Have you seen the gorgeous photos of Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash and their newborn baby girl doing the rounds on social media?

In case you’ve been on another planet the singer and TV presenter has welcomed her fourth child – and as a mama of four too I feel compelled to wade in with some words of wisdom from someone who has been there, done it and got the (sick stained) T-shirt!

Stacey Solomon

Bluebell and I met Stacey once when we took part in a healthy eating ad campaign with her for McDonald’s and she was lovely.

I’ve got no doubt she’ll totally rock being a mama of four, but even so there’s no getting away from the fact that four is a lot of kids and there are certain home truths about being outnumbered that there’s no getting away from.

So, in a tongue-in-cheek post, I thought it would be fun to share an open letter to Stacey Solomon from a fellow mama of four!

An open letter to Stacey Solomon from a mama of four!

Dear Stacey,

Congratulations on the birth of your beautiful baby girl. She looks absolutely gorgeous, and so do you.

When the newborn oxytocin has worn off and you come down from the just-given-birth high I’m afraid there are a few home truths I feel compelled to furnish you with. And lots of them involve counting.

As a mama of four counting is unavoidable. Counting kids to make sure you’ve got them all and haven’t forgotten one; counting fish fingers and alphabites because everything must be exactly the same or they’ll hold it against you for the rest of your life; and counting grey hairs because you’ll have a lot more of those now.

You’ll also find yourself doing a lot of refilling and replacing, because when it comes to things like food and loo roll they seem to inhale it. It simply seems to disappear. Remember to always check the loo roll before you sit down, because it’s always about to run out and the chances are it will fall to you to check and replace it for the rest of your life.

As for the washing, you can wave goodbye to the bottom of the dirty laundry basket. It will quickly turn into a washing mountain, and the sooner you learn to live with it, the better. If you haven’t already got two washing machines you’ll consider it, and when they get a bit bigger you’ll also consider doubling up on other things too, like roast chickens for Sunday lunch. Which is ridiculous, but necessary.

That said, four is a lot of fun. If noisy. And chaotic. And expensive. There’s never a dull moment, lots of chatter and who needs to see the bottom of the dirty laundry basket anyway.

Now stop posting pictures that make my ovaries ache on social media, pull the drawbridge up and and snuggle down and smell your baby. Because it’s true what they say: the days are long but the years are short. And you must have some counting to do!

Love from,

Crummy Mummy x

Do you follow Stacey on social media and have you been following her pregnancy journey?

If you liked this you may also enjoy reading:

5 things I learnt about parenting in a pandemic

10 things I’ve discovered after one year as a mum of four!

5 reasons I chose flower names for my baby girls!