Yummy Mummy?
Me?
You bet your sweet, dimpled derriere, my friends.
Let me catch you up here.
Some of you may have seen that my diva daughter (believe EVERYTHING you see about this threenager debacle, people, because this phenomena is REAL, I can promise you that!!) has started tantrums. Not just the squawking ‘I wants’; rather the full rolling on the ground, spitting, screaming, hysterical dramas, generally performed best with a live audience. It was whilst my daughter was hammering the footpath with her fists last week, that I had to let a call go through to my message bank. When we were finally home and she was breathing semi-regularly again with only a few hiccups remaining, I checked the message. It was an invitation to a Day Spa. Not just any old place mind you; rather the Yummy Mummy Pregnancy Day Spa. I could have sat on the floor and wept with joy and exhaustion. You see, our kids come first 100% of the time. Don’t get me wrong. I do make time for myself, but even when I am out and about, my mind doesn’t switch off. It is constantly juggling the shopping list, kids appointments and the tracksuit pants that I forgot to squirt with stain remover before I left the house. This begins the moment we slyly say ‘no’ to our first glass of wine when we discover we are pregnant and continues on…well…forever, according to my own mother.
It’s just that life gets so damned busy, right? Sometimes ‘making time for yourself’ can feel like something else tiring that needs to be jammed in the schedule…somehow.
Amy, the founder of Yummy Mummy Pregnancy Day Spa , is a mum. She ‘gets it’. Whilst she was pregnant, she found there was a big gap in the market for a space providing specialist treatments for mums and soon-to-be mums. There is a lot of pink. It is chic vintage and pretty. It smells divine. It is quiet (no kids allowed; got that! It’s grown up time). It is girly, yet classy, and I felt like a Princess the moment I walked through the door. I visited their Clovelly location in Sydney, though they also have a salon in Perth. It wasn’t a sterile ‘appointment’ like the pregnancy massage I treated myself to with my first baby. On that occasion, it felt like the therapist was afraid to touch me. Consequently, when she did, I became anxious that she actually didn’t know what she was doing. This was so very different.
This time, I felt OK about my stretch marks and wobbly bits. Indeed I felt flabulous!! I have grown two babies and I deserved this pamper session.
Yes.
This Yummy Mummy Package was ‘it’ and then some. A whole two hours including a massage and facial…and a kindly little foot scrub to warm me up at the beginning.
It was like licking melted lindt chocolates; stepping into a hot,bubbly bath; sipping your much anticipated wine on a Friday evening; cracking open the first page of a new book; staring into a toasty fire with rain hitting the roof…sure I could slap all these ones at you. The salon was classy and the therapist was professional. It was truly incredible. But whilst I lay there…the mind drifted to these for you…..
MY DAY SPA DO’S AND DONT’S :
- go to the toilet when they offer their bathroom at the beginning. Especially if you are pregnant. In the past I have ruined my own experience by feeling the need to go half way through a massage, despite completely being all in my head. There’s a lot of thinking time on that table.
- try to let go. My brain rarely switches off, but I promise you, whilst my brain was shouting “pull your wedgie out”, my limbs were so beautifully heavy I was literally and completely in the hands of the therapist.
- remind yourself that you are worth it. You deserve this. Do not think of the phone on silent in your bag that could be ringing RIGHT NOW to say your kid is sick at creche.
- say YES to the hot stones. But be prepared; they are sizzling HOT! Once I was over the initial shock, they felt magnificent.
- consider the appointment time carefully. I was rubbed and lathered to within an inch of my life. I was wrapped and warm and floated to a beautiful place. Despite being treated to a platter, tea and magazines to unwind after the treatment, it was one hell of a shock to then have to leave and collect my kids. At the first, “MUM; she’s looking out my window!! Make her stop,” I was dropped heavily back to earth.
- say bugger my freshly washed hair and let her massage your scalp with coconut oil during the Indian head massage. Yes : INDIAN HEAD MASSAGE. Read it and weep. Bliss.
- just say “it’s fine” when they check the pressure of the massage. Speak up. So many times I have politely acquiesced when really I wanted to ‘feel’ it. On this day, I didn’t need to. It was perfecto.
- worry about your body. Sure…I can type this easily enough. I just had to remind myself that these women are professionals and have seen it all before. All of it. And then some.
- overthink. Impossible ask? I found myself rolling thoughts constantly. In our age of smart phones and social media, I realised it had been a long time since I had been alone with my thoughts. It is a real skill to still your mind.
- listen too hard to the music. At one stage I was riding a camel through a sandstorm in the desert, the next I was sipping pink lemonade underneath a ruffled camisole floating down river. I know. Who am I? See? My brain had way too much freedom and did not know what to do with itself.
- start fantasising about retraining as a massage therapist. Sounds easy enough. Work from home. Make your own hours. How hard can it be? Hello!?? Extremely. These people are truly professional (with incredibly strong hands!). I’m tipping like me, you get sick of rubbing your husband’s shoulders after 5 minutes.
So to all the Sydney and Perth mum’s or mums-to-be; the question should not be, ‘Should I?’; it needs to be, “Oh, but what shall I have done?” Check out the web site, treatments and prices at http://www.pregnancydayspa.com.au/
I crawled in on all fours an exhausted Crummy Mummy; and I floated out feeling every bit like a Yummy Mummy.
A special thank you to Amy, Clystia, Karolynn and the team at Yummy Mummy Pregnancy Day Spa, Clovelly. I was given the incredible Yummy Mummy Package to review, but I can assure you, all the drooling and sighs of contentment are all my very own.
