One of the things we love most about Channel 7’s Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr is how candid she is in letting us in on her life away from rolling TV cameras.
This time, mum-of-two Nat has revealed that during her early days of motherhood (her sons are now 12 and 16), she struggled getting her eldest son, Lachlan, who was then 18 months old, to sleep.
In a podcast with KidSpot, Nat, 49, explained that up until Lachlan had hit that year-and-a-half mark, she blamed herself for his constant crying and (her) lack of sleep.
“I had been to Tresillian and the controlled crying had failed and I was really thinking ‘nothing’s going to work here,” she says. “This is just me I’m just really stuffing up badly here’.”
That’s when she called in Sheyne Rowley, the Australian Baby Whisperer.
“We hired her. She came into my house. Five days later he was sleeping,” Nat continues.
“And then I began to really bond with him. It took a really long time.”
This isn’t the first time Nat has opened up about the trials and tribulations of being parenthood.
In July, Nat spoke candidly to Now To Love about why she thinks she was a “terrible mum” when she first became a mother.
“I was one of those mums who at three months just thought, ‘I wish I was better at this but I’m just not. I actually hate this. I’m a terrible mother.’” she told us.
“I realised I needed to just get out of the house and do something for me and get back to work because I loved it, I loved my job.”
Though she received a wave of criticism for her decision, Natalie knew that in order to be a happier mother, she needed to be honest with herself and her needs.
“I had to stop breastfeeding which I didn’t particularly love either – sue me – and I had done that for a few months and just had to leave to come back and be a better mum.”
“All power to the mums who stay home – they were better than me at doing it, and I hold up my hands.”
