Vicki Cockerill - NICU MUM Blog

This is the second part to NICU Mum and Mummy and Nina talk- Family. Please let us know by getting in touch what does family mean to you? Who are your family? Enjoy, this is all about 'my family'. When I think of family I have to admit one of the first things that pops into my head is Phil Mitchell saying ‘We’re Faaamily’ to one of the millions of Mitchells, I don’t actually know the names of. That and the old age saying of, ‘You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family’. How very true. I will not bore you of the details of my Jeremy Kyle worthy story but let’s say I grew up completely envious of my friends and their families. Friends who had a loving mum and dad and a close knit army of brothers and sisters that cared about them, and would protect them at any cost. That’s what I believed a family should be a mum, a dad and their children.   However, when I look back on my high school days I learnt that family did in fact mean something a lot more than...

Although we have not actually met I find myself talking to the lovely Nina from Mummy and Nina nearly every day! She is a talented, funny and may I say quite hot Mama who speaks her mind and isn't afraid to ask the gritty questions. I decided I wanted to ask what family means to her. This then prompted a collaboration where over the next two days we will be both answering that question. Please find Nina's guest post as below; Love. Obligation. Hate. These are all but a few of the emotions people associate with the word ‘family’. The fluidity and broadness of the concept has left it’s understanding down to interpretation and experience. The structure of the traditional family has changed over the years into a ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ model - take what works for you and leave what doesn’t – so is there still a need to analyse the family or is every household unique? Grab a dictionary and it is still defined as two things: ‘a groups of two parents and their children living together ...

Family. Means so much or so little to so many of us. But what does family really mean to you? Me and Nina from the lovely Mummy and Nina have collaborated to bring you two posts where we explain what family means to us. Part one coming tomorrow from Nina, and part two coming on Tuesday from myself. As it is now bank holiday weekend, many will be spending it with their family. But who do you class as your 'real' family?                                             Click here to visit the Mummy and Nina site!

If you could ask me anything about Elijah's story what would it be? Would you be brave enough to ask an intrusive question or prefer to skirt over it as you feel uncomfortable? Nina from Mummy and Nina took the bull by the horns and asked me a gritty question in which I provided a raw and honest answer. I do not want to be ashamed of how I felt during this time, which to be frank was dark. It was okay not to be alright. I shouldn't have had to feel guilty for "not bearing up". I loved Nina's question and it was so refreshing to have someone ask me a direct question about it! Not many people have! It also helps she is a bloody lovely and funny lady!   Click here to view the post and others at Mummy and Nina

Below is an inspiring message to all of the Mama's on finding your Mama strength. This brilliant guest post was written by the lovely SJ of The Mama Cave who is mum to Bambina. Wow becoming a Mama is a real crash bang wallop on all the senses, isn’t it? It is the most intense thing, I for one, have ever experienced; the hormones, emotions, physical exertion and pain. And then a Baby: A Baby who is unbelievably familiar whilst also a complete stranger to you, A Baby which you expect to look to you for everything as their Mama. That expectation, that feeling of becoming everything, providing everything, can be all encompassing, a real emotional firework, a joyous yet turbulent responsibility, a heavy load and a huge adjustment. And sometimes being everything is actually more than you can actually give. It may be that your Baby won’t latch to feed, that they require medical intervention, or perhaps it could be that you yourself are in need of some care and attenti...

I am honoured to have been invited to join the Huffington Post Parent Bloggers platform! My first post is live! I am beyond proud and excited! Please check it out via the link below!! Click here to view HP post!

‘Can you please make sure you scrape the plates, you didn't do it the other night and the cat was eating it?' ‘Can’t you do it, I made tea’. ‘I'm going to bed, you do it, and it’s disgusting.’ Just like that we were bickering about who does more, who works more, who looks after Elijah more and who is to blame for the current state of the house and lack of clean pants. We point scored for quite some time until I trudged upstairs to bed on my own. But it got me thinking, when did our close and care free relationship change into bitter squabbles over dirty plates. Then it hit me quite obviously, it is when we became parents.   Me and Greg have been together for 8 years, and nearly 2 of those years as parents. We met when I was 18 and spent many nights getting too drunk, having the obligatory arguments over exes and enjoying the care free life as a young couple. We travelled and went on some amazing holidays where after 5 years Greg finally proposed (after mu...

When you think of Home Alone I am sure like me you think of young and innocent Macaulay Culkin (before he turned into a drug fuelled skeleton) being ‘forgotten’ and left at home while his parents went on holiday. The loveable scamp cheekily left marbles and booby traps to fool two bumbling robbers while he ate ice cream all day. Never once was anyone truly concerned with his safety of being left alone, nor were his parents prosecuted for neglect when they finally realised they left their son at home. Now, what about if we replace Culkin with a 10-month old baby? Being left on their own in a locked house? I am guessing that wouldn’t be a Christmas family favourite. Mumsnet user ‘Daikin1’ recently took to the site to ask if others would find it acceptable that she left her child (a 10-month old baby) on their own while she went to a shop 50m away to pick up a couple of parcels. It was apparently okay as the baby was napping. She did it so she didn’t have to make two trips up the s...

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The gorgeous @Maisies_Mum was kind enough to nominate me for the Liebster award! As I have only been blogging for 2 months. It means so much that my blog was even considered! It is much appreciated you lovely lady! I had been feeling a bit down this morning about the blog and that I didn't get the response I thought I would when I put out an advert for others to share their stories and this has made me feel so much better! It has reaffirmed that I must be doing something right (I hope)!! Here are the rules:  1. Thank your nominator and link back to them from your post. 2. Answer the questions you’ve been set and tag your nominator when you share your post on social media. 3. Nominate 5- 11 bloggers to answer some questions from you. Don’t forget to let them know! My questions were set by  Jennifer (@maisies_mum)   What made you start your blog? When I joined  Instagram and was opened up to the world of parenting blogs; I noticed t...

  This NICU Mum needs your help!   Are you a NICU parent? Do you have a NICU story to share?   Will your story bring hope and comfort to others going through the same thing?   Does your story help raise awareness?   Do you just want to find a way to get your feelings our honestly?   Would you like to share your story and be part of my NICU story blog series written by NICU Mums and Dads?   Then contact me and I will explain more! Comment below or private message me on FB/ INSTAGRAM and I will get back to you ASAP!   Or if you know anyone who does have a NICU story then please share this with them!   Thank you!         

It's been a while since I have posted about our current adventures and shock bloody horror the sun has been shining, so we have been making the most of it. We have been playing a lot in the garden (I love this as it is free and there are on site toilets and food is available if I have remembered to go shopping), we  visited a fen near our house. It's literally a 5-minute walk from us and has loads of fields, a small river and a park. Why in 19 months I have not been here before baffles me as Elijah bloody loved it. He did leg it off quite a few times but it wore him out and it is FREE!! There is even a resident hawk that flies over! Going down the slide without any trousers on- standard Elijah behaviour We also crossed another first off the list with him experiencing his first funfair! Another first was that I attempted to cut the little rat tail off his hair which was beginning to morph into a mullet and gave him a pretty crappy bowl cut my mistake. Whoops....