it's a juggle

there's no such thing as 'balance'

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Dear new mum,

After I had my first baby, I was really angry at the birth education class I’d done. This makes me laugh now, but at the time I felt like it wasn’t realistic preparation at all. There was no mention of the overwhelm I would inevitably experience, or the pummelling pain (‘pressure’ is not an adequate description).

I had similar thoughts in postpartum when I wondered why no one had ever told me how impossibly hard it was to leave the house with a new baby. Perhaps I wouldn’t have believed them when they told me my nappy bag would be a life jacket and that every time I was going somewhere, there would be at least three false starts and usually a nappy explosion as soon as I buckled my baby into the car capsule.

This slow season can feel so hurried and harried before you even leave the house. But that feeling of rushing can easily become persistent, if you let it.

I’m here to answer you questions and today I’m responding to this one:

“I’m 4 months postpartum with my second baby girl, and my biggest struggle is ‘the rush’. The constant rush to get things done during nap time, the list of things I can get done during an awake time, when can I fit in a workout and what can I achieve before the toddler comes home. And at the end of the day when I fall into bed exhausted I feel like I miss my baby, like I haven’t even seen her today…and I ask myself: what’s the rush? Why am I so frantic and rushing from one task to the next?”