• SELF LOVE & BODY IMAGE
  • MOTHERHOOD
    • Pregnancy
    • Babies
    • Kids
  • ADVENTURE
  • STYLE
    • Interiors
    • Fashion
    • Beauty
  • FOOD

Mother's Always Right

Mum life, body image, style

  • ABOUT
  • PRESS
  • Podcast
  • Public Speaking
  • YOUTUBE
  • WORK WITH ME
  • #FreeFromDiets campaign
You are here: Home / MOTHERHOOD / Blogger Bump Club Week 18 #BlogBumpClub

Blogger Bump Club Week 18 #BlogBumpClub

September 11, 2014 by Molly 11 Comments

Blogger Bump ClubThis week’s #BlogBumpClub comes to you from a place of serene calm. I know – I’m as surprised as the next person. It turns out maternity leave is good for the soul. I’m positively floating on clouds and flying with unicorns at the moment.

I filed copy for my last big deadline on Monday morning and sent my maternity allowance claim form off on Tuesday (I’m self-employed, so maternity leave is a bit different to last time I had a baby). Apart from the odd bit of blogging I really have no need to be near my laptop at the moment, which is an enlightening experience.

Frog started school on Monday – mornings only this week – and loves it so far. Which means *touch wood* we’ve had no morning tantrums, no stressful dragging her out of the door episodes and she’s generally been in the best mood ever. Life is so much easier when kids are happy. 

School days begin

It also means I’ve had the house to myself the past few mornings. I’ve pottered about, made chutney, done a bit of cleaning, blogged a bit and had time to sit in the garden and drink a hot cup of tea.

I remember Carie at Space for the Butterflies writing about the beginning of maternity leave and describing it as a period of “un-working”. I can totally relate to that at the moment because, after an incredibly hectic few months – in good and bad ways – it feels odd to be able to put my feet up without the nagging guilt that I ought to be doing something else. That’s why my first few mornings on my own have still been pretty productive. I’m gradually getting better at unwinding and switching off though and by next week I’m sure the simple act of tweeting will seem like too much of a chore!

Afternoons have been spent out in the sunshine, before napping while Frog watches Frozen for the millionth time (thank you to Chelle at Unique and Chic for the 3pm movie tip – it really does work if you want to buy yourself some guaranteed sit down time).

Sunny fields

Bump-wise, I’m feeling well. Obviously there are still multiple nightly loo trips and one of my feet is still puffy, but that’s just standard. And I’m pretty sure the baby’s still back to back, but I’m not worrying about it because Frog was too – I know from experience that even if I spend 24 hours a day on all fours the baby will only turn if he or she feels like it.

I’ve been enjoying lots of pregnancy yoga and (much to my husband’s amusement) meditation and hypnobirthing relaxation CDs. I’m sure that’s all contributing to my calm state of mind. Even the thought of pushing a small human out of my vagina seems kind of exciting at the moment, so the CDs must be working a bit.

37 weeks pregnant

The hospital bag is now packed and sitting patiently by the front door. Although I know the baby could arrive any day now, I’m also aware that it could be another few weeks before anything happens – Frog was twelve days past her due date after all. But that’s OK – again, experience tells me there’s no point getting het up about these things. I’m quite content to enjoy this time to myself and ride those unicorns of calm a bit longer.

Link Up

So how have you been doing? Anyone else enjoying the calm before the baby-arrives-storm? Any newly pregnant bloggers out there? Link up your most recent pregnancy post here and join in the chat.

Don’t forget to grab the badge to display on your own blog so others can find us and join in too. And, if you can, comment on some of those linked up – it makes the whole blogger antenatal club thing that bit more fun.

If you share your post on Twitter don’t forget the #BlogBumpClub hashtag – and tweet me a link too so I can RT it for you (I’m @mollyjforbes on Twitter).

 

Mother's Always Right

Filed Under: MOTHERHOOD, Pregnancy Tagged With: 37 weeks pregnant, antenatal yoga, Blog Bump Club, hypnobirthing, maternity allowance, maternity leave, Pregnancy

« My grandmother’s chair
Another milestone »

Comments

  1. Carie says

    September 14, 2014 at 6:19 am

    Well it sounds like you’re really getting the hang of maternity leave – and your bump is looking fabulous! Fingers crossed you get just enough time to relax and not so much time that you begin to fidget!!

    Reply
  2. Angela Tobin says

    September 12, 2014 at 1:03 pm

    I don’t want to be the voice of doom (I’m coming from a sleep-deprived place, and probably am too grouchy at the moment so forgive me) but do enjoy the calm!!! I’d completely forgotten how time consuming little babies are 🙂

    Really glad little Frog has settled into school well. I bet she can’t wait for the new arrival either? Ferne is the talk of the school gates as Lewis wants to show her off to everyone, every day!

    Enjoy your time x

    Reply
    • Molly says

      September 12, 2014 at 7:27 pm

      Oh blimey I know! My head is firmly buried in the sand about how I’ll manage the school run with a newborn in tow – used to take me hours to leave the house when F was tiny!

      Reply
  3. The Breastest News says

    September 12, 2014 at 12:27 pm

    Oh how exciting! It’s such a great feeling starting maternity leave and looking forward to the birth of your baby. I can’t wait myself, got ages to go yet though.

    You and your bump look fabby and that’s great Frog has started school and loves it, another weight off your mind 🙂 Sounds like everything is going pretty well at the moment after your few months of running around.

    x

    Reply
  4. Working mum blog says

    September 12, 2014 at 8:54 am

    Maternity leave indeed is good for the soul. I remember at start of my pregnancy dreading the thought of leaving work. I was feeling quite worried about my position at work and really didn’t want anything to change. I ended up leaving much earlier in the end due to stress at work. A few weeks on, I feel like a new person. I’ve been doing yoga, meditation and hypno relaxation for a few months but it is only now that I have slowed down that I can feel the benefits of doing that.
    Unlike you though I am feeling a little impatient about the due date, I feel ready to have the baby now that I am full term and really hope he arrives soon. It is my first one and I just want to see him. I am sure once he does arrive i’ll miss the quietness of the days leading up to the birth :-). PXX

    Reply
    • Molly says

      September 12, 2014 at 11:44 am

      I felt exactly the same way when I was pregnant with Frog – impatient and ready for her to be born. In the end she was 12 days past her due date! I wish I’d managed to relax a bit more though because I sort of spoiled that last week by fretting. It’s such a special time (and peaceful!). And they say the more relaxed you are the higher your chances of going into labour. So glad you’re feeling well though and enjoying the maternity leave. Hurrah for yoga and meditation. x

      Reply
  5. MummyandMonkeys says

    September 11, 2014 at 5:33 pm

    Glad your little one is enjoying school! Sounds like you are enjoying the peace! I’ve been signed off, but still can’t quite relax, got a load of things I want to get sorted first! Blooming nesting!! X

    Reply
    • Molly says

      September 12, 2014 at 11:46 am

      Yep – nesting has much to answer for! x

      Reply
  6. rachel says

    September 11, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    I’ve been a silent reader to date (!), but I just had to comment today as we are living such parallel lives!

    Today I finally completed two enormous reports, tidied up two other projects, sent out my final invoices and turned on my out of office to start my second maternity leave too. I’m self employed, and am seconds away from posting off my maternity allowance form (!) before I collect my 3.5 year old from pre-school, but before I do that, I’m enjoying a hot cup of tea as I know they’re going to be a rarity before long again!

    I became self employed after I had my daughter, and I’m currently feeling really proud of having managed to earn a living by myself without the security of a “proper job” for the last couple of years.

    I’m hoping that I’ll get a couple of weeks relative calm before baby number 2 makes an appearance (I’m nearly 38 weeks now too!) – but now that I’ve turned off the work bit of my brain, I’m looking forward to feeling the same excitement that you just described, and will be spending as much of the coming days listening to my hypnobirthing CDs and generally chilling out as much as I can!

    I’ve not packed a hospital bag yet mind…you’re way ahead of me there!

    Anyway, wishing you lots of luck with what lies ahead! I’ve loved reading your posts – and smiling about the similarities in our lives!

    Rachel xx

    Reply
    • Molly says

      September 12, 2014 at 11:57 am

      Thank you for the lovely comment Rachel – it’s strange how similar our situations are! Enjoy the calm, it sounds like you definitely deserve it. And don’t worry about the hospital bag – I’ve only just properly sorted mine! xx

      Reply
  7. ghostwritermummy says

    September 11, 2014 at 12:18 pm

    Ah Molly, your bump is looking gorgeous! And it certainly sounds as though maternity leave suits you! I’m so glad. Now all we do is wait… 😀 x x x

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hello and welcome! I'm Molly Forbes - podcaster, presenter and blogger with a passion for positivity, confidence and body image chat. Regularly writing and vlogging about empowering female issues from a motherhood angle, I also cover lifestyle and fashion topics for like-minded mums who want to rediscover themselves after having children. Thanks for stopping by! Read More…

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

YOUTUBE

INSTAGRAM

Hello. How are you? . I’ve noticed something th Hello. How are you? 
.
I’ve noticed something this lockdown that feels different to first time... the sense of people being more disconnected than ever, more divided, more isolated. 
.
Maybe it’s because we’re all on our last nerve now - the loss, sacrifice and stress is amplified that bit more. 
.
And we’re so deep in it, often confined in our thoughts at home, our only connection with the outside world via a screen, that it becomes harder to appreciate our differences in circumstances. 
.
We forget that we are all just humans muddling through a global pandemic, trying to come out of it alive, with our minds intact and hopefully our jobs too. 
.
We’re angry, sad, frustrated, scared. And in the absence of those regular social connections we need a place to direct those feelings. The social media platforms and comments sections on news sites have never been so busy. 
.
Except it’s not just faceless people on the internet that we’re upset with anymore. It’s our neighbours, family and friends. 
.
Dr Vivek Murthy wrote about the importance of social connections and community in his book Together, pointing out that loneliness has the same impact on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. 
.
We are sociable creatures. We need community not just to thrive but to survive. 
.
So check in with your friends today. Maybe even send them a voice note. Don’t assume you know how they’re doing based on their latest Facebook post. We need to get through this together, not apart ❤️
.
.
.
.
[Image description: Molly is looking at the camera, smiling in a tired, resigned sort of way. She’s outside and is wearing a fantastic hat that her husband says looks like a tea cosy.]
✨Art from @emilycoxhead gorgeous book You Are In ✨Art from @emilycoxhead gorgeous book You Are Incredible Just As You Are✨
.
A reminder that loving every bit of ourselves isn’t just about embracing all the parts on the outside, but also about accepting - and maybe even celebrating - the bits on the inside too. 
.
I’ll go first: I am a worrier and have a tendency to think deeply on things. If we’ve ever had a disagreement - be it an exchange on Twitter in 2018 or a row in the playground in 1992 you bet I’ve stored that away in my brain ready to ruminate on in the depths of a night when I can’t sleep. 
.
But in the spirit of loving every bit of ourselves I say that rather than looking at these parts of ourselves as “flaws”, we choose instead to view them with loving kindness and a heavy dose of self-compassion. 
.
I worry because I am sensitive, and I care. This sometimes means I’m more vulnerable to allowing others’ opinions of me have too much power... but it also means I feel remorse when I make mistakes and try my very best to learn from them. 
.
And this also means I work hard in everything I do because I genuinely care about doing a good job. Meanwhile, my tendency to think deeply on stuff means I’m able to see the nuance in things and appreciate other perspectives, because as I grasp for an answer I often find two things can be true at the same time. 
.
These are not traits I would view as “pathetic” or “needy” or “indecisive” in my kids and I would never tell them to “just get over it”, so I’m trying to remember this for myself too.
.
Tell me, what parts of the inner you are you working on learning to love? 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
[Image description: A double page spread from Emily Coxhead’s book You Are Incredible. It’s a yellow page with a red heart and white writing which reads “Here’s to loving every bit of you.”]
Let’s talk joyful movement and.... PRIVILEGE! A Let’s talk joyful movement and.... PRIVILEGE! A nice juicy subject for a Thursday evening 😅
.
I absolutely love to see the narrative shift (albeit ever so slightly) to the intrinsic benefits of movement. The focus on intuitive movement and moving our bodies for how it makes us FEEL over how it makes us LOOK brings me huge happiness. 
.
BUT... even when we take movement away from a diet culture context, I still think there’s often a lack of acknowledgment of the many barriers preventing people engaging in movement in the first place (hot tip: it’s not “just cos they’re lazy” 🙄). 
.
When it comes to my own family - here are some of the privileges we live with which make movement easier for us: 
.
✨ We live in an area with access to lots of safe green spaces to play and walk.
✨ We can afford to pay for a gym membership, and extra curricular activities for the kids like gymnastics, Street Dance and swimming.
✨ We have access to the technology needed to take part in online classes over lockdown.
✨ We are non-disabled so experience no physical access issues preventing us from joining in with these activities. 
✨ Our work schedule allows us to get out together during daylight hours. 
✨ None of us lives with a mental health condition which might make getting outside / engaging in movement really hard or even impossible.
.
Kids access to movement is not equal so if we really care about encouraging more children to move then, as a nation, we need to level the playing field (pun intended). 
.
Some accounts which often discuss movement and privilege: @thephitcoach @amysnellingpt @theaishanash ❤️
.
.
.
.
[Image description: Molly and her two daughters standing on top of a hill smiling, with their arms in the air.]
It’s pretty well accepted that certain “fad di It’s pretty well accepted that certain “fad diets” are not the one. But if our definition of diet culture stops there, and we fail to see how diet culture IS fatphobic in its very nature - and that it absolutely depends on a collective cultural fear and vilification of fatness then we’ll never get anywhere with tearing it down.
.
Dressing up fatphobia as “health concern”, or “tough love” or “helping people” is just a fluffy way of saying you don’t acknowledge the huge complexity around health, or the many factors that impact weight, or the research showing the harmful (and unhealthy) impact of weight stigma, or the evidence into the long term effectiveness of diets and intentional weight loss. 
.
And essentially, those who assert that health only looks one way, and that people have a moral responsibility to prove their health via the shape of their body and not be a “drain on society”, are saying that only people with their version of a “healthy body” are worthy of respect, equality, dignity.
.
Children pick up on these messages and learn from an early age that “fat = bad”, and to see some bodies as better, and more deserving of love and respect than others. This could be why we’re seeing a rising number of pre-teens with eating disorders and mental health issues associated with poor body image. 
.
Yes we need to lose the fad diets. But we also need to lose the deeper prejudices and anti-fat biases that make them profitable in the first place, otherwise they’ll just continue to show up in different ways, coming in ever more aggressive and insidious ways for our kids.
.
.
.
(Image description: A yellow slide with multicolour shapes and a screenshot of a tweet overlaid which reads “FYI you can’t be simultaneously anti-diet culture and pro fatphobia. (And yes, fatphobia includes continuously asking “But what about health?” and not listening to the answer...)
You might have missed this in the news over Christ You might have missed this in the news over Christmas. It didn’t get nearly the same amount of coverage as all the diet-related features that are everywhere right now. It was hidden away behind the before and after “amazing weight loss” stories, celeb diet plans and “o*esity causes covid” headlines. But that doesn’t make it any less shocking or heartbreaking. 
.
I believe there’s a link between the rise in children being diagnosed with eating disorders and the rise in children suffering poor body image. These issues are fallout from a culture that idolises thinness, vilifies fatness and continually promotes one, narrow, over-simplified version of health. 
.
Diet culture is coming increasingly aggressively for children, and the pandemic with the huge mental health toll it’s taken has not helped one bit. We already knew the number of pre-teens diagnosed with anorexia in the last decade had doubled, and it seems the figures are rising even higher. We need change. Fast. 
.
Check out the Body Happy Kids resources, workshops and Masterclass and the #FreeFromDiets campaign in my bio, if you want to help change the culture our kids are growing up in. They deserve better.
.
.
.
.
.
.
[Image description: a section from a news article about rising numbers of children suffering with eating disorders. Full text can be found in Alt Text.]
I’ve been looking a lot at old photos lately. Th I’ve been looking a lot at old photos lately. This pic is from summer 2018, when I could hug my mum and travel abroad on holiday. If I close my eyes I can almost feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, smell the salty sea air and hear the laughter of other families playing on the beach. Holding on to these memories and the hope that the hugs, sunshine and bikinis will come again one day. In the meantime it’s video calls, trackie bottoms and WhatsApp. ❄️☀️ 
.
.
.
.
.
[Image description: Molly and her mum standing on a beach in France, in 2018. They are both wearing brightly coloured bikinis, hugging and smiling. It’s a hot sunny day and the sky is blue.]
Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2021 · Mothers Always Right. Design by Stacey Corrin

This site uses cookies: Find out more.