Looking back and looking forward (and a little poll)

I’ve been reading back over Rosemary’s blog, recently, trying to remember what it’s like to have a small baby. I’ve gotten pretty used to my life getting back to some semblance of normality over the last year or so. Having evenings to myself, going out with Chris for meals or a drink, working something close to normal hours (give or take the occasional horrendous week like the last one), having baths whenever I want to, and so on.

To be honest, I’ve been a bit worried about how to cope with adding a new baby into the mix. How am I going to find the time to work and spend time with Rosemary? Will I have any Me Time left in among it all? Will I ever be able to iron again?

But I’d forgotten that the first few months are actually fine in terms of finding the time to work and that there’s lots of time to relax while pushing a buggy round and breast-feeding. Of course, that won’t stop me occasionally wishing for a different life:

I’m exhausted, though, and do wish I could be a ‘normal’ mum sometimes and not have the added responsibility of working. It’s not much fun when every moment of Rosemary sleeping during the day has to be used for working. It would be nice to, oh, I don’t know, play a computer game or something (hmm, why would I use that as an example?). Do some studying (somehow don’t think I’ll be doing any more OU courses for a long while!) maybe. Of course, I do get to do relaxing things like watching TV or reading while she’s feeding and can (at the moment, anyway) watch TV while I’m playing with her, so I do get some ‘leisure time’ then. And I get to go out walking and meet people for coffee or lunch, which I never used to have time to do. So I have a much more varied life than I used to. I’m much, much fitter too. All this pushing a buggy is great. Still have the tummy flap of flab, though. Don’t know how to get rid of that.

That was written when Rosemary was three months old. What this reminds me is that I will cope fine. I will adjust to Number 2, just as I adjusted to Number 1. And I will probably find that I get a nice balance back again, as it’s been a while since I’ve had nice strolls round town and gone for coffee in Costa and so on (will need a bit more money to do Costa, of course). Rosemary will be at nursery school and playgroup every morning and some afternoons from September and maybe, just maybe, she’ll have learnt to sleep through the night by then, as well. She’ll be old enough to actually help out a bit. It will be great.

Now, apparently MTJAM only just worked out what WAHM means. So, I’d be interested to know how many of you know what it means and have always done so. Or did it take a while for you to realise, as well? Hands up, don’t be shy!