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”
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”
I’ve always been a massive bookworm.
As a child my parents used to joke about how I always had my nose in the pages of the newest hardback I could get my hands on.
As a teenager learning to drive I found out how much I didn’t even know the streets of my hometown well enough to navigate without help, as I’d usually spent my time as a passenger reading.
As an adult I still spent hours immersing myself in different worlds from fiction novels, or filling my brain with new information from non-fiction books on topics I found interesting.
Since becoming a mother six months ago, however, I found I hadn’t really been taking part in one of my favourite activities, reading, at all.
Continue reading “Books I’ve Been Reading: April”
Before I even got pregnant I knew I wanted to use cloth nappies with my children.
As an environmentally conscious person who had already been using reusable options in other areas of my life for years, it just made sense to follow the reusable route with a baby too.
Plus, they are cheaper (or can be – more on that below) and are SO much cuter!
Today I wanted to share with you how we spent just £150 on our nappy kit that will last our now-six month old baby until she potty trains, as well as talk about the benefits of cloth nappies, and discuss the overall costs involved when taking into account electricity and water usage.
Continue reading “How we spent just £150 on nappies: Benefits of cloth”
My darling baby girl:
You are now six months old.
Please, stop growing.
I can hardly believe it was only six months ago that you were born: A tiny, red, wrinkled bundle of pure joy, and complete innocence.
You’ve grown so much and have developed into the little human you are now, with her own cheeky personality and funny traits.
It makes me so proud to see how far you’ve come.
But please, stop growing.
Continue reading “My sweet baby, please stop growing”
Mum and Baby Groups are a fantastic resource for new and not-so-new mums alike.
I’ll admit, before I had a baby myself I wasn’t quite sold on the idea of Mum and Baby groups.
A whole heap of crying babies in one room plus a bunch of strangers with whom the only thing I share in common is that I too recently pushed a little human out of my vagina*?
No thanks, don’t think it’s for me.
Continue reading “6 Reasons Why Mum and Baby Groups Are Awesome”