cuddling their baby.
Other top advice to new mums from the Mumsnet survey, included:
1. Mummy knows best even when she thinks she doesn’t
2. Try not to be super mum
3. You can’t spoil your baby with cuddles
4. Sleep when the baby does
5. Housework can wait
6. Take a ‘baby moon’
7. Don’t compare yourself to other mothers – every baby is different
8. Trust your instincts
9. Treasure every moment
10. If you thought you were in love before you had a baby – wait till you meet your baby!