Carrie Bickmore reveals she was hospitalised for mastitis in emotional update
High-profile mums are not immune to the challenges of new parenthood, as Carrie Bickmore can attest.
- Carrie Bickmore and partner Chris Walker welcomed baby Addie in December
- The couple are parents to 11-year-old Ollie and 5-year-old Evie too
- Carrie says baby number three has not been easy
What a difference a few months can make
Carrie Bickmore’s returned to write her first Stellar magazine column after her daughter Addie’s birth and she chose Mother’s Day to relate her own difficult experience with baby number three. The column featured Carrie’s thoughts at the two month mark of parenting Addie, and a follow up comparison, this time at the five month mark.
“I realise now I had it pretty easy during the newborn phase with my two other kids,” Carrie wrote when Addie was two months old.
“This little poppet has needed to be held day and night for six weeks straight. Reflux. Sounds like such a gentle affliction but it’s genuinely torn us a new one.”
Expectation vs reality
Carrie notes that her expectations of motherhood the third time around were very, very removed from the reality. The exhaustion and lowered immunity of new mum life, coupled with her clingy baby’s feeding took a toll.
“Why are the nights so much lonelier?” Carrie wrote. “I had a vision I’d spend my days this past summer feeding Addie on the back deck while Ollie and Evie played in the sunshine, laughing and carefree.”
“But juggling the three of them during school holidays, with Evie not enjoying her new world order, Addie projectile vomiting everywhere, a trip back to hospital with mastitis and a whole lot of being awake is the true story.”
Ugh. It all sounds SO exhausting and non-ideal … and very typical of new mum life, which often gives you what you least expect. Just to keep you on your toes.
It’s not all pasta necklaces
A few months later, Carrie detailed how far the family had come in just a few short months, stressing again that parenting is not as glossy as Instagram would often have us believe … but that the tough times DO get better.
“Addie is five months old and I think we’re through the toughest bit. Medication has fixed the reflux. The other two kids are in their routine, we’re getting (broken) sleep and Addie’s smiling which makes it all better.”
“Motherhood isn’t always breakky in bed and handmade necklaces,” Carrie wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo of the Stellar piece.
“I send a giant fist bump to all the families currently in the trenches. I wish you calmer times ahead. Keep telling yourself the nights are long but the years are short.”
