Am I Still THE Mellow Mummy?

10 weeks in and life is returning to normal. I no longer live in a state of survival, trying to get through every hour without making a mistake. I feel on top of motherhood, which, compared to the first time, I think it pretty good going! I thought that it would be a good idea to re-evaluate my Mellow Mummy status. Am I STILL the Mellow Mummy even after a second child?

When Lara was born, motherhood had the wonderful side effect of calming me down, making me happier, less stressed, more relaxed and more spontaneous. I know a lot of this was to do with hormones and to do with the happy chemicals that Lara and I shared when we were together because when we were away from one another and, when I went back to work after maternity leave, the mellowness did begin to wear off a little.

During the later stages of pregnancy with Holly I could feel the 'yeah... whatever' feeling of mellowness descend again but childbirth does strange things to a woman and I was worried that this time I might benefit the same mellow side effect.

I certainly haven't had the 'nice hair and nails' side effect this time around but my 'totally random dry skin' side effect has come back since giving birth to Holly. Damn.

And the mellowness? Yes it is definitely back. Perhaps even stronger than last time. As a first time mum it is unusual for someone to be as laid back as me and to be so happy to just go with the flow and with your instincts. For a second time mum it is not so out of the ordinary. There are lots of happy and relaxed faces among my new second-time-mummy friends but then there are also still worriers - I'd love to be able to pass on some of the mellow vibes to them.

So yes, motherhood is great fun and I'm looking forward to the challenges that life has to throw at us together. If I can cope with toddler tantrums and two daughters with chicken pox in the first three weeks of Holly's life then what else does life have in store for us?

A Bite At Nursery - How Would You React?

A fortnight ago, shortly after Lara started at nursery, I witnessed a heated exchange between a member of nursery staff and a distraught mother whose child had been bitten by another toddler. After exclaiming "Oh.... My... gawd", the woman burst into tears before then launching a tirrade of abuse at the staff. "Tell me who did this" (they can't), "I demand to speak to the parents" (err, you can't), "I demand that the child be disciplined" (err, they're one year old).

As I left the nursery that night, I chatted to Mr. B. about how we would have reacted if it had been us. Was this woman overreacting? Is there anything you can do to prevent toddlers biting one another? surely we all learned that biting is a bad thing to do ourselves through biting (and being told off) or being bitten (and it hurting)? Should I be worrying more about this?

Yesterday, I found out how I would react. I received a call at work and it went something like this:-

Nursery: "Mrs Button, Lara was bitten by another child. They
was a disagreement over a toy."

Me: "OK"

Nursery: "We put a cold compress on it but we think it
will bruise."

Me: "OK"

Nursery: "The staff have spoken to the other child and
have explained to them their behaviour was bad. We'll speak to the parents
later."

Me: "OK"

I'll admit that there was a little butterfly in my stomach when I received the call, that I wanted to rush to Lara and give her a cuddle and give the other child a big scowl and some grumpy vibes. So I asked,

Me: "How about Lara, how's she doing?"

Nursery: "Oh, she's fine. She's no idea what we're
making all this fuss about!"

That's my girl.