Now, let me be clear - I don't pretend to be an authority on 'all things baby'! I'm a first time Mother, figuring things out as I go and loving the journey. These are my musings...
On Surviving the FirstYear .
by Claire Harrisingh
M
ake no mistake, although the first year goes by in the blink of an eye, there have been moments when I’ve wondered “how will we ever survive?!” (the reflux was a killer). I still have that mental picture of me with my swaddled baby in my arms, sitting in our glider. Weeping. Both of us); and of those up-all-night months at the start of teething. Oh, and of course his first cold. So there have been several. Thankfully, there have been a greater number of ‘AHA moments’ (to borrow a phrase from Ms Oprah herself); times of clarity when things fall into place, when routines develop without you even realising it and when confidence and trust between mother and child grow. So you survive pregnancy. Need I go into the details? There is the incomparable miracle of feeling a life growing inside you. Feeling those first tentative movements quickly evolve into actual visible prods and pokes. Seeing the ultrasound images from that first confirmation of a steady, galloping heartbeat through to the sex-confirming scan. Having had the total experience, I do exchange looks with pregnant women I don't even know, in solidarity. I remember those hormone swings which have you crying, swearing, laughing (sorry husbands/partners/family members/friends). The inescapable cravings. The rib and bladder kicks. The nausea, insomnia, insecurities, etc.
68 | B3 PARENTING MAGAZINE |
1 0 TH A N N I V E R S A R Y I S S U E 2 0 2 2
