Early pregnancy scare – our false miscarriage diagnosis

Suffering from endometriosis and being aware that natural conception may not have been possible for us, discovering I was pregnant in January 2016 felt like such an immense blessing. We had a rocky road to start with, however. I was spotting blood and having pain in my left side. We were sent for an early …

Breastfeeding essentials – what to buy if you are planning to breastfeed

Breastfeeding is tough in the early weeks. I was pretty much glued to the sofa with baby H, with previous daily must-haves like showering and hairbrushing a distant memory. We have come through all that now and are going strong still breastfeeding at nine months, but there were a few items that definitely made those …

Unhelpful things to say to the parents of a colicky baby

Colic is something that unless you have personally been through it, you cannot fully comprehend it or its impact on a family. As a colic 'survivor', I had so many comments from family, friends and strangers regarding the subject. Some helpful, and some completely not. Here are some of the most unhelpful things people said …

An open letter to my daughter

My darling girl You grow up in a time where social media is at the forefront of our daily lives. I cannot think of a single adult I know who doesn't have some form of social media account. We share snippets of our day for the world to see, and these snippets are kept as …

Oh Dylan – A Children’s Book

*Contains images that some may find distressing* In what feels like a previous life, one before baby H was even a "twinkle in my eye" as my grandfather would say, I wrote and published a children's book. This is by far one of my greatest achievements, and I think only overshadowed by the birth of …

Before I was “mum”

Before you become a parent, I'm pretty sure the majority of us have a pretty clear outlook of the kind of parent we are going to be. However, in reality there is no manual, and when it's your first baby you've never done this job before! There is nobody to give you a handover, no …

Breastfeeding with allergies

Despite H being my first baby, within days of her birth I knew something wasn't quite right. She squirmed constantly, slept in stints of no longer than 20 minutes, and she screamed regularly and could not be pacified. She was windy, constantly passing smelly gas, and she was either constipated or produced foul-smelling explosive poops. …

Preparing for a calm labour

What if I fall?  Oh, but my darling what if you fly? ~ Eric Hanson People love to share horror stories, horror stories revolving around anything. From the moment I announced my pregnancy, these horror stories quickly became centered around giving birth. I vividly remember at around 28 weeks pregnant a complete stranger at a …

Raising a child in this world

In the early hours of this morning, during a "night feed", I was made aware of yet another atrocious act of terror within the UK this year alone. When morning came, I sat with a coffee and H playing at my side and turned on the news. Just seeing the flashing blue lights on a …

The emotions of miscarriage

Six weeks into my pregnancy with H I was told I had miscarried. I'll never forget the exact words of the ultrasound technician, "I'm sorry poppet. There's nothing there". I was then told that she estimated I had lost the baby around a week earlier, based on the way my uterus looked. It's hard to …