New parents are bombarded with information from their first visit to a medical professional, throughout their pregnancy and the early days of their babies’ lives. My daughter is only ten months old, and as far as I can tell, this doesn’t stop for some time.
The problem with this is that so much of your pregnancy, birthing experience and early motherhood is influenced and affected by the opinions of the person you’re listening to. And I do specifically use the word opinion, because being a doctor, paediatrician or midwife does not, in fact, make you an authority on any of these.
Continue reading Whose Baby Is It Anyway?
My husband, nine-month old daughter and I have been travelling around for nine weeks all told this summer. We have camped, stayed in hotels and cabins and for one week, with family. Here are some of the top things we have done to stretch our budget as far as possible:
Continue reading 10 Ways to Stretch Your Holiday Money
Returning from Norway, I had a suitcase full of my and Kyra’s clothes, and a week’s worth of my husband’s clothes to deal with and I only had one day to sort it out before we were on our way again. It really was a low to high and back to low kind of week.
Continue reading 365-112 to 365-118 A Week in Pictures
Teething. In this house, it is as bad as you can imagine. My daughter, Kyra, started teething at about 8 weeks and the first tooth popped out at 19 weeks followed shortly by the second three days later. Since then we’ve had two months of welcome relief from the teething monster, but this week it has descended on us like a misty fog all over again.
Continue reading Dealing with Teething Naturally
Yesterday we heard about her first birth experience and how it led her to reading, researching and finding out more about natural childbirth. Please welcome Noble Savage again as we look at the concluding part of the journey that led to her decision to become a doula.
I knew as soon as I became pregnant with my second child that I wanted a doula at the birth and that I’d also like to become a doula myself. I asked a dear friend who was similarly self-informed and self-taught to be my second support person. She was fantastic, always checking in with me and asking how I was feeling throughout the pregnancy and how I was preparing myself physically and mentally. We talked through various scenarios and what things I might like her to do and what my wishes would be in those situations.
Continue reading The Doula Path (Part 2)
I’m really excited today to introduce you to Noble Savage. She is a woman I really admire for her viewpoints and passion. Noble Savage is starting out as a doula, and I was thrilled when she agreed to share with you what it was that led her to that decision.
I hope you’ll find her story as inspiring as I do.
I didn’t know what a doula was until my daughter was already several months old. I was researching slings online and stumbled across a parenting site where women were discussing home birth. I watched a few of the slide shows of these women’s births and found myself absolutely riveted. More than one had me in tears, of both joy (because they looked so lovely and peaceful) and of sadness (that I hadn’t had that kind of experience). They talked of birth pools and doulas and of feeling calm and powerful. I was envious, and curious too. What difference could a doula have made to my own birth?
Continue reading The Doula Path
I can safely say I have a hate-hate relationship with Calpol. It works like this: I hate it… and on the other hand I hate it. I have no objections to paracetamol on its own, even though I rarely use medicine, and I absolutely agree that it should have its place on our shelves, as it does serve a valuable purpose. However, in my opinion Calpol does not, and shouldn’t be on the shelves at all.
Continue reading Calpol – What Every Parent Should Know
There are so many emotions and feelings involved in parenting. Most of them are beautiful, wonderful emotions and feelings, but there are a few that are technnically quite negative.
Continue reading Taming the Tigress – the Protective Parent
I was accused recently in an article I wont give credence by linking to, of being ‘gag worthy’ for a post I wrote when my daughter was four weeks old, in which I took a humorous look at the things that have changed in my life since becoming a mother.
This person went further and said that I ‘perpetuated the myth’ of all the tough times being worth it, and that I was toeing the party line.
Continue reading I’m a Gaga Mama
So there it is. Day 1 in cloth nappies is over, and I’m sorry to say, was an absolute success. Yes, I admit. There was a part of me, the lazy part of me, that really hoped it wouldn’t ‘work’ for us. But this was not the case.
Continue reading Adventures in Cloth Nappies – Part 3
