‘Rest when the baby rests, sleep when the baby sleeps.’ But how can you truly let go of all else?’: Mom says ‘I too need nourishment and rest’

“Musings of a tired mother…

‘Rest when the baby rests, sleep when the baby sleeps.’

It triggers cause it’s true, but how can you truly let go of all else? The house that needs cleaned, the laundry that needs folded. Life carrying on around you.

How can you allow yourself to simply nourish yourself when everything around you needs nourishment, too?

I wonder if these times will pass, my body and mind exhausted. Wanting to throw the towel in more often than not this past week. My body actually giving way from underneath me, telling me to stop. To slow down.

There is nothing more for you to do now. You are doing enough.

Fighting rest yet simultaneously crying out for it.

Have I got something to prove? To others, to myself? ‘Look how much I do. Look how much I AM DOING,’ I silently (not so silently) shout.

To be seen, held and reassured that it is enough. I am enough.

I repeat, ‘I AM. It is okay to rest now. To slow down.’

I too need nourishment.

I too need rest.

And so here I lay. With these two tiny humans resting with me (on me). I may not rest deeply or really much at all.

But rest, I try.”

This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Emma Hourston of Edinburgh, Scotland. You can follow her journey on Instagram and Facebook. Submit your own story here and be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube for our best videos.

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