Well, I haven't updated or posted here for such a long time! I spend far too much time on Facebook, a pregnancy and fertility site I have been a member of since our first miscarriage, and Twitter! (if you want to Tweet me, try KazandEm)

I guess I should start the blog again, and then go from there and I promise I will come here and add more of my thoughts, rants, and views and musings (or mumblings) which seem to amuse and entertain so many people on Facebook.

I am 34, married, with one beautiful daughter, a son due in 6 weeks (or less, EEK) and a lovely husband, a psychotic cat called Layla, and a tank full of fish with personality issues (they like to kill and eat each other on a regular basis) hence the blog houseofcatsandbabies, although really it should be MAD house of cats and babies, because that is what it feels like most of the time.
I am a Christian, have been for over ten years. Before that I was what I like to term now a Recovering Catholic, my Mothers family were Catholic, and I was brought up as one, but have always questioned a lot of what is put in place by the Catholic church, and when my mother died, I "left". I believed in God, and have always felt he was there, but not in the way the Catholic church prescribes. Please be warned, I am a believer, I do love God, and he and being part of a rather fabulous church (www.lci.org.uk) is a huge part of my life, and I WILL talk about Him and church and my beliefs, things I see, things we do, things I question and work through, and if you are offended by that, then you prob should either read, enjoy the bits you like (I wont talk about my faith all the time) and bite your tongue, ask me questions if they are polite and not offensive, or go away and not come back! Please do NOT post rude or anti Christian (or anti any other religion for that matter, this blog IS NOT about that either) comments, I will not respond. My faith is what I choose, and if you choose something else, or not at all, then that is your choice. You want to come read, you know what you are letting yourself in for! Enough said!

Anyway, where was I, oh yes! I am 34, I am currently what is termed as a SAHM 0r stay at home mum, I was a children's nurse, but the pressure of the job, and trying to be a good mother and wife was just not something I could do, and I am not ashamed to say that I LOVE being at home, bringing my child up, rather than paying someone else MOST of my salary, to bring up my child, working horrible hours, with very sick children, and not enjoying it. I will go back to nursing, and actually want to re train as a Mental Health or Special needs nurse, but time will tell, and that is a long time away!

Some things about me!

I am pregnant, and not the best pregnant person (as my friends and family will tell you) to be around. I am NO pregnancy loving earth mama, I throw up til about 2/3rds of the way through, I have problems with my blood pressure (although so far so good this time) and my pelvis, so I am fat, hormonal, cranky and I waddle and it HURTS!! I am however incredibly grateful to be pregnant, and so excited to meet our son, who arrives in April. We had 2 miscarriages, before we had our daughter, and I had hormone assistance to stay pregnant with her, and this time is has been much easier, and whilst I hate the pregnancy process, I just remind myself that I am very fortunate to be pregnant, and that there is a baby at the end of the process!

I am sort of liberal/conservative. Sounds an odd mix. I have certain thoughts and beliefs, mainly based on what I have seen and experienced in life, and sometimes I find it hard to reconcile things with my faith and what it says. I am a work in progress.

I am a recovered Bulimic/Anorexic. I say recovered, because I was healed, partially through therapy and counselling, and mostly because I did experience a radical healing from God. (I will blog about it sometime) but the whole eating disorders and other issues around eating/body issues is an area that is a passion of mine, and I want to be able to help other people with some of the things I battled with, and one day hope to be able to really use my experience to help others.

I have some radical views on the death penalty, our government, our country, and sometimes think we are all going down the proverbial toilet faster than you can say "don't flush"....

I have an amazingly gracious, kind, patient, wise, generous, loving and sexy (well I think so) husband, who I have known for 14 years, and been married to for nearly 9. Why he puts up with me sometimes I can never figure out, but he does and I cannot imagine life without him! The poor man is currently sick as a dog with a tummy bug, I have been feeding him re hydration fluids and spraying everywhere with disinfectant! (I loathe tummy bugs, I am not usually an anti bacterial spray person, but say the words PUKE or DIARRHEA to me, and I whip my Dettol spray gun out faster than Clint Eastwood could draw a gun in a Western!)

I am a half crunchy/attachment/natural parent (call it whatever current term you will) partly through learning as a parent with my daughter that what worked for us, happened to fit into the category, and partly more conservative and traditional...

We do vaccinate. I feel quite strongly about it (and YES after much ado, we did have the H1N1) and may rant about it here.
We do however believe in breastfeeding, and not just for a few months, I nursed my daughter til she was 18 months, and plan to do the same with this baby (I can quote the WHO and lots of other sources on the MANY benefits of it) I am NOT anti formula however, a baby has to be fed, one way or another, and formula is the only other way, and what other families choose is their right to choose. A happy baby is a fed baby, and each woman has to choose what works for her and what keeps her and her family normal and sane (I battled through mastitis, infections, thrush, and all sorts of issues to carry on feeding my daughter, probably at great expense to my own sanity and the stress of my husband, but I am proud I did)
My daughter slept in our room, and YES in our bed a lot, I am sure Gina Ford would not approve, but we did what worked for us and will do it again! When you have baby that wakes every two hours, will not tolerate formula and has reflux, you gotta do what you gotta do!
We use cloth nappies, I LOVE cloth nappies, I have just spend what my husband thinks is a small fortune on new ones for this babe, but in fact the cost of the nappies works out at less than what we would spend in a year on disposables and they are SUPER cute, so who cares!!

I do believe in discipline (and shock and horror, the odd smacked bottom or hand if the need arises) and I am very firm in my belief that we today pander too much to our children, allow them to make decisions and behave as they choose, rather than moulding and guiding them, and disciplining them, and I have seen some pretty vile and badly behaved children in my time whose parents let them "get away with blue murder" as my mother would have said, and refuse to allow my child to walk down that road! She isn't an angel by any means, she is FAR too much like me, to be that, but I am tremendously proud of her at 3, when I see other children and see actually what a pleasure she is to be around, and her Uncles and Grandad will agree with me! ;)

Anyway, I think I have rambled enough for one night, I had better go and check on the poor puking husband...

Until next time.....


I will probably have a good old discussion about James Bulger and the Jon Venables case that is in the news, it has been on my mind a lot, and I have a LOT to say about it (when do I ever not have a lot to say?)