Sunday morning

I woke up with no alarm clock today, well no actual alarm clock- the birds were chirping away and the sisters were fighting over something or other. I lay in bed just listening and trying to adjust my eyes to the sunlight.

Then my middle girl came into my room with a breakfast biscuit for me, she whispered -'I'll just leave your breakfast on your pillow Mammy.'

About two minutes later, eldest sister walked in and offered me coffee. (I declined as the last cup had half a bag of sugar in it- or at least that's how it tasted!)

And, I smiled as I relished not having to jump up and get ready for work, or wake at the crack of dawn to peel bananas and fix juice for three. This stage of parenting is special for sure, but bittersweet too.

My girls are pretty self sufficient. Of course they still need me for lots of stuff, but mostly they are happy for me to just be around rather than demanding my time.

To any exasperated first time mamas who might be reading this, those long sleepless nights won't last forever. Neither will the fussy eating, and the days of not changing out of pyjamas and snuggling your sweet baby on the sofa. Where possible, embrace all of those things, even the hard bits, because one day they'll be gone and you'll struggle to remember them!

Instead, one day you'll stay in bed until 9am on a Sunday whilst those babies you rocked will rock up to your room with a breakfast biscuit and a can of dr.pepper. Then you'll lay back, smile and wonder if the fact they think a breakfast biscuit and a can of Dr Pepper counts as breakfast, is a bad thing, or just awesome parenting skills...