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Maternity leave was one of the best periods of my life. I was almost going to call it an experience but I think parenthood itself is such a wonderful and amazing experience that I didn’t want to limit it to when I wasn’t working (in the office - as parenthood can be tough work as well). Parenthood is like a list of firsts..the first time Medb sat up by herself, the first crawl, the first holiday, the first time she tried food, her first tooth, the first time she slept through the night - haha I’m still waiting for that one!!! I think I was very lucky that early on, my public health nurse told me about the local boob group. Five of us formed a little gang and we met up at least once a week! I found four little friends for Medb! When Medb was only little (much smaller than she is now!) it was easy to walk up to the Phoenix Park and have coffee and scones outside in the courtyard. As the babies got a little bigger and more mobile we went to various baby events and of course the local baby & toddler groups. The great thing about our little gang is that the babies are all around the same age so we’re nearly all experiencing the same things around the same time; teething, weaning, going back to work...etc. So instead of self-doubt and despair we can chat or whatsapp each other! It’s great that even though most of us are back at work we still chat and have met up without the babies too! Getting back to the list of firsts, we brought Medb on her holiday when she was just over 5 months old. We thought a lot about where we would go, what type of holiday we wanted and what type of accommodation as well as weather! We finally decided on Italy and we went from thinking about airbnb, serviced apartments, hotels back to airbnb. We found a lovely place in Naples that had a travel cot - that and a balcony were our main requirements. I think we made the best choice for our first
holiday. Italians LOVE babies! Everywhere we went people were so nice and wanted to talk to the bellissima bambino! She had a great time smiling at everyone and looking at all the sights ;-) However, for a country that loves babies it doesn’t have many chaining facilities! Medb was also brilliant on both flights, she slept during the first take off but didn’t cry very much during the landing or the other flight! Yay! As we went in October the weather wasn’t too hot and we went before she started solids so we didn’t have to worry about food for Medb… we could focus on ice cream and pizza for the adults and lots of coffee for me! By the time we got back to Dublin Medb was ready for food. On holidays in one restaurant where we were getting take away she was staring at a man eating his pizza. He just smiled at her but we saw she was definitely getting interested in food! So we made butternut squash puree for her! The expression on her face was hilarious but she liked it. Even now she still likes the orange veg; carrots, sweet potato and squash! Medb wasn’t convinced by banana for a while but eats them now. I still don’t think she likes avocado. She definitely doesn’t like the little turkey balls I made for me:-( Spits them out every time and I’ve about 20 left in the freezer…they are a bit bland so I can’t blame her. Medb first sat up by herself at 6 months - on the dot! That was great, she had a whole new view of the world and between that and commando crawling round the place there was no stopping her! It’s actually amazing how quickly babies learn - from being on her tummy to being able to turn around and pull herself in different directions. Then from commando crawling to crawling on all fours. Pulling herself up on the couch and the coffee table and pulling
everything down! At 7 months, on the dot, she was crawling round on all fours. Her first tooth was just after she was 8 months - she made it easy to remember!! Our first solo (without daddy) trip was to Glasgow to see my sister, Deirdre. Luckily, she was able to borrow a car seat, high chair and travel cot so I thought I could pretty much travel as I usually would… with hand luggage only. What a stupid rookie mistake! Never again! My bag was far too heavy for me to carry around easily while wheeling a buggy round the airport and on the way back Medb had a meltdown at security so I had her in the harness and my heavy bag in the buggy! I think the highlight of that trip was Medb’s first visit to Santa. My sister had just moved to a little village and they were having their annual Christmas market that weekend in the town hall with Santa’s grotto. Medb was not impressed, lots of tears! I thought she’d be fine with the beard as her dad has one but no! Poor Santa! I was so excited about Medb’s first Christmas. I know that she hadn’t a clue what was going on but I love Christmas anyway and I was going to love it more with Medb around. Both my mom and I got baby’s first Christmas tree decorations. I do love a bit of cheesiness. While Medb received some great gifts, her favorite present is Looper, the rocking sheep, that my sister, Sinead, brought over from NYC back in August. Our favorite present was a photo book of Medb’s first 6 months in the world that my other sister, Deirdre, got us. I almost cried, there were pictures in the book I don’t even remember! For me it was really important to keep busy during maternity leave. My sister asked me if I ever got bored and I could honestly say I didn’t. Not that you would get bored with a baby around but I went to enough “events” or kept busy enough with walks and play dates that I didn’t have time to get bored. Joe used to laugh at me that I’d something planned every day. Now that I’m back at work I’m trying not to plan every minute of our weekends! One thing I started as soon as Medb was old enough, 4 months in our case, was swimming. I like to think she loves it. Even though she can’t tell me with words, I think that not screaming her head off and smiling in the water means she enjoys it!!
This was one of the things that I wanted to continue doing when I went back to work so now it’s a little family outing on a Saturday morning. We wouldn’t be getting a lie in anyway!! Apart from creche, one of the other big things to think about before going back to work was feeding Medb. I breastfed her up until she went to creche and I struggled for a bit thinking and trying to decide what to when she was in creche, i.e. pump or give her formula. I enjoyed breastfeeding and I never had any negative comments while out and about or from friends or family. If I did get any funny looks I didn’t notice. I pumped every day until we went on holidays and I didn’t do anymore when we came back as we had a freezer full of milk. In the end I decided that going back to work was tough enough and I didn’t need to add any more stress into our lives so I bit the bullet and we gave Medb formula going to creche. This wasn’t a problem for her and she guzzles it all down! What a betrayal!! ;-) Now I just feed her at night when she wakes up. Thankfully my boobs didn’t explode in work but I did bring the the pump with me for the first couple of weeks just in case. Going back to work was hard in a number of ways. I wouldn’t get to spend all my time hanging out with Medb and I’d have to start using my brain again - well, in a way that it hadn’t been used in a long while!! Medb was almost 9 months when I went back to work. In a way that was a nice age for her to start creche (or so I like to tell myself). She wasn’t too clingy and needed a lot of stimulation and she was crawling round the place like a mad woman pulling stuff down off everything!
The first few days were awful. Leaving your baby crying in someone else’s arms when all they want is mammy hugs is one of the hardest and most heartbreaking things ever. On her second day there, I called them half an hour after I left Medb and I could hear her crying in the background. The girls promised me that she hadn’t been crying the whole time. The initial crying stopped as soon as the girls distracted her and now Medb actively wants to go into the girls’ arms and even waves bye bye! It makes it so much easier. They do give a rundown of what she gets up to and eats every day but Joe does the pick up so I get a shortened version. I didn’t realise that we get the journals once they’re finished and we’ll definitely keep the first one for Medb to look at when she’s older. One pattern we noticed was a little phase of not eating her morning fruit. I also almost cried when she brought home a Valentine’s card! Her first piece of artwork! Now evenings and weekends are so precious for family time. Babies really do grow up so fast, she’s racing round the house and has just started to walk too! We’re trying to enjoy it all as it really is the best!