I have been told numerous times since Georgie died that I am a brilliant writer. I don’t think I am, to be honest. I am just honest and true and my writing is raw many times. I write to heal. I heal by writing. But now, I have a favour to ask. I have asked my Facebook friends last week and now it is time to extend the invitation to you, my lovely and supportive blog readers. If you do think my writing is any good and it deserves noticing, would you vote for me in the Brilliance in Blogging Awards? The writer section stands at number 8 and this are the details you need in order to complete it: Blog Name: Mama’s Haven Blog URL: https://mamashaven.com/ Blogger’s Twitter ID: https://twitter.com/MamasHaven Blogger’s email: oanachi@yahoo.com Why do you feel this blogger deserves to win the blogger award?: Your choice of words! URL of your favourite post from the blog: Any of my posts. My most recent is this: https://mamashaven.com/2015/03/22/mothers-day-2015/ Thank you very much! If I win …

I meant to write this post last week but as I said in my last post, things have been busy. Shortly before Christmas, we spent a weekend in Daisy Lodge, Cancer Fund for Children’s retreat base. As a recently bereaved family, we found the experience energizing and soothing, the place a safe haven, like nothing else in this world and the staff amazingly intuitive, discreet and caring. We managed to made friends, good friends, with other bereaved families who were visiting at the same time. A second invitation, for Mother’s Day weekend, was very much appreciated and all three of us really looked forward to resting, recharging our batteries and reconnecting with people we have come to call friends. Mother’s Day can be a hard day for a bereaved mother. Any day carries the potential of memory triggers, of painful reminders, of nightmarish “whys” and “ifs.” But Mother’s Day is guaranteed to trigger strong emotional responses to the loss of a child. Memories of cards received in the years past. Or the pain of realisation …

I have been busy. I have been happily busy. We have been travelling around the country, seeing new and beautiful places. I have been working with children and enjoyed every day of it. I have been spending quality time with my daughter, creating precious memories and having loads of learning experiences and fun together. But in my busyness, I neglected my grief. And I am back to not sleeping. And back to nightmarish dreams. I don’t dream with my boy but I dream myself in situations that highly frustrate me. The last one was being in a dilapidated house full of rubbish and cockroaches and piled up high with junk. And I was there with nothing to tackle the mess. Feeling completely enraged, frustrated, hopeless. I have been ignoring my grief but I have done myself no favours. It is pure rubbish what people say, that God heals all the wounds with a magic wand, that if you “put your baby to rest and allow his soul to float to heaven” that if you ignore …

Every parent will attest to, at some point during their children’s lives, having problems getting them to bed. Tantrums, midnight wake-up calls, early mornings; there are a fair few issues that can result from a child receiving too little sleep, and these can have knock on effects, harming your child’s physical and intellectual development. Luckily however, there are a number of ways you can negate these bugaboos, instilling a healthy, positive bedtime routine for your child that will utterly transform your experience of bedtime! Begin Early Don’t wait until your child’s first yawn of the evening to set off on the road to bedtime. Young children will often feel hyperactive or grumpy when they are feeling tired thanks to the brain releasing wakeful hormones that serve to keep the body running during what the brain conceives as an incorrect time to go to sleep – if you were to spend your own time before bed in front of computer or smartphone screens you’d experience the same effect. As such, start an hour before the point …