L
ast week Pete surprised me by
kitting out our garden with all new
furniture [below left]. It was such
a nice thing to come home to! It
goes great with our hot tub and we’ve
even got our very own Love Island fire pit
[below right]! We’ve made our hot tub
into a ‘cold tub’ again, which has been
a lifesaver in the heatwave. I also took
Theo to a lavender farm [right] near our
house as he is obsessed with picking
the lavender we have in our garden. Hedidn’t quite know what to do with himself
when he was faced with a whole field
full! It was so beautiful and there was a
little café there so we sat and had some
lavender ice cream together. Millie was
a bit jealous when she got home from
school as she always says Theo has all the
fun when she isn’t there! I always try and
make sure I plan day trips with her too
when she isn’t at school, and now it’s the
summer holidays we can do a lot more.
Pete has been away quite a bit recently
so it was great
to see him
when he got
back. The kids
were so happy
to see Pete and
jumped all
over him! Even
when he is
working hard he
always does so
much with the
kids when he
gets home.38
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H
elen Flanagan has opened up about how she
has made the decision to stop breastfeeding her
13-month-old daughter Delilah [below]. She said
that it was triggered by wanting Delilah to stay in
her own room after her elder daughter didn’t stay in
her own room until she was four. Helen was honest
about her feelings around giving up, as she says
hearing her babies cry makes her anxious. I think that
is something lots of mums will identify with, myself
included! I still find it hard hearing my children cry
now and they aren’t even babies
any more.
I stopped feeding both
of mine around six months
for lots of reasons, including
going back to work after Millie
was born and struggling with
Theo’s tongue-tie. It is such
an emotional time because
it’s so easy to feel guilty, when
in actual fact you should feel
proud of yourself for whatever
length of time you have
managed to breastfeed.BRAVEGEMMARECALLSBIRTHTRAUMA
G
emma Atkinson [below, with Gorka Marquez] has opened up about
the ‘traumatic’ birth of her daughter Mia, who weighed 4lbs 10oz. She
needed an emergency C-section as Mia’s heart rate was dropping, and then
lost a lot of blood after giving birth. It is normal to lose blood after childbirth,
but more than 500ml is classed as a post-partum haemorrhage and can be
life-threatening. It’s very easy to blame yourself
as a mum, but in reality you have no control
over whether you have a PPH, even if you’re
fit and healthy like Gemma. Another thing
mums try and blame themselves for is when
they end up having a C-section, but again
there is very little you can do to control
how your baby is born. I ended up having a
C-section with Theo because he was breech,
which was absolutely not what I wanted. I had
a lot of guilt after he was born but now feel
very comfortable with my decision as I know
it was the right thing to do at the time. But
sometimes, for whatever medical reason, the
decision can’t always be what you want.gagOK!