On 5th December 2017 our lives changed forever. We welcomed our baby girl Cassia Ellesse Sacco into the world with arms wide open. Becoming a Mum was always high on the priority list I’ve always been one of those people that was born to be a Mum. The feeling of having your own baby is indescribable. The love that you feel is something you can’t ever imagine unless you’ve had your own kids. You think you know how to love before having children but that goes right out the window the moment you lay eyes on the little person you’ve created.
Becoming a Mum has been the most amazing, love filled, tiring, patience testing experience of my life.
For new Mum’s to be you hear things like ‘enjoy your sleep, you will never sleep again’, ‘it’s all downhill from here’. So I thought I would put together my top 3 Expectation v. Reality list from my experience with Cassia.
1) Expectation: ‘You will never sleep again’
Reality: You absolutely will sleep again. The first 6 weeks you won’t sleep much. If you are lucky enough to have a baby like my niece who slept right through the night from 5 weeks then kudos to you. If you have a baby like Cassia I am 7 months in and still getting up 2-4 times a night, but I did that prior to having kids anyway so for me it wasn’t a huge shock to the system. You will have less sleep, but you will sleep again!
2) Expectation: ‘I am only going to breastfeed for 6 months’.
Reality: 6 months comes around very quickly! Every mum is different, some don’t like the thought of it others just can’t do it but I far exceeded by expectation of loving breastfeeding which I have been doing for 7 months so far and going strong. If it’s something you can do I highly recommend it, if it’s something you can’t do that is also fine.
3) Expectation: ‘You will be able to go out and do things without them’
Reality: Wrong! I haven’t been away from Cassia longer than a few hours and aside from her separation anxiety which is very much heightened after 8pm and the fact that she is breastfed I also have my own separation anxiety, every Mum is different but I miss her when she sleeps, let alone being away for more than a few hours. This is something I didn’t really prepare myself for but I’m savouring it as one day she wont have separation anxiety not being within arms reach of her Mumma.
Becoming a mum has been the best experience of my life. The love you feel for your baby outweighs the sleepless nights and missing functions 100 times over. Your expectation and reality may be different to mine but I can promise you your expectation of how much you love them far exceeds what you ever thought you were capable of.
xx