So I was just watching a program on TV with James Martin about loneliness and it hit home quite a bit really and made me realise I am really lonely and lost at the moment.
The above quote for me is so very true, yea I am lonely but its probably my own doing, does that make it easier, nope still is hard. My plan when I was pregnant with Lily was to do some NCT classes, make some friends and once she was here do what my Mum and sister both did and go to groups and make a bunch of friends. My sister 12 years on still is friends with people she met when Matthew was little, they don't see each other every day or even every month now but I know when Matt was little they were her lifeline. Well then Lily died and I got pregnant with Alex, my idea of hell was NCT classes, I wasn't a first time mother, I had already given birth and nothing they said could change the fact I had gone through the most pain any woman should have to go through in labour, giving birth to a child not knowing if she would be born alive or dead but knowing she wouldn't live. My thoughts and feelings on birth, pregnancy and raising a child I knew would be different, I would have different views (possible strong ones) on topics discussed and just couldn't bring myself to do it. Once I knew I was having i section anyway there was even less point.
So then that leaves baby groups, the first one I went to was a breastfeeding group, I was petrified walking in, Alex was about 5 weeks old and I wasn't breastfeeding but expressing as much as I could and then topping up with formula, I didn't want to go but made myself. I met a really lovely woman who I chatted to and seemed cool and said would see next week. Next week Alex was ill and then I stopped expressing as it just got too much so that was the end of that group. I went to the local sling meet to borrow a sling as one of the health care assistants at the hospital runs one and again first time I went I was bricking it. She was lovely and made me feel at home. I went to feed Alex and one woman asked me about if I was feeding Alex breast milk, cue me feeling like poo about not being able to breastfeed and when I replied no the other 3 women around seemed to turn their noses up at me. So that made me feel awful. I take Alex to get him weighed at clinic, but people just seem to weigh and go quickly. A couple of weeks ago I went to a group and met a few mums, one I knew from my old job working in a jewellers as was a customer, but then Alex has been ill so I didn't go the next week and now I have lost my confidence again.
I think what I am trying to say is I had all these ideas when I was pregnant about all these new friends I would make, after living in Taunton 3 1/2 years I have like 2 real friends and that is it and I knew having a baby would be my chance to make a network, yet I am struggling, Partly my own fault I know. What I hadn't taken into consideration in my little fantasy was after having a baby your confidence is low, I don't know what I am doing half the time, I second guess every decision I make and wonder if I am a good mum so trying to think about making friends is really scary. Plus I am trying to work out what kind of Mum I want to be, I have learnt that any ideas or preconceptions I had before Alex was here are basically a load of crap, until your child is here you don't know how you will think and feel, so how can I make friends when I don't know how I want to bring him up, what I am really for and against, you want to make friends with like minded mums but I don't know what I think or feel. Add to that the amount of confidence I have lost over the last 18 months since Lily died, I have been at home alone for most of it, I segregated myself very well and while it worked for me in pregnancy I am regretting it now. 
Also even when I meet people and make friends they can't understand me, they don't understand how I am feeling as hopefully they have not had to bury a child so how can they possibly understand how confused I feel ALL the time, I love my son, of that there is no doubt, he is the light of my life. BUT my heart still hurts, before Alex I was just broken, its easy to be broken, my heart was ripped in two and I was so unhappy, but now I have to work out how to be happy and unhappy at the same time, its hard hard work.
I suppose I am scared, scared of putting myself out there and trying to meet people. I know it may take a few goes before I find someone who I click with and that's the thing, I think I am frightened of putting myself out there, laying my heart on the line and letting people in and yep I am sure every mum feels like that, so maybe I just need to do it, in the new year just put myself out there, meet people, let them in a little bit and see what happens...................................
But its so scary
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