I was recently sent the Bump to Baby Guide to review for Connect2Mums. The in-depth review should be up on the website soon, but in the meantime I just wanted to say what a great resource it is for expectant mothers.
It's a practical resource using a series of note cards, one for each week from around the middle of your pregnancy.
The first week has this great reflection and a mind-training exercise:
Many studies have shown that a mother's mood has a corresponding effect on the activity levels of her baby. Your emotional state is triggered by your thoughts.
Try to feed your baby only positive emotions and chemicals by focusing on thoughts that increase happiness and wellbeing. Catch yourself when negativity of stress creeps in. Direct your thoughts away from all negative behavious including complaining, worrying or judging.
I tried to do this for a week.
The first time I got to put it into practice was when I got up extra early in an effort to have a nice, quiet, leisurely breakfast before the kids awoke. I heard my youngest call for me as soon as I tiptoed past his bedroom on creaky floorboards, and started to think, "I need a bigger or newer house".
That thought is not new to me, and often leads to a whole lot of other, increasingly negative thoughts!
But I caught myself. I thought instead, "At least I made the effort to get up early, and it wasn't so hard."
Old habits die hard though, and I couldn't keep up all that constant positive thinking for more than a week!
But I think that more practice on that first step alone would make me a more positive, contended mum - and that can only be good for all my kids as well.
Check it out (I'm not getting sponsored for this by the way).
I, too, have a floorboard problem. Something you just don't really notice or care about as much before children, and then as soon as you have them, it's like, "The children's bedrooms need to be on the OPPOSITE side of the house, OR we need a brand new house with none of these issues!" I would have thought the same thing as you. So hard to combat the negative. Then, I would have rushed back into bed, acting like I hadn't heard a thing and hoped that my husband got up.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting Kristy, you made me laugh! Our poor husbands eh?
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