The poet who captured motherhood in a poem now gives us a bedtime story to treasure forever.
If you’ve ever scrolled Instagram while nap-trapped on the sofa, too exhausted to move but too full of love to care, chances are Jessica Urlichs‘s words have stopped you mid-scroll.
The New Zealand-based poet has built a global following by capturing the exact feelings of motherhood that somehow never made it into the books – the bittersweet, the exhausting, the overwhelming love that leaves you breathless. She writes the things we feel but don’t say. The things we think at 3am. The things we wish we could explain to our children, if only we had the words.
Now, one of her most beloved poems has become something families can hold, keep, and pass down.
You’ll Always Be My Baby began in those hazy early days with a newborn and a toddler – a moment so many of us know. The weight of one child in your arms while the other takes their first wobbly steps. The guilt of feeling pulled in two directions. The overwhelming, aching love that somehow makes room for more.
That poem touched millions online. Parents shared it. Saved it. Read it to their children at bedtime. And now, thanks to those readers who kept asking, it’s a beautiful picture book for families everywhere.
We caught up with Jessica to talk about the poem that started it all, why she believes connection matters more than advice, and what she hopes parents feel when they close this book.
“Just heavier to hold”
There’s a line in the book that stops every parent who reads it:
“just heavier to hold”
It’s simple. It’s perfect. And it captures something we all feel but struggle to name.
“It isn’t so much about the weight that we can often experience through the seasons of growth,” Jessica explains. “It is quite literal to me. I imagine holding them at any age and how that would still completely feel natural to me as their mother. I imagine most of us would feel this way looking at our little ones.”
That’s the magic of Jessica’s writing. She takes the ordinary moments – a sleeping baby, a toddler’s hand reaching for yours – and holds them up to the light until we see all the colours we missed.
The poem that became a book
The poem was always special to Jessica’s readers. They would message her saying they read it to their children at night. They wanted something they could hold, something their little ones could see and touch and come back to.
“I just loved that idea so much,” Jessica says. “My true highlight in my writing career will always be the messages from parents. I get photos and videos, and it’s what makes it so rewarding. Bedtime stories are such core memories, and I am honoured if my books are ever a part of that.”
The poem was written during that intense transition from one child to two – a time Jessica found particularly overwhelming.
“Suddenly it felt like my baby had to grow up faster, and I grappled with the guilt of that,” she admits. “But with that came emotion, which is how the poem came about. I think it’s a lovely way to also remind your children how much they still mean to you when your attention feels so sharply divided.”
The line that speaks for all of us
Every parent who reads this book will have a line that reaches into their chest and squeezes. For Jessica, the most personal is this:
“you’ll always be the ticking clock in a world you made slow down”
“For me this says so much to the push and pull of trying to be 10 steps ahead but also wanting to stay present,” she says. “Children really make you stop and notice, even when you’re rushing. They have this beauty of pulling you into the ordinary. It’s fast and slow and I’m wanting to rush moments forward and never wanting it to end. It’s contradictory and still, it makes sense.”
Doesn’t it just? That’s motherhood in a nutshell. Wanting them to grow, wanting them to stay small. Counting down to bedtime, then creeping in to watch them sleep. The beautiful, impossible contradiction of loving someone so much it hurts.
Why her words feel like a friend
Jessica’s writing has been described as “a friend who just gets it.” That’s no accident, though she didn’t plan it that way.
“I think I naturally write the words I need to read, which in turn is many of us,” she says. “I just think so many of us know the feeling of sore breasts, curling toes, crying in the shower, love that bursts and stings, the bittersweet feeling of watching them grow, and feeling foreign in your new role while also knowing you’re exactly where you’re meant to be.”
When she started writing, Jessica didn’t need another parenting book full of advice. She needed reassurance that she wasn’t alone.
“At the time, what helped me the most was support and connection, another shoulder to lean on even when that shoulder might have been across the ocean,” she remembers. “I thought someone else would probably feel the same which made it easier to share.”
That’s what her work offers – not instruction, but companionship. A voice that says “me too” when you least expect it and most need it.
Seeing herself through her son
Recently, Jessica has spoken openly about being diagnosed with ADHD and OCD later in life – discoveries that came partly through parenting her neurodivergent son.
“I understood him in ways that helped me see myself,” she shares. “He triggered me in ways that helped me see myself too. I knew who I needed to be for him, and realised who maybe I might have needed in certain situations too.”
It’s a reminder that our children don’t just grow – they grow us. They hold up mirrors we didn’t know we needed and show us parts of ourselves we’d buried long ago.
A message for every parent
We asked Jessica what she’d say to parents – especially mothers – who worry they’re “not doing enough.” She didn’t hesitate. She wrote us a poem.
You are not ‘just’ anything
Not just a woman
Or just a friend
A wife
A partner
Or just a mother
You are a universe
Made up of waves that brought life
Stars that hold dreams
Landscapes of home
Rocks that will crumble but will always remain
The winds gentle sway, and strongest roar
You are someone’s ‘all’
And ‘all’ is not lost
You are a mother
But never, just.
The perfect bedtime story
You’ll Always Be My Baby is the kind of book that becomes part of family life. The kind that gets worn at the edges from repeated reading. The kind that children will remember when they’re grown, holding their own babies, thinking my mum used to read me this.
Jessica sums it up perfectly: “Always the mother of a baby, always the baby of a mother.”
Because no matter how old they get, they’re still your baby. And no matter how old you get, you’re still someone’s child. That love doesn’t change. It only grows.
What’s next?
Jessica already has her next project in the works – a motherhood journal called The Years Are Short.
“I want this book to be something mums can leave behind for their children in their voice, with my poetry prompts to guide them,” she says.
Because the years are short. The days are long, but the years fly. And one day, our children will want to know who we were – not just as their mother, but as a person. What we dreamed. What we feared. What we loved.
Jessica’s work helps us leave that behind.
Our verdict
You’ll Always Be My Baby is our London Mums Magazine Book of the Week because it deserves to be. It’s beautiful. It’s true. It’s the kind of book you’ll read to your children and find yourself choking up halfway through, them looking at you wondering why Mummy’s crying, and you not being able to explain because the feeling is too big for words.
But Jessica found the words. She always does.
Available now wherever good books are sold: from Penguin, for example.
“I hope they know how much they gave today, how much they give every day, and that it’s enough. I hope they feel like we’re all on this wonderful bumpy ride together.”
– Jessica Urlichs
Monica Costa founded London Mums in September 2006 after her son Diego’s birth together with a group of mothers who felt the need of meeting up regularly to share the challenges and joys of motherhood in metropolitan and multicultural London. London Mums is the FREE and independent peer support group for mums and mumpreneurs based in London https://www.londonmumsmagazine.com and you can connect on Twitter @londonmums
