Lately I've been having a bit of an internal struggle with what I’d like my house to look like and what it actually does look like. It's kind of like this cleanliness war is raging on without me and my piles of washing and endless sink of dishes are my enemies. Somedays I feel like my completely rocking it and everything gets tidied away at the end of the day, the floor swept, the surfaces mostly clear but then the next day arrives and my tiny (albeit very cute) destroyer of neatness wakes up and the battles rages on. It's not that I don't want to be tidy... It's just that my tiny human is busy undoing all the tidying that I do. More often than not I'm just too tired to spend my evenings cleaning and putting piles of washing away. This means my washing basket has effectively become my new wardrobe. I rifle through the big basket every morning for my clean clothes and then I wash more and add them to the pile. Marie Kondo would not be impressed! My new no...

Starting solids is yet another one of those highly debated and hotly contested areas in motherhood. I personally felt like there was so much information out there and so much advice given- it's really confusing to know what is the right fit for you and your baby! To puree or not puree? Organic homemade or store bought baby food? What about gut flora and fauna? (for the record I had no idea that was even a thing before becoming a parent) How much iron does he need? What if he doesn't like anything? SOO MANY QUESTIONS!!! Recently some of my friends have been asking me how I have such a confident eater and the thought occurred to me. He is really pretty awesome at eating now but how did we get here? What I realised is that it was mostly all lead by him. We just helped him along by offering him lots of choices and opportunities to experience food in a positive way. I thought I’d share a little bit about our journey into solids so far and a bit about what I’ve learned in...

Yesterday we celebrated 9 months of our little human! I think that's a pretty cool milestone because now he has officially been earth side for longer than he was mummy side if that makes sense? This last month has been one of the hardest for me. I wasn't really sure why but after some reflection I think I've worked it out. 8 months was the month of movement for us, okay more like speed crawling. The month of my little snuggle bug actually started zooming around our house and has now became quicker at crawling than I walk most of the time. Something really changed for me this month! I guess I thought his new found movement was going to mean new found independence but actually what I've encountered is a weird type of regression. It's almost as if now he can move around where ever he likes he's decided he doesn't want to that much. Instead he just wants to attach himself to me at all times like a little limpet. It hard, it's physically and mentally dr...

This week has been a tough one...   I knew it was going to be tough after talking to some friends on Sunday night and trying to decided whether or not I had 'normal' mum stresses going on or whether or not I needed to think about it possibly being more than that. Let me explain... My little boy has been grizzling pretty much non stop for the last two weeks. He's been absolutely obsessed with learning to crawl and he does it all day and part of the night. It's the grizzling I cant stand! The constant grizzle of frustration. He even makes this annoying sound with a smile on his face sometimes. It's pretty bizarre and utterly infuriating for both of us. Grizzle, grizzle, grizzle that's what my life had resorted too. It just burrows deep into my soul like a tiny jack hammer and somedays it becomes utterly unbearable. I had a moment on Tuesday where I called my husband crying down the phone "It's 2pm and he STILL hasn't slept and I'm doing a...

I haven't had one in awhile now but this one was very much needed. How can some people still think this way? insert Mum Rant!   Recently I met up with a friend for coffee and her friend was there too. I didn’t know this lady and I'm guessing that she doesn't have any mum friends because she said to me "I often wonder what Mums even do all day? I mean aren't you bored just doing house work and stuff?" I almost fell off my chair. Housework! I would love to have the time to do some housework I thought to myself. On the odd occasion that I do manage to put a load of washing out or vacuum my house I feel like it’s my achievement of the day but wait... Isn’t my achievement of my day keeping my tiny human alive?! Making sure he's, happy, fed, somewhat well rested and not stinky? I naively thought that I’d have time to do stuff like that too. I thought my house would be sparkling and I’d have an empty laundry basket, dinner on the table and homemade snacks a...

Since becoming a Mum just over 6 months ago I have come to realise that some of the most common things people say to you about Motherhood are in fact just myths. Who came up with these things? I guess they could be relics of the past? common thoughts that have traveled through the ages? Past down from person to person? Anyway! However they started I'm here to bust some of them and I'd love to hear your thoughts.... Mermaids could be real...As real as babies sleeping when they are tired. "Sleep when your baby sleeps" Ha! This one is one of my favourite parent myths. Yes, I can see how this is good in theory but when your baby only sleeps for 20 min increments during the day you either have to get practiced at quickly falling asleep yourself in lightning speed or your going to have to try and wash all their bottles/ or eat your own lunch with them in a sling. I honestly couldn't work out any other way of getting chores done that were essential. I do think s...

Recently I have been having an internal battle over this whole sleep training thing. You might be wondering what sleep training is so maybe I should explain that first... Sleep training in simplified terms is essentially training your baby to sleep for longer periods in their own bed. Theres a range of different strategies and ideas around how to do it but whatever way seems to involved some element of crying out or leaving you baby to cry until they 'get used to it'. I realise this is some what of a controversial topic which is why I have been thinking about it for a long time. As an early childhood teacher I personally would never promote sleep training techniques with my families because it didn't fit our centre philosophy of following children rhythms. However, I know there are some parents who really do benefit from it especially if they haven't had a decent nights sleep in years- ek! Now that I'm a mum (a very tired one I might add!) I feel so conflicted ...

1. Your hair falls out! I'm not sure if it happens to everyone but apparently the changes in your hormones can cause all kinds of weird stuff to go on and one of those things is that your hair falls out. I'm not just talking a little bit here. A LOT!! I have a lot of hair anyway but everyday i brush my hair  now and a rather alarming amount is in my hairbrush. It is also getting everywhere and on everything in my house and on my clothes *sigh*. I mean it's not like you had enough weird body stuff to deal with already... oh wait! You do!   2. You never really knew the concept of 'Tired' before. I'm an Early Childhood Teacher so I used to be pretty tired before becoming a Mum. I used to come home from work somedays and go to bed at like 8 o''clock because I worked shifts and somedays I was just really physically drained. Those tiny humans can really take it out of you! Then I became a Mum....Being a Mum is a new level of tired. You're so t...

Since becoming a Mum I have been through some trying times. In fact even for this qualified and experienced Early Childhood teacher I have had days where I threw my hands up and wanted to cry. Being a Mum is HARD! It's so hard, it is the hardest job I've ever had and I'm still learning everyday on the job! Lately I've been reading a lot online about Mum's who feel guilty for their parenting decisions for whatever reason. Maybe you forgot to boil some pumpkin for their lunch so had to give them baby rice again (shock horror) or perhaps you are beating yourself up about not letting them sleep longer because you want to meet a friend for coffee (and end up feeling like you're such a bad Mum!)  One of my Dream catcher creations a made for a beauitful friend of mine. Also a good way to unwind after a tough day. NEWSFLASH! No you're not! I have a lot of knowledge around educational psychology and philosophies after almost 9 years of teaching and I ...

My journey to motherhood was a pretty crazy one. Some of you know all of the details and some of you don't so I wanted to post a little something about my experience of pre-eclampsia. When you do a google search there doesnt seem to be that much out there about people's experinces perhaps becuase it's pretty scary! I was an extra tricky case because even now after lots of tests the doctors couldn't officially diagnose my illness. They told me that's because I didn't have all of the symptoms. I'm 99 percent sure that's what I had though because all of my symptoms (post birth) match up perfectly even if all the bloods didn't! Pre-eclampsia: It's a pretty weird condition... Pre-eclampsia is a disorder that about 10 percent of all pregnant woman get. It can make you and your baby really, really sick. How is is diagnosed? Most people have 2 or 3 (or sometimes all) of these symptoms: Vomiting later in your pregnancy Protein in your uri...