Meltdown ...

It’s nearly four o’clock on a Friday afternoon, I am still not dressed (and I reckon it’s too late to try to be now) and I have not left the house since Wednesday. Both my children are sick. My very nearly three-year-old daughter, Jemima, has been screaming most of the day regardless of what I say or do. Even bribes of strawberry medicine and biscuits won’t work - probably because she can’t hear me above her own racket. I would be worried that she were seriously ill if it weren’t for the fact that, in one blissful moment of silence when I thought she had finally fallen asleep, she scribbled all over one wall of the house in pencil and black pen. Her two-month-old baby sister, Bella, is gorgeous but waking, every ten minutes, so full of snot she sounds like a coffee percolator. And there are nasty, biting, red ants in the kitchen.

This is the first entry to my brand new blog. It was not meant to be the rants of a frazzled mother – not all of it anyway. It is supposed to be about embracing motherhood, my experiences of positive, natural, attachment parenting, and coping with the second child. Trouble is, I’m not sure I am. Coping, I mean. I can’t remember when I last brushed my teeth, my hair is beginning to dread unaided, and my pelvic floors will have to wait until next year. Things are not going according to plan.

The embarrassing thing is that I have recently finished writing a book (unpublished before you are impressed) in which, among other things, I extol the joys of full-time motherhood. Today I have been sorely tempted to burn the damn thing. But it is a book for first-time mothers. In fact, now I think of it, after today it feels truer than ever. Hoorah! I am determined to get it out there. All first-timers need to know how important it is to embrace the whole experience first time round. With one healthy, small, portable baby you can travel, work from home, volunteer or just enjoy doing what you do around the house. With two it’s a whole different ball game, as I am quickly discovering.

Still, as both my children are finally asleep (terrible timing, we’re in for a late night tonight), and I realise it’s the weekend tomorrow, things feel a little better. I shall be positive. This blog will be testimony to the fact that attachment parenting is possible with two kids - Dr Sears has at least ten right? But he doesn't live in Cambodia and I bet he has never tried 'baby-wearing' in 35ºc, 90% humidity.
I promise not to use this space for my therapy... (repeat three times daily).