Love
A tribute to a curly haired girl
Twenty years ago today, a dear friend of mine was killed on our roads, together with her mother. I was 15 years old, and on that day, as the news reached us, my childhood came to an abrupt end. It took a long time to think of her and feel anything but pain. But it has been twenty years and the pain has faded, and today on her anniversary I just remember a curly haired girl with a twinkle in her eye and a smile that lit her face up. I remember notes passed in class, doodles carefully drawn in each other’s journals, and giggling...
read moreBack at the bottom of the heap
Isn’t life funny? Just when you think you’ve made it and you’ve got it all figured out, everything changes. That’s never more obvious than when watching a child grow up. We watched our son start out in each room in the crèche, the smallest one there. Nervous, trying to learn how things worked in this new place. Gradually he’d grow in confidence (and height!), and then just as he got to be the biggest in the room, sure of himself and his surroundings, it would be time to move on. I still remember my own heartbreak...
read moreBlink and he’s a schoolboy
Five minutes ago, or so it seems, we brought a baby home from the hospital. I remember the queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach as we walked out of the hospital doors. A mixture of joy at this newborn life, and sheer terror that we would break him. Blink. Five years went by. We didn’t break him. We did just fine. Somehow that little baby is starting school tomorrow. His brand new Skylanders backpack sits there ready and waiting for him tomorrow morning. He went to bed earlier excited about tomorrow and not in the least bit nervous....
read moreOne down, 19 to go
Two days shy of 17 months old, we have our first tooth. Not a front tooth of course, that would be too easy. A top back tooth. Since the day she was born, I’ve known this one likes this do things her own way. Cutting teeth is no exception. We’re delighted all that teething has finally amounted to something. At this rate I am quietly confident she will have a full mouthful of teeth before heading off to university. Poor baby has been suffering all day though. Her temperature keeps going up and her cheeks are on fire. Still, we...
read moreNight weaning a boob addict…with a bottle
Back in July, I decided it was time to day wean my daughter. I had stopped expressing at work a couple of months before that when she was 13 months old, but I still tended to breastfeed her during the day when I was at home with her because it was easy and convenient. I had hoped that these day feeds would gradually reduce in frequency if I adopted the often touted “don’t offer, don’t refuse” approach, which is regularly suggested for people who want to wean their toddlers. Well that didn’t work because if I...
read moreGive us back our voices
Two weeks ago, I read a very powerful post from Mind the Baby about a woman who lost her case against the HSE: The High Court says we can’t say No. This case resonated with me so much. I could try to summarise the details of the case and the judgement but I wouldn’t do it justice compared to the post from Mind the Baby, so if you haven’t read it yet, pop over to her site and read that first. What strikes me most about the case is how voiceless the woman in question is. First in the hospital she is denied the chance to make...
read moreIt’s Groundhog Day around here
I have a whole new sense of appreciation for what Bill Murray’s character went through in Groundhog Day. We’ve taken to calling the baby Gums, short for Gums of Steel, because at close to sixteen months there still isn’t a tooth in her head. But the teething is incessant lately. I collect her from crèche and they say that she has been a little off form. Her cheeks are red and she’s drooling. Maybe she’s teething. We all laugh. One of these days we’ll be right we joke. And the truth is that she is teething....
read moreThings I will miss: Those sleepy cuddles
I’m a sucker for nostalgia so I’ve been loving the Once Upon a Time linky organised by Helen from The Busy Mamas. Thanks to her prompting, the Irish Parenting Bloggers have been sharing their most precious memories of babyhood, reminiscing about the things they miss most. I’m not a big baby person. Sure they’re cute, but give me an adorable toddler any day over a newborn. I often joke that I’d be happier if I could just start at their first birthday and take it from there. Still, now that my Little Woman is...
read moreHe’s my big brother
The transition from only child to the new role of big brother has the potential to be a difficult one. Certainly before my daughter was born, I worried a lot about the impact her arrival would have on my son. And the truth is that for the first few months, although he was proud as punch to show off his baby sister to anyone and everyone, there really wasn’t much benefit to him when it came to this new sibling. Months and years don’t mean much in terms of measurements when you’re four, so I tried to give him something to look...
read morePumping on the job
Recently I passed a real personal milestone. I expressed milk for the last time at lunchtime. I never planned to pump at work when I returned last November. I thought I might do it for a week, two at the most to give my supply a chance to settle. If you’d told me then that I’d still be pumping five months later I would never have believed you. The idea of it! It just sounded like so much hassle. For me, pumping at work always evoked images of high powered American business women, back to work mere minutes after the baby is born,...
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