Blogging with Charlotte Viney

How many kiddies do you have? And what were your pregnancies like? 

I have one daughter, Mila. She is almost 2 years old. 

I had a pretty tough pregnancy actually. At our 20 week scan it was revealed that she had stopped growing and to see our OB asap. I was put on medication and blood thinners (clexane which I injected into my stomach everyday, aspirin, calcium pills, vitamin d pills, as well as iron infusions) 

We also spoke to a specialist about premature babies and the risks, and complications that can come with that. We were scanned every week to track growth and it was a case of when she was no longer growing, we would do an emergency c section.

However as the weeks went on the medications that I was given must have worked because she was very small but steadily growing. 

I made it all the way to 37 weeks before we decided it was time to get her out. She was 2.4kgs so she didn’t need to go into the nursery or have any assistance which is amazing. We are so grateful for all the help we received and count my blessings everyday that things turned out the way they have.

You are married to a professional footballer, does this add any extra challenges to you as a mum?

It has it's challenges like any other career. Some days Jack leaves for work at 6am and doesn’t get home until Milas heading to bed which I know is tough on Mila and Jack (and me 🤣) but probably the hardest aspect was due to Covid us needing to go into the hub. Mila was just 9 days old when we had to pack up and leave to Sydney then Queensland. Navigating my new role in motherhood in an environment that wasn’t mine and without having any family support with us was really tough. Our family also had only met her once or twice before we left and didn’t come back until she was 4.5 months old.

Last year was probably equally as tough though as due to his career they had to enter a 2nd hub in Perth, yet this time around family weren’t allowed to go with them. They were away for such a long time, all we could do was FaceTime when he wasn’t training and if it worked with the time difference and to make it harder, we were in lockdown at the time so not being able to have support to replace him was tough.

What is one thing that’s surprised you most about motherhood?

Probably just what the sleep deprivation is really like. The constant up and down throughout the night in those early months is brutal! I struggled with my feeding journey with Mila and she was very small so I was pumping and formula feeding. But to keep my supply up I was pumping every 3 hours during the night so would get up, pump for an hour, feed mila for 30mins- an hour then would get an hour- 1.5 hours sleep until I was up again pumping so the sleep deprivation is just next level. Thankfully at 6 months we managed to get Mila to sleep through so it’s only when she’s sick when she’s up during the night.

Grossest thing that has happened to you as a mum? 

Ooh that’s a tricky question! The time that comes to mind would have to be a few weeks ago, we were at the park and came running over to me saying “rock, rock” and handed it to me, when I looked down I realised it was actually dried dog poo.