Nappy Free Hour Gone Wrong

You may be thinking the title says it all. Well in a way it does, but to be honest it wasn't what I expected.

Since my son was 6 weeks old we have tried to do something call Nappy Free Hour. Which basically consists of our son being nappy free for an hour before he goes to bed. We choose to do this for a number of reasons, but the main reason was that he has incredibly sensitive skin and this helps to keep nappy rash and eczema at bay. 

Now I know what your thinking, how do you control what comes out of him. Well, we always put him on a waterproof mat and more often than not he would wee (which was easy to clean up), but he never seemed to poo. So we didn't have to deal with that. 

As time has gone on our son has grown to love nappy free hour and at 7months old laughs with joy every night when we take his nappy off. It has always been a joy. Until last night....

My husband going riding every Tuesday night. You could call it his break, in turn it is the one night I am alone with our son and have to go through our night time routine on our own. More often than not it works out fine, and our son ends up in bed sound asleep without any problems. However last night was a circus and I am starting to think nappy free hour may have not been our best idea. But how do you stop it now.

So the night started out great. I fed our son on the mat, stripped him down and he was laughing and playing with his toys and me. Half way through he wanted to be picked up and stand. So I pick him up away from me, just in case he decided to wee. I wanted to be smart. Well wee may have been the smarter option. As I lifted him he farted and proceeded to carry through with poo. Luckely it landed on the mat and not on me (well so I thought at the time). Your probably thinking oh a little bit of poo no big deal right. Well normally I would agree with you. But for some reason, it may have been because I was on my own or I had never dealt with this situation before, I went into panic mode. I lifted my son from the floor and started to carry him to the laundry sink. Well he hadn't finished yet. Trust me I didn't think he could have that much poo in him. So as I am carrying him to the sink he starts again and I feel in run down my leg. I cup my had on his bottom to try and stop the flow. It kinda works, but what a mess. I reach the sink and start to laugh. My son starts to laugh to thankfully. But I realise how gross I am. On the upside my son is pretty clean. I rinse his bum off and my hands and proceed to get an old cloth to wipe my leg. I only have to clean the trail of mess and the mat now, which seemed pretty easy once I had stopped laughing and thought it through.

Now you may be thinking why were you not prepared for this. It's nappy free hour. In the 7 months my sone has been alive he only poos in the morning. Around the same time every morning is when you can expect a pooey nappy. So this poo really came out of the blue.

2 lessons learnt last night. The front end may be better than the rear and be prepared for anything.

Bring on happy free hour tonight.

To work or not to work?

There are a many things people don't tell you about being a mum and a million things they tell you that you will never use. But going back to work is something that everyone has an opinion on and some will push in your face if you ask them or if you don't.

The decision to go back to work is a personal choice for every family. This subject in particular is hard one for me. My family is lucky in the fact that I can stay home if I choose and more to the point my husband is the most supportive man who wants what I want. The problem is I think I am leaning towards staying home but find there is pressure from others that maybe I should go back to work.

Previously when I have thought about staying home with my son, I thought that this was the best option and who wouldn't agree. More to the point I didn't think anyone else would care what we were doing as a family. Boy was I wrong. My son is 6 months old and I can't count on my hands how many times I have been asked if I am going back to work. To start off with I didn't mind so much. But now every time someone asks I feel myself tensing just a tad and in my head tackling the person who has asked me this normal, very reasonable question to the ground. It's not the question that is the issue, it is more where this question leads to and then the long winded opinion of the person I am talking to, that makes me start to feel this way.

When ask the question 'are you going back to work?', often my answer is 'I haven't decided, but I think I want to stay home with this little guy. I don't want to miss out on anything in his life, but I haven't decided yet.' I tried to be a little blazay but also indicating that I probably won't be going back. Who would have thought I would get comments like:
- You'll change your mind if you choose to stay home
- It's unhealthy to stay at home with you child, you will loose yourself.
- Won't you get bored if you stay at home?
- Your child will miss contact with other children

Its hard, because not everyone was so opinionated and I feel I took these opinions to heart. I even used our friend google to research the impacts on being a stay at home mum. Which didn't seem to help or hinder. It wasn't until I was able to talk to other mums in a similar situation to myself when I realised. I SHOULDN'T CARE WHAT OTHERS THINK.

But I am human so I will always care just that little, if I like it or not.

My message for everyone else - Its great to have an opinion. It can be great to share your opinion. BUT know the impacts of what sharing your opinion with someone else means. Even if this opinion has been asked for. Especially us new mums, we're a little more sensitive.

Realising I'm a MUM!

So I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror realising that my eyebrows where out of control, my hair needed to be dyed and cut, I should probably shave my legs and my under arms. When had I lost control? Why had no one told me? And more to the point how long had I looked this way. It was in this moment that I realised, I was really a Mum. Don't get me wrong, not all mums are out of control, some are very good at taking care of themselves and everyone else for that matter. But for me in this moment I realised I was putting everything a side to focus my attention on my son and  husband.

For the last 6 months of my son's life I have been in a world of complete amazement. Watching my son growing up so very quickly. Surely this couldn't have lead me to where I am today. It makes me wonder does this happen to other mums?

When my son was born I was happy, excited, amazed, scared, and worried. A mix of emotions that I couldn't even describe. I spent the 1st 4 weeks being a super mum running on adrenalin. Then it seems since then the time has just flown by. Not to mention the lack of time you have when you've got a baby.

This realisation that I am a mum would have scared me years ago. It would have made me feel like I lost my life and who I am. Today it makes me feel so proud to be a mum. I love being that person. The person who people look and go 'she's a mum'. Yes I am a mum and proud of it. I may not always no what I am doing and love every moment of everyday, BUT I do love being a mum. It is the best job I have ever had.

But don't worry I had a shower, shaved, got a hair cut, and when my son was asleep tonight I dyed my hair and waxed my eyebrows. Exhausting but worth it. Hopefully I will notice before I get out of control next time. But if I don't that doesn't really matter either ;-)