Eco-Friendly Family Life
Here’s the story of our magical, en caul home birth of Jackson – a beautiful, calm, and healing experience as second time parents.
Eight weeks on and I still can’t get over how wonderful Jackson’s birth was – I’m still in shock that we got our ‘dream birth’.
Continue reading “Our Positive Home Birth Story (En caul, water birth in the UK)”
Wow, third trimester already – time really is flying by this second pregnancy!
This trimester was very exciting, and was very smooth sailing until around 36 weeks pregnant – and even then, it luckily wasn’t too chaotic.
Right near the end of this trimester we also celebrated a very special day – our firstborn baby’s 4th birthday! Oh how relieved we were that baby boy didn’t decide to arrive on the same day as his sister’s birthday – I don’t think that would have gone down well!
Continue reading “Pregnancy Video Diary: Third Trimester”
At 36 weeks pregnant, I finally have my birth bag ready for labour and delivery, and so I wanted to show you what I’ve packed!
It’s important to note that this time around, we are planning a Home Birth under NHS care, however, I believe it’s a good idea to have everything I plan to use in labour and immediately afterwards packed together to make things easier in the moment.
Plus if I need to transfer to the birth centre or hospital for any reason, it will be easy for us to grab everything and go. I also have a secondary bag packed in case of a one night hospital stay.
So without further ado, here is what is in my birth bag/s as a second time mum:
Continue reading “What’s in my Birth Bag – Second Time Mum”
Wow, this pregnancy is really flying by!
I guess it really is true what they say about second and subsequent pregnancies seeming to go much faster than your first.
Overall, I’ve found my second trimester pretty wonderful – morning sickness and food aversions finally dissipated, my energy came back, and I was able to keep quite active, which I found an all around positive experience.
Continue reading “Pregnancy Video Diary: Second Trimester”
I guess the title gives it away if you didn’t know already, but yes, it’s true, I’m pregnant!
My husband Dan and I are expecting our second child around October/November 2023, making our 3 year old daughter, Ada, a big sister!
We are over the moon about this pregnancy, and as with my last pregnancy, I want to take you on the journey with me!
Being a 2nd time mum, I’ve found I haven’t had as much time to document this pregnancy as I did with my first, so unlike last time, where I shared month-by-month pregnancy update videos, this time I am committing to just three videos – one for each trimester.
Continue reading “Pregnancy Video Diary: First Trimester”
We recently travelled from our home in the UK to Australia to visit my family – a 36 hour door-to-door journey, with a 2.5 year old in tow – including two long haul flights.
I was super nervous, as I had no idea how my daughter would cope with the long journey, considering she’d never been on an airplane, or out of the country, before this trip.
I’m pleased to tell you, the transit went way better than I was expecting, and our mini traveller exceeded all our expectations, not just during the flight, but throughout all legs of the journey.
In my last post I shared with you a breakdown of everything I packed in my carry on bag to help the journey go as smoothly as possible for our family, and now I’m going to share with you my top tips for long haul flights with a toddler.
Continue reading “Top Tips for Flying Long Haul with a Toddler”
We just got back from a wonderful trip visiting my family in Australia – a 36 hour door-to-door journey from our home here in the United Kingdom.
Not only was this possibly one of the longest long haul transits we could have done, it also happened to be my 2.5 year old daughter’s first international adventure/first time on a plane ever.
Needless to say, I was very nervous about making the trip, and made sure to research all the things that would help make the journey as smooth as possible for us as a family, as well as our fellow passengers.
During the transit (which involved a taxi ride, two hours on a coach, 13.5 hour flight, layover, 7.5 hour flight, then a 2.5 hour drive) I would have been lost without my “bag of tricks” to keep my toddler entertained, fed and content – which it most certainly did! Honestly, the journey went way better than I could have ever hoped!
I thought I would share with you what I packed in this “bag of tricks” in the hopes that it may help your family on a long journey too.
Continue reading “What’s in my carry on bag: Long haul flight with a toddler”
This past weekend we took our 2.5 year old daughter, Ada, on her first ever theme park experience, at Gulliver’s Land Milton Keynes.
We had such a wonderful time that I thought I would share our experience with you – despite the fact that I haven’t made a YouTube video in two years! (I know, I’m sorry – having a baby, battling postnatal depression and anxiety, then a pandemic hitting wasn’t exactly the most conducive situation for content creating)
Continue reading “Toddler’s first theme park experience! Our weekend at Gulliver’s Land”
Before getting into the books I read last month, I want to jump ahead and share two books that I’ve just added to my iBooks app and am currently reading.
I feel they’re important reading in the current moment (and every moment, really), with the Black Lives Matter and Justice for George Floyd protests happening in the United States and around the world right now.
The two books I’ve chosen to purchase and start reading immediately to help educate myself further on the topic of racism are Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, and How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X Kendi (Neither of these are affiliate links).
Continue reading “Books I’ve Been Reading: May”
Women are often considered guilty of “losing their identity” once they become a mother.
Friends lightheartedly complain that their once-lively social media feeds are now purely full of baby photos, or that conversation seems to only swing in the direction of sleep routines and exploding nappy anecdotes.
Exercise buddies or other hobby partners (correctly) quip “haven’t seen you in a while” and “miss you!”.
Talk of girls nights on the town are promised but never gotten around to.
And let’s not forget there are still many women who are considered to be less qualified for their previous career, simply because they now have a child.
It’s true, for many women it seems like once they have a baby that their whole life becomes about their child.
That’s because it does.
Continue reading “Maintaining Your Own Identity in Motherhood”