I know lots of pregnant women right now. I am so excited for all of them. Squealing, practically, for a couple. In that face-achey, find yourself smiling at nothing, can tell your eyes are sparkling, could well-up in a sympathetic hormonal fug for them way you do when someone, or several someones, who you love […]
I went out last night, and saw many of my colleagues for a leaving party. It was nice to see that nothing had changed, and to feel once again part of a group. Sad to say goodbye, nice to say hello. I’m nervous about my return to work. Wobbly, even. Not least because the logistics […]
A few posts ago I talked of counting out the newborn days in the cast-off crescent moons of his perfect fingernails. While I am still a sucker for the beauty of small babies and their magnificently tiny thumbs (how can something so small demonstrate such destiny and difference from our brother apes?) I realise such […]
My second pregnancy was 30 odd weeks of dread and panic. It was one of those pregnancies where one drama followed another – bleeds, panic attacks, flashbacks, incontinence, hysteria and anxiety, tests for growth and diabetes, possible DVT, mental health speculation, and (literally) crippling SPD/PGP as my pelvis gave way. Even I was bored of […]
First words are a difficult subject for me, and I don’t mean the first words said by Spider-boy (for the record it was ‘baby’, he’s such a glorious narcissist) or his brother. I mean the first words I said to my children. The first words they heard from me. I really believed, before I had […]
The most pregnant woman in London (as she called herself), my poor overstretched, overdue friend has now given birth to a beautiful, wonderful, silky skinned newborn girl and is snuggling her warm and tight. Phew. Clever lady.
A very good friend of mine is overdue. I hope as I type she is inhaling a plate of blue cheese and pate with a velvety newborn on her knees. But if she isn’t I mainly hope she’s finding a way of negotiating the final hours of the crushing pressure of late, great expectations. The […]
I had so many clever ideas for Christmas posts. This blog is a lot about looking back and working out how and if that lets us/me look forward. I had things to say about my sardonic view that Mary did things right, giving birth in a stable with animals all around. And a more […]
Today whilst collecting spiderboy from nursery I bumped into another Mum whose second is a similar age to mine. She was on her first trip out. As we worshipped each other’s little ones (hers sleeping like an angel, mine screaming like a demon) our conversation was spiced with a strong sense of relief – both […]
So this is the start. I was prompted to start blogging after reading a piece in today’s Guardian about birth injuries. The piece is both upsetting and startling, and the posts in response similarly fascinating, moving, political, and to some, it appears, terrifying. Here it is: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/dec/10/torn-apart-by-childbirth?showallcomments=true#end-of-comments I am a dreadful gore whore when it […]