Cape Town – South African television presenter and actress, Stephanie Ndlovu, has taken to Instagram to open up about her motherhood journey thus far, in what she calls “a long and honest post”.
Stephanie and her partner, Hungani Ndlovu, recently announced on their youtube channel that she had given birth to a girl in a gender, and name reveal video.
Stephanie said that in the build-up to having the baby, she had a picture-perfect idea of how her journey was to unfold. She revealed a few things she had told herself.
“I will not be accepting ‘the new me’ excuse; after 6 weeks I’ll be back at gym & by 3 months I’ll be back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Nobody must come for me with ‘be patient, love your beautiful body that carried an entire human’ being 15kg+ heavier is not my portion,” she said.
She added: “I will be back at work before 3 months because all my life I’ve worked & ‘just’ sitting at home changing nappies and feeding a baby-also not my portion.
“My baby will have strict sleep routines, schedules & consistency because really, I’m not going to suffer with a ‘spoilt’ child.
“Baby blues, postpartum depression- not my portion. After having a baby I am still the exact same person, there’s no saying goodbye to my old self. That’s a choice you make.”
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Stephanie went on to write: “Needless to say, jokes on me.
“For one, I am actually heavier than I was whilst being pregnant. Don’t ask me how, stress, hormones, comfort eating whatever.
“I turned down an AMAZING role at 8 weeks postpartum because I was just not mentally or emotionally ready to work.
“Some days we win with routines and other days I let her sleep in my arms for hours because that’s what she wants to do.”
She also mentioned that she got the baby blues, adding that this kind of love has changed her.
“Baby blues ✅ never cried as much as I did in the first 4 weeks of being a new mother. I cried everyday, everywhere,” she said.
“I am so not the same person, how can I be? I have never known this kind of love that consumes my entire being, that this little soul is all I think about 24/7, that she holds my whole heart in her tiny hands and I often just stare at her and become completely overwhelmed by how much I love her. That love changes you 100%,” she said.
She added: “So here we are, trying to take life in bite size amounts, appreciating the beauty that surrounds me & learning to really be kind to myself because being a mother has no instruction manual, you just do your best and that’s always enough.”
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Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
