Jess Redden has been open about new motherhood – even the struggles.
The mum of one welcomed her baby boy, Bobby, to the world back in August and despite her overwhelming joy she admitted to feeling ‘mum guilt’.
Recently, Jess said that she couldn’t get him to sleep in his cot despite her best efforts and was blaming herself that he hadn’t settled into a routine.
The newborn would only sleep if he was lying on her chest.
Speaking to her followers she said: “Postpartum thoughts can be anxiety fuelled and tunnel-visioned at times, today I’m telling myself it’s okay if he won’t nap in his crib, these contact naps won’t last forever.”
It appeared that her followers appreciated her honesty and they rushed to send her reassuring messages, reminding her to not be so hard on herself.
The next day, Jess hopped back on Instagram to thank her followers for being so kind.
“I got so many lovely messages about the contact nap story I just found that yesterday,” she said.
“I think I spent the guts of three hours, up and down, up and down, trying to get him into a cot and I felt maybe guilty because he wasn’t following this routine that so many other babies seem to follow.
“You know every baby is different they’re not going to follow a certain set routine and it takes time but yeah feeling better today.”
In return for their kind words, the proud mum of one decided to return the favour reminding her fellow parents not to play the comparison game.
“It’s really important not to compare your journey to anyone else’s either. I found from my own consumption of social media people were making it look so easy and I was thinking gosh why is it not feeling easy for me?” Jess said.
“Or, even if you’re chatting to someone and someone had a baby the same age and they were saying ‘Oh she sleeps through the night’ and I was just thinking ‘I’m doing something wrong,’ but it’s really important not to give out to yourself like that because you’re doing nothing wrong.”
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