Limiting social media: Why I cut back my time online

Personally, I’ve always been a huge social media user. 

I was a young high school student at the golden age of MySpace and MSN Messenger, and I greeted Facebook and Twitter with open arms as they were invented.

I went through an intense, emotionally-charged affair with Tumblr during its heyday (if you know, you know), and I jumped onboard with Instagram and Snapchat as well, soon after their invention. 

I was part of that first generation of “If my social activities aren’t documented on social media, then did they really happen?”

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Books I’ve Been Reading: April

Reading, Book Club

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. 

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How we spent just £150 on nappies: Benefits of cloth

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.

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My sweet baby, please stop growing

stop growing motherhood

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.

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6 Reasons Why Mum and Baby Groups Are Awesome

Mum and Baby Groups

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.

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Minimalist Newborn Baby Essentials Checklist

While there are lots of lists out there that would have you believe you need a mountain of “stuff” for a baby, we decided to go down a more minimalist route with what we purchased for our little one.

We also made a conscious decision to make having a baby as low impact on the environment as we could, so sourced as much as we could secondhand, and made environmentally friendly choices such as using cloth nappies and cloth wipes, for example.

I made this video and blog post before baby arrived, but now looking back with an almost 6-month-old baby, I’m pleased to say this list worked perfectly for us during bub’s newborn stage. We found we had everything we needed!

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5 Things To Do During Coronavirus Isolation

Lockdown Isolation

Coronavirus Self Isolation, Lockdown, Quarantine – Whatever level of official measures your country is at in regards to the COVID-19 outbreak, the message is fairly clear: Stay at home.

But staying at home can be a problem for many. Not physically, that’s easy – just stay at home! No, it’s the mental side of things that can get a bit hard. We humans are social creatures, and we’re not used to staying cooped up in the one place for too long these days.

Here in the UK, we’re on lockdown, only allowed to leave our house for a short time each day for exercise, and to get groceries approximately once a week. Apart from that (in our household, anyway), we’re at home, as I am on maternity leave currently and my fiancé is working from home.

The urge to stay in pyjamas all day and watch one mindless Netflix show after the next, day in and day out, grows stronger and stronger for us all in isolation. However that can just feed into a negative mental health cycle that’s then hard to break free from. So let’s discuss some of the ways you can try to avoid a complete swan dive into depression during COVID-19 isolation.

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Top 10 Postpartum Essentials

Postpartum Essentials

The postpartum stage is a beautiful, difficult, overwhelming mess of a time. It’s a shock to the system, whether it’s your first child or fourth.

I know I had a tough time adapting to motherhood and all that comes with it after the birth of my baby girl, Ada: The sleeplessness, the full-body exhaustion, the mental load of postpartum.

To help any other soon-to-be mothers out there, I’ve compiled a list of my postpartum essentials – just like I did with my pregnancy essentials list – to help you through this hectic time.

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Motherhood: The hardest thing I’ve ever done

Motherhood is hard

Motherhood is hard.

Harder than I ever thought it would be.

There, I said it.

Everyone acts like being a mum is this blissful little bubble that feels like rainbows and butterflies 24/7.

In actual fact, motherhood is a rollercoaster – yes, it soars upwards into those moments of heaven on earth, but then catapults into stunning depths of stomach-sinking emotions.

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