Thoroughly Modern Mammy Maria encourages you to enjoy the present with your little one before they reach their key milestones

Phases and Stages.

Oh how we Mammies LOVE our milestones.

Smiling, drooling, teething, creeping, rolling over, sleeping all night, crawling, standing, first words, first steps etc, etc, etc.  We love them.  The achievements of our minions make us feel as if we’ve accomplished something. No matter how small or minor the achievement, it’s celebrated.  And rightly so.

Depending on your baby and your family, everyone’s milestones are measured differently, and generally, they should not be compared to others.  All babies are different.

But here are a few things that we suddenly realise we shouldn’t have been so keen for them to do so quickly! Every milestone your baby hits, presents a new challenge to you.

Here are a few things that you should enjoy while you can!

Car seats:  There’s a certain satisfaction in your Fudgemonster being ready for the next size up of car seat.  But trust me, the novelty soon wears off.  Do you see that handy, nifty, light little car seat that you can probably click off the back seat and straight on to the base of the pram?  Cherish it.  It means that you can move Babba in and out of the car without any real stress or interruption.  Babbs can continue to sleep.  He won’t get wet.  You don’t have to fiddle with seat belts or 5 point harness straps that ALWAYS get twisted. You really don’t understand just how EASY life was until your little one is too big for the first seat.

Appointments:  When Baby is still at the “Busy doing nothing” stage, you can still DO stuff.  You can pop into the bank, you can make a phonecall, you can get your eyebrows waxed.  Hell you can even get a quick blowdry if you time it between naps. Why? Because your munchkin will be quite happy and snug in that lovely car seat while you do whatever you need to do.  Enjoy it, because once Baby is big enough to decide he or she no longer wants to SIT STILL, your blowdry days are numbered. 

Coffee dates:  You can go for a coffee.  And drink it.  All of it!  And even if your babba wakens or needs fed or changed, they’ll happily snuggle up on you and you can carry on your conversation with your adult friend, without any huge stress.  Fast forward 8 months. Coffee dates become a thing of legend, because in reality, meeting a mate means going to a soft play centre, where both of you spend the time not talking to each other because you’re chasing your crawlies and you don’t actually GET a cup of tea, because it’s just too much fecking work.

Naps:   If your baby sleeps during the day, enjoy it.  Most of our smallies get into a habit of having some sort of usual and predictable nap each day.  We plan our days, car journeys, chores etc., around these and when they last an extra 15 minutes, we enjoy every sip of that cuppa we usually don’t get drinking.  But as Baby gets older, most of us find that the length and frequency of these naps lessens.  Princess went from 2 hour siestas to 35 minutes snoozes recently.  It’s hard to get used to!  I’m exhausted! 

Staying put:  Creeping, crawling… whatever you call it.  It’s brilliant and it’s something to celebrate. But then you realise that this means that they are no longer going to be where you left them 2 minutes ago, your furniture possibly needs rearranged, your back is going to get savage workouts from the constant lifting and you learn to pee in 15 seconds.

Obviously, I am not suggesting that these things should NOT be celebrated.  Of course, we should take photographs and text our buddies to announce our Mini’s first word, or that she just took her first step, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t admit that life was just that LITTLE bit easier, before certain milestones were reached!

And if you find yourself longing for the days when your Baby was a little less work, it’s completely normal! We all do it from time to time.

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