TheOtherhood

07/05/2024

We're adding to what is already the best care team in the world. More hands needed to help us in this next phase of life

10/11/2020

Do you remember the first time your child laughed? Not roughly the age. I mean literally the first moment you heard them laugh?

I often talk about how Ted has made me appreciate the small things (which are often the big, important things) and his laugh is one of them.

He giggled if we tickled him when he was a baby, but we never heard him laugh at anything else. He didn’t just spontaneously giggle at funny things like other babies and children do. But I remember the very moment we heard a giggle for the first time.

It was the summer of 2015. Ted was about two and a half. We’d been blue lighted to hospital with a suspected allergic reaction to peanuts and while waiting on the children’s ward late that night, another kid was watching Bee Movie. There was something that caught Ted’s eye (slapstick comedy violence) and it made him laugh loudly, repeatedly and unprovoked by us.

It felt like a huge moment. A milestone we didn’t realise we were waiting for. Bittersweet, yes, but so welcome. After crying almost solidly for his first year and maybe 70-80 per cent of his second year, to move into laughter in his third year was such a gift to us.

Now he’s 8, I’d say we get more laughter than tears. He giggles at everything - even being filmed (which used to be a trigger for tears).

I’m not being dramatic when I say it’s a dream come true. All I ever wanted was for Ted to know love and happiness. He definitely knows that and his laugh will never fail to set my heart on fire. Love you, Teddo 💜

21/10/2020

I wrote another thing for a lovely positivity website all about how what once seemed a dreadful situation is actually full of good things.

If you need a little cheering up, check out mine and all the stories on the site. And maybe buy a little gift for someone and support a charity at the same time. How to spread some cheer in one easy click



https://thegoodthingisthough.co.uk/good-reads/the-good-thing-is-ted/

03/09/2020

Well, that was a shock to the system! 😱
Anyone else forgotten how to do the school prep thing?!

28/07/2020

What working looks like today for me. Tell me what you’re up to!

Trying to get everything done so I can take August off to be with my family before the youngest starts school.

- Unwashed hair
- Dressed like an Instagram cliché c.2016 (that Lush headscarf and a Strong Girls Club tee)
- helping me focus
- Book proposal notes laid out behind me
- Eclectic set of clients to schedule social for
- Needing tea but already two cups down and sensing it’s a bad idea (anyone else really sensitive to caffeine?!)
- In my happy place, but always fighting off the guilt of not being there for the children/doing Ted’s therapy/building dens etc 😕

13/07/2020

I love the way Dilly draws Ted in his wheelchair. In her 4 year old eyes it’s just a part of him, much like hair colour or a squishy tummy or wearing glasses. Which it is; a simple extension of his body 💜👨🏻‍🦽

26/05/2020

This was me at 8am this morning. Last night I agreed to camp in the garden with the four-year-old. Then I wasn’t allowed out of the tent without a tiara 👸🏻⁣
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I feel like I’ve been pretty absent during lockdown. Physically, as I’ve been shut away working, and emotionally, as I’m often preoccupied with worries about work/Ted/Covid. Or literally, as I have a strong need for alone time.⁣
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To give her this special 1:1 time making memories was wonderful. We had teddies and blankets and torches for shadow puppets. Even the achy hips, 3am wee breaks and early wake-ups with the (beautiful but deafening) dawn chorus didn’t dampen our spirits. ⁣
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After saying ‘no’ a lot at the moment (I get very negative when stressed or preoccupied), it felt great to have a ‘yes’ moment. It feels like this filled us both up a bit, although I’d like more daily connection.⁣
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05/03/2020

To the woman feeling lost. To the woman who is exhausted to her core. To the woman who sees her laundry basket more than her friends. To the woman who feels like everyone else is getting it right. To the woman who feels like time is slipping past and she isn’t achieving anything. To the woman who used to laugh and have fun. [ 399 more words ]

To the woman feeling lost. To the woman who is exhausted to her core. To the woman who sees her laundry basket more than her friends. To the woman who feels like everyone else is getting it right. …

07/02/2020

'I had been resisting my motherhood and trying to escape it to find myself. But I didn’t need to escape my children, or escape my role as mother, to solve my identity crisis. I needed to accept my children and my role as a mother — our interconnectedness — more deeply. To let it all in, but not at the expense of my own happiness.'
Lovely piece on the push and pull of motherhood and identity.

I needed to accept my children and my role as mother — our interconnectedness — more deeply. To let it all in, but not at the expense of my own happiness.