Over the past week I think I’ve managed to breathe deeply for the first time since getting those two little lines on the pee stick and I’m slowly beginning to take time to bond with the tiny little human that’s growing in my tum. Aside from not really wanting to talk about the pregnancy for the first four months in case I jinxed it, I also felt absolutely horrendous!! If I’d wanted to write a blog documenting my experience I don’t think I would have been able to keep my eyes open long enough to write the title. To provide some form of comparison, when I was pregnant with Ettie, I was one of those annoying, glowing pregnancy people. Posting bump updates on social media every few weeks and actually finding the time (and energy) to keep a detailed weekly journal of how things were progressing! I swam, ate my greens and attended pregnancy yoga like a class ‘A’ pregnancy student! If there were a school for pregnancy people, I’d have been the Hermione Granger of the class! This pregnancy… I am Ron! (no offence Ron) This pregnancy, I’ve pretty much lived on cake, cockles and bread and managed to snap just one picture of my bump at 16 weeks where I looked so awful, that if the poor baby ever does manage to catch a glimpse of it, then it will probably think it was the spawn of Darth Vader some other dark eyed, deathly looking creature. Annoying pregnancy person when pregnant with Ettie! So what have you missed? Well I think I can sum up the first four months of this pregnancy in three words… cockles, cornichons and sleep!! Food wise, I pretty much lived on cake, cockles or those tiny little cornichon pickles you sometimes find on…
Hello there, I thought I’d come on here and share a little update as I haven’t really written any personal posts for the past few months. You may have seen on Instagram recently, but the main reason for this is because…… I HAVE A BABY IN MY BELLY!! Yeyyyy!! :0) We are so unbelievably happy about this and cant wait to welcome a new little recruit into our family, in fact we already feel like a family of four (five). But its only really been in the last week that we’ve allowed ourselves to relax into the pregnancy and get excited. (For those who aren’t long term readers, we’ve experienced heartache in the past which is why we were a bit more wary this time). As of Monday, we had the 20 week scan where everything appears to be growing as it should so we finally feel able to spread the news! Aside from not wanting to jinx things by telling you all to soon, I’ve also found it really difficult to think of things to write about which weren’t in some way pregnancy related! Most people, use their little space on the web, as a sort of online journal to document life, but when there was a huge secret dominating my life that I wasn’t quite ready to share, I didn’t want to feel like I was lying by keeping something from you, so I found it easier to write nothing at all (plus I felt horrendous!!!). So even though at 21 weeks, you’d think the excitement would have died down by now, for us it’s actually only just begun. So what can I tell you…?? Well I’m 21 weeks pregnant now meaning our little one will be here in just a few months’ time!! Our due date is…
Hello little baby inside my tummy, This is your Mummy. I’m currently 19.5 weeks pregnant and this is the first time I have written anything to you, but please don’t think it’s because we were more excited for your sister to arrive (you’ll know that I’d filled out her baby book for 20 weeks by now!), actually the main reason I haven’t written is because I couldn’t bear to connect with you and let my heart love you, then have you taken away from me like what happened to me with your oldest sister, and again with a little baby before you which we don’t know was a girl or a boy. I still can’t explain the pain I felt during those times and so I wanted to make sure you were ok before I opened my heart. Today we had our 20 week scan to check that everything was ok with your development. I’ve learned by now not to get to excited at the 12 week scan because problems can still occur so today was a pretty big deal for me. The lady doing the scan took all your measurements, whilst Daddy and I watched her holding our breath. She showed us both of your little legs and tummy, then as she was scanning your hands you gave us a little wave. It made my heart flutter when eventually she said that everything was ok and I wanted to let out a big cry. I’d been so so worried. We are so unbelievably happy and excited to meet you. I couldn’t concentrate when I got back to work, and even now its 11.30 in the evening and I can’t sleep. Daddy is fast asleep next to me, but I am up writing this because I’m too excited and…
To my beautiful, amazing, loving, caring, gorgeous little girl I haven’t been able to really write to you for the past two months as I’ve felt soooo poorly, but now I’m feeling better I have so much to say, I’m sure you’ll fall asleep by the time you finish this letter, so I will try to keep it brief. I’ve probably said the same thing to you every month that I’ve been writing these letters. but this month has definitely been my favourite age by far! You’re just so cheeky and funny, but also really loving and caring too. Your speech is getting better by the day and you’re always shocking us with how many words you’ve learned. Your favourite phrases at the moment are ‘What you doing Mummmmmmmmmyyyyyyy??’ (or Daddy) and ‘Mummy draw circles….’. I don’t think you really want to draw circles all the time, it’s just what you say, but you do absolutely love drawing – although only with pens! If we give you a pencil or something that might be easy to clean then you brush it away and say ‘No’ very sternly with a little pointed finger!! You definitely know what you want, but you are good and if you do accidentally make a mark on the floor or table, then you tell us straight away so we can clean it up. You also absolutely love to cuddle, asking for cuddles all the time, and when we pick you up, you give us big lovely bear hugs, where you wrap your little arms tightly around our necks and rest your cosy head on our shoulders. It’s absolutely my favourite thing in the whole wide world and I could stand and cuddle you forever! Your little hair tickling my nose!!! I feel so lucky you want to cuddle me…
To my beautiful daughter I held off writing your 18 month letter because I was feeling so poorly, I couldn’t really think of anything to say that I hadn’t already said – other than to say how much I absolutely love you with my whole entire heart. Honestly every time you reach up to me and ask me for a cuddle, or nestle your little face close into mine for a snuggle, I feel like my heart could burst into a million pieces. I know people talk about the ‘joys of motherhood’ but no one could have prepared me for the way you can melt away all the pressures of the day with a little smile or a giant hug. I’m sure you’ll read these letters someday when you’re all grown up and cringe a little at how soppy your old Mum could be, but I always want you to know how much you’ve changed my life and made my heart so complete. You make me smile even on the lousiest of rainy horrible days, and I can’t wait to get home from work to give you a cuddle. When I arrive to collect you from nursery, you run over to me, arms open wide shouting ‘Mummmmmmmmy’ so excited, our bodies collide and I pick you up to give you the biggest hug!! Secretly I am just as excited to see you but I think the girls at nursery might think I’m a bit mad if I run into the playroom shouting Etttttttttttieee!!’ We had Christmas last month and spent it back in Cumbria with Gran Gran and Colin. It was such a lovely break and you had a great time running around their house asking for chocolate. You definitely have them both wrapped around your little finger, asking…
Our little Ettie was Christened in our local church when she was a little over 9 months old. We would have done it sooner but wanted to wait until it was warmer so anyone travelling down Cumbria could make a weekend of it in Brighton. Christmas passed and March looked like a good option for everyone and so we booked the church for the weekend before the Easter Bank Holiday. Unbeknownst to us at the time, this was actually Mothers Day so I had a lot of apologising to do to Mums who might have been looking forward to a nice meal out with the family. As it happened we were lucky with the weather and it turned out to be a beautifully sunny day so I think I was forgiven! Amid the chaos of a house move and the start of another renovation project (the Christening took place just two weeks after we moved in), family thought we were mad trying to do everything all at once. But we knew the house was going to be such a massive project that there was never going to be a good time, and I wanted to try to fit the Christening in before Ettie was crawling (so she wouldn’t want to tootle off when I put her down) so March it was. As it happened Ettie learned to crawl the week before the Christening which wasn’t ideal, but the weather was nice, so you can’t have everything. We had the service at our local church, which also happens to be at the foot of the South Downs and is ever so pretty. It has an open door policy meaning you can walk in whenever you need to. I used to go and sit in there when we found out Edie was…
Hello my gorgeous girl The time is here again for me to write to you your monthly letter and what a month it’s been. I know I say the same each time – that I can’t believe how much you have developed and grown, but honestly it’s the truth, you are growing and transforming into a fun loving, sassy, independent little girl right before my very eyes! Sometimes I swear you’ve grown a couple of inches through the day when I collect you from nursery… and you have four new teeth! Including two big molars at the back. When I look back at last month’s letter, at how I was shocked by the number of words you’d been picking up, it seems small fry compared to this month! This month your vocabulary has expanded to the point you can pretty much imitate everything we say – although you do struggle with your cousin M’s name. You can make the noises for a sheep, cow, duck, lion and a Dinosaur- and even make a squeaking noise for our friend Tommy who we call Tommy Pterodactyl! This month you’ve also discovered cartoons and absolutely love Postman Pat (or Pattt which you say with a pronounced T), Teletubbies (Lala) and Ra Ra Lion (Raaaah). Its often the first thing you ask for in the mornings and sometimes Daddy lets you watch one on the Ipad at breakfast! You absolutely love your cousins and shout for J and Nanny all the time. It’s the cutest thing and makes me so happy you have cousin to play with who is the same age. It reminds me how close I was to my cousin when I was little and I hope you have as much fun growing up as we did! This month you’ve developed so…
For the past few months I’ve been posting a round up of my top five Instagram photos from the previous month and its been quite popular. I think it gives readers a chance to catch up on the photos they might have missed and it gives me a change to look back over the month which I really enjoy doing. We’re so busy sorting out the house at the moment it feels like time is evaporating, so its nice to sit back and take stock once a month to look over all that we’ve done. A month really isn’t that long, but when I look back over the months photographs, it seems like an eternity since the first one was posted! So with that in mind, lets take a look at October! Well October happens to be one of my favourite months because it kicks off with my birthday. To celebrate this year, we took Ettie on her first little mini break to Europe and spent a lovely four days walking around Stockholm. I’m completely behind on my blogging and have a half finished post about our trip sitting idly in my drafts box. Hopefully i’ll get round to finishing it off in the next few weeks. Needless to say we had an amazing time and it was so lovely to spend some quality time together as a family. October was a great month for holidays actually as shortly after we returned from Stockholm, I went on a fabulous weekend break with the girls to Paris. You can read more about that here. My Top 5 Instagram Photos from October 2017 Aside from gallivanting around Europe, we’ve yet again made great use of our National Trust memberships visiting Nymans and Sheffield Park in Sussex. October is a beautiful month which…
Being a working mum is hard!! There never seem to be enough hours in the day to achieve everything and you often feel like your chasing your tail trying to keep on top of the simplest of tasks, such as cooking dinner every evening. Recently I spoke about how returning to work full time after having Ettie, knocked me off my feet as I really didn’t appreciate how valuable time management would become being a working Mum. Since writing that post, I’ve made some changes to our day to day lives which have releaved the pressure a little so I thought I’d share them here in the hope of helping other working mums too: 6 Stress Busting Tips for Busy Working Mums Get the weekly shop delivered; This was the biggy for me! I hate doing the weekly food shop and we were doing it online to save time, then going to collect it using the click and collect service. However this often meant changing plans or rushing to the supermarket within our allocated time slot. When everything got a bit much, the first change I made was to get the food shop delivered and it is sooo much better! Most supermarkets offer a flexible service whereby you can choose a four-hour window and its a little cheaper. We do this with and get out shopping delivered between 6.00 and 10.00 when we know at least one of us will definitely be in! It makes shopping much less stressful. Hire a cleaner: This isn’t as middle class as you think. When working full-time it’s really hard to keep on top of the housework and the last thing you want to be doing is tacking the ironing on your precious days off. Cleaners can be as little as £10 an hour and…
F orgive me for jumping on the Halloween bandwagon a day too late, but I didn’t get chance to do anything halloweeny with Ettie on the run up to the big day as I was working, so yesterday I took the morning off and we went on a spooky little adventure around Sheffield Park in Sussex. Sheffield Park is one of three National Trust properties in our area so its a regular haunt of ours on days off. With over 250 acres of open parkland and a huge pond with ducks and birds, there is so much to do and see. Autumn is a particularly amazing time to visit as all of the colours from the trees reflect in the still water of the pond, it really beautiful and oh so peaceful. I think one of the most captivating things about Sheffield Park and probably the main reason we keep going back, is the vast woodland area and large variety of bewitching and magical trees. From great old oaks, some of which you can actually climb inside, to gigantic giant redwoods, the woodland is spellbinding and the perfect place to capture a little persons imagination (and even a big person like me!) So with all that in mind, what better place for an impromptu Halloween photo shoot! I’d been a little slow getting anything organised for Halloween this year and as the weeks passed by, I seen more and more visits to local pumpkin patches popping up on Instagram and I felt increasingly guilty that I hadn’t planned anything for Ettie! Other than Christmas, Halloween is absolutely my favourite time of year and I didn’t want her to miss out on the fun just because I was at work, so to make sure we had some happy memories I took Halloween…
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