Overcoming a fear with a trip to Daylesford

Before I had kids I often thought about the type of mum I was going to be. I wanted to be one of those laid back mums. You know, the ones that don't appear to be phased by anything? But then I had my baby and well, motherhood wasn't at all like I had expected.

Corben was a pretty unsettled baby, due largely to an absolutely pathetic milk supply, so by the time he was around 3 months old, I was tired and he was hungry. The maternal health nurse we were seeing made me feel as though I had to keep breastfeeding or I was an incompetent mother, so I did just that. I fed him twelve times a day up until he was 8 months old.

Those months were, without a doubt, the worst of my life. I eventually stopped going out in public with him because I couldn't stand the way people stopped and stared when he started screaming....and he screamed ALL the time.

While he is an absolute delightful little boy now, the memories of those months are still very much in the forefront of my mind two years on. I find I am always expecting him to throw tantrums or misbehave when we are out and so we continue to limit our outings despite the fact that the tantrums never occur.

Recently Matty and I decided we needed to force ourselves to go out more as a way to build up our confidence, so we went to the Clunes Booktown Festival a few weekends ago and then to the Ballarat Heritage Weekend. Both of which were a huge success without any crying or tantrums.

Today I took things a step further and the kids and I went for a road trip to Daylesford with Steph, where we played on the playground:


Had a close encounter with some geese:


Collected red leaves from a tree:


And spotted a pencil fence:

Apart from a 15 minute period where Corben had a very minor meltdown, the outing was really enjoyable. Just as well, as we're all booked in to go to the Melbourne Aquarium on Thursday with my sister!