Hi! I’m Carly!
The mother of two young boys who were born by C section, who had both breast milk and formula, who had cloth and disposable nappies, and who attended formal childcare at 8, and 18 months old.
I am a firm believer that parenting is not only a mother’s job; kids should get the support of as many people around them as possible. Kids were supposed to be raised by the tribe. Let’s do more to include fathers, grandparents, stepparents, foster parents and adoptive parents. Fairy Good Mommy is written with this support network in mind.
How did Fairy Good Mommy come about?
Even before it was time to think about starting a family, I took to the internet to try and find out everything there was to know about pregnancy and birth. I spent hours upon hours of time trawling through forums and big-name websites to try and increase the chances of getting pregnant and having healthy, happy children.
Getting pregnant took longer than seemed fair. After 12 months I was diagnosed with PCOS, put on a number of medications to try and increase chances of conception. Being under 30 I wasn’t eligible for any additional support or specialist fertility help, and at this point the feelings of helplessness started to creep in.
Feelings of embarrassment and shame prevented me from asking friends and family the tricky questions, and a 10 minute consultation with my GP could only get me so far. Helplessness didn’t stop me from continuing to explore other ways of improving my fertility though-and as a result my overall well-being. I found that reaching out and hearing stories from others online prompted me to make a number of lifestyle changes, and helped me look at the wider picture when all of my energy had been laser-focused on getting pregnant.
I eventually did get pregnant, three times! And now I have two young sons whom I love dearly. Parenthood is an ever-evolving challenge, but I haven’t forgotten how wide my support network actually is. My friends and family are there in person, and I have grown a network of trusted resources in both businesses and individuals online who I lean on for advice and tips.
Today I am grateful that I have the opportunity to share the things that I have learned, and things I continue to discover on this journey that is caring for children. I look forward to walking alongside you, but also supporting you from afar, as we raise the next generation of great human beings.
The site is split up into a few sections to help you find the things you need quickly; there’s information about specific products, product categories, hints/tips/hacks, and a stack of other things that might be useful to other parents and caregivers.
The topics I am most passionate about:
- Caesarean sections – having had two; one planned but both ultimately being considered ’emergency’, I am keen to dispel the myths and empower mothers through a birth which is absolutely not ‘the easy way out’.
- Combination feeding – my boys got breast milk – both from the breast directly and expressed – and formula. They’ve both turned out just fine! When I was making decisions about how to make sure my boys were thriving I dug up a tonne of information gold (and pumped a tonne of liquid gold!) so i’ve got plenty to share!
- Pregnancy nutrition – from spicy foods to all sorts of cheeses, there were so many foods I loved which I realized I needed to be more careful about during pregnancy. From wasabi to Camembert – I pulled out all the research!
- Maintaining a career with a family – while it is more common that mothers would be the ones staying at home, fathers are becoming increasingly more common as the stay at home parent. That said, current times are seeing many more 2 income families with kids spending time with grandparents or other caregivers. Can you still hold a job with young kids? Learn from my mistakes – and wins!
- Raising kids around technology – my ‘day job’ is in a digital media production studio which makes animations, simulations, and even kids games! I believe there are ways to safely and meaningfully expose kids to technology – it’s the world they’ll be in control of one day, after all!
I’d love to hear from you!
Whether you’d like to ask a question about information I share here, you’d like to bring something new to my attention, or simply just want to say hi, I’d love to hear from you.
