Welcome to our Mumma Musing Series 6… we chat with new mumma, content creator, biz owner and all-round muse Kayla Gane aka @kaylaaaellieee. This segment celebrates the mumma's in our life, where we chat all things motherhood. From the journey, the joys, the juggle and everything in between.
Traditional Place Name: Bundjalung
Thanks for chatting to us! Can you tell us a little about you, your family, and your journey into Motherhood?
Our little family consists of my partner Connor and new three month old daughter Vera and a little Cavalier dog Bonti! We live on the border of New South Wales and Queensland in an apartment near the beach! We both own together a furniture business and we have a Boutique in Tweed heads. We are both quite young and wanted to start a family together early on!
What does Motherhood mean to you?
Motherhood means to me loving unconditionally! I love how I might be having a bad day and so will V but we still just laugh which each other and you can feel the love. Being there for each other no matter what.
Being a mum is no easy feat! Who do you look to for inspiration, motivation and advice?
I feel super grateful that I have such an amazing community on Instagram! Honestly whenever I’m having a tough day or need some advice with anything including motherhood related questions I just ask my amazing community and they all have such helpful advice! I’m inspired by all my friends both online and around me. Seeing what people go through and still they show up and are incredible mothers… it’s really beautiful and inspiring.
We chatted to you in January about packing your hospital bag pre birth. What were your 3 top essential items that you packed?
I ended up having an emergency Caesarean so a lot of the things I packed for my postpartum journey I didn’t get to use but one of the things I wish I brought more of was adult nappies! They are amazing post birth for feeling like everything is held in and I found it really easy to just pull off and put in the bin especially with that heavy post birth bleeding. One thing I brought that I didn’t know I’d love so much was fairy lights! We had them in the birth and then also Connor set them up in the room afterwards for the week we were in hospital and it just created such a beautiful atmosphere! The Sterling nipple cups! Honestly these saved my nipples in those first couple of weeks… every time a midwife came in they were amazed to see how undamaged my nipples were!
What part of becoming a parent did you find most challenging or unexpected?
Everyone told us that the sleepless nights would be the hardest part of parenthood but honestly for us the thing we found most unexpected and challenging was in those first couple of weeks or even months when she would just cry and cry and we couldn’t do anything to help! In those moments you feel really helpless and like you’re doing a “bad” job at being a parent! But in reality sometimes they just cry and they just need a cuddle! I think just getting my head around that sometimes she cries for no reason and I’m not able to fix it.
What part of Motherhood brings you the most joy and happiness?
Every time I get her up in the morning around 6am I go over to her bassinet and as soon as she sees my face her face lights up with happiness she giggles and waves her arms around in joy! It’s my absolute favourite thing to wake up in the morning and it puts me in the best headspace and mood for the day! It’s so beautiful that little old me can make this human so happy. :)
You have a beautiful furniture business, own a store, are a new mumma and partner - how have you managed to find a happy work, life, family balance?
This is definitely a struggle! Connor and I have both had to set boundaries with work life and family life I guess because we both work for ourselves it’s hard to be able to turn off at 5 pm! We've now only got the hang of it! We’ve set boundaries with our self and only work Monday to Friday 9 to 5 like anyone else would if they had a “normal” job. It’s been so helpful knowing that at 5 pm we are switching off and any issues we can deal with tomorrow. That means we can give each other and also Vera 100% love and attention. I think excepting that the to-do list is never going to be done and being able to have self control to just switch off has been really helpful.
We've absolutely adored seeing baby Vera using her a Bubba Cloud . What do you love most about it?
Connor and I both swear that this is one of my number one must haves! We still use it every day but those first couple of weeks she was obsessed with being inside of it! It’s so helpful… she feels safe and secure inside of it and those newborn days would settle straight away. We also used it in the hospital and found it so perfect to be able to lay next to her in bed during the day while she was in her little cloud.
Lastly, we’d love to know if you could give one piece of advice to a new/expecting mother, what would it be?
Your mum intuition is your superpower!! There’s so much information out there which is also amazing… but sometimes can be overwhelming and when you strip it right back sometimes you know best when it’s your Bubba! X
Shop Kayla's favourite Sand Dune and Coconut Ice Bubba Cloud