An Introduction

I’m Amy, mother to 14-month-old Matheson, wife of Euan and new Trotters employee.

These last 14 months have been the happiest, most exhausting and most challenging time of my 30-something years of life. I haven’t made it easy on myself, which I’m discovering most new mums don’t, however when we decided to turn our party of 2 into a party of 3 we were living on the other side of the world from all of our family and most of our friends. In addition to this, we also decided to fly our new born to New Zealand and back, move house and that I would start a new role in a new company – Trotters.

The return to work from maternity leave started around 8 months ago when I decided to work Saturdays in my previous position, leaving my two boys to have a daddy – son day together. I loved the new ‘freedom’ I had after having a small person pretty much attached to me most of the time. I now had a day, just one day, that I wasn’t just mum and do you know what I spent most of that day doing? Talking about being a mum!

After finding a nursery that ticked all of our boxes, I decided it was time to look for something else, part time, which I discovered is not easy. There was plenty of full-time work out there but everything either finished after nursery closed or required me to work days that I wasn’t available. On top of this, the settling-in at nursery wasn’t as smooth as I expected it to be. My easy-going, sociable, carefree one year old cried, a lot, but on his 7th day it was like he shook off the fear, accepted this was going to happen and embraced it. This made the search for work a bit more bearable, and as a result made me a that much more determined. In the end, I landed the perfect the job, the hours were spot on and I started immediately which left no time for that new job hair appointment, work clothes shopping or the mandatory coffee with friends to debrief. I was straight in there, from mum to trainee.

Now, as all mums know, nothing ever goes according to plan. I soon discovered getting everyone ready, fed, dressed, bags packed and out the door at the same time requires something akin to military precision. I once thought that if I had everything organised, it would go smoothly but with a small child, that’s virtually impossible! We’ve had uneaten breakfasts, cold coffee, an extra change, impromptu hair washing, carpet cleaning, boo-boo kissing and teeth that have forgotten to be brushed, but we haven’t been late once. This is also coupled with the mad rush at the end of the day: out of the office, off to nursery, home for dinner, bath, bed, settle, resettle…and unsurprisingly, we’ve ordered take-out more than once since I started working. To top it all off, we’ve also had the lovely unexpected emergency GP appointments to be told little Mr. had tonsillitis and also needs to take an inhaler each night. I’ll repeat it again, nothing ever goes according to plan.

I can honestly say hand on heart that I’m enjoying my new role of mother|wife|cleaner|cook|employee, and although some days are more hectic than others, it’s on those days that the cook and cleaner in me can take the day off. I’m looking forward to keeping you updated on my journey of combining motherhood with my Trotters adventures so until next time…

X Amy

Erratum: He now has Chickenpox!