6.

Cat Lady

I’ve adopted a kitten. Now I feel like one, middle-aged maternal cat lady. It wasn’t my fault really. I fell for his piercing green eyes and fluffy black coat. I had thought about a pet, It’s nice to have your child grow up with an animal, I did. However after much debate about room in the house or whether it’s wrong to give greedy breeders tons of cash for an inbred pedigree, we had to rule out the dog for now. Then one accidental cat pregnancy later, my sister bundles a little ball of fur in my hands and that’s it. Fate.

I’ve never had a kitten before, and so far it’s going well, he’s semi-toilet trained, only a few wee-stained bed sheets. And very cuddly when he’s sleepy, although I have already resigned to the fact my nice new furniture will look more shabby than chic after a few weeks. I guess its good preparation for when my freshly painted walls will make the perfect canvas for my child. Like mother like daughter.

For my more serious part of my blog I wanted to open with a question. At what point can you call it a life? I racked my brain for the answer to this for months. Is it down to a persons morals or ethics? Or should science be the one to tell us. Perhaps it’s the moment the heart first beats, or when the embryo becomes a foetus. Whatever the answer may be, it’s something that many before me will have queried.

Regardless of how unexpected she was, I will never love my daughter any less than if I had strategically planned each and every time around my ovulation, praying that I wouldn’t receive my monthly gift from nature. Because at the time I did want it. And after 5 days, my waiting turned into sheer panic. However, now I am faced with a horrible sickening feeling whenever I imagine what could have been. I’m also very glad I didn’t have to go through that pain-staking period of ‘trying’ for a baby.

So now here I am, drowning in baby-grows and breastfeeding information. Of which promote breastfeeding as being extremely beneficial to both mother and child, giving the baby the best possible start in life, helps the mother lose weight and get this, even decreases your chances of cancer. Brilliant. Why doesn’t everyone do it? Well inside information tells me that it can be very difficult to start with, not to mention incredibly painful as your sensitive nipples dry, crack and bleed. I’d rather be prepared with the truth now, pre-exhaustion and lactation though and yes, I’m still going to give it the best go I can. On top of this I’ve been having slight panic attacks whenever I look at the prices of prams, cots, car seats (not that I have a car but apparently I still need it) and all the other gadgets and gismos you need to look after a human. But apart from that, I am happy to say that my face hasn’t ballooned and nor have my feet yet so it’s so far so good on the pregnancy front.