Hi all,

I hope you don't mind me popping over from planning but I was just curious, aside from the amazing, absolutely wonderful experience of becomming a mother, what have been the most challenging ones for you? eg: conception/morning sickness/birth/breastfeeding/not sleeping/family members/relationship etc

I'm not focusing on negatives here, so if you have the time I'd love to hear what your most positive versus most challanging experiences of becoming a mother have been?

Thanks and I look forward to reading your stories.

S xxx

hiya, i found the hardest thing was sleep depravation...im a single mom and i think that when my daughters dad left when i was pregnant i beccame determined not to rely on anyone else so insisted on doing everything myself. but with negatives also comes a positive and i used to love , no matter how tired i was, that at 3 oclock in the morning it was me and my baby, nd no1 else :) and also shes two now and we r so close its amazing.i just hope i can get that rellationship with the 1 im carrying now.lol x.x

conception/morning sickness/birth/breastfeeding/not sleeping/family members/relationship etc

All of the above!

BUT it is all exciting and wonderfull too (except for the not sleeping )

No help really but true.
xx

birth was traumatic for me (obv pplp have nice births too but that just wasnt' the case for us) and am now suffering with post traumatic stress disorder after a wrong diagnosis of PND.

breastfeeding was extrememly tough in the beginning, feeling like constantly feeding but by about 8 weeks old i began to reall y enjoy it, became a chance to cuddle and even an excuse to sit down rather than a chore.

obviously all problems are multiplied by 100 when ur not sleeping and the lack of sleep wa tough but it is only temporary and u have to keep telling urself that, but ds sleeps fantastically now and wev'e almost forgotten the sleepless nights ever happened lol

family members...now this was a biggy for us as we were wtaying with my mum from 37weeks pregnant til ds was 15weeks old and it was a constant battle of wills between my mum and i, obv she knows better than me and everything i say can be disregarded cos she is an expert and we were living with her so her rules applied! now we've finally got our own place tho and only see my mum once maybe twice a week its a bit better but still when ever she's here she can't help interogating me about somehting or criticisng or just generally sticking her nose in and constantly trying query how we choose to do things with ds (like his bedtime routine is not the same as when she did us so therefor is all wrong, or is his food too lumpy? not lumpy enough? has he had enough water? shldn't i give him juice instead of water, arrgghh!) but obviously she is not everyones mum ans i imagine most mum's are supportive and trusting of their daughters maternal instaincts and the fact tha they are the mum, justy not in our case. tbh tho i think its cos my sis spent 5yrs in cumbria with her 3girls so she missed out on a lot of them growing up but since she moved back to kent they've fallen out so don't see each other atll, my bro lives in jersey with his sons, and i spent the first 2 trimesters of pregnancy in belgium so i think she feels like she needs to be as 'involved' as possible but it does my head in lol.

best things are thesmallest ... when i go into get ds up in the morning and he's smiling at me as if to say 'good morning, i've missed u', everytime he laughs melts my heart, when he was born all the troubles of the birth seemd to vanish for a minute (corny but true) and it was just the 3 of us in the room sharing those moments together (ignoring obv the aneasthetist, surgeons and midwives lol) and just knowing that we know matter how hard things appear to be they do change and get easier and for all the hardwork we have a beautiful, happy son who cldn't be more perfect, even when he's grumpy and teething lol. xx

all of the above but bare in mind just having the baby there in your arms is the most rewarding, happy feeling ever, even when they grow up its the one thing you can be proud of doing despite all the set backs faced over the years

I agree - all of the above (well, except birth as I had a really good experience).

The main thing that I'm struggling with is the sleep deprivation! I used to be a 9 hour a night girl and spend so much time now obsessing about sleep - how much I had last night, how much I might get tonight, has Beth had too much/little so she won't sleep at night etc etc etc!!!

But now she smiles it's amazing. I can't wait for her to get even more interactive. (she's 7 weeks)

x