Being a mum of 4 delicious (and very noisy) little people, people say to me all the time ‘Oh, you must be an old hand at this by now’.
A kind and generous comment which I tend to just laugh off. Yes, Chess is baby number four, and yes some days I do have some idea what I am doing. But others….hmmmm, not so much!
When it came to weaning her, I honestly had no clue whatsoever what I was doing. How does the food affect the milk? When do I feed her? How much? How often? The only bit I had covered was what to feed her – mush!
When I last went to get her weighed – which I admit I don’t do that often (but that is more down to trying to fit it in alongside every other aspect of my crazy busy life, than not wanting too), she was about 8 months.
I happened to have all of the children with me due to it being a non-school day and when I apologetically handed over her red book mumbling about the infrequency I attended but that I was confident she was putting on weight well, the Health Visitor replied with a “To be honest, I am impressed you come at all!”
But here’s the thing, (possibly the only thing!) that I have learnt through my journey so far as a mother. And that is, we are all learning all of the time. About all sorts of things. Just because Chess is my fourth, doesn’t mean I know everything, or for that matter anything!
She is completely different to all the rest. She is the only one I have had that has ever slept well (long may that continue!), she is by far my smiliest, happiest and placid baby, and she is super content all the time. Which is completely lovely of course, but also brings its’ own challenges. If she cries, which is pretty rare, she will almost without fail, stop when you pick her up.
So finding out if she is hungry or hurting is nearly impossible. And back to the weaning – not knowing if she was hungry or not did not help!
All we can do as parents is to simply recognise that whilst we nowhere near know everything, but that we will learn it when we need to. I will once again learn what I do with food, just as, I hope, will be ready to be a mum to a teenager by the time I have one of those!
And in the meantime – thank goodness for Google and fellow mums! A quick text to a friend, a little search on the web, and I am content that I am not starving my little Beauty and that the lumpy mush and finger foods we have not moved onto is perfect for her present needs.
So let’s hold each other’s hands and recognise that we all have things to learn and things to share. And no, I am not an old hand at this – far from it. But I genuinely really do appreciate the vote of confidence!
Sally x
