All to herself.

Yup. At my baby shower for what seems like eons ago, my dearest friends and family got us practically everything we needed (for our first newborn, including a beautiful walnut stained cot that was bigger than a standard cot and could take the weight of a hundred kilos, which really meant I could sleep in it if I really wanted to without smashing the floor through to the neighbours below. That’s not all. This designer cot all the way from the land of tulips, or was it Denmark?, could also be converted into a bigger baby cot, then a toddler bed and finally an adult’s day bed! It was a mother’s dream come true having the perfect cot for a perfect baby…..)

All mothers who breastfed their babies (and I’m sure those who didn’t as well) will tell you to shove your idealisms down the toilet the moment baby arrives. As much as I wanted our precious baby to enjoy her beautiful cot beside our bed, she had her own ideas.

Alas, after many nights of coaxing her that she really would meet magical fairies if she slept in her own cot and zombie nights for me, I succumbed to co-sleeping.

It happened like this, “Oh, just one night” I told myself on that first night. Then it was, “oh, a week wouldn’t hurt. Maybe she’s not well and needs to be close to me”. Then, “She has colic. It kind of feels nice with her next to me anyway”.

To those of you who wake up, walk into the next room, breastfed your baby, put her back into her cot, walk back into your room, shut the door and get into bed…..I worship the ground you walk on. I couldn’t do it.

But now I know why you must. From sharing our Queen size bed which we subsequently did away with (gave away the bed frame and put the mattress on the floor) as it was getting too tight and the hubs and I both had our asses hanging off each side of the bed, we graduated to sharing a king sized mattress. At least then if our ass had to hang, we could at least spread a leg out onto the floor to support our weight through the leg on the floor.

There is nothing more disturbing than sleeping with your ass hanging out of a bed, especially if you have a big ass, which I unfortunately do.

A couple of months on, even the King Sized bed wasn’t good enough as the hubs suffered from lack of sleep through contact with the sleeping octopus. She would get up in the middle of the night, sit up, mumble something with her eyes closed, then fall backwards back to sleep. Or she would get up eyes closed, crawl around the bed and thump herself forward into la-la-land. Sometimes she would even walk around the bed, with her eyes open or closed, then fall back into sleep. It was hilarious watching but also dangerous as we physically caught her with our hands a few times before she fell off the mattress. The hubs decided enough was enough and got himself a puffy sleep mat to put beside our king sized mattress and has slept there since.

Last night at 3am, I was concentrating hard on NOT falling off our mattress. The dimensions of a king sized mattress is two by two metres. I am only 1.53 metres tall and although quite wide, relative to the mattress size, occupy a quarter of it at most. The sleeping octopus is 80cm the last time I checked.

But last night, she squeezed me to the last 12 inches of the bed. Man!!!

My first thoughts were : we’re doing sleep training in her own bed tomorrow.

Tomorrow has come but I’m just too tired to go through a few hours of mercy screaming so we give in to her yet again….

Perhaps I need to go get my own sleep mat.

**************************************************************************
Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin is a former Design Architect turned Multi-Million Dollar Digital Entrepreneur. She sets out to prove to all that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.

Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past and doubled her salary 5 times over 5 organisations but has grown THREE BUSINESSES to 7 FIGURES within an 8 year period. She now shows others EXACTLY HOW after retiring her own husband from employment. He is now the official dog walker, family driver, chef and THE BEST FATHER to their two girls and THE BEST HUSBAND to the woman who CHOSE HIM!

Mamapumpkin is the girl who has nothing but fights for everything including YOU. She is idealistic in her desire to put unbelievable amounts of money and extrardinary happiness into the lives of good people so we can change the world together believing in happiness for ALL. She strives to impact lives authentically wanting to reduce poverty cycles and enable quality education for all and always supports the voiceless. She believes we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.

A beautiful life without limits.

If you wish to learn how to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave to take action. Mamapumpkin's purpose is to build people. Her gift is to help them UNCOVER their HIDDEN GIFTS. She operates fairly and always leaves an impression. You either love her or not and she is alright either way.

She is a living testimony that women really can have a lot. Being financially and time free has enabled her to travel the world anytime, anywhere, doing anything with anyone, as she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.