Vicki Cockerill - NICU MUM Blog

Dear Ant and Dec (Ant), I know I am a bit behind but I have been struggling with the words to express how I feel about what happened last week. Your "public" breakdown. You see, I grew up watching you on SMTV, I have been hungover eating takeaway watching you on Prime Time Weekend TV for most of my adult life. I too have struggled, with self sabotage, with abusing medication and making reckless and irresponsible decisions. Some as a shout out for someone, anyone to notice me. To see my pain, some because I felt compelled to do so. I don't condone what you did, but I can understand how you got there. I too, have suffered with mental illness for all my life. I cannot imagine how it feels to go through it in the public eye. When all you want to do is hide away and try and make some sort of sense to what is happening to you. When the only trip put you make all week is to the Doctors. When you don't trust yourself with your own prescription. When yo...

Harper One of the most memorable milestones is when your child takes their 1st steps. When we were told E had suffered a stroke at birth we didn't know if he would learn to walk. But he did and it is a memory that we can recall down to the last detail. But what if you knew your child wouldn't take their first steps but there was a chance that they could. You needed £80,000 wouldn't you do everything you can do make it happen? This is little Harper and I am sharing her story in hope that it might help getting this little one to America for surgery not available here so she can take her first 👣 "Just4Children hoping to raise enough for Harper to have SDR surgery in America, a spinal surgery not available on the NHS that could change her life allowing her to walk unaided. 'Our Harper is 18 months old from Norwich. On our second visit in a week to the hospital due to lack of movement, Harper was born via emergency C-section where she was found to have a r...

Reality THE REAL WORLD VS THE MEDIA. Everyone who follows me knows I am not adverse to sharing pics of me in my very worn maternity kecks.  Why? Because I want to dispell this stupid myth that you have to snap back into shape as soon as you have had a baby. It is just unrealistic. The pressure comes from the media with celebrities like Kylie Jenner flaunting there "one month" post partem bodies. Well good for her. She has money. She has stylists... the time to work out blah blah blah.  This is what one month on looks like for me. But that doesn't mean it will look like that for you. We are all different and that's okay.  Do not feel the pressure to "snap back" as frankly it is a load of balls. 8 months on and I am still tucking my stomach into my leggings and wearing my maternity knickers. And if I am okay with that then you should be too. We should be embracing the post partem body in all its wobbly, stretch mark and saggy glory...