Parenting is totally different. If you do the bath, baby massage, book and quiet time it does not necessarily mean Elfie will sleep. More often than not she will end up downstairs with us wide awake, and then we have to do a few relay runs up and down the stairs to switch on lullabies and pick up dummies before sleep arrives.

And then, one night, BOOM. She will go down straight to sleep after her bath and we think we’ve cracked it. We can cook properly, drink wine and watch crap TV. Blissful.

Until the next evening, when she’ll be up again, wide awake and wanting to be entertained.

There is no answer for this on Google… argh!

Originally posted on my mumplusone blog.

Anna is a stay at home mum with a one year old son, George, and she writes at EvieGeorge. I’m pleased to give up this post to her and have to admit I shed a bit of a tear when I read it this morning (hello hormones) – take it away, Anna!

“There are occasions when I look at George and I just want to cover him in chocolate sauce and eat him. He is the best DIY project I ever did!!(well, with a bit of help- ha!) To me, he is perfection personified. Sometimes, he just comes over, wraps his arms round my neck and kisses me and I’m not sure how I manage to keep my heart inside my chest. It literally feels like it might burst out.

People say you stay the same person after you have kids but I disagree. I think once you are a mum you are someone’s MUM! I mean for goodness sakes, you are the mother of someone’s grandchild, someone’s cousin, someone’s nephew or niece and that is a huge responsibility, albeit an amazing one.

Maybe when your child is bigger you can get back to being a bit more like the original ‘me’. But whilst you’re still changing nappies every couple of hours that’s a tough one. From other blogs I have seen people really struggle with this, it can cause turmoil and despair that they are losing their identity. Well, I have those days too, it can get to three in the afternoon and I am still in pyjamas and I wonder what the hell I’m doing.

What I am doing is teaching my son to play, to sing, to love, to laugh, to dream. I know he’s only one but everything I show him now will affect who he is when he’s bigger. That is why I don’t mind that the current ‘me’ is pretty damn different to the old ‘me’ because as soon as I start humming ‘row, row, row your boat’ my son starts moving backwards and forwards with his hands grasping imaginary oars and it was ME that taught him that!”

Now I’d urge you to pop over to Anna’s blog and read my guest post - where I write about mummy bloggers and books.

That is the sound of me getting re-connected to modern life at our new house, or the internet to be exact. I did without it for 34 days; there were tears and tantrums (mine), excuses (SKY’s) and desperation (husband’s) but none of that seems to matter anymore.

I’m back!

The main lesson learned during this whole experience is: do not get Sky Broadband unless you are prepared to wait over a month for it.

In the meantime, I’ve been entertaining myself with cooking, cleaning and all-round general practice for when I am a full time mum. Plus a lovely minibreak to the Cotswolds (where I grew up) with my husband, parents and brother. They made me go walking, but at least I got proof:

As inappropriately dressed as ever.