What a treat from Daisy Radio this week...

Meet our resident presenter Sophie T, as she not only talks about her own experiences of childbirth but interviews mummy and blogger (and indeed regular contributor to the Lazy Daisy blogs) Mrs Penny Alexander.

Sophie takes Penny's blog Reach out and touch me published earlier this month, as inspiration for this interview and together they chat through birth, c-sections, bonding moments, parenting heros and family life.

This is a really uplifting broadcast, especially if you are a mum who knows your birth journey may need a little extra help (watch out for our residential workshops in Surrey, giving a beautiful day of extra support too) and finishes with Penny selecting her all time fav parenting song and family anthem - it's a classic so get ready to have a bop with your bump or baby!

This week Penny explores Raising Girls .....

Follow on from last week's blog Male bonding

It was bedtime last week,  I stood bemused in the kitchen as my 3yo son lobbed the empty beaker he'd asked me to fill with milk, across the kitchen. My husband was reasoning through gritted teeth with our 5yo daughter who was getting closer to tears by the sentence.

'Swap?' said my husband.

Jess's Birth Journey - Episode 2 of 7

Piles and Bump Painting!

Following the success of Episode 1 ODBBEM - One Daisy Baby Born Every Minute! (which has had over 600 views already), Jess could have found herself a little tongue-tied at the thought of chatting to you all!

But no, a whole 8minutes this week from this amazing lady (now 35 weeks pregnant), who is proving to be one of Lazy Daisy's most popular contributors.  This week Jess takes you through her experience of piles,  braxton hicks and even bump painting!

Knowing the sex of your unborn baby

Last week’s post on Reach out and touch me provoked interesting debate here and on Twitter, so this week I thought I would keep on the bonding theme.

Last week my brother sent me a text. It simply said 'It's a boy!' He’d just come out of his girlfriend’s 20 week scan.  Straight away, proud aunty-to-be that I am, I called him back shrieking 'I knew it, fantastic, congratulations!'  Cue obligatory jokes about footy teams, and him being a striker.

Doctors this week suggested there is no need for parents to know the baby’s sex at a 20 week scan. A specialist recommended 30 weeks. But how important is this information to parents?

My mum and grandmother marvelled at my scan photos and the idea that we could know our babies' sex in advance. I couldn’t resist finding out, there was something magical about being able to bond just a little bit more with my babies.  During pregnancy lots of time is spent dreaming and fantasising about your baby, and the child they will be.  For me knowing whether I was having a girl or boy made those images more tangible. 

I’m biased, so I asked my fellow bloggers what they did. Mostlyyummymummy has found out, not found out, and for one child wasn’t able to tell at the scan.  Her favourite she says, was the exciting surprise of the ‘it’s a boy/girl’ moment at the end of labour.  @Clearbean explained her thoughts changed with each pregnancy, the first time she was impatient, second time she wanted to prepare her first child and third time did not want to, but her partner did.

For her first two children Rachel of Right from the Start didn’t find out, she felt that it would take something away from the birth, looking back she has no regrets and felt it added to the magic and surprise of having a newborn.  But, for her third child she found out, because she had 2 girls at this point and wanted to be prepared, boys names were proving challenging, as was choosing a third girl’s name.  But she says knowing she was having a girl the third time didn’t take any excitement away.

I’m Penny, a freelance writer, mum to two and a blogger at Alexander Residence.   I’m really excited to be blogging on a weekly basis for Lazy Daisy.

Where better to start my first post than at the beginning of my parenting journey?

This week, after a comment made on a recent documentary about parenting, I briefly found myself questioning whether my children, both born by c section, had really and truly bonded with me.  Seems ridiculous now I write it, they are after all 3 and 5 and going forth happily in the world, but rarely does a day pass as a parent when you don’t question some aspect of what you are doing, and sometimes this means scrutinising events that happened years ago.

Instead of letting it buzz round my head creating unhealthy doubts and niggles, I decided to look at the evidence.  I turned to the photos of the first weeks of their lives.  Before I had children I was a drama teacher, I can’t help but analyse body language, eye contact, facial expressions.