Topsy turvy

In July, blogging mothers from Singapore shared their stories on how motherhood has changed them (read their stories here).  This month, we will be hearing more from them! 

Today, we kick off the September series with Jennifer.  Jennifer is a working mum, who wishes that she can relax while enjoying motherhood.  However, she has to deal with her feisty boy.  (But if you read this, you would agree with me that he has been well brought up!)  She blogs about everything around her at Little DinoEgg.     

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When a certain boy plopped himself comfortably into our lives, he managed to turn them topsy turvy.  No more lovey dovey Only-The-2-of-Us world, no partying, no drinking, no dinning at fancy restaurants.  These are replaced with messy hair, no make up, no weekly buying of new clothes and shoes, endless diaper changing, baby crying, feeding, burping, bathing, lack of sleep, doctor's appointment for vaccinations and endless of baby issues.  I even gave up coffee and anything caffeine for almost 1.5 years for his sake!

I thought I was prepared for Motherhood, its only when I was actually IN Motherhood that I realized regardless of the amount of home work you have done, there are always new situations being thrown at you that makes you lose your sense of control and directions. I was not a web crawler, but I befriended Guru Google, and joined parenting forums to find out answers for mysterious non stop crying, worries, remedies for minor illness, assurance about a child's development, anticipation of milestones, information on healthy recipes for baby food, just to name a few.

I read more parenting books and swear by the Baby Whisperer - Tracy Hoggs, and Raising Your Spirited Child - Mary Kurcinka.  I never knew that a baby as young as few days old can be trained to adhere to a sleeping habit and routine OR there is something call "spirited child".  Thank goodness for these 2 books!  I was able to start DinoEgg on a sleep routine when he was 4 months old (I was an accidental mum prior to that) by following Tracy's suggestions, which allowed me to have some quiet time to myself, and also caught some sleep too.  Mary helps me look at DinoEgg with a different perspective when he was a difficult toddler, who drove us up the walls with his erratic behaviour and temperament.  I knew then that he is an extrovert spirited child, who is sometimes slow to adapt and needs alot of pre-empting for any changes.  Things started to get better, there are still meltdowns, but I know how to handle him better.

When things started to settle into a comfortable routine, suddenly I was dashing madly around the malls with DinoEgg on tow during the school holidays to catch performances by Sesame Street gang, Mickey Mouse, Pooh, Barney (yup that too, though I dislike it to the core), Transformers and a few more famous cartoon characters.  I squeezed amongst parents and kids, bullied my way through to sit as close to the stage as possible so that DinoEgg could watch the short performance in full view.  We even queued up after the show so that we could take a photo with them!  Thinking back, I still can’t believe that I did that!

Life since 2006 was a mind boggling hurricane. On weekdays, we are always dashing around sending him to childcare before we go to work, and fetching him back at the end of the day, and are always too exhausted to spend good quality time together apart from the nightly reading routine.  Thus we try to make it up during weekends, so those are usually filled with activities or playdates.  Most of the time we feel so exhausted when the weekend is over!  Now that he is older, Saturdays are for enrichment classes, and Sundays are for lazing around the house or we are out and about.  

So, has Motherhood changed me?
Definitely!
My status changed from “Married Woman” to “Mother” right?
*crow flying across above my head going “CAW CAW CAW”*

Ok, jokes aside, I've matured since entering into Motherhood.  I have to be, since I am responsible for this little fella.  For every decision I make, I have to be sure that it is the right one.  I learn to listen to my instincts, and take the advice of others with a pinch of salt.  Sometimes, if all else fails, I will  turn to old wives tales or "ancient remedies", keeping my fingers crossed and hoping it will work and solve the problem.

Was it for the better or worse?
Hmmm… both ways, but I guess its for the better, or rather I like it to be for the better.  I shall shove all those unhappy incidents under my bed, and remember the happy times we shared during this Motherhood journey. Don't get me wrong, I'm not being an ostrich.  Those unhappy times are at the back of my mind, and it will always act as a reminder, should the same incidents happen again, but I like to clean up the spilt milk and move on.

With this little fella in our life, our house will never be spick and span, our lives will never be calm and quiet, but who cares!  I love my son, I love my family, I love being a Mother!