My MAMA Journey Part 1

“They’re so tiny”

In the first few weeks after my son was born as well as being overwhelmed, exhausted, head over heels in love, sore and constantly hungry, I also became obsessed with his tiny hands and feet. I took hundreds of photos of them and couldn’t believe how tiny they were!

I desperately wanted to create the cute hand and footprints I’d spent hours looking online whilst waiting for his arrival, but I was nervous about damaging his precious skin. I also had a page in my baby milestone book which required hand and footprints and with every day he grew older I was irrationally and hormonally concerned this would be left empty.

Finally when he was 7 weeks old and I was just about getting to grips with the whole being a mum thing, I bit the bullet and drew around his hands and feet with a pencil!

Now I know this sounds super simple but I never realised how much newborn babies like to scrunch up their hands and how difficult it is to get them to relax. Due to this I abandoned his hands and started with his feet! I then ensured he was in a deep milk induced coma state and slowly unraveled his hands and drew round them very quickly so as not to wake him.

Success! I finally had something to put in my baby milestone book and whilst it was nothing grand and nothing to share on Facebook, it captured the size they were and I felt I had made the first step and could then move on to something a bit more daring!

So I ordered some special air drying clay which said it was suitable for newborns. After reading the instructions several times I was ready. With my prior knowledge of the hand clenching difficulties I waited till he was sleeping then began;

Step 1 – I rolled pieces of the clay to around 1cm think and placed the onto small boards (I used coasters).

Step 2 – I wiped his hands and feet clean.

Step 3 – I gently (too gently the first time as no print was left!) pushed his hands and feet into the clay to make the imprints.

Step 4 – I left the imprints to dry and harden

Now the instructions said once hardened you could use acrylic paints on them but to me they were perfect as they were and I was so proud of them they are framed and up on our living room wall.

So the start to my MAMA journey was simple, but special and looking back even though the final products were not Pinterest worthy, they meant the world to me and still do which is what really matters!