Surviving Parenthood: My Lockdown Baby & Toddler

Life Before Lockdown

I had a pretty traumatic birth experience with my son a few years ago, followed swiftly by a home renovation (in an area I didn’t know very well), returning to work and getting pregnant with baby number two. Life before lockdown was pretty hectic! I worked part-time, then full-time teaching, and tried to take Artie to various groups and generally plan interesting things for us all to do on my days off work. Even our baby-free days were busy - we always found some sort of redecorating or sorting out to do.

Rose (our second child) was born 11th March 2022. All went well and we were back home the next day. She fed pretty well from the get go but at the one week mark, she was weighed and judged to have lost too much weight. We went back into hospital (where everything was actually fine by the way, I just feed babies really well when I grow them). We knew about Covid, of course, it was getting more and more prevalent in the news. However, it hadn’t really ‘hit’ us as yet and I remember talking with my brother and sister-in-law about how people we knew were getting too worried and we were sure it would all ‘be fine’. We were literally in the hospital and there were as yet no signs of what was to come, where we were at least. 

But over the next week or so, it started to worry us too.

Then There Were Four

Before lockdown happened, we were very lucky to see family pretty regularly, including weekly visits from my mum. As I mentioned, we were out and about quite a lot and, although not the biggest social butterflies in the world, we did (and do!) enjoy seeing people. Then, suddenly, we became a family of four (a big change in itself) and it was us and only us. No family visits, no friends coming round to meet our new baby, no baby groups, no health visitors unless it was an emergency.

I kind of loved my lockdown bubble for a while. I got to do the ‘stay in your dressing gown all day’ bit with a newborn, which I probably wouldn’t have done without it. We quickly got into routines with a baby and a toddler as literally every day was exactly the same as the last. My husband was put on furlough so he was home a lot more than he would have been otherwise. And yet…

Only one of us could take Rose to an appointment at the hospital during lockdown and I still couldn’t drive so my husband had to take her. I felt like I’d lost a limb and totally out of control. My son missed his grandparents, who he had seen weekly pre-lockdown. I missed them too! My husband found it hard to be at home full-time. I hated wiping down the shopping when it arrived and still don’t know if this made my anxiety better or worse. All our emotions were heightened, constantly. It was just hard.

Mini-Heroes

This bit might sound a little strange. My husband and I recently watched ‘This England’, a series which revolves around the first lockdown and the lead up to it. This was amazingly done, so much so that I found it really difficult to watch. I could feel my shoulders creeping up to my ears in anxiety and found myself staring at the TV in the same sort of way I did to the daily briefings whilst feeding my newborn. But, in watching this docudrama, I realised that my lockdown baby and toddler had actually protected me.

I had been so focused on them, determined to keep them safe and happy, that I had in some ways been shielded from the full effect of the lockdown. Additionally, because I had been on maternity leave, I had been protected from the meteorically high levels of stress my teaching colleagues had experienced. Artie was too young to homeschool. Instead, we enjoyed lots of playtime in the garden and daily virtual music sessions. So again, we were sheltered from the struggles of juggling work-home-school that so many had to deal with.

Truthfully, I think staying in our bubble helped Artie get used to his new sister and us all get used to the new dynamics of our family. I feel like I got the chance to really bond with Rose. And I really think being a lockdown baby was good for her. She has been talking almost non-stop from one year old, she is very attuned to people’s feelings and is confident to give anything a try. Not meeting anyone new for the first few months of her life certainly hasn’t affected her ability to socialise - she can’t go anywhere without making a new friend! It’s actually taken my lockdown toddler longer to get used to meeting new people than my lockdown baby; Artie is now in Reception and prefers to play with one person at a time. Maybe it’s the way they would have been anyway but I can’t help but wonder what part lockdown had to play.

Now

So nowadays my lockdown baby and toddler are very energetic and bright. They have no idea that they lived through a global pandemic. They don’t know life before lockdown. Whilst we were watching ‘This England’, my husband and I kept saying that it will be so odd when they can watch it for themselves as, even though they were here, they will be pretty much seeing what happened for the first time. They are so little and have already lived through some huge moments of history. It’s kind of scary to wonder what else will come. In the back of my mind, I can’t help but wonder if their ‘lockdown baby’ and ‘lockdown toddler’ status will always follow them through their lives.

I am well aware this blog hasn’t provided any answers and it 100% is my experience of lockdown which is completely different to anyone else reading this. I’m also aware that I’ve missed a lot out - the meeting back up with people and the joy and worry that carried, the Christmas lockdown (obviously Rose’s first Christmas) and all the rest of it. It’s all in my brain somewhere. At the moment, it still feels a bit too tangled up and I don’t quite trust myself not to waffle on for hours and hours as I try to pick out the knots. But I think it’s good to hear each other’s story, if to just give us all a moment to talk through and work out what we experienced in our own ways. 

Have you read our other Surviving Parenthood blogs?
Surviving Parenthood: Potty Training
Surviving Parenthood: Mum/Work/Life - The Eternal Struggle
Surviving Parenthood: I'm Not the Mum I Thought I Would Be

This Blog is proudly brought to you by the Twinkl Parents Team. Please bear in mind, the views and opinions expressed are those of individuals, and do not represent those of Twinkl. These are personal stories and do not aim to reflect the experiences of everyone in the same situation.