Setting the scene… It’s a night like any other you’ve had for the past couple of months – your newborn gem has awoken at the typical hour of 5am after you had just gotten back to sleep following her prior wake-up and feed at 3am. Except that this time, you feel ready to cry, and wish fervently that she would somehow feed herself and go back to sleep all on her own.
As summer slips into crisp and busy autumn, we have always been taught to switch gears. When we were in school, this time of year meant new outfits and funky pencil cases. Time to learn. Time to re-aquaint with the friends who were at the cottage all summer. And then you got older. Don’t you remember pouring over the thickest Vogue of the year to master that year’s trends? Tweed? Chocolate brown?
“Next time I’m just booking a cesarean.”
“My first birth was so traumatic – I want drugs the moment I start labour.”
“I can’t walk through the door of a hospital again.”
“I think we’d better adopt our second child.”
To all the women who say these words…
Please know that it wasn’t your fault.