Today’s success-ish

Today my baby girl rolled herself off the sofa and onto the floor.  I had foolishly turned my back for half a second to have a stretch (one of life’s great pleasures, stretching out the middle of your back after hours of baby holding).

I heard a thud, which made my heart jump, and the dozen potential awful scenarios flash through my mind. I saw the ambulance, the glassy eyes, the police reports…

She was red in the face, in pain and in shock, and I felt like a hideous person.  In the second it took to pick her up off the floor I could feel the uber calm mummy within take over, so I kissed her, told her how sorry I was, and she stopped crying.  Her little face returned to peaches and cream, her body relaxed against mine.

So where’s the success? Calm mummy took over, and the incipient panicker who perches on my shoulder failed in her mission to make me call 999 whenever she winces, gurgles too much (or not enough) or does an “interesting” poo. 

My whole ethos with regards to my rather sensitive daughter is to try and stay calm, to ease her way through the world by being a relaxing influence, and hopefully enable her to become a secure functioning adult.

I kept a close eye on her, and confirmed that her behaviour was as normal as could be expected from a four month old baby.

The becomuming

FTM: What I Wish I’d Been Told

Any website, book, comment piece or friend will tell you what you “need” in your hospital bag.  This list includes things that will never see the hospital light, and seem to be listed just to send you into a panic buying frenzy / a harsh kind of pregnancy paranoia.

plastic maternity knickers are not required!!

These are described as an “essential” as you will be gushing your way through childbirth, causing your regular knickers to be irrecoverable.  The ill-fitting elastic will dig in and leave unsightly red welts, whilst the actual pants will fail to cover your modesty.  And, in my experience (and that of many others) once you’re in labour knickers are extraneous.  They end up on the floor, left in suitcases and basically ignored until after the main event.  After all, when you’re contracting and your midwife needs urgently to check your dilation, do you want something hideous in the way?

Likewise if you give birth by planned caeserean section, no one is pleased to see plastic between your legs, and knickers are removed before the operation.

I was tricked by plastic knickers and so had those closest to hand after baby’s birth, and trust me I would rather have had a couple of ruined pairs of regular knickers than try to have midwives change maternity pads post-birth in these crinkly crunkly nightmares.