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I’m guest posting over on The Netmums blog today, as I help them launch their campaign for United Kindmums. This post is all about a random act of kindness I’ll never forget, which helped me through a difficult day of early motherhood.
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It’s a dark, chilly October morning. I’m cold and feeling very low. My baby is crying because she’s tired and has the sniffles. I’m crying because I’m tired and have the sniffles. We both want to sleep.
The newborn bubble has well and truly burst. My beautiful daughter has reached four months and, while I love her so fiercely it makes my heart physically ache, I am exhausted. I feel spent and alone. My husband is at work all day and my friends haven’t yet got children. The hours until bedtime stretch ahead like a dark, sleepless void. I cry again.
I feel like I’ve failed my daughter somehow, because I’m not feeling bubbly and happy today. I feel like I’ve failed at motherhood somehow, because I’m not enjoying it this morning.
And then, a knock at the door.
It’s my next door neighbour. When I greet her, red-eyed and dribbly-nosed, she takes one look at me and puts her arms out. Without allowing for one word of protest, my neighbour takes my baby and sends me to bed. I sleep for two hours. Two long hours. I wake, refreshed, ready to feed my child, play with my child and be the mum I want to be.
You can read the rest of this post on the Netmums blog.
If you enjoy it, perhaps you might consider nominating me for a MAD Blog Award or voting for me in The Brilliance in Blogging Awards, for which I’m shortlisted in the Lit category. Just a thought.
Such a brilliant post. I think as new mums we all had that day, the one when we felt like we couldn’t do it any more when someone stepped in and made the difference. First time round, it was six weeks in for me. Then my husband suggested I meet him from the train and he called my mum to meet us too. We went and sat in a pub beer garden and relaxed together in the evening sun. For me it was my “hump” day. After that day it started (slowly) getting easier. But it was tge kindness of others that got me through it.
Sounds idyllic – funny what an afternoon in a sunny pub garden can do!
what a lovely neighbour you have, I had so many of those days, it would be lovely if everyone had a day like that
There really is no better gift than the gift of sleep.
I need a neighbour like yours, please ask her to visit me x
Everyone should have one. I’ll have to speak to her about renting her out every once in a while!