This artist perfectly captures all the joy and hardship that comes with being a new mum.

We’ve seen some gorgeous artworks appear on social media in Japan recently, with a dad transforming his kids’ sketches into glorious masterpieces and artists sharing their unique vision for things like lingerie.

Now there’s an artistic first-time mother on the scene, sketching real-life as she sees it with an “Illustrated Diary of Child-Rearing” series on Instagram. Momoko Yamada, the 32-year-old mum behind the series, gave birth to her first child, a son named Ryu, in April last year, and since then she’s been sharing sketches of her everyday life, which first started out as small pictures on the pages of her diary.

▼  1-month-old Ryu looks as cute as a button!

Over the past year, Momoko has been documenting her baby’s growth with a number of cute sketches, but what’s really been attracting attention are her illustrations which show some of the discoveries she’s made as a new mum.

▼ Being a mother requires all the stamina of a sumo wrestler in the ring.

Momoko now has more than 45,000 followers on Instagram, who say they love how she depicts many of the same things they’ve experienced themselves when becoming a mother for the first time.

▼ There are things like having your hands scratched by your adorable little baby’s nails…

▼ Wanting to become a squid, so you can have more hands to do everything that needs to be done in a day…

▼ Discovering that your stomach is now a homemade trampoline..

▼ And not being able to take a shower without thinking you just heard your baby cry out in the other room.

After becoming a new mum, Momoko also discovered that her entire lifestyle suddenly changed, as she now spends her days dancing around like an alpaca to keep her baby entertained. All this constant baby-talk has her thinking, “I want to talk to an adult!”

Though when she does go out with her friends she finds that she has a tough time talking to adults now.

▼ “Recently?…um…ah…”

Silence is no longer a good thing in her house because when it’s quiet, that inevitably means that Ryu’s up to something.

▼ Now there are new dangers in her life too.

And when she puts her son down to sleep for the night, she transforms into a stealthy ninja, wondering “Can I?” as she quietly attempts to leave the room.

▼ Whether she’s up at 5 in the morning to rock her child in the baby bouncer…

▼ Or eating the unwanted crusts off a slice of bread…

▼ She’s still totally in love with her son. In fact, the family cat loves Ryu too.

To watch Ryu grow up and continue on a lifetime of new discoveries and adventures with his mum, be sure to check out Momoko’s continuing picture series on Instagram. Whether she’s celebrating a milestone or dealing with separation anxiety at daycare, Momoko’s shared stories are always delivered with a sense of humour and fun, which is a great way to handle all the ups and downs of being a new mum!

Source: Artist Database
Featured image: Instagram/yamadachiko