Formerly - A look at the ups and downs of life with a double pushchair!

Wednesday 24 July 2013

The little Prince

The whole world was on tenterhooks to see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge appearing through the double doors from the Lindo Wing last night to present the world with the future Heir to the throne. It wasn't disappointing. Kate looked fabulous (just how we all wanted to look 24 hours after giving birth) and William has stepped up to his role of a new man and admitted to having already changed a nappy.

Today I have been thinking just how it was for me in those first few days and weeks after the birth of my 4 kids and wondering how Kate is getting along.

Will Kate have been allowed to lounge around all day in her pj's, sleeping when the baby sleeps and chatting to her friends on the phone giving them the intracacies of her birth story? Will her Mum be there to help her with laundry and cook and clean for her? Will friends pop in with food and gifts for the baby? Will Kate and William take it in turns to walk up and down the landing at night to get him to stop crying.  Will William ever be spotted strapping the baby into the car seat in the middle of the night and driving a few times round the block just to get the baby go to sleep? Will they ever have to call NHS Direct in the wonder of detecting an infection/virus via the phone? I wonder if when they choose a name and have to go to register the birth whether they will have to lug their baby up 3 flights of stairs to the register office (that was an interesting moment with twins!)

It's doubtful.

We do know that they have had visitors today - the Queen popped in for half an hour to see her great-grandson. Only half an hour?

Presumably they have a whole team of staff, maids, cooks, doctors, nurses in attendance and on call 24/7. So pretty much the same as it was for me then!










Thursday 11 July 2013

Count your blessings

I count mine every day - 1,2,3 and 4. Even when I shout at eldest daughter for the slovenly way she likes to keep her bedroom, or at boy in the middle for shouting or fighting with one of his sisters,  or get exasperated at A and E for flinging their toys and clothes in every direction possible, I still count my blessings and tell them all every day that I love them.

Life is hectic and now I'm a full time working Mum I have less time to spend with them on a daily basis. Each week I think how I must try and spend a little quality time with each of them, whether it's taking eldest daughter shopping, playing Yahtzee or Monopoly with boy in the middle and even harder trying to have some time individually with A and E.

Recently however I have thought more and more about a legal case that I first heard about through facebook a year or so ago when a friend randomly joined me to a group - "Help Beth get her boys back". I recall reading it rather nonchalantly about a case of twin boys being given sole custody to their father as their mother was deemed mentally unstable.  I didn't really read much into it but gradually over time as I have read the posts and seen the photos on facebook my heart goes out more and more to Beth.  She is a Mum to twin boys who's marriage ended and her ex-husband in Austria has managed to get a court order deaming her unstable and now he has sole custody of the boys. 

As I read the various articles and see the photos of the boys and hear that their language skills aren't developing so well because they are being looked after by carers who don't speak English, how one of them had to have their teeth removed due to decay from them being left with a bottle of milk or juice in their cot, my heart goes out to the boys and their Mum.

It seems clear to me that Beth is an intelligent woman, with no mental instability and is living through any mothers worst nightmare.

DH and I were discussing the case the other day. DH had to agree that whatever happens in a marriage and however bitter the seperation, how can a husband, a father and a judge allow the bond of a mothers love to be taken from these innocent chilren.

Beth must live for her weekly visits every Tuesday and every other Sunday and I can only imagine that throughout the week her heart is breaking for her two gorgeous boys.

I hope that she counts both her blessings every day and I pray that justice will be given to her and she will get her boys back very soon.

http://helpbeth.org/category/media/
http://globetribune.info/2013/07/08/justice-denied-to-twin-boys-by-vienna-austria-family-court/
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