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Throughout my school years, my reports read: “Laura works very hard. We’re happy with her progress. She applies herself rigorously to her studies”. Working hard to see results has always been my vibe. I wasn’t naturally gifted per se, nor a boffin, I was a grafter. The same could be said about my working life. I happily put in the extra hours in my career in fashion, working late nights and weekends, answering emails quickly and getting shit done. That was the way I operated. I was an achiever, a meticulous planner and I loved it.
Naturally, I tried to apply this logic to motherhood. I prepared religiously for my zen home birth, walking to and from work every day, doing yoga every night and practicing my hypnobirthing mantras until I was blue in the face. All these preparations went out the window when my son was in fact the wrong way round and not able to get out. Two days of huffing and puffing around my living room finally resulted in the sorrowful switching off of my ceremonial salt lamp, screwing up my tiny jars of essential oils and heading to the hospital for an emergency C-section.
I started to get the feeling that even with my track record of swatting and careful planning, this new section of my life called ‘motherhood’ was going to be completely out of my control. Where I used to be out the door before 9am strolling to work with a coffee in hand, I was now barely managing to get dressed by midday and frizzy curls had become my daily look, not out of choice but convenience. I had to make the biggest adjustment of my life: to slow down and realise that I couldn’t use a to-do list to raise my beautiful son.
In becoming a mother, you learn a million new things every day, and over the last few months, I’ve relied heavily on the advice of my other mum friends. Of course, being an organiser, I thought it might be helpful to compress and compile these into 10 bullet points – the bite size guide I wish I’d had prior to embarking upon this crazy ride.
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