It’s been four years since we welcomed my darling daughter Evie into the world, and it’s now my great pleasure to also welcome my son, Henry. Henry arrived somewhat earlier than expected two weeks ago, but everything went very smoothly and we’ve been recovering well at home. His big sister is thrilled to have a baby brother, and we’re all settling nicely into our new rhythm as a family of four.

It’s probably a truism to say that no two birth experiences are alike, and it’s been interesting to compare my son’s arrival with his sister’s. This time around, I had a mostly planned C-section that was very chill (despite Henry’s determination to arrive several days earlier than scheduled!) compared to a drawn-out and exhausting first-time labour with some injuries I won’t detail for the squeamish. If you’ve read any of my Dark Folklore books, you’ll know that my recent writing has been heavily influenced by my experience of motherhood and I’m fascinated by the inherent trauma of it (see Ecstatic Birth for a horror story on this very theme).

That’s not to say my experience of motherhood has been “bad” by any stretch, but I do find the relationship of mother to child to be one ripe for twisting in weird and interesting ways. It’s why themes of grief, shapeshifters, and monsters (both human and supernatural) wind through many of my stories, where the sense of self is questioned and the familiar is made unfamiliar: much like adjusting to life with a newborn. During this time we grieve our past selves, our old routines, and we take on new shapes to fulfill the needs of a brand new creature with bright, helpless eyes who simultaneously possesses the brain-breaking wail of a Lovecraftian nightmare alongside all the innocent, inexplicable warmth of a beautiful miracle.

The dark side of parenthood is a hot topic right now, if my various social media algorithms are anything to go by: the number of tired parents making Reels and TikToks about the less glamorous, more frustrating, and occasionally downright grim aspects of child-rearing seems to be hitting a certain zeitgeisty need. I’m not saying anything particularly new to add to this, but there is value in the empathy of shared experience.

Parenthood is a world of contradictions, in constant flux. I held some trepidation over how our lives would transform yet again with the addition of a second child thrown into the mix, but now that he’s here I’m excited by both the change and the challenge. I’m beyond happy, living in a state of domestic bliss… while also extremely fed up of having a babe latched to my breast for hours at a time, surviving on just a few hours’ sleep each night, and juggling the many needs of a four year old around it all. But I am beyond happy, and I’m curious as to what stories will come out of this latest metamorphosis.