The birth aside....landmarks that make you feel like a "real" mother?

[champagnesupernova]

Mate on Facebook said that she felt like a real mum, now that she had cleaned up proper sick (!)
I have just sewn on my first name-tape and that really felt like a landmark moment...
What are yours?

Does saying 'you don't know you're born' count.
It only made me feel like a 'real' mum because I sounded like my own mum

First blood; toddler just getting started running and tripped over. Lip/tooth interface, blood pouring. Gave me a wobble and she was most upset.

An ice lolly helped though (her, not me) . Brought down the swelling, got some sugar in her bloodstream and gave her something else to concentrate on. I felt it was a genius idea on my behalf!

The first time they wrap their arms round your neck for a cuddle!

Knowing that we are celebrating DS2 (DC3) first birthday next week when we were so very close to him not being here.

taking him to school and collecting him. school plays (weep), the way only i can make a hurt go away with a kiss.

I dont know, the baby stage i felt more like i was tending to needs rather than mothering, the older they get the more you know them and they know you so it seems different to me

Standing in the loos of a grotty soft play centre waiting for Dd2 (aged 2) to do a wee whilst breathing through my mouth to avoid the stench smell. Gritting teeth, staring at chipped lilac paint on wall and feeling ever so slightly nostalgic for my highly paid, sometimes glam, London meedja job.

First hospital trip. Eek!

First time she hurt herlsef and wanted me over anyone else.. it was completly natural to her but weird as hell for me. I kind of looked around expecting the nearest person to her to help but she made a bee line for me and I thought on one hand "aww, I'm her mummy" and on the otherhand "shit, this little person really needs me"

when I say "because mummy said so.." and when he comes running into our room in the morning shouting "mummy", jumps on the bed and gives me a big cuddle Ooh, and licking a tixxue to clean his face

sorry, tissue!

Catching their vomit in your hands because it means less cleaning up.

First time you hold your arms open and they toddle into them for a cuddle...

DS is getting so good at it now and it NEVER gets boring!

Not minding when they vomit into your bra.

Lots of these, plus going to my first school parents evening as "Mrs Scent, mother of little Scent" - a very grown up parental occasion!

Sewing on name tapes the evening before term starts. Blanching as you get the total for the new year's school shoes. Wrapping stocking presents on Christmas Eve and scoffing down Santa's mince pie and sherry, and feigning astonishment as they scamper in the next morning to tell you all the amazing things that Santa gave them.

But the thing that made me feel most like a Real Mum rather than some pfb-crazed amateur was the day I threw away my thermometer in favour of a kiss on the forehead to check whether they had a temperature.

When the midwife asked me if 'mum had any illnesses in the family' and I thought she was talking about my mum! It took me a while for it to sink in that I was actually a mum and had a DS.

Mine came early. I went to the GP when I first realised I was pg and she gave me a form to take away and send off (the one to ensure free prescriptions whilst pregnant). The GP had already filled in my name next to the bit that said "Name of expectant mother". I remember walking down the street thinking "omg, I am a mother" (albeit an expectant one!)

Also, when ds1 was born, referring to him as "my son". Very weird, but also a very proud moment.

When DS first projectile vomited. Landed in my ear, hair, down my bra.... I had to stay calm (poor thing was freaked out) and clear up without heaving.

Sending in the application form for DD1 to start school.

Also when I found myself using phrases like 'because I said so' and 'look with your eyes not your hands'...

First time ds splashed happily in the bath.

And the times I got ripped off in the supermarket and steeled myself to argue with Customer Services on the grounds that it was taking money from ds, and when a GP said I couldn't have drugs as I was bf and I argued with him until he gave in.

Though highlight so far was when I told ds I was in the middle of making his pink birthday cake that he asked for, with the pink icing already made, and his little face lit up like in all the movies and he hugged my leg and went "THANK YOU MUMMY!"

Running with DC1 through a packed theme park towards the ambulance as his broken arm dangled dramatically.

Heroic stuff that, for both of us.

When they are ill/frightened/anxious and ONLY mummy will do.

Seeing them absolutely ecstatic/hysterically happy as they realise their birthday present/christmas present is the thing they wanted. And then you finally realise the POINT of presents at christmas, after years of mechanically exchanging crap toiletries with other adults.