A couple of weeks ago I was delighted to the nominated for the White Camelias Why I’m Rocking Motherhood tag by Lianne at Mrs Mummy Harris, and Mums Wine HQ. Being a Mum, or Dad is super hard. It’s something that we rarely give ourselves credit for, or something we often put ourselves down about. So to reverse the negativity, lack of sleep, and worry that comes with parenting, I’m focusing here on why I’m Rocking Motherhood to let the positives of being a Mum or Dad shine through. Here’s my top 10 reasons on why I’m rocking this thing called Motherhood: Sleep training or surviving the 4-month sleep regression I still look back at this period of my life and it fills me with despair just thinking about it. I don’t think I slept for 3-months. However with a LOT of Googling, and reading sleep training books, I successfully managed to get my daughter to go to sleep by herself, and no longer wake every hour at night. It was a slow process, but well worth it as she’s a great sleeper now. Travel We’ve been so lucky to have taken our daughter to so many different places in the last 18-months. She’s been to Wales a couple of times, Center Parcs twice, Spain and St Lucia. All our holidays have been fantastic, and she’s experienced so many new things whilst we’ve been away (I hope), as well as having quality time together. Return to work The return to work is never easy after having year off on maternity. It was so tricky going back to work, and having to leave my daughter in nursery. However I’ve been back at work for 6-months, and we are in a good routine now I would say. It was challenging at first having to fit in the nursery run, and pick ups, leaving the office at five, and juggling it all. But I now feel like I’ve mastered it, I wouldn’t say I’m a pro, but we’re getting there. My decision to go from full-time to 4-days a week, was a good decision, as the balancing act between work and family is so much better. Recovery My recovery after a 60-hour induced labour that ended in a c-section was brutal. I have never experienced so much pain before, everything was difficult to do for weeks, including walking. All I needed was to sleep and rest, which I obviously couldn’t as I had a newborn baby. I just had to grin and bear it, suck it up. Paracetamol was my friend for weeks. NCT friends I have a brilliant set of friends from my NCT group, and I feel so lucky that we all managed to see each other every week on maternity leave, and are still great friends today. During the early days of having a newborn baby they were a rock for me, as well as being an excuse to get out of the house to drink coffee and eat cake. Setting up a blog My blog is something I’m really proud of. I’m so happy to have set it up last year, as I really wasn’t sure at first when I first hit publish. However i’m so pleased that I am still managing it 13-months later, and continuing to manage it with a baby and going back to work. Nursery Putting my daughter in nursery last year was heartbreaking after spending every day with her for a year. I won’t forget the first day I had to leave her and go for my KIT day in work. However we all have to make sacrifices, and putting her into nursery has been absolutely brilliant for her. She loves it, she is socialising and learning so much too. Organisation Being a Mum means you have to be organised. I think that since becoming a Mum I’m more organised than ever. My list writing is ridiculous, I even have a to-do list for my day-to-day life at home, including weekends. Last week I started meal planning for the week, and it was a game changer especially when I had many late nights at work. Meal planning meant that my husband and I knew exactly what to cook and when, and it made my husband do some of the cooking too! Feeding Now I won’t go into this one too much as it really doesn’t matter how you feed your child as long as their fed. However I think I did pretty well breastfeeding our daughter for 10-months. We had a tricky start with weight loss, formula top-ups, pain from c-section and not being able to move properly. But I perserved and climbed what felt like a mountain at the time, until eventually it became easy. Friends and Family We live in London and have no family here. Over the past 18-months we’ve made a real conscious effort to go and visit our family in Cambridge and Cheshire. It’s so important that our daughter sees and gets to know her family, and that they also see her too. So there’s my reasons why I rock at Motherhood. What are yours? I’m nominating to take part in this tag: Little Oat Tree Talking Mums My Rambling Thoughts Bridie By The Sea Living with a Jude Then I Became Mum Mummy Miller The Mum From Brum Me Being Mummy Claire x