Vicki Cockerill - NICU MUM Blog

#makebirthbetter  I have given birth twice now, and have two very different stories I could tell you. As a society we seem to love a good birth story. I remember people messaging me just after H was born via social media and the blog desperate for me to publish our birth story. I have friends who were induced, who were in labour for minutes, hours and even days. I know those who had C ections, VBACS, vaginal births and everything in between. There is no denying it we love a birth story. But here is what I've learnt, we don't necessarily tell the truth especially if we had a bad or traumatic birth. We glaze over it, we say it was fine and it's okay because we got our little bundle of non sleeping joy at the end of it. We trick ourselves into thinking people have had it worse than us, that we are making a fuss. It's okay because we got through it despite how horrendous it really was and now we do what we do best we bury it, paper over...

-Hope- To you, sitting there watching your baby through an incubator window. To you, fearing the worst after being dealt the devastating blow that your child is going to have this sentence around their neck for life. To you, standing in the hospital corridor while your child is in surgery. To you, crying yourself to sleep because you think your child will be taken from you. To you, sitting in recovery looking down at your child wondering if they will ever be the same again. To you, terrified that they will never meet their milestones. To you I give you hope. Hope that it can work out. Hope that it can be okay. Hope that one day you will stand and watch your child ride a bike on his own. Always dare to hope. Never let it go. From a NICU/ CHD mum whose been there every step of the way with her TOF son 👩‍👦

Am I professional? Dear Kelly Brook, I would like to drop a quick note to you about those comments that you made about mothers being unprofessional compared to their childless colleagues if they have childcare issues. I'll share the day I had yesterday with you. I am a freelance writer having left my office job last year. Sounds like a walk in the park working from home around two small kids? It's not. I know how in demand writing gigs are and I have to go up against a number of writers with no children and thus more managable time. I had my 11 month old baby yet I juggled 3 deadlines and even chose to take on some urgent quick turn around work that afternoon too, three loads of washing and then worked up until the kids bedtime.  I know I have to put in more effort, work harder and be more reliable all because I am a mother. I still took time out to play, put him down for a nap and dropped my other son off at nursery. I presume this mak...

The week I became an Insta Husband to my son! I often wondered what Elijah must think I do when he sees me on my phone, or on the laptop when we label it as ‘Mummy is working’. He has had his fair share of requests from me to pose for my Instagram or blog and I had this idea a while back about him taking over my grid. I wanted to see things from his point of view via his eyes. He would choose what he wanted to post and take the photos himself, I would upload and for one-week Elijah would takeover. Slightly worried I would have no followers left after a week of photos of his SuperZing collection never the less we decided on a week he would takeover. Beforehand I spoke to Elijah about how I choose to share photos, who can see them, and showing him my grid, he had already come up with a few posts he wanted to do. Including a photo of him on the toilet which was quickly vetoed. I was really interested to see what was important enough to Elijah for him to share, and ...