Geordie Shore star 'scared of going to bed' after having first baby
Holly Hagan-Blyth recently lifted the lid on one of motherhood's biggest challenges as she admits she was scared of going to bed after welcoming her son Alpha-Jax.
Geordie Shore star Holly Hagan-Blyth and BBC Radio One DJ Charlie Hedges may have become friends while recording a new CBeebies Parenting podcast, but there is one subject the two mums disagree on.
'I got a lot of advice from Charlie with regards to potty training, and she said it was really, really fun,' says Holly, 32, who is mum to two year old son Alpha-Jax. 'I don't think I am finding it as fun as she said it was!'
She and Charlie, 38, have joined forces to host the Parenting Helpline podcast for CBeebies' new online parenting community, chatting to a different expert each week and helping parents answer those burning questions about pregnancy, birth and raising young children.
'It's about supporting parents and carers from pregnancy right up to starting school, which is where me and Holly are right now,' Charlie says.
'There is so much advice and stuff online, which is great, but I think as a new parent you kind of get lost in all of that. There's lots of information out there, but where? Where is the one solid place you can go to? I think the CBeebies parenting hub will be so helpful and I'm so proud to be part of it.'
But there's another piece of advice Holly wishes she'd had before motherhood. ' I wish somebody had warned me about the baby blues, because oh my God, that hormone drop once I got home from hospital, I was crying for no reason.'
'I didn't realise I was going to feel all those emotions. It would get to 6pm, 7pm and I just burst into tears because I was scared of going to bed, I didn't want to be alone,' she says.
'It was very strange, but thankfully that passed after a week or so. But nobody warned me about that. I wish somebody had spoken to me about that, because that wasn't fun.'
Holly has had her own experience of falling down the online advice rabbit hole and scaring herself as a new mum by reading stories about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
'I worried about febrile seizures and all of these things you didn't really know about before you had social media,' she says. 'It's great to get advice but it can be really bad for being able to see a lot of negative things.
It feels like SIDS is a really common thing and I was absolutely terrified. Thinking that one day a baby might just stop breathing is terrifying to me. I even had an Owlet sock for the first year of his life that tracked his breathing and oxygen and heart rate because I am an anxious person.'
Charlie, whose daughter Summer Rose will be three in August, is proud that she and Holly have shared their own experiences as mums of toddlers on the podcast, and have been joined by parents talking about their own challenges and triumphs.
'It has been beautiful to encourage people to ask questions and be open and honest, because that helps other people as well,' she says.
'I can't wait to reach the point where my daughter is old enough to understand that this is something I have done, because it's myself and Holly talking about our own personal situations.'
The pair have also given advice to each other, but Holly admits that her experience with raising her son has been poles apart from Charlie's life with her daughter. 'Raising sons and daughters is completely different, they have different brain chemistry, they have different teaching styles,' Holly says.
'I also think temperament is a big thing as well, every child has a different temperament. I've got a very high temperament child, and I've made no secret that it has been a difficult journey with him from being around four months old.
I'm getting to the point now where we're two years in and I feel like I am finally in the swing of motherhood, but it has taken me a long time to get there and be comfortable with it, it just turns your whole life completely upside down.'
Things have definitely improved as Alpha-Jax has approached his second birthday – the age many other parents dread. 'For me, the 'terrible twos' have become the terrific twos,' Holly says.
'This is the best age I could ever imagine. So many people say 'Just wait,' but I think 'no, you don't realise what we have been through the last year and a half.'
It's been really hard, he was very whingey, and nothing could please him. It was like he just hated being a baby. And now that he's able to communicate, he's speaking in full sentences, we're having conversations and he is just the best thing in the world.'
Working together on the podcast, both Holly and Charlie have thought about the advice they themselves were given as new mothers. For Charlie, one of the best pieces of advice came from her own mum.
'I remember my mum saying to me, that everything is a phase,' she says. 'I've heard that many times but it is important. Baby's not sleeping through the night, or you're at the weaning stage and things are really tough. It's something to have in the back of your mind that whatever it is, it isn't going to go on for a long, long time. Nothing lasts forever.'
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