shutterflies.co.uk

One thing that I really love about Living Arrows (aside from the project itself!) is that it gives me the chance to discover new blogs and chat to new people and one of those is Donna from What The Redhead Said (formerly Redhead Babyled). Donna is mum to 3 year old Little Pickle and Little Man, who just turned 2. She works part time for a high street bank and spends the rest of the time juggling family life, a shift working husband and her blog. And she loves Maltesers, gin & tonic and pedicures, just incase you were wondering. We realised when were chatting one evening that we weren’t actually that far from one another and our daughters are only a few months apart, so we decided to get together one sunny Tuesday. My previously shy poppet has really come out of her shell the last couple of months and within a couple of minutes the girls were the best of friends, swapping dressing up stuff and admiring each other’s shoes!

Meet Donna!

What’s a typical day like for you?  

No day is typical for me – every day is different. Because Hubby works shifts and I work around his shifts some days I’m at work 9-5 and other days I’m at home with the kids, doing the school run, LP’s swimming lesson and housework. I work every Saturday too but Sundays I can generally be found at home baking, playing with the kids and catching up. We do squeeze in some family time where we can too.

What’s the best parenting advice you’ve been given?

I think the best advice was to trust my instinct and follow the baby’s lead. From the day LP was born we were very much baby-led and tried to feed her when she was hungry, let her sleep when she was tired and we really just rolled with it. We did the same with weaning, sleeping through the night and pretty much everything else – all babies get to the same point in the end eventually and we found it easiest to just go with the flow and see what happened so trusting my instincts has worked pretty well.

What are your hopes for the kids?

As corny as it may sound I just want them to grow up happy and healthy, going wherever life takes them. I hope they find someone to share life with, have families of their own and live life as fully as they can until they are old and content.What has surprised you most about having kids?

The amount you can love someone. Every single day since having LP has been a rollercoaster of emotions, pure absolute love for that tiny ginger bundle of squishyness that has grown into such huge pride in everything she learns, everything she does and everything she is. It’s an honour to be her parent and the same goes for Little Man. When you’re pregnant with your second child you always ask yourself whether you’ll have enough love for two and whether you’ll ever be able to love another as much as you love your first. You do, it happens. You don’t love the first one less, you just have another to love equally – and that love is the best thing about being a parent.

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