Reflections of a maternity leave

What a gripping, great read! Stars  5 out of 5 Time taken to read:  3 days Recommended : Seen on social media and bought for my godson for Christmas, kindly lent to me. Inspiration : WW2 and The Lake District. Two personally interesting topics. New things : A fictional read reflecting on facts and the BBC docunentary I love WW2, since I studied it in middle school, hearing the raid siren made my hairs stand to attention. I love The Lake District as I visited with my family/friends when I was in my teens. What a great combination. I had seen signs for  The Lake District Holocaust Project   when we were visiting as a family with my Mum in October half term 2019.  The BBC showed a documentary for Holocaust Memorial Day 2020. I watched this in parallel with my Mum. Love talking to her about TV. I later saw this book on Facebook in late 2019/ early 2020. Christmas 2020 it was on my godson's wish list I had to get it for him. He already had one by the same author. Lat...

During my first maternity leave I got restless. Some of this was anxiety-fueled and some was needed to keep my overly used teacher braìn active. Sadly the latter sometimes led to more of the former as I thought maybe I'm doing something wrong to not enjoy this "time of my life". I turned to my trusty friend Twitter to find like-minded people. I stumbled across The #MTPTProject. I looked at a few pages and thought it's all about schools. The membership was for schools in their defence. I also saw  "successful people". Cue imposter syndrome. I feel in control with evidence and information. So I naturally became a Breastfeeding Peer Supporter after receiving support myself. I felt I was paying it back. I travelled with my family, I met Argentinean peer supporters in Argentina. Other blog posts cover these topics. I also visited a secondary school for a day to discuss becoming a teacher there through SCITT training. It was really interesting. Although I felt may...

Photos in Argentina Breastfeeding didn't come easily, a skill, but it has been so useful.  The original fast food on call whenever needed. To quench their thirst, warm them up or comfort them.  It's magical milk! We travelled for 88 days. It was meant to be 90 but the snow in the UK stopped this! Cordoba,  San Luis and San Joan were the most north and Bariloche and Trelew were the most south.  We covered approx. 40,000 in a Clio and we took one internal plane trip. An amazing trip, quite tiring in places but so worth it for the memories. Many Argentineans were surprised I "still" breastfed. Everyone soon got used to it! Our son ate solid food well and slept well, that was all that mattered. He was called Mr Happy. A treat from my brother in law in his salon in Buenos Aires. It took hours and hours as he liked to do various treatments. The air con was amazing! After a dip in the natural pool below our cabin near San Luis where we stayed with family. San Lu...

Sammy asked me to be on the show with a months notice. At first I passed it over but was encouraged to do it. It was a great experience outside of my comfort zone. Lockdown pregnancy, maternity leave and birth have all been different to the first time round. #slowlife. While on my second maternity leave I've been busy; keeping a toe in my "professional" world with #APConnect conference, #FEReadingCircle plus reading for pleasure #RfP, breastfeeding peer supporting training, return to work coaching, volunteering on Twitter for #MTPTProject and @Pboro&Hinch_MVP and most recently appearing on JoyFM's podcast about maternity. I've also been binge watching TV series and reading! Along with rest when pre-schooler is busy! Many women suffer in their career progression around the time they have children and while caring for them. Termed the motherhood penalty. This can also occur when caring for other  family members.  While this hasn't directly affected me I am p...

Stars 5/5 Time taken to read a couple of days in  May Bought because I had seen a post from Matt on FB and then saw it in the bookshop top 5. Thoughts Loved it hence I read it so quickly with 2 children around! It reminded me of those books you could read and choose your path to the end.  Life is about choices. Inspiration Make the most of life within the energies we've got.  With 2 kids I find my time can be limited to reading at night when tired or nap time with my baby while big boy is at pre-school. The description in the book was so easy to visualise and I felt I was in the story. Highly recommend reading this #RfP.

I finally get a chance to sit down or lie down and I start scrolling looking for the one thing that will focus me and distract me! Will it be social media ideas, job task ideas to smarten my time management, a side hustle to make me savvy or a lovely story. Many times it's a waste of time and I know it! I crave that time. It adds up and before I know it, it's almost or after midnight and I should be asleep. The following day I realise I'm not taking deep breaths, I have a funny feeling and bamm anxiety has come knocking again. So I take some deep breaths and carve out some lie down time to rest and if possible sleep. Rest and relaxation are important. My phone and social media have become my addiction. Alongside my chocolate habit! 🍫