Lunacorn book review

In celebration of world book day I wanted to share this really lovely book – Lunacorn! It’s written by an old school friend of mine, Mel Rapley, and it’s her first children’s book. Lunacorn is a really sweet story about sharing our worries and embracing our differences. As a family we’ve always loved reading together…

Being pregnant in a pandemic

There’s no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on women’s pregnancies and experience of motherhood. It’s caused increased risk, loneliness and loss of support. I think that it’s fair to say that the pandemic probably has a lot to answer for in terms of maternal mental health. For me theres no…

You are not alone

#YouAreNotAlone is being used for this year’s Baby Loss Awareness Week (BLAW), 9th-15th October. The aim is to highlight the isolation that many people experience after pregnancy and baby loss as this year more than ever the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded such loneliness. Nevertheless since COVID-19 people are talking more openly about their mental health. BLAW…

Breastfeeding Journey Continued

Extended breastfeeding, i.e. breastfeeding past infancy, may not be the norm, but it is encouraged. It continues to provides so many benefits to both mum and child, as ultimately breastfeeding is more than just milk. But extended breastfeeding isn’t for everyone – I definitely didn’t envisage breastfeeding a toddler before I ended up doing it!…

Bouncing back or growing forward?

Looking after and focusing on our mental health has never been more important than it is right now during such uncertain and anxious times. Although there are so many more important things to worry about right now than our body image, a negative body image can have a huge impact on our mental health. “We…

Toys: 0-2 years

Since having Evelyn we’ve learnt a lot about the wonderful world of baby and toddler toys – its amazing just how many toys they get through in those first couple of years! As we don’t have a play room its very easy for the toys to completely take over the house, so we would frequently remove the…

Being a working mum

Prior to going off on maternity leave it wasn’t really a question of if I’d return to medicine, just when and how much I’d work, as I’d always knew that I’d be returning to work after having a baby. I’d spent the past 10 years getting to where I was in my career, a GP…

Car travel

Writing a blog about travelling in the car with a baby may seem a bit pointless as all babies like the car right? What’s there to write about? Well Evelyn certainly isn’t as much of a car fan as her Daddy is! Car travel with Evelyn has always been a challenge and for me, having…

Holidays

Prior to having Evelyn, our holidays involved squeezing out as much as possible from our annual leave. We would leave very little time between finishing work to going away and then again between returning home and back to work. We would catch the earliest flight out and the latest flight back home. We were the…

Weaning onto solids

Weaning – when the fun, mess and smelly poo really starts! But when is best? What solids do you give? And how do you wean? Theres a lot of advice and opinion out there making weaning confusing, overwhelming and a bit scary. Just when you’ve gotten into a routine and are confident at breast/bottle feeding,…