OK as my first official entry to my parenting blog I thought I’d better start off with the story of my little girl.

Zara was very much a planned baby and she arrived into this world on the 29th November 2009, just one week late but in rather a hurry. I have to admit that for my first baby, having a labour that lasted 4 hours from first contraction until she arrived was very very lucky and I’m certainly not complaining. (OK feel free to hit me next time you see me!) All in all I’d say that the whole pregnancy and giving birth side of things was pretty straight forward for me. Don’t get me wrong, labour hurt like hell and I’m just relieved it was all over and done with in an evening. At 36 weeks pregnant I looked like this (photo courtesy of www.soniathorpephotography.com  - my little sister who is an amazing photographer!)

not exactly huge and unless I actually tried to look pregnant I don’t think people even realised I was, even when I was 41 weeks! (again feel free to hit me at any time!). In fact at 41 weeks pregnant (and the day Zara was born) I was actually shopping in Sainsburys by myself, pushing a heavy trolley, lifting heavy bags and I didn’t get one comment such as “oooh you must be due soon” etc as people just didn’t even realise. At least I missed out on complete strangers wanting to touch the bump!

And so just 5 weeks after that photo was taken our little girl arrived into our lives

OK so I’m not looking quite as glamourous here but hey I’d just given birth so figure I’m entitled to have a bad hair day!

I quite often get asked how we chose her name as it isn’t exactly a common name and is pretty far down the list in any baby name books. Well there is rather a long story behind it but to cut it short, I met my husband through an internet dating site and for our first date we planned to meet in parliament square by the fountain in York. Me being most unlike me ended up being an hour late and so in the end I phoned him when I got to York and he came and found me and I just happened to be outside the Zara store in York. A bit of a silly tradition we now have is to stop and kiss outside every Zara store we come across – including those in Florence, Rome, London etc etc. When it came to thinking of baby names I jokingly suggested we should do what the celebs do and name her after where we met (or if feeling really adventurous a fruit!) and so the seed was planted. We both actually liked the name Zara and so dug out the name books to look it up and when we found out the meaning there was no going back. Zara actually means “The Brightness of Dawn” – perfect! Of course the Alexandra comes from her Daddy.

Right lets get back on track – so Zara arrived into this world and promptly made me realise that my world had just been catapaulted into chaos. Now anyone who knows me knows that I’m not exactly the maternal type, I’m an accountant, I like planning, schedules, things to add up, being on time etc etc – not exactly great preparation for being parent to a newborn baby. Yup – those first few weeks I really wondered what on earth I had created. People always say “make the most of the sleep whilst you can” when pregnant – but oh my god I soon realised exactly what they meant. The first 6 weeks were pretty much spent taking shifts sleeping downstairs on the sofa with the baby in her pram whilst the other one got some sleep upstairs. Our relationship was now a case of passing each other on the stairs at ridiculous o’clock shift changeovers. Christmas and New Year all passed in a blur as did most of January.

Though for some unknown reason, (certainly not due to any amazing parenting technique) at around 6 weeks everything just clicked into place, Zara started sleeping through the night, I managed to get to places on time without having to spend 3 hours packing our bags and I actually felt like I was succeeding rather than just surviving. In fact I think I actually started enjoying being a mum!

Anyway here we are at 6 months and I’ve finally decided to start a blog about my life as a mum, an accountant, a wife and a woman (not necessarily in that order). I can happily say that at 6 months I finally feel like a competent mother and I no longer panic when my daughter throws a screaming fit in public or throws up on our guests best outfits. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that her first word was dada but hey – I could hardly expect it to be Debit or Credit could I?  We have 2 teeth (Zara not me, I have considerably more) and we have mastered rolling over both ways and currently have an obsession with aubergine.

If you’ve made it this far then a) Congratulations! b) Thank you and c) I hope I haven’t bored you too much :)

Finally a photo of us at 6 months :)