LAURA AND ZIGGY

With nowhere to go IRL, Laura Cunningham embraced sharing her pregnancy and newborn baby Ziggy on Instagram, where he already has a hoard of adoring ‘online aunties’

I have little chats with him where I’m like, ‘Sorry for bringing you into this sh*tshow, hopefully it will all be OK! You’re the most loved little man ever, so you’ll be fine’.

Obviously, it’s been a hugely difficult time for so many people, but I’d say I’ve tried to run with the positives. Being in lockdown during pregnancy was a unique opportunity to press pause on a lot of things and a time to realise what was important and take a step back.

I had to have a C-section, and I was in hospital from Monday to Friday and it was kind of a nice time just to be by ourselves. I had a room to myself and time to learn how to be a mam without having to worry about people coming in and [having to] entertain them. I felt completely safe knowing there was a nurse outside the door if I needed them.

When I got home, I was very lucky that my best friend, who was my birth partner, stayed with me practically every night for two weeks and Ziggy’s dad was here every day. Now things are easing, we can go to the park and meet friends and family at a distance for coffee.

I did my antenatal classes online and, since I wasn’t able to have any kind of baby shower, I felt a bit like it made it more real for me when I was able to talk about it online. A lovely girl who follows me on Instagram said it was like Ziggy has loads of online aunties, and I liked that. Obviously, I have an amazing network of friends and family in real life, but I thought it was a nice idea.

Babies are still being born and families are still loving each other in spite of all the madness.