Sile Seoige

It has been a brilliant year. Cathal is 15 weeks now and it’s fantastic. The first few weeks are mental, but he is responding to things now and smiling and the cuddles are just great.

I was pregnant last Christmas. I wasn’t yet at the 12-week stage, but we had told family and close friends because they wouldn’t have bought that I was on a detox at Christmas when I wasn’t having the glass of wine.

I’ll be 39 in April and I didn’t know if I’d ever have a baby. A few years ago, I’d made my peace with maybe never having one, and I really believe that you can live a full and rich life without that. Myself and Damien are only together three years in the new year, so our path to meeting and going out and then becoming a family of three has been quick and it’s been lovely. I wasn’t expecting it. I was very happy and I wasn’t pushed if I remained single. But then Damien came in to my life and everything changed and it’s lovely.

I believe that everything in life happens for a reason, even the bad bits. But it really is a lovely thing.

Definitely becoming a mother has changed my relationship with Grainne. She has been a mother for a good number of years [to Conall] and even though things are very different now in terms of all the information available and hypobirthing and all of it, babies don’t change and she has been a great support to me in these first weeks.

I’m trying to speak Irish to Cathal, and at Christmas, I’ll be begging my folks to speak to him in Irish.

We live in Dublin but I’m from Galway and Damien is from Blarney, so we’re going west this Christmas. Galway for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, then down to Blarney and probably back up to Galway at some point again. I’m envious of people whose partners are from the same county. It’s a big deal in both houses and Grainne will be back from South Africa, so it will be very special.

Mam will do most of the cooking. Dad will peel the spuds and everyone will pitch in, but I’ll probably be the most useless. I’ll be the one walking in, stirring the gravy and then walking out of the kitchen again acting like I’ve done loads. But, to be honest, the idea of having dinner served up to me this year is very good.

Sile and Grainne Seoige are ambassadors for the Boots Ireland #showthemyouknowthem Christmas campaign, headlined by their ad, which looks at the unique bond between sisters. See boots.ie