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You are here: Home / MOTHERHOOD / Blogger Bump Club Week 19 #BlogBumpClub

Blogger Bump Club Week 19 #BlogBumpClub

September 18, 2014 by Molly 7 Comments

Blogger Bump Club

You know what they say about not properly missing something until it’s gone? In the case of pregnancy that’s been true with wine, pate and my favourite cheese. But the one thing I’m realising that I miss more than anything else at the moment is a good night’s sleep.

I can handle the regular nightly toilet trips and the inability to get comfortable with a huge nine month bump. But my reserves of stamina are well and truly depleted when it comes to dealing with my snoring husband or wakeful child.

Last night we had one of the worst nights we’ve ever had with Frog. Apart from one particularly bad night when she was about six weeks old and had terrible wind, and another when she was teething at around eight months, I don’t think there’s been a worse night. Even when she was a baby and waking regularly for milk she would still snooze in between feeds. Last night was different though. 

My four year old woke up at midnight and came into my bedroom. Her dad wasn’t yet in bed so she got into bed with me claiming to have wet the bed. When I checked the bed was dry. Then she said she’d had a bad dream. Then she said she was hungry. Then she said she was thirsty. Then she said she needed a cuddle. And so it went on.

I couldn’t work out what originally woke her but experience told me not to panic and that she would fall asleep again pretty soon, if I let her stay in the bed with me. She’s a pretty regular sleeper so the odd night in our bed doesn’t concern me.

At 3.30am she was still awake. By this time I was crying with frustration and exhaustion. Every time I thought she’d dropped off I’d get a “Mummy, can I just have X, Y or Z?” or “I can see a fairy Mummy” or “Is it morning yet Mummy?”. As I was being booted from the inside by Frog’s baby brother or sister, I could hear her dad snoring in her room next door (they’d swapped beds) and feel her little hand tapping me to try to keep me awake.

And now, in the harsh light of day, I am reminded how rubbish I am on zero sleep and am already panicked about how I’ll cope once the baby is here to keep me awake too. When will I sleep?! Will I sleep at all? Will it send me a bit crazy? It’s been so long since I’ve had such a bad night with no sleep at all that I can’t remember what my best coping mechanisms are. And I can’t help but think that being nine months pregnant makes the whole no sleep thing even harder.

38 and a half weeks

I have everything crossed that last night was just a blip and Frog will have a better night tonight. She’s clearly hugely stimulated by starting school and has been weirdly hyper right up until bedtime over the past week. But the night obviously took it’s toll on her too and I left her, for the first time, sobbing at school. My pregnancy hormones and lack of sleep found that tough, I can tell you.

As for the maternity leave zen that I wrote about last week, that’s kind of gone AWOL too. I’m finding that despite having an out of office set on my email I’m still getting demands from people (none of my regular clients, I hasten to add). It’s got to the point where I’m considering turning my phone off and changing my out of office to “HAVING A BABY. LEAVE ME ALONE.” Yep, the lack of sleep is making me irrational.

Any advice you have for coping with zero sleep this late on in pregnancy would be hugely appreciated. And if there are any sleep experts out there who can give me some pointers on helping my four year old if she wakes up again tonight… I’m all ears.

Link Up

Anyone else feeling sleep deprived this week? Or maybe you’re full of beans and have had a great week of rest and relaxation? Whatever your latest pregnancy update, link up your blog post here and join in the chat. If you can, don’t forget to comment on the other posts linked up to make the blogger antenatal group that bit more lively.

As ever, tweet me a link to your post or take the chat to Twitter using the hashtag #BlogBumpClub – I’m @mollyjforbes over there.

Mother's Always Right

Filed Under: MOTHERHOOD, Pregnancy Tagged With: 38 weeks pregnant, Pregnancy, pregnancy and sleep, sleep

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Comments

  1. Bumpy Ride says

    September 20, 2014 at 4:37 pm

    Poor you. I am pregnant with my first and don’t know how I would cope with running around after another little one as well as being heavily pregnant.

    I really hope you manage to catch up on some sleep before the next bundle of joy arrives. And remember, you have survived those newborn days once, and you will again, so don’t worry!

    Reply
    • Molly says

      September 22, 2014 at 9:10 am

      This is true! I’m now feeling much better after a couple of nights of much better sleep. Hurrah!

      Reply
  2. The Breastest News says

    September 19, 2014 at 7:19 pm

    Oh no 🙁 So sorry to hear you had a bad night with Frog. It’s frightening thinking about how we’ll cope with little ones already running around and a new baby in arms. I’m rubbish with advice for things like this sorry, I just hope Frog was having an off night like you say and that the new baby slumbers between feeds for you 🙂

    Reply
  3. ghostwritermummy says

    September 19, 2014 at 5:28 am

    ah I’m so sorry you’ve had a rough week. I think sometimes starting school really affects sleep patterns for kids and I hope she settles down soon. But I also know that its not nice at all when you are so exhausted. Don’t worry about what might or might not happen when baby arrives. Take each day as it comes now and try to rest when F is at school x x x x

    Reply
  4. Justjetta says

    September 18, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    Can’t imagine how hard that is right now. I’ve been panicking about the sleep deprived nights plus handling my very active son! I did learn with T that as long as I had 4 hours in one block uninterrupted then I could cope. Literally doing that now!

    Reply
  5. Jodie says

    September 18, 2014 at 10:19 am

    My nights have been awful for a long time during this pregnancy. It’s got worse this past week. P2 struggles to sleep soundly between 1-4am!

    Reply
  6. Bex @ The Mummy Adventure says

    September 18, 2014 at 9:58 am

    We had a bad night with Archie the other day and it made me wonder how I would cope with a new baby, but I think we just do, somehow or other! I hope Frog settles down with school and it gets easier x

    Reply

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Hello and welcome! I'm Molly Forbes - podcaster, presenter and blogger with a passion for positivity, confidence and body image chat. Regularly writing and vlogging about empowering female issues from a motherhood angle, I also cover lifestyle and fashion topics for like-minded mums who want to rediscover themselves after having children. Thanks for stopping by! Read More…

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THANK YOU ❤️ I’ve felt a bit flat the last w THANK YOU ❤️ I’ve felt a bit flat the last week, but after steeling myself to take a look at some reviews that flatness is easing. 
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Maybe this feeling is normal? A post-publication day flatness... it’s familiar and kind of expected, I’ve felt it after any big thing. A kind of anti-climax, mixture of exhaustion and overwhelm maybe?
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Publishing in a pandemic is tough and the fact I haven’t even been able to see my book in a bookshop doesn’t help. There’s been no celebration with friends and family, no fun launch event, no way to officially mark it as such - that’s all on hold. And self-promotion always feels a bit cringe, but I know it’s important - not just to get the book out in the world but also to show my daughters that as women we must be proud of our achievements. Particularly when we’re so often told to be quiet. 
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So here I am sharing this bloody wonderful review for Body Happy Kids: How to help children and teens love the skin they’re in. It speaks for itself. And while I’m here I’m going to be super direct and get over myself, to ask YOU to please leave a review if you’ve read the book too. It really does make a difference. Apparently Good Reads is also important (thank you to my buddy and book cheer leader @giraffemilklady for that nugget of advice).
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I’ve got a few cool bits of press coming up about the book but you can’t rely on media coverage of books - particularly when you’re not a celeb or have hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. So word of mouth really is more important than ever. THANK YOU ✨
#BodyHappyKids 
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[Image description: a screenshot of a five star Amazon review of the book Body Happy Kids. Full text in Alt Text.]
Body Happy Kids has been out in the world for just Body Happy Kids has been out in the world for just over a week 🎉 It’s been wonderful and overwhelming to see people reading it all over the world. I’m so grateful for everyone tagging me in their posts and Stories, particularly as I haven’t been able to see the book in a real life book shop yet 😭 (publishing in a pandemic is tough 💔). 
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If you’ve read the book I would be ever so grateful if you could leave it a review on Amazon. I’m told it makes a difference and can help some people decide whether to read it or not!
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This is a tiny thread taken from the chapter about toys. There’s some fascinating research into the impact of toys on body image in kids, showing that what children plays with matters. It’s not a straightforward case of banning Barbie (my 6yo loves her Barbies) but more a case of being mindful of the impact of these toys, talking about them and making sure kids have a range of different types of toys to play with. There’s a toolkit at the end of the chapter to help with this.
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As well as the research you’ll hear about in that chapter you’ll also hear from brilliant academics @christiaspearsbrown and @kopanoratele about the impact that gender stereotypes in toys have on the body image of children.
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In the meantime, swipe through to read a bit more about Barbie (including Slumber Party Barbie from 1960s 😱)
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I want to see more B roll photos. I want to see th I want to see more B roll photos. I want to see the deleted photos, lying forgotten deep at the bottom of the trash folder. The discarded selfies. The ones taken and hastily replaced with ten “better” ones. I want the perfect imperfection, the unglossy, unfiltered, messy, grainy slightly out of focus frazzled photos. 
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Not because we’re making a point about Insta versus reality, or to show that “even the girl in the photo doesn’t look like the girl in the photo”, or as the punchline to a joke about angles and what other people see versus what our phone sees when we swipe up. Just because. 
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I want my daughters (when they’re old enough to have phones), to feel able to show up with a make-up free, unfiltered face without feeling like they need to do so with a caveat or an apology. I want them to be able to exist online just as they are, without being hailed as “so brave” just for putting up an image of them living their life that hasn’t been taken under perfect lighting or with on-fleek brows or posed just-so. 
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We live in an age where we are all judging others and ourselves based on our appearance more than ever. Defining other peoples’ bodies. Deciding who is worthy or not worthy, who gets to speak, who gets our attention, based on what they look like. And looking at ourselves through the glare of a camera phone or zoom filter for hours every day. Living outside of our bodies and our faces. It’s. So. Boring.
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Talk to me about what you saw today, what you read, who you spoke to, what made you laugh, what made you think, that TV show that made you sob, the art that gave you tingles, the chat with your mate that left you aching to hug them. 
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Show me the B roll photos, the messy, accidental, fuzzy, real moments of unposed, unselfconscious LIFE. I’m here for it. Here’s mine.
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Today the Women and Equalities Commission released Today the Women and Equalities Commission released a big report into body image, with a whole raft of recommendations for the government to implement. The report included the findings of a large survey they did last year which found 66% of children suffer with negative feelings about their bodies most of the time. 
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There are a number of recommendations in the report, including scrapping the use of BMI as a measurement of health, getting rid of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) that sees children being weighed in school, and encouraging the Department of Education to take a whole school approach to body image (as well as regularly reviewing the RSHE curriculum). 
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Doing this job often feels like pushing water up a hill. It’s frustrating, anxiety inducing and regularly leaves me burned out. But there is no alternative because we MUST have change. Our children deserve better. We ALL deserve better. Today’s report is some welcome news and now it’s on all of us to continue the work and show we care about these issues. The more the government realises it’s an issue that people want prioritised, the more seriously they will take the findings and recommendations in the report. 
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They have eight weeks to respond. We mustn’t stop talking about this. 
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Parents, teachers, youth leaders: follow @bodyhappyorg (the social enterprise I founded to promote positive body image in children and teens) for more support in this area. 
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I’m sharing what we offer here on my own account as I know there are some new people following me since the publication of my book last week and I want to let you know what resources and support we can offer in this area. I work with a brilliant team of people at @bodyhappyorg who are all equally committed to these issues. Hopefully this post will be useful - if you’re a parent we have support for you too. Check out the links in my bio or the @bodyhappyorg bio ❤️
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Last night I posted a reel about saying no to diet Last night I posted a reel about saying no to diet culture and someone commented that it wasn’t so dramatic as a straight-sized white woman. They were right, it’s not. Hopefully this post explains why, but I want to make it super clear where I stand because this stuff is important. 
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Also, a gentle reminder: it’s never OK to comment on or define someone else’s body without their consent. Holding people to account is important and appreciated. But piling in with comments about someone’s body as if they’re not there is rude and crosses a boundary I hold for my own body, and the bodies of others. 
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Thank you for being here ❤️
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No you’re crying. Can’t express how much this No you’re crying. Can’t express how much this means to me. 😭 #BodyHappyKids
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[Image description: A yellow square with a screenshot of a DM overlaid which reads “I’ve only read one chapter and I’m finding it so moving. There is not a moment of the day when I don’t worry about my 9 year old and how as a bigger child he may be stigmatised. I feel so empowered to have this book. We did the affirmations this morning and even the 2.5 year old joined in. Both my boys demeanour changed and when discussing ways in which the eldest thought his body was amazing was incredibly empowering. Thank you.”]
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