Do you ever have those days you just can’t be bothered?

Cant be bothered to get out of bed, get dressed and make yourself presentable? All you want to do is hibernate in bed, eat chocolate and drink tea. But you can’t do that, because you have a tiny human depending on you.

I often get days like this, I don’t cope well on a lack of sleep so if Ava has been up a bit through the night, I can struggle the next day. But when I turn over in bed and see Ava-Mae waking up and giving me the biggest smile ever from her crib, it does help to spur me on.

When I have days like this, I always try to grab a shower as soon as I can, freshen myself up, get dressed, tie my hair back and get myself out for a walk. Even if we don’t go far, just to get some fresh air for myself and Ava and let the dog have a run around. It really helps to lift my mood and give me a bit more energy.

Then I often just come home and lay on the sofa, drinking lashings of tea whilst Ava plays on her playmat. I do feel guilty on days like this, I feel like I should be out and about, doing this, going to play groups or meeting up for play dates, but I think it’s important to be kind to yourself too, otherwise you’ll run out of steam completely. I’m sure Ava-Mae won’t judge me because we didn’t go out and do something every day, instead we just played together at home and perhaps watched a little bit more baby TV than usual.

On days like this I won’t put her down for a nap, I just let her sleep on me and I will enjoy every second of it, I catch up on my TV during this time or draft blog posts up on my phone, or just stare at her. I forget about housework and mundane tasks like that, and I just enjoy my baby.

It’s typical that I have days like this when my partner is working, otherwise he will help out massively and let me go have a bath or take Ava and the dog out for a walk so I can just relax and have time to myself, but usually when he’s off I’ll have loads of energy! Days like this make me miss my family much more than usual. I wish I could just call my mum to come over and help, but by the time she would get here, the day would be over.

I’m sure every mum has days like this, and it’s okay. Snuggle up on the sofa and enjoy quality time indoors with your baby. Try not to let Mum guilt get in the way, if you have the odd day you can’t be bothered to get dressed, does it really matter? I’m trying to take advantage of days like that whilst I still can, soon Ava will be running around and begging to go out and play. If I have a tough day and don’t want to go out, I make sure we do as little as possible, go to bed early and try get a good sleep. I always wake up the next morning with bags of energy and can’t wait to get out and do something.