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 ...

Our sweet baby boy is coming up 6 months next week. Yep! that's almost an entire half of a year. I'm so proud of him and proud of us. It's been one crazy roller coaster ride so far and I'm sure it's not going to end anytime soon. As time ticks on I've come to realise that I haven't always been in such a good place mentally. I mean I have my ups and my downs at the moment but on the whole I'm really, really happy. I know this definitively because before our baby was born I was really not happy… My friend sent me an article yesterday about (PND) Post Natal Distress and it got me thinking about my own anxiety. I've had a lot of anxious moments in my life and some trauma but the weird thing about anxiety is that you often don't know just how bad you are really feeling when you are in that anxious place. Looking back on my final 6 weeks pregnancy I can now see just how scarily anxious I was.  I was lucky to have two of the most lovely and jus...

I recently had a some what of an awkward conversation with a fellow mum about why I'm not breastfeeding. She didn't know my birth story because we'd only just met but she seemed like a pretty kind and understanding lady. However! when I pulled out my bottle of formula to fed my little boy she gave me a 'look'. Then she paused and said "Why aren't you breastfeeding?" in a very matter of fact tone. Without even thinking I shot back "Because I almost died". Sadly, I've had a few of these conversations in the last 5 months but my response seems to always shut down those conversations. In fact it usually ends in some kind of an apology to me by the said judgey person. The truth of the matter is that I tried desperately for 8 weeks to breastfeed, I went to classes, We paid for lactation consultants, We even drove to Palmerston North to get my babies tongue tie snipped all to no avail. I expressed day and night during those first 2 months and ...

I recently read this beautiful article published in the local Porse Magazine about why me time is vital. It spoke about the importance of self love and really stuck a chord with me. I think until you've been through mental health issues you don't realise the seriousness of taking that time for just you and not feeling guilty about it. I used to often give a lot of myself in my job to the children, to the teachers and to the parents. Supporting them, lifting them up with kindness and positive words but then go home and feel deflated, tired and sad myself. Today is the first of October and that marks the start of Mental Health Awareness month here in New Zealand. I think it is the perfect time for me to tell you that from my own personal experience with mental health it's never too late to start taking care of your mind. Theres so much hype at the moment around taking care of your body and focusing on healthy food choices and I think that movement is awesome and totall...