Vicki Cockerill - NICU MUM Blog

The talented Priya (@pabarilife) messaged me recently to ask how I could help her with her new blog. A few weeks later this Mama does not need any help and is rocking it as fully fledged Mum blogger. Please go check out her amazing blog and thought provoking posts by clicking here . When we decided to join forces Priya wanted to discuss father figures and that her hero is her dad and how she truly felt when he was struck down with illness. Below is her contribution to the collab and mine will be posted shortly. This is Priya's account of this time in her own raw and completely honest words. The beautiful Priya My Hero When the hero of a film is wounded you feel bad. You want him to get better and save the day! Essentially he should regain all his strength, kill the bad guy and restore peace. Well, that's fiction at its best because real life is not always like this.   My dad is my hero. Growing up I have such happy and fond memories of a wonderful childhood, provid...

This is the third instalment of the NICU Mum medical files, for those who haven't already check out the first two by clicking here to read Carly's story and also Lisa's autism journey with her son . I started the medical files in hope that by sharing real and honest birth and parenting stories that it would help others relate and take comfort from them. As well as raising awareness for different experiences and conditions that some may have to face. It is my hope we can all support one another even when things take a turn from the envisaged birth plan you had when you went in to give birth. You can view part one of my birth story by clicking here. Rachael rocking the bump I connected with Rachael who is behind the brilliant blog; https://thedontwanttobeworkingmum.wordpress.com/   Instagram and Facebook    She kindly agreed to share her amazing story. These are her words, these are her feelings, this is her story. I resonated with so much of this. It does ...

We had a good run, a brief spell in our house where no one was ill. It was brilliant, it was magical, I don’t think I had brought Calpol in nearly two months. I am 90% sure their stocks may have dropped in this time. But alas, our luck was out and once again the toddler germs have invaded. Does everyone agree as soon as you become a parent you become so ill? I have never been so ill in my life! So often! Always at really inappropriate times, we all came down with the flu the week of my birthday. Greg became ill when he was on a weekend away, and I was struck down in London this week when I went to the Aden and Anais Disney launch. When you feel poorly and fall asleep sitting up Considering Elijah had a congenital heart defect and was awaiting surgery (click here to read the longest wait for surgery) , he was rarely ill. Other than the odd cold and a bout of bronchiolitis he was a very healthy. When you have a baby who has been in NICU (click here to read Elijah's admissi...

Last week saw me launching the NICU Mum medical files where I was honoured to share Carly and Isla's NICU story click here to read part one , and part two . I wanted to create a platform for others to share their stories, it might not be a NICU story but you could have had a difficult birth, faced a difficult illness or like Elijah suffer from a CHD. It is where we can relate, educate, support and raise awareness. From going through our journey with Elijah I took comfort from reading others stories. These are all honest parenting stories from the front lines.   Lisa has been writing over at mrssavageangel.com for nearly three years. She is a stay at home mama to her 4 year old son Oscar. She lives with Oscar and her husband Ben in leafy Surrey. She writes about parenting, Oscar’s Autism diagnosis and weight loss.   Lisa 'Mrs Savage Angel'. Note:  Autism (according to the National Autistic Society website) is a lifelong, developmental disability tha...

I have to say I am becoming more and more shocked about how so called grown adults are acting now a days. Following on from my post from the other week, (click here to read what sort of world have I brought my son into?) I feel like as this is the honest confessions that I should be truthful with how I am feeling, especially as a mother of a small child. It is something that worries me. It worries me that people are not thinking about their actions, how they are treating one another and I keep asking myself is there now less and less good in the world? Are we all really this nasty now? Have we always been like this? Or is it now I am older, now I am a mother and responsible for setting an example to my son that I am just picking up on this a lot more, and it has always been there? If we are being really honest I voted once when I was 18, just because I could and then until 2 years ago hadn’t bothered. I am very sorry to all of the suffragettes that I wasted this, and their famili...

Yesterday, I published Carly and Isla's birth story, please click here to read if you haven't already! Below is what happened after Carly gave birth prematurely at just 31 weeks. Isla was taken into NICU, and how Carly coped as a NICU parent. This is something I am all to familiar with, please click here to read Elijah's admission to NICU. As mentioned yesterday, I wanted to start a series of guest blog posts from others who have gone through similar things, a platform for others to share their feelings, experiences and to help and provide comfort to others going through the same thing. So we can all support one another, educate and raise awareness. These are the NICU MUM medical files. Carly's NICU story The next day we spent the whole day in the NICU and were able to hold Isla for the first time, learning the importance of skin to skin and spending hours studying everything about her. Each day the staff in the NICU had a half hour changeover at 8pm so we used...