The Milk of Human Kindness

Some people are uncomfortable with the concept of donating breast milk, via a milk bank, but for premature and very sick babies it can be a godsend.

For 10 years, the lives of hundreds of sick and premature babies have been sustained and saved by the work of the Irvinestown Human Milk Bank. An incredible network of hundreds of mums north and south donate their milk, which is picked up everywhere from the steps of courthouses by lactation nurses or delivered in crates by the donors’ husbands.

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Diary of a Mum of Two…. Mama told me, there’ll be days like these

Last week wasn’t a great week in the Catyn household. The husband had strep throat, the first-born had an infection, and the infant was himself – charming and smiley during the day, the anti-christ at night. But sometimes all you need is one good day to see you through – and, thank goodness, that day was Sunday.

Diary of a Mum of Two…. Contented Little Babies

Pretty much everyone in the mothering business has come across Gina Ford. Remarkably, the firstborn was already about 3 months old when I first heard the name – I asked a work colleague whether her baby had a “routine” and with her answer, a whole new world opened before my eyes; a world where organisation and structure is the order of the day, a world where babies go to sleep at 7pm and wake at 7am, a world where you know what comes next. You see, there are babies, and there are “Gina Ford Babies” or as she puts it herself “contented little babies”. There is no doubt about it, Ms Ford has something, and the many people who follow her routines swear by her.

Diary of a Mum of Two – Heaven and Hell

I was thinking about heaven and hell recently. Not in the religious sense, more in terms of my own personal hell, or vision of heaven. You see – the infant spends a lot of time awake in the small hours, and indulging in these deep thoughts as I jiggled and rocked him one evening was a good way to pass the time. (I can also list all 50 US States alphabetically, name every country I have been to in the order I visited, and am close to working out how many times I have been on a plane… the things you do to keep sane at 3am …)

So, I decided, Catyn’s Heaven should be some glorious desert island, taken from the old Bounty ad, complete with some good novels, nice cocktails etc. But I’d miss the kids and the husband, so they’d have to make regular appearances, and be available (and well-behaved) for selected outings. I’d need to be able to do some shoe and bag shopping, so a few department stores, and perhaps all of Kildare Village, would be a short hop away. Not a desert island then, but a cross between Acapulco and Oxford Street. Also, I am very fond of knee length boots, but am not sure if they would work with a bikini (even with my heavenly bikini body and perfect tan) so there would need to be some cool crisp weather, and while we’re at it, some roaring fires and a Christmas party or two. In actual fact, when I got going, my Heaven was almost impossible to pin down.

Hell was easier. Bouncing on a gym-ball trying unsuccessfully to wind a screaming baby seemed like a good place to start. But, I thought, a true Hell would need to be so much more. I remembered reading about Dante’s Inferno and his 9 circles of hell, and that gave me more to work with. An eternity of burping (or rather, not burping) an infant in the small hours, having only had 90 minutes of unbroken sleep in many weeks, definitely qualified for one of my circles, but there should be another 8. Endless toddler tantrums made the grade, as did certain aspects of childbirth. I included some form of queuing, maybe for some bureaucratic reason – and to complete that circle I added tired and hungry children with me as I queued. Making a mess of parallel parking while a whole pile of people look on and laugh (a recent painful experience) was a circle of hell for me. Some of my eternity would be spent on a runway, or in an airport holding pen. That left me with 3. There were still lots of options, but the 3 that made the grade were; a never decreasing pile of ironing – really fiddly ironing, getting stuck on the M50 with 2 screaming kids, and the finale…. ah yes, trying to find car keys which have been hidden by a toddler whose memory only stretches to her last wee in the potty.

So, there they were, my 9 circles of hell. Shortly afterwards, the infant gave a huge burp, and immediately fell asleep in my arms. I got back to bed and discovered that an eternity of winding had actually only been 30 minutes. I climbed in beside my nice warm husband, and as I drifted off to sleep, realised that every one of my circles were just frustrations (except possibly the parallel parking, endless attempts at that would really, really be hell). With two beautiful children, a lovely home, and a warm husband to hold onto at night, it may not always be Heaven, but it’s a far cry from Hell.

Diary of a Mum of Two – Toddler No More…

The arrival of the infant has had a huge effect on all the Catyn Family. I’ve alternated between joy at having two healthy beautiful children, and a desire to lock myself in the shed until everyone is over 18, or in the case of the adults, willing to act that way. The husband is the same (although I am pretty sure he would want his own rather than a shared shed). The infant probably wishes he was back in the nice little swimming pool, where there was a lot less noise, and where he didn’t have to roar his head off to get a bit of grub. And finally – the person who has changed the most in the last 3 months – the toddler; I can hardly believe I am typing this about a two year old, but she has grown up, and is a toddler no more.

Diary of a Mum of Two…. CaTyn Returns to the Keyboard

Those of you who read my pregnancy diary may have noticed that I dropped off the face of the earth, or at least Eumom, at the latter stages of my pregnancy, and blogged no more.

My apologies for the long silence. It’s only now, 15 weeks later, that I am beginning to speak in sentences – as opposed to guttural grunts and one word commands barked at the husband. So – seeing as I do remember how to use my pc – I am finally delighted to report the birth of my healthy and beautiful son, at 4.58am on 5th January 2010.

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