This too shall pass

When you've had a bad few nights sleep due to teething or a baby who has been cluster feeding for weeks, experienced mummies always tell you that it's just a phase...and it will pass. At the time, it's not always what you want to hear. Sleep deprivation is a funny old thing and 4 nights with no sleep can often feel like 4 years. But they're right, even the tightest of routines change so quickly when it comes to babies and looking back now, I can't believe how quickly this last year has gone. How many phases have passed us by.

I remember asking a friend for advice when Henry was cluster feeding for weeks when he was tiny. She told me to sit down, take control of the tv remote, have my husband bring me plenty to eat and drink and enjoy putting my feet up while Henry happily fed...constantly...for hours...night after night. Genuinely without exaggerating, he used to feed for up to 5 hours at a time. Apparently totally normal newborn breastfeeding behaviour, but enough to make the calmest of yummy mummies crack. It wasn't the advice I wanted to hear. I didn't think she understood how bad it was; it was lasting forever, or so it seemed by week 12. She was totally right though. Some nights now while I'm chasing around a very active 1 year old, cleaning up banana which has been smeared into the dog's hair, removing little hands from toilet seats and toilet brushes and bins and laptops, I long for those easy evenings where I could watch 6 episodes of Kardashians whilst eating cake and drinking pint after pint of orange squash. That phase did pass, she was right.

It was the same with the up all night phase, the nap battle phase, the phase where he wouldn't entertain his cot for longer than 5 minutes at a time. The phase where he screamed really loud for attention, the one where he woke up 6 times before we'd even gone to bed, the phase where only mummy would do. The one where he hated having his nappy changed, where he hated Tesco, where he wouldn't be put down or play with any toys. The one where I used to long to be left alone in peace in the bath for longer than 3 and a half minutes, the one where meals out seemed impossible.

I think next time around I'll be a lot more laid back about these crazy phases. I now know first hand that these phases do pass, things do improve and despite every protest at the time, I absolutely will miss the crazy sleep deprived days, the days where I had a baby attached to my boob for 20 hours of the day. I might even (heaven forbid) refer to those days as the best of my life. Maybe.