This series of stories will be titled 'I'm surprised I turned out as well as I did, given my childhood ...' 43

We had our kids at a relatively young age – I was just 24 when we had Dani and just 27 when we had Haydn.

Dani adored her little baby brother even though some of the attention was diverted to him.

We had to grow up and fast. Now that was a culture-shock!

I was really poorly when I gave birth to Dani. I had a bad time of it (birth is never a pleasant time of course). I had to stay in hospital for six days and was only allowed out when the hospital authorities were convinced and persuaded that I had care 24/7 when I did go home.

I’d had a massive black-out, never-to-be-remembered, panic attack just after we’d got to the ward after her birth and I think they were more concerned that I’d have another one than anything else.

I came home to… my Easter Egg missing, gone, vanished – eaten! (I’ve never forgiven him for that, he doesn’t even LIKE dark chocolate!)

Dani grew, as kids tend to, and we decided to take another go on the ‘baby-go-round’.

You remember that Dani was born on a number of my relations’ birthday?

Well… Haydn was due on or around my grandmother’s birthday (yeah… I could see that conversation… “Are you going to name the baby after me?” “Grandma, calling my baby boy ‘Irene’…” well, you know.)

Back into the dim and distant past, we go.

Trev (@s0u1) had an uncle that committed suicide. The uncle threw himself into the reservoir behind their home. He died exactly two years to the day that Trev was born. On Burns’ Night – that’s going to have to be a celebration sometime soon - @meesterboom, are you up for that?

The new baby’s birth was close to both my grandma’s birthday and Trev’s. Everyone was laying bets on when the baby was going to be born – on whose birthday would he/she land.

My grandmother’s birthday came and went. I’m pretty sure she was a little put-out because she probably thinks I did that on purpose.

Trev worked all-hours, especially coming up to the birth because again, he was going to take three weeks off – there was no paternity leave, he’d had to save up his holidays.

So, on the very morning that he had a chance of a lie-in, on his actual birthday, guess who decided to make an appearance?

My brother and his wife had called ‘round to see us the previous evening and everyone became really worried. We watched a film – something with Bruce Willis… dating or something. It was hilarious! Every time I laughed, the baby took a kick… we thought about stopping the film, but what the hell.

So I couldn’t get to sleep. I couldn’t get comfortable and I had heart-burn (a sign that the baby has lots of hair… so they say) and indigestion. I don’t think I’d had anything to eat… so that was a sign if ever there was one!

At around 3am I managed to find that comfortable-spot and fall asleep.

4am my waters broke.

Haydn arrived around 7 hours later. I have to say, that’s a LOT better than Dani’s 22 hours of labour.

His birth went a lot better than Dani’s and I could come home a couple of days after. I had a repeat of the terrifying panic-attack I’d had just after Dani’s birth (that’s a story all on its own) but apart from that, making sure the contraception was in place (two bricks-job), I was good to go.

Dani was a good little girl and we had few issues…

She ruined the wallpaper at the top of the stairs (again, another story) and she decided to befriend a strange man (I never saw him, he was invisible) but all-in-all, super-peachy.

Until the day we couldn’t find her anywhere.

She’d been playing quietly. I was taking care of Haydn. She couldn’t get out of the house, neither to the front nor the back, so she was safe, but I could NOT find her.

Upstairs, downstairs, nowhere to be found. I didn’t know if she was upset with me or if she was playing hide and seek – or even if that invisible friend had come and persuaded her to go with him…

The house was child-safe at that time. Cupboards locked, fire-guard etc and she couldn’t open the door to go out to the dogs (not that anything would have happened, they adored her).

Panic-mode!

I looked in her bedroom again. Have you noticed, we look in all the same places just to see if the thing we’re looking for magically reappears?

She wasn’t playing there… but she had moved Haydn’s old Moses basket, she used it to play with her dolls and teddies.

She’d taken it out and put a sheet and blankets in it for her teddy to sleep on.

There she is.

My kids – wonderful experiences, but heart-stopping moments!