Here I am on my 29th birthday, 5 months pregnant with my first and looking for new, non alcoholic ways to celebrate.  We hired a boat on the Thames and picnicked.  You might spot the Jo Jo Bebe Maman bag, the birthday presents have shifted slightly, to mark my mum-to-be status

I think it is fair to say I was an early adopter to pregnancy amongst my closest friends.  Shortly after this my husband and I decided to leave behind our life and friends in London to set up business and home in Nottingham.  I decided to leave teaching and to be a full time mum for a few years. Looking back it was a pretty huge transition.  I approached it alot like freshers week at university and joined as many antenatal or baby related groups as I could.  I soon made lots of wonderful new mum friends, many of which I see on a weekly basis 5 years on.

But what about my friends of old,my school friends, the gang of girls I went to university with and then gravitated to London with?  I missed them hugely, I didn't see them as often and sometimes, especially when I had to say no to things, because I was still breastfeeding, because I didn't feel ready to leave my babies or because I was tired or strapped for cash, I felt our lives had moved in different ways. But, despite missing a few birthdays, not keeping up on gossip and feeling a little like I was missing out on their child free fun, we are still going strong.

'Na your pikin be dis?' (pidgin English for 'Is this your child?')

I was walking through Abuja airport, sweating under the weight of baby bag and my 9 month old on the hip seat carrier around my waist.

It was my first visit back to Nigeria to see my mum since I had a child and, although exhausted, I was bubbly with anticipation.  I was also aware of stares from passing strangers, eyes snapping wide at dark-skinned me and my baby with his pale skin, slanted eyes and jet black hair. An airport official marched over.

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.

Uju Asika, founder of London blog Babes About Town, investigates ....

I love the scene in the film Parenthood when Dianne Wiest's character finds out she's going to be a nana.

'I'm too young to be a grandmother,' she cries, 'I was at Woodstock, for Christ's sake. I peed in a field!'

Woodstock was before my time, but as a Gen X mum of two, I totally get where she's coming from. Sometimes I glimpse myself in 'pramouflage' (duvet coat, saggy jeans, old maternity cardi) and I wonder, who is that (strikethrough) bag lady person? It seems like only yesterday that I was dancing on a table in a Manhattan club, while Q-Tip and Jay Z popped Cristal in the next booth.

Nowadays you're more likely to find me sitting in the children's library, surrounded by toddlers, throwing finger shapes in gang-like affinity with other mums (West Side? Nope, Incy Wincy).