New Mum
I’d just got back home after a red eye long haul flight, landing at Gatwick airport at 6.40am. By the time I got to Leeds it was mid afternoon, so I’m sure you can appreciate that I was feeling just a little tired at this point, having been awake for 24 hours straight.
While I was away, my neighbour had given birth to her second child, a little girl. I remembered how she had struggled after having her son back in 2006, so I went to say hello before I had even set foot in my own house. As soon as she opened the door, I could tell by the look on her face that she was in need of a shoulder to cry on. Her face crumpled, and tears began to roll down her face.
As you can imagine, I was hoping to have a quick coo over the baby, hug my neighbour in a congratulatory manner, and then head home to scrub off the airplane grime. I felt as if I needed to prop my eyelids open with a matchstick, but I stepped into my neighbour’s house, as I could see she needed me at that point.
My neighbour was having real problems feeding her baby. I’ve got two children, one of whom I fed until she was 16 months old, so I understood how she was feeling about it all. We talked through everything she could do to make things easier, I changed baby’s nappy, cuddled the baby to give my neighbour a break (and indulge myself, there’s nothing so lovely as that new baby smell!!). I must have been there almost half an hour before I felt I could leave her. She was a lot calmer after having talked it through with me, and was feeling more positive about how she was doing with her new baby. She had been beating herself up about being a bad mother, which was not even vaguely true, but her post natal hormones had kicked in nicely, leaving her feeling horrendous.
I am so glad I pushed myself to spend that time with her, it was only half an hour, but it was when I myself was feeling completely exhausted. It helped her so much, she has since thanked me for going out of my way that day. My 15 minute revolution (or 30 minute as it ended up being) left me feeling good, even though I was tired, smelly and ready to soak in the bath!
