Our story

January 2012 myself and Alison's Dad were travelling around Thailand for three weeks, eating street food, drinking cocktails, elephant trekking, whitewater rafting and trekking through the jungle and camping out under the stars. It was all go go go. Several times over the three weeks i kept saying that i didn't feel 100% but kept putting it down to eating different foods and the climate. Thankfully i didn't have any sickness though.

However as soon as the planes wheels touched down on Dublin soil i just felt terrible. A couple of days later i went to my doctor thinking i had Malaria (slight drama queen moment i know) anyway low and behold i was pregnant. Once we got over the initial terrifying shock we were thrilled and excited and i had a wonderful and straight forward pregnancy.

I'm a baker and work in a great little cafe/bakery in Killaloe, Co, Clare called The Wooden Spoon and anyone who knows me knows i have the wickedest of sweet tooth. Surprisingly enough though i craved healthy foods and i could not get enough of fresh fruit and vegetables. I had no desire for coffee or chocolate, my two daily staples.

Alison came slowly into our lives 2 weeks overdue and by cesarean section after 24 hours from the first contraction, on September 20th 2012. To say i was overwhelmed is an understatement and i was nowhere near prepared  for the crazy hormones and i pretty much cried at anything and everything for the first two weeks. However we soon established a "kinda" routine and by the first month anniversary it seemed like she had been around forever.

I breastfed for the first 6 months however i did give her a bottle of formula milk at 11pm and after this she slept right through the night to 6.30-7 am. Although this was great, she just would not sleep during the day in her Moses basket, she would only sleep in our arms, in her buggy or in the car, I always maintained if you got a good stretch at night time you could handle anything during the day and i got pretty handy at making dinner with her in my arms.

When the time came for Alison to move onto solids i was excited, not only for researching, cooking and devising recipes but also for her tasting and trying new flavours with clean taste buds that hadn't been diminished with salt and sugar. I have made a conscious effort to buy good quality and fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and fish. We're very fortunate to have a lovely weekend market in Limerick City called the Milk Market which has an excellent range of producers and also a great farmers market on a Sunday in Killaloe. Also every Thursday "the fish guy" as we call him parks up his van in between the waters, he has a good selection and is very reasonably priced.

I went back to work in February 2013 and at first i would spend pretty much all of my Sunday cooking up meals for her for the week. This was fine but i was missing out on precious time with my growing up way to quickly little girl, and here in lies the development of this blog. Here i am hoping to document recipes and tips for busy parents and to show that just because their babies it doesn't mean they'll only eat plain flavorless foods. Alison has even surprised me by eating fish curries lightly flavoured with spices such as cumin and coriander and also with stronger flavours such as celeriac spinach.

I really hope this blog is of some help to families and thank you so much for checking us out.

Bon appetite!