Comfort

Wriggles has never been a massively cuddly girl. She has never particularly had a "favourite thing" either above anything else. The plus side of this is that that is one less panic when out and about (HELP I've lost so and so...and they've stopped making it!) but it does make me a little sad. I had a menagerie of stuffed animals when younger and always had one that trailed around with me. Even as a baby, I had favourites whose noses I chewed until they fell off (sorry Piglet).

My favourite of Wriggles' toys is Mouse. Mouse came on day 3 of Wriggles' little life and came as our guardian rodent that sat by her incubator day in, day out when I couldn't be there every waking or sleeping minute. When she moved into a heated cot, Mouse seized the chance and jumped in to, and has also slept in her bed since. She would have moved into the incubator had infection control not frowned on it! Mouse means such a lot to me, having "seen" with her stitched eyes everything I did and more. To me, she is part of the Beginning, which to look at Wriggles now can be easily forgotten about. Partly, I cannot forget it and partly I am desperate not to, as those early days shaped so much and when I brush the tears aside of the grief, trauma and unfairness of it all, I am so proud of how strong and brave my little girl is.

As well as Mouse, Christmas Hedgehog and Eloise-the-Rabbit also still sleep in her cot with her. These have both enjoyed brief dalliances with as being The Chewed Toy of the moment that would get flung about and piqued more interest than anything else. I suspect in time, they will be favourited again. I love the idea of having bedtime friends that are special to fall asleep and wake up with; a little separate world different from the frantic pace of the daytime.

I still have my own comforter; the filthy cat in the picture is mine that sleeps in by my bed. When Wriggles comes in to sleep with me or when she is poorly she often has the cat to chew or wallop. As it is quite old, it's limbs are a bit all over the place so perfect for "flying lessons" or holding onto tightly. It really needs a wash, and has lost all but one whiskers but neither of us seem to care. I love seeing Wriggles with my old toy-it is like it has come full circle in a way.