Becoming a mother is the biggest blessing imaginable and opens the door to a world full of love and happiness, smiles and memories that are more intense than before. But motherhood is also full of struggles.

Some struggles are relatively minor, like trying to put a fresh nappy on a baby who just wants to be a gymnast in that precise moment that you undo a nappy full of poop. Or such as the struggle of peeing whilst having a baby sat on your lap because they just won’t let you have a minute to yourself today or they are determined to remove your every ounce of dignity.

However, some struggles are also pretty big; such as the struggle of breastfeeding, or getting through sleep deprivation, or leaving them at nursery and even the daunting process of weaning. I have found that one of my biggest struggles as a mother is when Otis is unwell. I feel so helpless and then full of guilt that I’m helpless. I wish so hard that I can take his illness away from him. I would do anything to be ill myself so that he doesn’t have to be. There is nothing that makes me want to cry more than seeing his little face sadden more and more as he just doesn’t know what to do with himself. The emotional struggle as I have to watch him cling to me in despair, refuse all food, cry because he’s hungry, cry because it’s not getting better, cry because he’s tired, cry because he can’t sleep, cry because he doesn’t want to play …….. it’s so hard.

I have found that, as a mother, there is no worse sound in this world than the sound of my baby crying. And of course on top of that you have the expected physical struggles of being tired yourself, aching because you have to hold him constantly, hungry because you can’t put him down to make yourself some food etc.

Yes, for me one of the biggest struggles of motherhood is definitely having a poorly baby. I should count myself lucky that the worst illnesses Otis has had so far are things like a fever, a cold, reflux……. I’m not quite sure how I will emotionally cope when he gets a more serious illness. But that is the amazing thing about us mothers; despite it all, we always manage to cope and be strong for our children undeterred by our own hidden (and sometimes not so hidden) struggles!

So to all you mothers out there reading this blog. Remember that you are strong. You are powerful. And always praise yourself for managing to cope.