Within seconds of December arriving, the Christmas bug well and truly infected our household and struck down Hanna worse than the most severe case of man flu. It’s an annual affliction, which is only likely to worsen as the years go by, with a child with half her genes added in. A new house triggered…
How tragic losses left a legacy which paved the way to our new home
Owning our own home was a distant pipe dream when we found out we were expecting a baby. Living on the high-rent south coast and shelling out more than £40,000 in rent since early 2013, saving for a deposit was going to be a ten to fifteen-year ordeal, if we were lucky. Our rent-sapping situation…
We’re finally home owners…after a seven-month saga!
November 20, 2018. Today marks a momentous milestone in our family – we completed on our first house! We thought having a baby would be a baptism of fire, but all the poo rivers and spew spates in the world were no comparison to the rocky road that became our house-buying journey. We had it…
How family life inspired a bid to live a healthier life…sort of
Having a baby in itself is a life-changing decision and I viewed it as the pinnacle when it came to focusing on what’s important. But as I’ve learned in recent months, buying a house also has a habit of sharpening your mind. Perhaps it was the depressingly serious life insurance chat, in which we explored…
What’s the first year of having a baby like? A new parent’s guide to the first 12 months of family life
A year ago today, I woke with a stiff back from a second consecutive night on the hospital floor, filled with a sense of trepidation and an inclination to go back to bed. Well, it was just after 6am after all! A little while later and I was decked out in ‘one-size-fits-all’ scrubs, which seemed…
Why pumpkin success comes back to haunt me on Halloween
When it comes to pumpkin carving and I, the phrase ‘peaking too soon’ hits the nail on the head. I was as good at art at school as Albie is at standing up currently without falling on the floor with a dramatic thud. But education failed to uncover my niche, instead trying to hone my…
The photography fails which prove things rarely go to plan…
They say never work with children – but that’s quite tricky to avoid if you’re a parent. When you’re a parent sharing your journey with the interweb, it’s tempting to pursue the perfect pictures. But like family life, things don’t always go to plan. Albie’s all-round charm and trademark smile will work wonders in later…
Making national news and finally cracking sleep after 11 months
Everyday life is pretty hectic at the moment – and that has impacted on how much I’ve been able to write recently. But even then, a lot has been achieved in blog terms. My last post leapt to the defence of pregnancy and parenthood company Bounty after it received a bit of a battering in…
Is it time to scrap Bounty reps in hospitals? Not if we have anything to do with it…
Every picture in this blog post was possible thanks to one woman: a Bounty rep. Each of them is a treasured, professional memento of the beginning of our little family’s life together, just a few hours after Albie was born. But there’s not been a lot of love for the Bounty reps in recent days,…
11 days away and Albie has changed in two pretty big ways
It’s eleven days since I last posted – and the break has shown just how much can happen – and change. Work began to get hectic, with Monday the start of our deputy editor’s two weeks of leave. Doing the job of two people, every day has seemed like one where I’ve started with a…
