experience – All Mum Said

Sleep Deprived? You’re not the only one!

Mon, 02 Sep 2013 12:25:19 +0000

Sleep deprivation can be absolute torment and any mother/father with a baby who isn’t a fan of you getting a decent unbroken sleep will know this. As you all know I have a 12 week old baby girl (I know it has gone so fast!) and I am extremely lucky and grateful that she appreciates a good night sleep; so far anyway. My boys on the other hand would wake up a few times a night, not for any reason in particular just because and if truth be told not much has changed now that they are 6 and 4. I swear they just enjoy waking me up and seeing how much crap I can take on minimal sleep. I am not the only one and neither are you – there are parents everywhere suffering exactly this; which is why Bepanthen has a new campaign promoting Mummy’s Diaries series on YouTube where mums share their experiences, feelings and basically how they get through the day. It is a great idea for new mums who are experiencing everything for the first time and feel like they can’t talk about it.

It has proven time and time again that mothers, fathers and other children that experience the unfortunate lack of sleep are all too familiar that it can cause waves of unexpected emotions, makes you feel lethargic and struggle to stay awake during the day and makes you less tolerant to those around you. Now obviously you cannot change whether or not you are woken in the middle of the night by babies or children however you can do a few things to help you get through the day. Get that hit of caffeine first thing in the morning (if breastfeeding remember don’t over-do the caffeine and consider substituting with a cold glass of water), get some fresh air and go for a walk (not only do you get to enjoy the sun but you will also be getting some exercise).

I know from experience that sleep deprivation can be an absolute nightmare but I have learnt to enjoy every second of this torture because they grow up way too fast and before you know it they will be teenagers and will be keeping you awake with a different kind of stress. They are only babies once – enjoy it!

This is a sponsored post but opinions are my own.

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Another Year Together

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 23:17:00 +0000

Today is the 3^rd wedding anniversary of the marriage to ‘the one’, my one, my amazing husband. I feel like we have known each other for a life time – that may be because we have been through so much together. Good and bad but we have always come out the other side stronger, wiser and closer than ever.

We started seeing each other 10 years ago when I was just 15 (yes, that makes me 25)!! I am absolutely stunned sometimes that we have lasted, grown together and matured together. I think that is the beauty when you meet someone special when you’re so young is no one including you has very high expectations (if any) that it will last. Well SURPRISE!! 10 years, 2 children and 1 marriage later here we are still together.

We are very happy and as much in love as were many years ago. We are still infatuated with one another like we are teenagers in the exciting ‘I want to know every inch of you’ stage. Yes we have the occasional disagreement like every other couple in the world. We get frustrated with one another and don’t always see eye to eye but we love each other for it.

I am very lucky to have him (and of course he is lucky to have me), he is my rock, he’s my person, he makes me look forward to tomorrow. He is the warmth when I’m cold; he is my protector when I’m scared (and if there are spiders, frogs, or creepy crawlies), he is mine! I look forward to spending many more years with this man.

Have you been lucky in love? How old were you when you met ‘the one’? Do you believe there is such a thing as ‘the one’?

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We should have known!

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:15:00 +0000

As you know I recently returned from a trip to Canada. My husband and I went with his sister and mother. Let me just say that never again will we ever (and I mean ever) go away with them again. Believe it or not my mother in law was not the problem.

I don’t know how one person can have so much but still think they have nothing. Someone who has a mother, father and brother who are always there for her even after she shits on them time and time again and yet still think she has no one who cares. I just don’t get it. I can understand having a moment, day or even a week of woe is me but this has been going on for as long as I have known her. That’s 10 years!

Image Credit

A decade of ‘poor me everyone else gets everything’ can get beyond tiring. You would think that for 2 weeks whilst on holiday you would or could be happy. Guess what – she couldn’t. It was a very long 2 weeks of complaining; because it turns out we all intruded on her holiday. We were all invited mind you but that’s beside the point. It would have been more enjoyable getting my teeth ripped out one by one without anaesthetic. Ok maybe it wasn’t that bad but I think you get my point.

Image Credit

The attitude had started before we even got through customs. We should have known then what the trip would entail. We did however get to have a few good days, actually great days! I will share more in the coming week of what we got up to. I have so many pictures to go through and decide what to write about.

Have you ever had to endure a holiday from hell? Maybe it was the place or maybe it was the people.

I would love to hear them all!

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A Not So Warm Welcome Home…

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 23:38:00 +0000

When getting home from a holiday what is the first thing you generally want to do? Have a shower? Unpack? Make a coffee?

We would have loved to all the above! Life had other plans. As we pulled into the driveway we opened the garage door and drove on in. We grabbed the few bags of groceries we had purchased on our way home with contents for dinner. That is when it occurred to us the door was locked and neither of us had the key.

Yes that’s right we were away for 2 weeks and neither one of us had bought the house keys with us. We were locked out, it was late Saturday afternoon so there was no calling the real estate to get the spare set (not that it would have helped anyway, they are 3 hours away from us). We search the windows but to no avail. They along with all the doors were locked. We had no option left but to smash a window.

So my husband smashed the laundry window, it was the smallest and we could unlock the doors by reaching through. We were inside, finally! Fuck now there is glass everywhere and I mean everywhere!!

While I dragged all the bags, luggage and shopping inside my darling man decided to clean up all the glass when it occurred to him there was water on the floor, mixed in with the glass. Where could that be from you ask?

Well our house is pretty dodgy when it comes to most things, electrical is no different. So before we went on our trip my husband turned off the TV points, the kitchen appliances, washing machine and dryer and anything that may have been sharing the power point like oh yeah, how could I forget…..

The Chest Freezer that was full of food!!

My husband opened the freezer to check – BIG MISTAKE!

The smell was deadly, it had us all dry reaching and the kids and I were at the other end of the house. That is how bad it was but you would expect that for 2 week old defrosted meat, chicken, prawns, etc. Anything that can be frozen was in there.

The afternoon was spent cleaning, bleaching, disinfecting and trying to get rid of the awful smell. The laundry door has to stay open or the smell seems to return like it was never gone. The freezer I have achieved getting it to smell something like vanilla – thank goodness for vanilla!!

So that is 2 evils in the matter of 5 minutes, what else could possibly happen?

They say bad things come in 3’s and they weren’t wrong. While we away a family of ducks have decided to call our yard home. They have shit EVERYWHERE!! They are loud and they don’t want to leave. Vacate notice ignored….

WELCOME HOME!!

Have you been welcomed home with any disasters? I would love to hear them. If you haven’t make one up so I don’t feel as bad. PLEASE!!

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While I was Away!

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 02:19:00 +0000

As you all know I have been overseas for the past couple of weeks.

During this time a few things have been going on at and for Mad Mummas Sweet Randoms blog.

I have had a few fantastic ladies share their experiences with you readers by guest posting here and I cannot describe how grateful I am to them. Just to recap and give another shout out in case you missed them here they are.

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The lovely Lisa from Mummy’s Undeserved Blessings with her post Not So Stereotypical…….

Lisa is a mum to three beautiful girls, under four years old. She blogs about her struggles and successes as a mum, her passion for cooking and whatever else is on her mind.

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The hilariously honest Leigh from Six By The Sea with her post Welcome to the’hood’.

Leigh is a happily married mum to four boys, a nurse who is considering a future in midwifery and a lover of life and all of its future adventures. Leigh’s ultimate dream is to have a regular gig writing a column.

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The very informative Chrissie from Me and My Munchkin with her post The Top 10 Tips for Surviving Co-Parenting.

Chrissie is a stay at home single mum to a toddler, with a total handbag addiction. Her blog shares the ups and downs of doing the parenting thing alone.

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I also won 2 awards while I was away!! YAY ME.

I received the Versatile Blogger award from One Too Many and my second Liebster Award from Cassie at The Flying Drunken Monkey.

I will have posts dedicated to these coming soon.

Winners for giveaways will be announced shortly as well!! Thank you to everyone who entered.

Appreciation goes to everyone mentioned above and all the lovely readers who share and read my blog regularly.

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GUEST POST – Not So Stereotypical……

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:00:00 +0000

A big thank you to Lisa for her guest post today.

What do you immediately think of when you hear “Minister’sWife?” If you are like me, you might think of the overly social women whose house is always perfect and whose children are always well behaved, or the dowdy and dull little mouse who locks her kids away from those “other”children.

When I started writing my blog, Mummy’s Undeserved Blessings I wanted to create a blog where I could show other mums that even the perceived“perfect mummy”, the minister’s wife, didn’t always have it all together. A place where my honesty would allow others to feel they too could be honest about their struggles.

Most people who meet me for the first time are actually quite surprised to find out that I am a minister’s wife. I guess I don’t come across as either of the two stereotypes. I openly admit I am not perfect and my kids are far from perfect.

Some days, I would love to be the stereotype of the perfect mum with the perfect house. In reality I am the mum whose house is cluttered with toys and has crumbs on the bench. I am the mum who yells at her kids, then regrets it. I am the mum who (mildly) injures her child’s shoulder by yanking them when they were walking too slow (Yep- that happened!). I am the mum who spends too much time on the Internet and not enough time playing with her kids.

I think it is so important to be real with people. Too often we compare ourselves, or our skills as a mother to other people based on what we perceive them to be like. If I was to portray myself as the perfect mother with the perfect house, then I could never really be able to relate to others who might be struggling with self doubt or feelings of failure.

As mums our role is to love our kids and do the best WE can, too often we are trying to copy someone else and be the mother we THINK they are.

I think it is important to admit where you are failing (or feel you are failing) to others. It has a twofold effect as firstly it shows them that you are real, and secondly it allows them to admit where they are struggling to you without fear of judgement.

It is important to me to help other mums realise that it is ok to make mistakes. I remember times when I had been honest about how I was feeling towards my kids and the response was silence (I may have imagined some crickets). Instead of feeling heard and told it was normal, I mind-read the silence as judgement and thought “Maybe no-one else feels that way? I must be a bad mother”.

All it takes is for one person to say “I know how that feels”or even “that must be really hard” and immediately the weight is lifted and honesty can flow.

So I started Mummy’s Undeserved Blessings to show who I am,an imperfect mother learning how to best love and appreciate her children. They are blessings that I did nothing to deserve but that I want to do everything I can to appreciate. If I fail a little (or a lot) along the way, that’s OK I am still learning.

Lisa and her gorgeous family!

Author Bio: Lisa is a mum to three beautiful girls, under four years old. She blogs about her struggles and successes as a mum, her passion for cooking and whatever else is on her mind.

You can find Lisa at her blog Mummy’s Undeserved Blessings sharing her wisdom and knowledge and also on her facebook page.

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3 Months Today

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Today my blog is officially 3 months old. It has grown beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I have gotten to know so many other incredible and talented women (and men) through their blogs, comments and my mine.

So far it has been such an amazing experience and the support from everyone is valued so much more then I put into words. The comments that are left are always encouraging and engaging and make me want to do more, try harder, be better!

Thank you everyone for your continued support the last 3 months. I couldn’t have done it without you.

THANK YOU!!

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