When pregnant you try to imagine what your life will be like once the baby arrives. I planned a year off work and would envision a blissful year away from the office being a new mum. I imagined fun days out, lots of shopping, loads of baking and I even imagined doing all the cleaning. Now,doing all the cleaning may not sound like bliss, and it really isn't, but for some reason it was part of my vision and a pleasing one. I think it was because it was a big part of the image I had in my head of being the perfect housewife - or as I like to call it, "Domestic Goddess". Cleaning wasn't a chore, it was part of the desired persona.
You may also notice that my vision of my year away from work doesn't actually include a baby either! I had never been around a baby before so it was hard to imagine exactly what it would be like. I was, and still am, heavily influenced by TV. In TV world, once a woman has a baby you rarely see her with it. The story revolves around them finding out they're pregnant and how everyone feels about it, often finding out who the father is, (rarely the husband), then it skips to the birth, (rarely in hospital), and then just the odd sighting for the next 16 years until they can afford a full time actor. My vision would often involve a toddler or maybe even older, but rarely a baby. If a baby was involved it was asleep just out of shot. For example, when I imagined baking in my year off, there was a small child licking the bowl. I know this is ridiculous and not at all realistic but that was the way it was.
Now the reality. I have an actual baby, that requires my attention 100% when awake. When asleep, I don't want to do anything. I want to sit down and watch TV, (ideally with a glass of red - but I avoid that because that would be the alcoholic vision coming to life, not the domestic goddess one. It would also be the baby taken into care vision - or nightmare). So how do you do cleaning and baking etc when there is a baby in the house?
We're 3 days into the week and so far I have managed to cook a meal every night, clean the bathroom, dust and hoover downstairs, do the food shopping and do 2 loads of laundry. Pretty damn good eh? Tomorrow, I will make soup from scratch for lunch and on Friday I'm planning to hoover and dust upstairs and do another load of laundry, (and cook another 2 meals - 1 of them from Jamie Olivers Meals In 30 Mins book - maybe not in 30mins though).
Now I'm pretty impressed that I've managed to do all of this. From what I hear from other mothers it is best not to attempt too much beyond getting dressed in the mornings. You all probably think I'm showing off now, and quite frankly I am. Sorry. It'll come back and bite me in the bum one day though!
So anyway, although I have achieved all this, in order to do so, I have to adopt some interesting methods. For example, pre-baby, it would take under an hour to clean the bathroom. With the Popster in tow it probably took 2-3 hours. She was awake and wanting to play on her play mat. I wanted to play with her but also desperately needed to clean the bathroom. It was disgusting and I was expecting guests in a couple of days. I would be embarrassed to let people into that bathroom so action was needed. I moved the Popsters play mat to the hall way at the top of the stairs just outside the bathroom door. That way I could keep an eye on her whilst cleaning. However, the Popster was not entirely happy with this arrangement and was quite demanding of my attention, (fair enough). This meant every few mins I had to stop cleaning, wash my hands and go and squeeze something on the mat and rub the Popsters tummy. (I know she isn't a dog, but for some reason she likes having her tummy rubbed like a dog - hopefully she'll grow out of that). I must have washed my hands 50 times!! By the time I had finished cleaning the bath and the window sill, the Popster had decided enough was enough. Bathroom cleaning had to be abandoned and the Popster had to have my full attention. This means the bathroom was still in chaos when it came to her bedtime routine which included a bath - at least that was clean! Bath done, Pyjamas on, feed over, book read, Popster in bed, back to the bathroom. It was 7pm and I was cleaning a bathroom I had started cleaning at 4pm!!
Tomorrow I'm planning on making soup. I'm planning the Popster to be asleep long enough for me to get washed and dressed and soup made, as well as having breakfast and clearing up. Is it going to happen? Unlikely. The back up plan is the Popster will be happy and contented to sit in her bouncy chair in the kitchen and watch me make soup. Wish me luck.
Where is my cake!
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