Tag Archives: son

Aug 02 2017
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Feature Mummy

Awareness for Kody

My names Brooke and I’m a mum of three from London.

I was 18 when I had my first baby, Jayden. I had a straight forward pregnancy only suffering with extremely low iron, causing me to constantly be tired. I had a natural, straight forward delivery, and Jayden was born at 38 weeks weighing 6lb 12oz.

I was 20 when I had my second baby, my daughter Lexxi.  My pregnancy was completely different from my first one. I didn’t feel pregnant. People told me I didn’t look pregnant, I was really small.  When I was about 6 and a half months pregnant a family member told me I looked like I had slept heavy, little did I know it was me starting to swell up. After weeks of constantly swelling I went doctors and was rushed to the hospital as my blood pressure was too high. I had pre eclampsia, something I’d never heard of. My daughter was born at 33 weeks weighing 3lb 1oz. She had to be tube fed for roughly a month and she came home before her due date. She’s now 5 with no complications.

In 2016 I had my son Kody at 27 plus one, again due to me suffering with severe pre eclampsia. Kody had a slight bleed on his brain but within a few weeks it corrected itself. Kody had extremely severe chronic lung disease and was put on various breathing supports, Kody also suffered with numerous infections as his lungs were too weak to cope with anything, even routine immunisations.

Kody made it to the high dependency unit a few times but always ended up back in intensive care, we were told numerous times that Kody might not make it.

Kody went to great ormond street hospital to see if there was an underlying problem but there wasn’t. He ended up going to a lung and heart specialist hospital in Chelsea.
As Kodys lungs were so bad they started putting pressure on his heart causing him to suffer with pulmonary hypertension. Kody was ventilator dependent so he had a tracheostomy to see if he could eventually come home on a portable ventilator. Kody was heavily sedated and muscle relaxed on many occasions. Kodys lungs were getting worse, he was on the highest pressure that the ventilator could give and his body still wasn’t receiving enough oxygen.

My beautiful baby lived until he was 7 months and one day. I’m now trying to raise awareness in Kodys name for these conditions. I have an Instagram account – @awarenessforkody.
Facebook/AwarenessForKody
I’m doing ‘Kodys story’ a little journey book for the hospitals and hospice we stayed in.
I have ribbons & hair accessories which if people donate money towards I’m giving it to either the hospitals or one of the causes close to my heart.  I also have many other projects I’m going to do to hopefully raise awareness.

Thank you – Brooke xxxxx
My baby Kody ❤️

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Nov 08 2016
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Feature Mummy, Mummies tales

Guest Blog – Candice @theworkingmumma

Why did you become a nurse? That is a question I LOVE answering. It’s not the usual, ‘oh I finished year 12 and decided to go to Uni and do nursing.’ It’s a story I hold deep in my heart. There is nothing wrong with the above statement! But my reason is a little different…

Let me take you back 10 years ago when I was 18 years old, I was driving like a mad women, running red lights towards our local hospital. I had a phone call from my dad that turned me into that lunatic driver, ‘Candice, it’s nana, she’s not well, you need to get here now.’ I rushed to the local ED to find my nana on stretcher in the hallway, I ran up to her, tears in my eyes, panic in my heart and cuddled her, sobbing into her neck. She told me she was sick, it wasn’t looking good. I stupidly panicked and told her I loved her, that I’d never forget her and promised to name my daughter after her. It was at that moment she stopped me in my tracks – pushed me back and said these exact words, ‘don’t be so BLOODY STUPID! I have a horrible name’ She wasn’t entirely wrong; Betty Peggy Olive Tarrant – what was my great grandma thinking?

Anyway, fast forward 3 weeks to the day my nana died. In the local private hospital (which I now work at – and still can’t bring myself to work in that ward) with the family around her. The care the nurses gave us, the care they gave my nana, touched my soul. She passed away peacefully with mum and I at her side, holding her hand. I walked out to the nurses and said I thought she was gone, they came in and confirmed it. The love they showed mum and I was something I can never thank them enough for and the compassion they showed my lifeless nana was beautiful. They still talked to her, touched her tenderly. I left the hospital at 3am a changed person.

I was enrolled into Uni to become an accountant, I am good with numbers and love business; but that night something inside me decided helping people make money was not what I wanted to do. I needed to give care to people the way the nurses gave care to my family and my nana. I applied to do nursing that year and started the following year. I wanted to care for dying people and their families.

So, why did I become a nurse? Because my nana died and the nurses were amazing.

I finished uni and ended up in Intensive Care. My passion. It’s not called Intensive Care for any old reason. The care is intense, the emotions are intense, the body of the patient is under intense pressure to fight. It’s a special place to work. I have many tales to tell about my time there; the first time I did CPR, the time first I heard a mother scream when her son died; the first time I had a patient get so sick that they needed to be put into a coma, the first time I cried with a family, the first time I saw a miracle, the first time I saw a patient walk out of the unit after the medical staff thought it would never happen again, the first time I saw a wife smile because her husband was getting better and also the first time I met Kyle.

I worked in ICU for three and a half years when I decided it was time for a change. Making that decision broke my heart, but I needed a change. Kyle and I were wanting a family and the 12hr shifts were going to be hard, we worked half night shift (7.30pm – 8am) and half day shift (7.30am – 8pm) which would mean I would be going a whole day without seeing my baby. I looked into other areas of nursing and found cosmetic nursing, I did a Post Graduate Degree and once finished I fell pregnant. I waited until after my baby (William) was born and started applying for jobs in the cosmetic industry. During my course we had injecting days and the educators always told me I was a natural and I loved it. Me, as a person, would have loved to stay in ICU, but me, the partner & mother, needed to leave. My compromise to myself was to stay casual in ICU to get my ‘fix’ and work my permanent job as a cosmetic injector.

I love the Cosmetic nursing, people often look at the industry as vain, but my view is; I am trying to reconnect people to who they feel like on the inside, to who they look like on the outside. Yes, people come in to get lips done, but who are we to judge people? If they are doing it for themselves then that’s great! I often get mothers in their 30’s – 40’s saying: it’s time for me now, I have given so much that it’s time for me to indulge – GO them!!

Working office hours with a bubba boy who is only 7 months old is hard work. I try my best to balance it out but there are days when I feel guilty, days when I miss my baby. But I love work so much that it’s my time. How I balance it is that I organise the night before as much as I can for the proceeding days (I work 3 days a week); I meal prep, I pre cut veg/salad/meat to spend minimal time in the kitchen and I also make sure William has fresh healthy food ready, that makes me feel good to know I am still caring for him while I am away. I do all this once he goes to bed so I am not taking time away from him.

On days where I finish at 5.30pm, Kyle (my fiancé) knows to keep William up and let me do the bedtime routine. Another thing I do is on my days off, I spend all my time with my little man. I just make sure I get quality time with him. It’s taken a while to find balance and there have been times I have cried because I miss William. Of course he doesn’t care! He spends his days with his grandparents and adores them, he doesn’t go to daycare yet.

Becoming a mummy has been the best thing that has ever happened to me, but being a nurse is also something that is deeply engraved into my soul. Being a working mum is easy when you’re passionate about you job.

 Candice @theworkingmumma 

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Mar 30 2016
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Feature Mummy, Mummies tales

How is it possible to miss someone you’ve not even met?

My name is Kelly. I’m a full time working wife and mumma to a beautiful almost 2 year old boy, and another little boy due at the end of May. Recently, I spent the night in hospital with gastro and dehydration. It was an awful experience! My first pregnancy was plagued with bleeds, hospital stays, threatened premature labour and an eventual emergency C-section 3 weeks early. Up until the point of my recent hospital stay, I was feeling pretty happy with myself and incredibly blessed, that this pregnancy was cruising along, drama-free. So needless to say, as I lay in my hospital bed, as sick as a dog, I shed a tear of self-pity..

My amazing husband must have realized this so he sent me a photo of himself and my son, smiling into the camera. It immediately warmed my heart to see my boys there, smiling for
me! But at the same time, instantaneously, I was hit with a realization. There’s something missing from this photo. Or someone..

Of course cruising through this pregnancy, like anyone, I’ve been filled with excitement and anticipation at the thought of meeting our newest family member. But it wasn’t until this point that I realized, this little boy growing inside me, is already so much a part of my family, that I feel like he is a missing member, like a missing body part!

As much as I absolutely love my boys, I couldn’t help but feel like this photo was incomplete.

I couldn’t help but feel like all my boys, were not in the photo!

I finally recognized the feeling of had a few tunes recently, when my boys and I were doing quality family things, feeling so happy, yet feeling like something was not quite right.. It’s because I’m missing my second son before he’s even breathed his first breath!

Man, that’s a powerful love! A mother’s love!

So as I lay in my hospital bed looking at the photo of my boys, I started to feel a huge sense of excitement… In a couple years’ time, I would be able to look at a very similar photo of not one, but two little boys, excitedly clamouring over daddy, smiling into the camera at a photo they know is being sent to mummy.

It fills me with so much excitement, and so much love!

Hurry up little bubba D, your mummy, daddy and big brother miss you, and can’t wait to meet you!

IMG_534127 weeks

Kelly – @working.mumma

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Mar 01 2016
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Mummies tales

The real mummy moments

Prior to Hudson I had never changed a nappy, I would gag at the site or smell of vomit and to be honest I was a little worried about how I would cope with motherhood. Now, I am a seasoned pro and can change a nappy with my eyes closed while singing ‘Old Mc Donald’

I have mothehood days where I feel like Martha Stewart. Perfect family, Instagram filtered days. The problem with these days, is that they’re few and far between. Most days are just average parenting days full of highs, lows and a mixture of laughter and tantrums…..then there are the dark moments.   You feel like you have run a marathon with two small people hanging off you, everything is sticky and you probaby smell of poop or vomit.

These are the moments I need to discuss. I have to get them off my chest. I’m sure all mother’s and father’s have experienced something similar.  Some of my highlights are now particularly funny (mostly gross but also funny). At the time of some of these events I was probably on the verge of tears.  It’s important to look back now and laugh, I survived and my children are happy. 

▫ Mark of the year – I have ran accross a room to catch both poop and/or vomit rather than let it fall on clothing, the couch or the floor. Literally put my hands out to grab it like it’s the golden snitch in a quiddich match, anything to save an outfit or a little bit of extra carpet cleaning.

▫Sneaky tidy up –  I have wiped baby chuck off clothing and scampered off to work like nothing is wrong. Sometimes when both children are already strapped in the car and you see a milk mark on your jacket it’s just too late and too much effort to go home and get changed.

▫ MacGyver – my husband had just returned to work after I had Scarlett. I discovered I was completely out of breastpads. I had to go to the supermarket and get more but couldn’t risk springing a leak in aisle 5. I cut a maternity pad in half and used that. Stuck in my bra and all,  worked like a charm.

▫ Boom! – Poop and or vomit has been scrubbed off our couch, carpet, blinds…..how on earth do they manage shoot it accross the room. The sheer force (even from a newborn) is completely amazing and a big surprise if you’re not ready for it.

▫ Boom…headshot!!– My daughter, beautiful baby girl shot a bit of poop into my mouth. Yep, that’s correct…… I was changing a nappy when she was a newborn. Bent down as I was singing/chatting to her and ka boom, right in the kisser.

▫ Thanks but no thanks – Hudson will often say ‘mummy this is for you’ as he sweetly hands me a boogie?  We’re slowly learning that they go in a tissue.

▫ Flush first – Since Hudson has been toilet trained he has also learnt about using a toilet brush to tidy any marks on the bowl. Great! I thought I was winning at motherhood teaching him how to clean up after himself. However, we now pretty much argue daily as he wants to use the brush to clean the toilet prior to flushing the poop down, clearly that lesson has backfired on me.

▫ Code brown – most parents have had this moment. Your little one is happily playing in the bath one minute and the next everything changes. In our house one parent is normally yelling ‘code brown’  getting the child or children from the bath while the other fishes for the floating culprit and proceeds to disinfect or bin the bath toys.

It’s true what they say, it really is different when it’s your own children.  All of these moments are pretty gross, but they are honest and in reality just another little bump in the road. It goes to show, motherhood really changes a person, I’m a perfect example.

Rachelle xx

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    Kelly Dernehl