iBlog Friday: Date nights, newborns and our canine kids

Caylie Jeffery of Distractions of a busy mother gives in to a common childhood demand in Post Puppy Depression.

Last month I did something unthinkable for a woman at this stage of her life.

I said yes to getting a puppy.

Yes, I finally capitulated, after 4 years of harassment, to the begging eyes of my husband, son and daughter when they showed me a picture of the cutest beagle puppy anyone had ever seen, all alone without any brothers or sisters in the big scary Puppy Prison. Can’t you just see their lower lips quivering?

Read the rest of Caylie's post here.

Gauri Maini of Gaurimaini.com attempts a date night with her husband and makes one, fatal error, as she explains in her post Grace :).

It was good to be airlifted, hobbling, and at some point during the night, wearing my hubbys socks over the now bandaged foot to make my way to the wash room. The ice pack the waiter at the Rockpool gave me worked….

Read the rest of Gauri's post here.

Kathryn Boyde of Katzrambles explains one of the unexpected feelings of new motherhood in her post Do you realise there's a person attached to these boobs?

This feeling of invisibility carried on throughout the day and night as mid-wifes changed shifts, exchanged notes, conducted examinations and discussed what flavour curry they would be having for their tea. Luckily, my husband has super powers and could still see me, so while the nurses chatted happily amongst themselves he would be running to fetch me the spew bucket, rubbing my back and wetting my sweaty brow. There wasn’t a lot of talking from his corner either, but at least he knew there was actually a person lying on the bed – not just a collection of lady parts!

Read the rest of Kathryn's post here.

Meg Hannan of Mumdainty introduces us to the word 'pooplosion' in her post A parent in in six letters.

Pooplosions are the regrettable centerpiece of every parenting table, and are motivation enough to have you skulling Pinot from a plastic tumbler well before morning tea time.

As with most grand scale disasters, pooplosions have a tendency to be delivered at exactly the wrong time - when you are running late for dinner, when you forgot to pack a spare change of clothes in the nappy bag, when you've just buckled into the car for a long trip and as soon as you've finished dressing the baby after the bath.

Read the rest of Meg's post here.

Sarah-Joy Pierce of Love Bites shares her story of moving house with a dog who isn't a happy camper in her post Dog-proofing 101.

As I write this, the Great Move of 2013 is finally over – and by finally over I mean we have physically relocated all of our junk, and now the sorting and unpacking must begin!

We’ve had an interesting first few nights in our new house…and most of our adventures revolve around our little fur-child, Lila. Whoever said having dogs was a step towards having children really wasn’t far off – I haven’t personally tried to move house with children (and I don’t think I really want to!), but I imagine it would be much like moving house with a puppy, and here’s why…

Read the rest of Sarah-Joy's post here.

Lauren Matheson of createbakemake discusses her special connection to an important day in her post World Prematurity Day.

We were introduced to the term viability during our first pregnancy, when I was admitted to hospital at 20 weeks.  In a short space of time, we went from being blissfully unaware of the complications which can occur during a pregnancy, to discussing how much further along I would need to be before I would be given steroid injections (to help our babies lungs), and at what point they would perform ‘life saving measures’ on our babies.  For us, we fell short of the ‘magic’ 24 weeks, with our daughter and son being born just shy of 21 weeks.

Read the rest of Lauren's post here.

Kellie Turtu of Mama Pyjama confronts something no new mum is prepare for in her post Rejection.

What I hadn’t considered was how ridiculously hard breast-feeding actually is!  I had visions of myself, all glamorous and heavenly, casually throwing some pretty little wrap over my shoulder and graciously holding my child to my heart as I ever so discreetly provided them with the essence of life.  In reality I was a clumsy mess.  Uncoordinated, fully exposed, milk flying everywhere, all the while dealing with a wide-mouthed infant in my arms, searching frantically for something to attach to.

Read the rest of Kellie's post here.

Louisa Simmond of My Midlife Mayhem confronts her grown son's right of passage with a little sadness and mild hyperventilation in her post My boy's all grown up.

It might have been the impulsive buzz cut that he tortured me with last week when he suddenly decided to shave off his dreadlocks, (so he now looks as bald as his dad a coot), or it might have been because he inherited those tiny eagle eyes that the old man insists are from Royal Polish ancestry. (Although NC still insists that I must have slept with an Asian somewhere down the track). Funny, those eyes may be small but they can pick up every item of money I spend that appears on the bank statement.

Read the rest of Louisa's post here.

Toni Welch of Finding Myself Young finds herself struggling with a horrible condition when she should be her happiest, in her post Dealing with post natal depression.

Becoming a mother did not go the way that I always thought it would. I spent so many years of my life dreaming about this that I had played it over and over in my head so much so it was like I had already lived it. In my dreams it all went well and I was super-mum and had the perfect baby. Obviously that was an unrealistic expectation, but in reality I would have been happy just to have a smooth adjustment into motherhood and a special bond with my baby. I thought there was no way I wouldn't get this so I never feared that I would not be a good mum. It had been my life long mission to be a mum. I felt as though it was my purpose for living and I have always been good with babies so I never had any reason to doubt myself. Until my baby was born.

Read the rest of Toni's post here.

Are you are mummy blogger? We want to meet you. Send us your favourite post each week by midday on Thursday at info@ivillage.com. We’ll showcase your work and you could even win publication and a fab prize. This week you'll win our fabulous Tina Arena pack which includes her latest album Reset and her new book Now I Can Dance.

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Watch her latest video clip here.