Love keeps mothers going

Being a mother is one of the most joyful experiences one can ever go through. But with it comes inevitable roller coasters.

With pregnancy putting such a demand on one’s body, coupled with the hormonal upheavals, this can leave one feeling a little low.

Both my babies were pleasant surprises thus when we found out we were expecting a second, we were overwhelmed.

The first year of our daughter was quite something. We had not slept in ages and had exercised almost every inch of our muscles.

My sister had sent me this wonderful encyclopedia “what to expect when expecting.”

But I have to say that our daughter was following her own manual. None of her milestones followed anything in the encyclopedia.

By the third month, I tried weaning her but the girl did not want to eat anything other than butternut and milk.

Weaning her to the bottle was also nightmare. So I tried the cup and spoon option and that left me with migraines.

It is not like she was a focused feeder; she used breastfeeding for comfort.

As for sleep, let me just say from the moment she was born, she never slept through the night until she was eleven months.

For a while, I had forgotten what it was like to sleep for more than four hours. As a result, I had bouts of serious migraines, black outs and I was stressed.

This explains why I did not have problems shedding pregnancy weight...I breastfed on demand for more than six months. This is enough to burn any calories in minutes. It remains the most demanding thing I ever did and to think another baby was on the way, I wanted to escape to Kalahari.

To save my sanity and prepare for the new baby, I had to show my daughter who was the Sheriff.

With the help of my nanny, I left home for a two-day retreat that I hoped would jolt reality into the young diva.

Though I was a little worried about her, it was time for tough love. While she spent time screaming her lungs out, I had to endure the painful breast engorgement.

When I returned home, my daughter’s little ego had been adjusted when she acknowledged “nyonyo” had left town.

As we both grieved and adapted to the new season, I realised in the end the pain was all worth it.

Back then, it felt like that season was going to be forever. During those eleven months, my life was a roller coaster of emotions and routine.

I was up in the wee hours to nurse or cool the little one’s temperature. I even had to sing just to get little miss sunshine happy.

Motherhood has a way of nurturing skills in you that you never thought possible.

From the moment your baby is born, you begin to wear various hats and there is no time for training or rehearsal.

You are thrown into the deep end and you discover that there is more in you than you thought.

You become a teacher, scientist, preacher, nurse, police officer and an astronaut or rolled in to one, and you are still ready to take up any other job.

And the working hours do not count because it is always your shift. But with time, the Mum starts to discover that if she wants to get the job done well, then she has to take care of herself.

Sometimes, this lesson is only learned after she is totally burnt out, like it happened to me.

I did not realise how important sleep was until my body demanded it.

Though naturally as a Mum I am driven by the gift that keeps on giving — love. Even then, I had to learn to take a breather in order to stay sane.