Hi, maternity leave the myths! 

Thankfully for me I have a strong friend group who support me and I have a lovely family who understand and come to my rescue when I really struggle I hate asking for help but having had their help during my c section issues , I realised it's ok to ask when you need it most ! 

Having friends with babies also helps great advise and support when your feeling frazzled ! Something comforting knowing you have friends who will be on what's app at 3 am if you need them as they are doing the same thing ! Also won't judge you for sending a text at 5 am ! 

I often think of this article I read about a woman who used her maternity leave to travel - I have no idea how she did it she is a hero in my eyes ! I guess what I'm saying is yes we are off work but actually although rewarding and lovely mat leave  is hard and it goes far to quick ! 

One of my many pics of Thea 

I hear all the time  that maternity leave must be a dream filled with picture perfect moments and no stress and an easy year or 9months off work - ha ha yes if only I honestly spent the first 4 months not feeling human and still at 6 months feel better but not right back how I was before it's a huge life changing thing and for me it's changed everything my day to day life , my relationships and my way of looking at things ! Anyone who makes it look easy just be very good at covering their under eye bags and washing piles ! 

The more I think about having a baby the more i do wonder why people do it ! Obviously the good times out weigh the hard times and you learn some how to run on no sleep and no food on days when you can't figure out why the baby is crying ! ( still I have days when I don't know ! ) and from not having had kids before i would have assumed the myth of this stress free year off work was true ! 

Could it be possible that has happened out there someone had a easy baby ?! If so can I swap .. just kidding although it's been hard I wouldn't change my stretch marks , under eye bags and crazy emotional melt downs for the world ! I see now it does eventually level out emotionally thank goodness ! 

Loads of people mention that maternity leave must also be filled with lots of days out and photo taking documenting your baby grow - yeh we have days out but not expensive ones or really anything exciting I visit  chemist and Drs more than anywhere else these days ! And there have been days I couldn't even get out or even figure out where my house keys where ! 

As for photo taking yeh I'm criminal for this but as I'm only doing this once I want to document everything! It doesn't mean that's all I do all day tho ! There is endless washing , bins full of nappies , cleaning and tidying and looking after the baby at the same time and two cats that think it's funny to throw up hair balls and food all the time ! Looking back at when I would moan about going to work I laugh now what was I moaning about work is a breeze compared to this ha ha ! 

In a nutshell I get annoyed when people brush off maternity leave as a get off work thing it's really not and if you have been there then you know how hard it is ! 

In some sense it's like when people say wow you had a c section how easy ?!?! 

Giving birth naturally or having a c section is not easy ! 

Wow this feels like a rant ! In no way do I want to put people off it's amazing but I wanted to write

 about the fact it's not getting off work for a year it's a full time 24 hour a day job non stop ! 

In our house hold we have the i work argument a lot vs who has the baby , i often say i will  swap work is easier ! It's a shame my work doesn't pay enough for me to swap ! Having said that maternity leave gives me the time to see first words , first steps , first smiles and laughs ! 

So really I'm happy ! And although hard it's amazing to 🍼

so for me these mat leave myths are indeed myths ! 

Everyone has a different experience! Maybe somewhere someone a super mum perhaps has this ideal mat leave ! 

Hope to write again soon less of a rant maybe ?! 

Hannah and Thea x