It’s our one month anniversary of being a family of 4! Can’t actually believe it’s gone so quickly. I remember when Ava was a baby everyone kept commenting on how quickly they grow up and I thought they were crazy, the time was dragging but now, second time around, it really does feel like time has sped up to warp speed. Another week has past of my maternity leave, I’ve been on leave a whole month, even though it only feels like a week and I only have 3 months of maternity leave left, which will, no doubt, pass in the blink of an eye.

The 24th April is a significant day. It’s not just the day that Hannah was placed with us, but it was also the last time I smoked a cigarette *shock horror*!  Yes, I smoked. Like an idiot, I made a terrible mistake a while ago…. I hadn’t been a smoker in more than 7 years, went through a really stressful time at work and made the fatal mistake of joining my colleagues on the balcony to let off some steam and puff a ciggie. And just like that I was hooked again…. You know that saying… One puff away from a pack a day? Ja, that was me!  Addictive genes run in my family, past down from my dad’s side and clearly, those genetics did not skip me!

But I swore to myself, to my husband and to our future child that I would NOT smoke when we had a second placement. I had not been a smoker when Ava and I was not going to do that to our second baby. Though I have never been an indoor smoker, I had read articles that clearly indicated that the chemicals in clothing and hair negatively affected the health of children and babies.

Here is one such example:

These toxins, known as environmental tobacco smoke, or ETS, can be re-suspended and can also react vapor-phase components, causing the smoke to be inhaled over and over again. This can be very detrimental to a person’s health, especially that of a child. A child’s body is much more sensitive than that of an adult.

ETS exposure to children (even in small amounts) has been linked to SIDS, ADHD, poor cognitive performance in school, reduction of IQ scores, asthma, lung cancer, other cancers, mental retardation, numerous behavioral disorders, GERD, and many other diseases and disorders. When studies were done, the amount of exposure was taken into consideration and children who were only exposed to a minimal amount of ETS were still affected.

Terrifying isn’t it? Its one thing to destroy my own health, but quite another to damage the health of my innocent children.

So it’s a month today since I last smoked. It took almost 2 weeks for my breath to loose the cigarette smell, which must have been really revolting for Walter. So far my sense of smell and taste has normalized and I can see a dramatic change in my skin, it looks much healthier, is glowing and my pores look more refined. While I have not struggled to quit at all, which is really odd, the only side effect I had was dizziness for about an hour a day after I had my last smoke, I don’t really enjoy being around smokers. They stink. I stank. And the smell of cigarette smoke instantly blocks my nose now.

I really hope this will be the last time I have to quit, I just need to not be a wise ass and think that I can have a puff here and there with friends over a couple of drinks, that kind of smoking ALWAYS catches me and it will once again be on puff away from a pack a day.