Blog List

Much and all as we’d like to bond with each and every fellow mum in the school yard, it’s simply not possible to get on with everybody. I consider myself relatively easygoing (although I’m sure my children would wholeheartedly disagree) and I attempt to find a common ground with the majority of people I spend time with, but let’s face it, some people and their personalities are just...

Like most children, I screamed bloody murder when I awoke after a particularly hellish nightmare. The notion that I sounded like horror personified was the last thing on my mind as I shrieked for my mother and attempted to unpeel myself from my sweat-soaked sheets. I paid scant regard to my mother’s demeanour once she eventually crossed my threshold and held me close. Was she frightened by my...

So as I sit here expressing at 2.30am I thought it was a good opportunity to send an update on our progress. If I was still pregnant, the babies would be at 34 weeks now, but they are actually five weeks old today. 34 weeks was the stage I was aiming to be sectioned at so it is strange to think that I could have been about to have the babies if all had been plain sailing! To think how well they...

Time flies so they say. The flying of time is not something I dwell on too regularly, but there are points in your life when the speed of life is marked out in frightening relief. Right now, for me, is one of those times. It’s back-to-school time and I’m feeling nostalgic and a bit sad. Summer has gone too quickly (and without any sun, but let’s not mention that, it’s too painful) and in a...

I’ve been crying quite a lot lately. Given the weather we’ve been having, that’s probably quite understandable, but I don’t think it’s just because it’s cold enough to bring hot-water bottles to bed. And please don’t mention the menopause or the perimenopause, or anything with the word ‘pause’ in the title: I’m way, way too young for that… No, the primary reason for my recent...

The last few weeks I’ve had a weight loss battle going through my mind. Not the usual one of “I really need to lose more weight and get active” but the one of “I’m happier the way I am”. While there is nothing wrong with the later, I know that it’s not really the way I should be thinking – or is it? Over a year ago I began to lose weight and in all I’d lost over twenty pounds. I...

Yes, it’s back. Anyone who has read my blog in the past might be familiar with the ‘emergency banana’. When my eldest was little it was always a mainstay of the baby bag; there to hand should a cranky fit begin to develop; there in case a little tummy began to rumble, and just generally there to make me feel safe. Because as long as the emergency banana was there, everything would be okay...

The first time around, weaning was terrifying. I thought it was hard enough getting to grips with bottles, formula and night feeds, but just as you were gaining confidence with that job, lo and behold, the goalposts are moved. All of a sudden you’re trying to think of child-friendly recipes, suitable snacks, timing solids and bottles and God forbid, the terror of the baby choking on a piece of...

Surely when Son No. 2 is 21 and about to embark on his final year in college, my tribulations with himself are over. He’s now an independent adult, isn’t he? Well, that’s what I’d thought until just recently. He works on the weekends and during the holidays and provides for himself now in every respect. But then the L plate went up in my wee Polo. Oh dear, I had no idea what lay ahead and...

Ok, I’ve said it. I’ve had enough with the selfies and belfies (that’s a breastfeeding selfie to us mere mortals) and since when did everyone become obsessed with taking photos of their post-baby bodies? It is now officially a ‘thing.’ Even on Instagram, there are over 100,000 images with the hashtag #postbaby showing mums in various stages of undress with enviably flat tummies. So what...