The joys of motherhood!

I had a restless night’s sleep last night, between snoring next to me and two of my children coughing in the dark hours, I ended up with my mind racing with too many things. One of which is the ‘joys of motherhood’.

When you embark on this journey of a lifetime, known as motherhood, or parenthood in general, who gives you the real ins and outs of the kind of stuff that can happen?! Now, don’t get me wrong, I know not every child is the same, not everyone’s situation is the same, etc, but there are SOME fundamentals that must/are the same for all parents and mothers. Here are some gems that I wish I’d been warned of:

Childbirth is frightening, but still somewhat enjoyable, yes, sounds insane. Reflect, if you will on the wonders of what the human body can do! This little human has been nurtured by your body for 9 months, or there abouts, and then your body has to get this human into the outside world. I never had a cesarean, mine came out ‘down there’. A few things went through my head while giving birth, especially the first time: my husband went to the ‘active’ end and I couldn’t help thinking ‘what if seeing that puts him off me completely?! It could happen! My husband is not one for blood and gore, so the fact he even still fancied me after seeing ‘that’ was a marvel. Yes, it can hurt, A LOT, but after the birth, things do calm down and when you hold that baby you do, almost, forget how painful it was. Now, one thing I wish I’d been warned of is: the bruising that comes out for the next few days maybe a week or two. The John Wayne style gait you adopt may be amusing, but it is a tad painful. AND your body will NEVER be the same again! However, you can learn to accept and respect that, along with the fact that you’ll have your ‘badges of honour’ yes, those wonderful stretchmarks that most mothers end up with – wear them with pride!!

The baby: Breast feeding is not ‘natural’ it is hard work and takes a lot of patience, which when you’re sleep deprived and recovering it’s REALLY not an easy feat. This little bundle can freak you out, the first few days/weeks with the sleeping. Yes, they DO sleep a lot and there’s times where your mind plays tricks on you ‘are they still breathing?’, ‘maybe I should poke the baby see if I get a response?’ - if you’re a parent, you know what I mean. AND do you realize how loud these little creatures can be? Not only when they scream, but the can belch and fart with the best! Not to mention the projectile stuff that can come out of these little mites! Baby puke is horrible, but easier to deal with than the stuff that comes when the solids are in. Nobody warned me about projectile pooh from an infant! Yes, I have had experience of that while doing a nappy change, and it’s pretty frightening!! It took ages to clean off the door, carpet and changing area! If you have a boy, best piece of advice I was ever given is make sure you have some tissues of toilet roll handy and put a bit over the ‘sprayer’ as soon as you can until you get the nappy done up again. AND, don’t do the nappy up with the ‘winky’ pointing UP!! Not good, the next time they go they get a wet tummy.

Something you are never prepared for is the sleepless nights! You get into a nice routine, eventually, and then you get the illness sleeplessness. Urgh, it is the worst! The coughing, the sniffing, the tummy bugs, it’s horrible and I don’t know that I will ever adjust to that. THEN you have to drag yourself around the following day doing ‘the usual’ stuff. AND the more kids you get the longer the sleepless nights get, you can guarantee if one of your kids gets a tummy bug, I have 3 boys, then you soon find that the tummy bug is in the house for about a fortnight! WHY!!?? Prepare, have bowls or something that you ‘earmark’ for such circumstances.

The fact that as your kids get older they can melt your heart saying things at times but it can turn to a dagger to your heart with some stuff they come out with as they get older. We’ve all done it at some point, as kids ourselves, you don’t realize how bad it is until you become the one on the receiving end.

It’s an ongoing journey, you learn as you go and have to improvise as you go along. People have been having and bringing up kids for years, so it’s something that can be done with keeping your sanity intact, just!

The good times, hopefully, outweigh the bad, the proud moments outweigh the disappointments and the laughs hopefully outweigh the tears. Whatever is thrown at you just get through it as best you can and try to find the good in all, even the really bad situations. Learning: we all continue even when we leave school – its life, its experience, it’s what we’re here for and it helps if we can teach our kids that you can grow from experience and not to make the same mistake twice or more.