Journey To Motherhood, my first year being a mama...
I adore Libby Hobday’s blog for she is full of information on holistic and green issues. Having lost a bit of my green roots in the last few years I need to get a bit on that track and Libby’s blog is encouraging for this off the green wagon girl. Thanks willybmum for being our Journey Mama today !
Name: Libby Hobday AKA Willy B Mum
Hometown: Small country town of Bunyip, located in the state of Victoria in the country of Australia (located one hour drive out of the major city of Melbourne)
How long have you been living in Brooklyn? My husband of 7 years, 23 month old Son Miles Storm & 2 dogs Rockstarr and Mohawk have been living in “WIlly B” (WIlliamsburg) for 4 years now.
Occupation: Currently LOVING being a Stay-At-Home-Mum but I also run my own marketing companywww.HoneyBeeMGMT.com
When did you first become a mother? 23 months ago! I have one Son but will love to have more as soon as possible. Keep them coming I say, my Son is such a beautiful little spirit to have around.
Was the reality close to your personal image/idea? Not at all, I never liked children but Miles Storm I just adore. He is so happy and curious and says the funniest things. My husband and I spent a lot of evenings out in NYC before our Son was born. Now, we just want to be with him all the time, we are so happy to be at home cooking a beautiful meal, bath him and be in bed by 10PM!!
Before becoming a mother what did you know about motherhood? I did not know a lot, I actually never really liked children even though my Mum and Dad ran a kindergarten out of their house. I was so naive! I was adamant I would never ever ever breastfeed as I was worried what it would do to my Boobs, now here I am still breastfeeding my Son almost 2 years later.
How would you describe the first year? The year our son was born was hard for me as my husband was not really emotional available a lot and he was working so much…. It was like okay I am a Mum now and I just have to do the best I can and I just buckled down on Auto-Pilot and did that. By the time my Son’s first birthday came it was such a relief that we had all made it as a family. A girlfriend once told me the first bday is more for the parents for being able to keep the child alive as there is so much going on during those first 12 months. I did not understand what she meant when she told me BUT NOW I totally understand. There is reason why as a parent you count the weeks off, once a Little One passes the 1 year mark there is a lot less worry.
What helped you to get through it? Well absolutely Miles Storm helped me through it. What a character, it was him and me against the world. Neither of us had any idea what was going on as it was such a new experience, like I said I was on Auto Pilot. I just kept going… woke up everyday and did the best I could do.
We really love your new blog, willybmum, I’ve also read you are working on a holistic Mom Network. Is there anything you can share with us? What can we look forward to? I love my BLOG too, thank-you. I enjoy writing about holistic parenting issues that help us all to be more aware of what is going on with our Little Ones. I learn SO MUCH researching for my posts, so for me it is a learning experience also. My Facebook pagewww.Facebook.com/WillyBMum has taken over as an entity of it’s own (please like us). I try to post at least 4 times a day on nutrition & food, being a local mum and just things of interest that are GREEN Inspired. I have almost 1000 followers there and i love that, it is an extremely interactive page and again I learn so much from other mums who are like-minded from Iceland to China to the state of Alabama in the USA.
The Brooklyn Branch of the Holistic Moms Network is due to start October/November which I am co-leading with 2 other awesome Willy B Mums - Jody who runs Baby Boot Camp in Greenpoint in Brooklyn and Tamara who has a organic baby skin line. Gourmet Guild on the Sth Side of Williamsburg has generously let us use their space for our monthly events. We are all just really excited to get it all started.
Did you have a support system near by being that you’re from Australia? It is difficult at times, however my blog www.willybmum.com and my Willy B Mum facebook page have been a huge help. The reality is I married a native New Yorker who I love very much. We have been together 10 years and I cannot expect him to up his life and move to to the other side of the world to Australia, which at times is incredibly hard. I do not have my Mum, Dad, brother or sister or childhood friends who all have children. I miss out on a lot, But I also have a lot and for that I am so grateful.
Tips for new moms? Just do the best you can, and try to be aware that a lot of chemicals and horrible things are in the things we think are safe… especially food please/use BUY ORGANIC when you can. For example- nappies (diapers). All commercial nappies have bleach and chemicals in them and do you really want your Little One sitting in that 24/7 for 2-3 years. I mention this, as i had no idea until I became a Mum. I wrote about it here if you are up for an interesting read - http://willybmum.com/2012/04/19/the-great-nappy-debate/