Preteens are a joy!

Well hello lovelies,
I write to you this fine evening with a distorted smile on my face, my beautiful face is all smashed up from surgery (special thanks goes out to my demon dentist!)
It's half term in the gloriously sunny (not even a little bit sunny) England. Both doodles and choppers are home with me, we do the regular things, beach trips, park trips. I know i lack imagination after the fifth day, by the ninth day we're all going a bit bonkers! Doodles shows this by having a huge 6 hour strop! Preteens huh? So here is the d&c quide to coping with a preteen..

1) Pick your battles well! This is an important one, if it isn't absolutely necessary or life threatening, maybe you could save yourself a lot of hassle by not asking at the time of the blow up. Now I'm not saying ignore bad behaviour or never ask them to do a thing because nobody wants to raise a lazy kid. But, if they're having a meltown maybe now isn't the time to remind them about their homework. 

2) Strops happen! It's inevitable, but you have to get over it, forgive an regroup pretty quickly. Which can be extremely hard. Yes you are a parent, which means you have to be a cook, a cleaner, an alarm clock,  a therapist, a peace keeper, a coach,  a cheerleader, a hug machine... the list is endless.. we shall just say superhero for now . But, you are still a human with thoughts and feelings and forgiveness comes hard sometimes! Just breathe and reboot, you can curse them under your breath later.

3) "I hate you" Nope, even this one gets me. Every. Single. Time. Go sob into your cold cup of coffee and suck it up superhero.

4) The dreaded talk! Well this one is awkward and there is no way of escaping it! I've always tried to have a factual "biological" take on the birds and the bees with my child(ren) egg, seed etc. But, Periods? Never been mentioned! I'm actualy serious. There was no need, so that talk didn't happen... right up until last week when doodles asks me "why do women wear nappies?"  Now many of my friends (and anyone who has ever met me for that matter!) will tell you, i am a very open, outspoken and "bold" individual. I'm not one to get easily embarrassed, I'm usually the one showing myself up and making everyone around me cringe. But that question completely stumped me, i figured now or never right? Also there was no way i was having my precious first born finding out about menstrating how i did. I was 9 , i had never even heard of this phenomenon and i honestly thought i was dying... cheers mum! So now doodles is turning into a young lady, we have bonded over "monsterating!"

5) Privacy matters. My little girl who would run around the house naked, tell me every intimate detail about her poop, would insist on me coming into in the bathroom whilst she was washing with absolutely no speck of uncomfortableness, just beautiful innocence, has turned into a lady who needs her privacy! And if you don't respect that, refer to section 2. Side note to this one, do not under any illusion think your privacy will be respected! Getting dressed, pooping, trying to sneak some of the family treats in the kitchen whilst you cook? Yep they will still walk in on all of that. And laugh at you. Except for the treat thing, again refer to section 2.

6) Regression. The time comes in this wonderful awkward phase that the scary preteen regresses slightly, i guess its confusing to them. They're growing up but they are still a child. You'll find them dancing almost inappropriately to the latest pop crap and discussing cute boys, to having your ear chewed off about the littlest brightly coloured fad. you know the ones! "Kids collect all these small pieces of plastic, you must have them all! only £12.99, 424 to collect."

Life is pretty crazy in these times, we are the last generation to have had the freedom to play in the streets, to ride our bikes until the streetlights came on. There was no real internet access, not unless you took the phoneline out anyway. We didn't have instant answers in the form of Google. Growing up in this fast paced life must be confusing, so be patient, be understanding. Most importantly of all, remember it doesnt last forever, they will soon be a full blown teenager, which will come with all of its own stress and worries. 
Until next time. 

May the sodding 10th

Well my friends, today marks the one year anniversary of the worst day of my life. The worst. I've had a rough upbringing, I've been cheated on, I've had a stroke, I have been diagnosed with ms. But may the sodding tenth marks the single worst day. Nothing, not a single thing can possibly come close to this day last year.
      We had just unexpectedly found out about choppers, honestly never expected to have another one (see age gap) Mr. doodles&choppers being the worrier he is, fears I may suffer with pnd again, or maybe I might have a complicated pregnancy. Is he too old to have another one? I knew the second that second line appeared i was a mum again. In that second I felt this unequivocal wanting for this baby. (Don't worry that feeling came later for daddy) but in that moment I knew. We just had to tell doodles, and the world & it would be real.
     We brought a new sister card, we signed it from the baby, we gave it to doodles. In 8 years of her life I had never seen tears of happiness from her! She was delighted. A real life baby brother or sister to have as her own, she was ready to teach play and nurture!
      Then it was may the tenth. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps, brings me tears and a complete feeling of overwhelming sadness. Now readers, these things I've never uttered to anyone, they are real and they are graphic. I only warn you of this now to save you any disgust, any real pain, I mask my world and my heartache through humour and silly names but tonight to mark this horrible anniversary I will be as real as I can be.
       I sent mr d&c off to work, I sat on the sofa with doodles drinking a coffee and talking about her new favourite subject, her brand new baby brother or sister. We watched a movie and giggled at the silly jokes and sung along. Then I felt this huge pop, and it was like I had wet myself, all I could think as I got up was 'fucking pregnancy mixed with ms what have I got myself in for?!' I just about made it too the bathroom before things started to go black, I could her doodles calling for me with growing concern, for you see my first born is petrified of blood and I had just managed to leave a trail of it through the house. I don't think I've ever seen so much blood that wasn't on a film and then this excruciating pain took over and as I looked down and saw pools of blood at my feet I knew I had lost the baby. I stripped off and then I definitely knew I had lost a baby. I shouted for doodles to grab me my phone, I told her I was fine and to go sit down. I called the mr.. I wanted to be so calm, so reassuring, so ok. I was a wreck by the time he answered and all I could say was I'm losing his baby, I'm bleeding and I'm scared. I was just hysterical. He ran, literally ran, home. We got in an ambulance I could feel the blood dripping down my legs. They made me wait with all the people, I remember wanting to scream that I should be first, I needed to be seen. But deep down I was thinking what they were thinking, the baby was lost and no amount of queue jumping would change that. After 20 minutes I told Mr. d&c that I wanted to go home, I tried in the nicest way to tell him that a scan was unnecessary, I had already seen our baby, I saw him and he wouldn't be on the screen. I don't know how he convinced me to wait it out when I just wanted to curl up in my bed and sob, but somehow we got to the sonographer. Just the look in my eyes told them there was no baby left. They needed to make sure that he was all gone I guess. I laid down and she put the probe on my belly, i looked at my little family waiting for news, little hopeful faces as I silently prayed she would break the news nicely infront of doodles, that she would find some words of comfort because lord knows I didn't know how to explain to them that I had failed. Then there was a heartbeat. Strong & continuous. The nurses even started to cry, there was my baby strong and bold, healthy, happy & safe. I didn't even care what happened, she was there and all was well, that's all that mattered. We were out of there like a shot and all was great.
       That was until I replayed it in my head, I had held that baby in my hands that morning, I know what happened, I saw it, I felt it. I checked the scan pictures, there was a big black space next to my baby. Eventually I asked a midwife who told me losing a twin early in the pregnancy isn't uncommon.   And in that short sentence I completely understood.
        So today on may the sodding tenth, I mark something horrific, a lost sweet innocent baby. It's bittersweet really and as I lay here with my surviving twin, my angelic little choppers and I hear my gorgeous little doodles snoring quietly I know absolutely that two is not enough, as I am already a mum of three! One just grew their wings a too early.
          Fly high sweetheart, I love you.

You thought thrush was just a pain in the....

Hello! I vowed to post lots, I haven't, I'm sorry. 3 main reasons I haven't been posting: 1) easter holidays, 2) conjunctivitis and 3) thrush.
     The easter holidays started so well! We played in the park with my darling niece & her friend. We enjoyed a picnic and rounders, we laughed and planned more adventures to follow. Then I noticed choppers eye was squinty. It all went down hill, rapidly.
I took my little precious 4 month old choppers into the doctors who gave her drops, it was mild conjunctivitis. Within two days that mild case had turned into a full bad eye infection with allergic reaction on top, different drops and oral antibiotics given. 24 hours to make it go down, not even 18 hours managed and things were already much worse, off we were sent over 30 miles to the nearest hospital with a paediatric & eye specialist! More eye stuff & different antibiotics.. We had to manage the weekend. Then Saturday morning, my eyes felt itchy! By the afternoon me and choppers were the red eyed crew! Doodles was so well behaved and helpful for me, looking back now, I swear to god that girl pulls it out of the bag when I need her to!
      So the eyes, by Sunday I can't open my eye and it has spread to the other eye too! Choppers has been on a new ointment which although it was a total pain in the ass to get in (the answer is to play the grand old duke of York on your iphone above their head as a distraction) she seemed to be recovering. I went through a few days of flu & ridiculous eyes, I even woke up in a real blind panic! (I wonder if this saying comes from the wondrous pink eye?) suffice to say at the time it felt like it would never end, but inevitably it did.
       Then of course many antibiotics led to the magnificent thrush! Let's just lay this bare out here. I breastfeed my baby. Exclusively. On demand. Now I don't buy into the breast is best vs formula feeding happy mum club crap. I only managed a few weeks with doodles and then we bottle fed. With choppers, she won't take a bottle, I've tried every brand in every temperature & position. I adore that bond with my baby yes, but the pain is like nothing I've ever known, I would have happily given up breastfeeding forever if it meant the pain would stop. Poor little choppers had it in her mouth, more meds & a poor 'latch' which led to the even more dreaded mastitis. By this point I was ready to hack my tits off with a rusty spoon!
      These last few weeks have been 'thrush'strating! Ha. So, what have we learned? Mr doodles&choppers did not medicate & barely suffered. I'm a neurotic mother according to my unhelpful doctor. Coconut oil cures thrush. Doodles will behave like a total megastar if mum reassembles a zombie and finally, Choppers will have a smile on her face no matter what!
         Till next time.

Welcome to doodles&choppers!

Hello all, and warm welcome to you. I thought I would write a blog about being a mum & my life as a sort of reminder to myself and all parents out there that we rock!
Let me tell you all a bit more about me, I'm Luci, I'm 26 (apparently?) I like laughing at people falling over, I'm quite outspoken, I enjoy cake.
   I have two gorgeous, amazing children. First, *Doodles, is a marvellous girl of 8, who is bright, advanced & very funny. Doodles is a high ranked in her class as peer mentor? I'm not entirely sure about all this jumbo jumbo you get at schools nowadays, but it's lovely to see my little girl thriving in her enviroment & helping others. Doodles enjoys minecraft, all the crazy youtube videos that come along with (hello stampycat!) but rarely builds stuff, has mainly found the function of TNT!
    *Choppers is my second daughter, she is 4 months old currently, she likes Russell the butterfly (bright starts flutter & link) and boob milk. Choppers is the smiliest baby (most of the time) and is growing quick!
      There is a Mr. doodles&choppers but he declined to comment, very busy with work/being nagged/crafting with cardboard/catching up on 8 years of missed sleep/being awesome.
     This is us, our life is manic, organised chaos. Having a new baby after 8 (almost 9) years of just one child kind of crazed up life a bit, we all had to adjust, all had to compromise and all had to try that little bit harder! You forget what a newborn is like, you forget what no sleep actually feels like (after telling every single friend who had babies what it is like) you know it's shattering but the memory fades. You forget the pain, the tiredness and the mistakes (nappy on the wrong way anyone?)    Somehow you just muddle through, taking four hours to leave the house, cleaning up poop & sick, panicking about the contents of the baby bag.
      So welcome! I hope you love the blog ❤️

*names changed for protection of privacy. I enjoy writing about my children, they may not feel the same way when they're 13! This way I have my 'get out of jail free card'