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Hunter McGrady is learning that life with a baby affects the relationship between a husband and wife in both good and bad ways. As such, the swimsuit model says staying connected to her husband while adjusting to motherhood is a “constant balancing act.”
On Monday, according to People, McGrady revealed in an Instagram post that trying to be everything to everyone in her family can be difficult. But that has not stopped the mother-of-one from learning how to be not only the best mother she can be while not letting her relationship with her husband fall to the wayside.
"Having a little one, it’s a constant balancing act of giving baby everything he needs while still giving each other what we need," the Sports Illustrated model wrote. "It’s hard, some days it feels impossible, but we make it work."
McGrady went on to say that she and her husband, Brian Keys, try to give one another "patience" and make sure to "check-in with one another" to see if extra support is needed.
Like all parents of infants, the new mother said that there are "some days where I feel like we got it all together" and those days are celebrated. On the flip side though, there are other days where McGrady says she cries because "I'm not so sure we are doing this thing called parenting right."
Many parents reminisce about days gone by where they were once able to do what they wanted on a whim. And McGrady did just that as she concluded her post.
"Some days I miss the us that was able to just up and go to dinner spontaneously at 7pm, or could drive somewhere with no destination just to see where we end up," McGrady said. "We’re allowed to simultaneously mourn the past and be so wildly grateful for the present and the future without feeling guilty."
The founder of All Worthy closed her post by saying, "I'm learning how to be a mama and still date my husband."
This is not the first time that McGrady has been open about motherhood not being what she thought it was going to be.
In an August 5 Instagram post, The Model Citizen podcast co-host shared what it looked like to have a five-week-old baby.
What McGrady had expected was to have "content" for social media outlets that showed her baby boy, Hudson, wearing all of the adorable clothes that had been purchased for him. She also thought all of these "amazing shots" would get taken of her postpartum and her with the baby, but in reality, McGrady admitted she wore the same sweatshirt for days in a row. The bottom line was that if everything did not work out the way new mothers expected, that was fine, saying that all new moms were "doing enough."
She has also been very upfront about her struggles with breastfeeding, something that McGrady had not anticipated happening either.
According to Sports Illustrated, the model stated in an Instagram post, saying that she thought Hudson would latch on without difficulty and that it would be a "beautiful" process. Instead, there were a plethora of nursing issues that left McGrady "frustrated" and "in tears."
However, realizing that she had to do what was best for her baby, McGrady put aside her feelings of failure and supplemented breastfeeding with formula to take the stress off her and nourish Hudson at the same time.
Motherhood is never what any mother-to-be anticipates it being. But as long as women can give themselves grace during what is undoubtedly one of the most difficult seasons of life, it becomes one of the most magical as well.
Source: People, Sports Illustrated