Social Bubble

Lauren Bullock - 9 Apr 16

I want to start in the pregnancy 1st baby bubble. Regardless of the sickness/insomnia/waddle, it was truly magical and all my thoughts and focus were all about pregnancy and baby. The attention you receive is phenomenal and you are constantly fed by work colleagues. People get up on the bus and offer you a seat. You get my drift?

Then bam the reality kicks in. You have a newborn, work has stolen your commuting husband back and it’s just you and your beautiful baby.

I remember having a small dip at this point. I was tired and at times lonely. I had gone from a busy, buzzing office full of banter to This Morning and a snoozing baby. The afternoons were loooong and come 5pm (witching hour), I was ready for bed myself. Tick tock the husbands not back for another 3-4 hours!

Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a social butterfly and love to laugh. I wasn’t really up to getting out and about every single day as I was tired and just wanted to be in my comfies. Plus, pushing the pram took up all the reserved energy. I would flap about trying to get the pram ready and have a complete mum sweat. Sometimes indoors was just a better option.

I spent a lot of time at home looking at blogs and typing into Google “is this normal for my baby?!” I also spent a lot of time on social media and, I mean this, it kept me SANE. I know it can get bad press but generally checking in with people through this channel helped me a lot with any worries/questions/advice

We participated in NCT sessions during pregnancy. It was a short course and opened our eyes to stuff that didn’t occur on reality tv. They also told us to “breathe the baby out” which, I’m afraid, didn’t happen in my induced labour. What was most valuable was meeting some other couples in our current situation. Not only have i watched our baby grow but I have got to witness theirs too. We have leaned on each other for every new mum hurdle going. We mainly communicate on Facebook and I think for the last year we have exchanged messages on our group chat daily. These girls have played a significant part in my first year of being a mum and we have been supportive of each other’s parenting methods.

Thank goodness for all the different baby groups that run for next to nothing or free in Brighton. These also helped ease me into motherhood. You can turn up with your bed hair bunged up and puffy little eyes and no one gives a crap.

Sometimes we all need someone to run something over with in those early days, be it through Nct groups, stay and play sessions or social media.

Now every time I see a mum or dad pushing a pram I can’t help but think to myself – RESPECT.

Photo Credit- http://furandgoldphotography.com

Lauren Bullock

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