Tip #1

Take each day as it comes. Don't try to plan your or your child's entire life ahead of you. It is impossible and you will drive yourself insane trying! Rather, enjoy each day as it arrives and remember to stop and smell the flowers, point out a pretty bird or just say "I love you".

Fact#3

When you're pregnant, everyone thinks they have shares in your belly that give them the obvious right to touch and feel you and talk to your unborn baby.

It was the strangest thing. Complete strangers would come up to me and want to tell me all about their birth experience or give me some sort of advice on how to be a good mother, or speculate about the sex of my child based on how I was carrying.

My advice: for fear of offending old ladies, smile and take it all with a pinch of salt. At the end of the day, when it's just you and your baby, it's your decision anyway!

Fact#2

A mother knows what's best for her and her child. Trust your gut.

Pregnancy

I loved being pregnant. I was fortunate enough to be free from the sufferings of morning sickness and nausea that usually accompany pregnancy. At my worst- I was more tired than I ever had been and towards the end (and I carried for 41 weeks) I experienced some mild back pain. So, I really do count my lucky stars for what I truly believe was an exceptional and awesome experience.

Pregnancy highlights:

1. Feeling the flutters of my baby moving around inside me for the first time

2. The first time my partner could feel the baby move

3. Watching feet kick out all over my belly

4. My first scan, and then finding out that my baby is a girl

4. Specific cravings for childhood favourites like peanut butter and jam sandwiches

5. Thick, healthy hair

6. Not being able to see past my belly

7. Sleeping on my side

8. Needing to pee urgently all the time

9. The irrational overprotective instinct that I would do anything to protect what was growing inside me

10. Big boobs (although by the time I stopped breastfeeding I was over these!)

11. Mothering advice from complete strangers

I'm pregnant!

I knew that I would be a mother one day. I didn't know when. And I couldn't have guessed if I tried.

The day I found out I was pregnant, although it was a surprise, I was elated. From the moment I got confirmation of the positive result, I knew that (even if only to me) I was carrying the most important person in the entire world. Nothing in my life would be more important than being a mother and looking after my baby. And nothing still is.

The weeks following were filled with moments of sheer joy and excitement, coupled with moments of fear and apprehension. Would we be able to support our child? Would we be good parents? How could we prepare for this?

But, deep down inside, I knew that this was what I was born to do and that this was the perfect time for me to do it. I was going to be a mother, and I was going to love it!

Realisation #4

There is no price on my love. It flows unconditionally.

Not for all the money on this earth will I give up my little girl. There is no price too high that I wouldn't pay to ensure that she is healthy, happy and safe.

Fact #1

There is no such thing as a perfect mother. There is no such thing as a perfect parent. All our children ask of us is to be good enough.

"The "good-enough mother" is a mother whose conscious and unconscious physical and emotional attunement to her baby adapts to her baby appropriately at differing stages of infancy, thus allowing an optimal environment for the healthy establishment of a separate being, eventually capable of mature object-relations."