Things to Consider as a New Mum

When we discover that there will be an addition of tiny feet to our family we tend to go into planning overdrive.
Many of us have made the decision to grow our family, and have already started making plans as to how it will all pan out.

We will prepare for the changes our body will undertake – understand why lavender baths are a Godsend and trampolining is a thing of the past.

We will believe we are prepared for sleepless nights, milk spots on our shoulders, the vague aroma of vomit and up the back mucky nappies.
We will read books, speak to friends and consider ourselves prepared.

*Spoiler Alert*

You’re never truly prepared.

The truth of the matter is, until that little bundle of joy arrives into your household you can’t ever be REALLY ready for the changes that will occur within your life and home.
With this in mind, I’m sharing with you the things with you that surprised me most as a new mum.

Things to Consider as a New Mum

Expectation

Once we’ve had children, most of us find that the expectations we have of ourselves and others changes. Before baby you may have had a pristine house, got up at 6am to hit the gym, cooked freshly prepared meals daily and met friends for weekend brunch. After baby, you may find that some days you don’t vacuum, you’re still in your pyjamas at lunch, and ready meals are on the menu more often than they once were.

This is all OK. I’m not saying that you’ll suddenly be living in squalor; but you’ll realise that a clean carpet isn’t quite as important as you getting enough rest and spending time with your new small – after all, these years fly by.
Unfortunately, one thing I wasn’t prepared for was having to lower my expectations of others. Being the first friend to have a baby, I quickly realised that invites to brunch became a lot less frequent once you have to take a plus one. This can be a real shame as, although you’ll be proud of bubs, adult conversation of the non-baby variety is a necessity to keep you grounded in the ‘real’ world.

Mortality

Before children we live life on the edge – even if we don’t realise. Once we become parents we are suddenly very aware of our own mortality – we have this small human entirely depending on us for survival. The big ride at Lightwater Valley doesn’t seem quite as exciting, we wait for the green man whether we have the kids with us or not, we start giving up (or at the very least cut back) on those things that aren’t so good for us.

As a parent I have found myself doing a whole host of ‘grown up’ things like taking out life insurance. As morbid as it sounds, if my kids suddenly find themselves a parent down, the least I can have done is have a plan in place on their behalf. It’s easy to put it off (and understandable) as you have a small child to look after and a million equally as important things to do just to survive a day. Luckily the internet makes it so much easier to compare all options that are available quickly and easily. Sites like Reassured mean that you can compare life insurance quotes completely free of charge at a time that suits you…3 am anyone?? 

Reality

Gentle Parents, Earth Mothers, Helicopter Parents or Yummy Mummies. Whether we admit it or not, we all have an idea of the kinds of parent we will be. Maybe we will follow our parents’ footsteps, maybe we will deviate from that path.
Before baby we may insist on breast feeding only, a water birth, no co-sleeping, no dummies and cloth nappies. Some of us will succeed, some of us won’t.
Either way, all of us will quickly realise that the only truly important thing is everyone getting through the day in one piece.

The most important thing to consider as a new mum is that parenthood doesn’t follow an idealised path – the goalposts are constantly moving. No matter what goes on, the most important thing is looking after you and baby and while nothing can truly prepare you for it, it is certainly a huge adventure.