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?

cocoachannel She will be fine ! It sounds like a lovely Nursery with little names above the pegs. How did the settling in morning go ? I've worked in several nurseries and I'd say 9mths is a good age to start - hopefully before they get to the very clingy stage ? Good luck for Monday !

When ds1s friend see me n town and the shout thats xxx mummy hiya lol

awwww

When i pick both ds from school and they both have massive smiles on theut faces when they see me. Ds2 in nursery and cones.runing and jumps up for a cuddle :)

When I hear myself saying stuff like - "You have got till the count of 5 to get your coat on or I'm going without you."
I have turned into my own mother.

When I hear my DD(4) telling her little brother off (2) using my phrases and exact tone.
Even better when she does it to her father!

When pregnant I watched a series following women through ivf, pregnancy (if they were lucky), and childbirth. It was on in half hour installments at 10.30am. I'd wake up in the night worrying about all the mums-to-be (episodes often ended on a cliffhanger), and I'd often phone my DH, in tears, to say: "It's OK Celeste didn't need an emergency c-section and she had a boy!"

Then when DC1 was minutes old, the midwife said to me: "So did you want him to have the vitamin K injection then?" I just couldn't believe that someone had trusted me to make a decision about such a tiny, vulnerable newborn. And then it struck me ...God, I'm his mum.

Welling up now because next week he's off to Australia for a year. I know it's a cliche, but it really does fly by.

I caught myself trying to motivate DD1 to take the dog for a walk by guilt-tripping her
It worked just about as well it worked when my mum tried it on me. Not at all

Two things for me, the first day DD went to pre-school she had a cold and just getting her dressed in her uniform and making sure she had tissues in her pockets really got to me. I was her Mummy, making sure she was ready for the big world.
That and the other day when I actually used the phrase 'I can't see through walls you know'. Oh yes, I'm a Mum!

these are so lovely....{sob}

I didn't realise that becoming a new mummy would mean that I could no longer watch the news (bad bits) ...or soppy adverts...or tv appeals for charity ..

I didn't realise how much of an IDIOT I'd been to my friends (No sisters and no experience with little ones whatsoever!) which made me a complete numpty before I had my own. My regret is that I now I know how I could have helped...it's too late!! Friends having babies after me have benefitted from my new found wisdom...those before have been very, very kind to me ....and most of them are still friends!!

I only know that after 5 years of infertility treatment I now know complete and utter selflessness and pure love .

Whether it's poo/vomit/cuddles/milestones...whatever ...i just know that nothing will be more important to me. (and DP)

I would do anything for her.

When they chase you to the door to get a kiss before you go or bite you when you put way the haribos.

When I got my first Mother's Day card...

When I got lent a baby walker by a relative. I was really very poor at the baby stage and never really felt like a real mother - it was particularly bad when ds could sit up but still couldn't move, he was so frustrated. As soon as ds had this thing which gave him a chance to be mobile, he was SO happy and used to hurl himself at top speed through the house towards me with his arms straight up in the air and the world's hugest grin. I felt then that I'd managed to give him something that he really valued even though he hadn't known he wanted it. A very powerful thing.

YESS!!

When I have to sew a button on or mend a rip in a dress. It is hard work but feels like I am being proper mum.

So many. Saying "my son." Getting his Social Security Card in the mail with his full name that we chose for him on it.

When he was ill at daycare and I brought him home and put on fresh pajamas and tucked him in on the couch and just sat there stroking his hair.

Talking to the pediatricians. Deciding that he'd outgrown his coat. Figuring out when to take him for haircuts.

Saying "you get back in that bed this minute and don't make another peep until your clock says 7."

So, so many, and truthfully I still feel like I'm playacting sometimes! Like eventually the real, responsible adults are going to come home.

For me it is when I am helping them get dressed for school in a morning. I remember as a child my mum helping me button my clothes up or fastening my dungarees and she had this familiar smell on her hands that where MY mums smell
Now when I help dress my ds2 I see that smile on his face that tells me he thinks something similar

Oh and when they come and give you a cuddle first thing in the morning.
Shame they're starting to grow up now

First trip to the doctor to get a foreign body removed from DD's nose. Why the compulsion to put things up there??

Also being called "DD's Mummy" by her friends as if it is is my actual name...

Hi Gertie - We had popcorn kernels in the ear - nurse at walk-in-centre couldn't get it out easily so we had an appt to come back later in the week

• Then it fell out next day when she was running around at soft play centre !

She wasn't even that little - about 7 I think - Why oh why ?!

When DS was plopped on my belly still attached by the cord, we looked at each other and I knew then that I was a lioness with her cub, also about half an hour later he was wrapped in a towel he had his first feed, he took to it like a duck to water. I have never thought I could love someone so much as my little dude

Mine took to BFing very easily too hoops - like ducklings to water I always say Those first feeds did help me feel like a mother, especially I think with DS (DC2) when I was already more confident It's lovely snuggling your newborn just after birth isn't it ?

The first time DS said, "I love you mummy" was so special. (For weeks he had been telling his trains that he loved them, so when it was my turn I wept!)

Weirdly, it's been the 'inadequate mother' moments more recently now DS has started nursery.
When DS pushed over another boy and I was ,
Also when DS was the only one not to turn up in his pyjamas for the pyjama party simply because he sleeps in a paint stained pair of trackie bottoms and t-shirt and doesn't have proper pjs. I explained to the nursery but just got a

Having to repeatedly wipe a constantly streaming snotty nose. Yuk.

When he hurts himself or is ill.

When he started to say 'mumma mumma' and actually mean me.

Actually agree with the OP and the proper sick thing. DS went from inoffensive baby sick to the retchworthy smell of proper sick overnight

Oh dear god I'm sitting here with dd whos watching waybuloo and im trying not to cry in front of her and IT'S NOT WORKING!

Waited 17 months for this.... when DD said mummy. All she says some days and although it can seem annoying, I still love it at 5.30am and I can hear her calling me. Makes me smile inwardly. She is ony 21 months though. :)

Saying 'Mhhmm, mmmhmm, yes, really dear,good on you' about something I know not what that ds1 was wittering on about. I was 'mum who doesn't really listen' and felt proper mum-like.