Blogger Bump Club Week 5 #BlogBumpClub

12 Thursday Jun 2014

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Blogger Bump Club

Somehow it’s Thursday already and I’m now approaching the 25 week pregnancy mark. I’m becoming convinced this means I am stuck in an alternative universe where this pregnancy just whooshes by without me even realising it.

This week has, unlike the last one, been much calmer. Work hasn’t been so manic and I’ve even managed to squeeze in a few episodes of the new series of Orange is the New Black on Netflix. (Seriously, I don’t know how I got through my last pregnancy without the companion that is Netflix.)

Bump-wise, I’m feeling about a million times better. There’ve been no more scary situations *touch wood* involving trips to the hospital and the baby continues to make his or her presence known with many a kick. I’ve noticed the kicks get stronger when I’m sitting down or in the bath, and it’s been lovely for the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine to feel more kicks too. Continue reading »

The child who won’t sleep

11 Wednesday Jun 2014

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Sleep

Sleep is a funny thing. You don’t appreciate its value until it’s gone. It was a shock, for example, to experience that all-encompassing tiredness that came with having a newborn. Not knowing when you’d be able to get more than a couple of hours sleep at a stretch was mentally and physically draining. It was, hand on heart, the one thing I found hardest about those early baby days.

And then came the emotive side of sleep. The side that you’re totally unprepared for pre-motherhood, where random strangers ask if you have a “good baby” and you come to understand that babies who don’t sleep through the night do not come under the “good baby” category. I was always reluctant to label my baby as “bad”, so I would get defensive about her sleep or, sometimes, just tell an out-and-out lie. “Yeah, she’s slept through the night since she was 6 weeks old. Total dream baby. The best. My baby wins at being a baby.” Continue reading »

How do YOU win Partner Points?

09 Monday Jun 2014

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June 2010

This is a picture of the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine and I, approximately two weeks before I gave birth to our daughter, four years ago. What you can’t see in this picture is my massive pregnant belly, slightly swollen feet and big under-eye bags. It was taken in the garden of our former local pub, where we used to live in Berkshire.

This picture makes me smile, not because it’s an example of amazing photography (it isn’t), or because it was a lovely sunny day, or even because it captures a special memory of a rose-tinted time pre-parenthood.

No, it makes me smile because it shows in all its badly-photographed glory how I win Partner Points (or “PPs”) in our marriage.  Continue reading »

Being busy is not a badge of honour

06 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by in Opinion, Work

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Life lessons

A couple of days ago I saw a tweet. It came at just the right moment, speaking to me through my haze of tired eyes and puffy feet: “The idea that we always have to be tired to be successful is wrong. We need new role models.”

It seems SO simple. But in a society where so many of us are rushing around all the time, proudly declaring how busy we are, it seems almost controversial to suggest that being busy and, ultimately, being tired is not always a good thing. There is such a thing as being too busy.

This week has been a bit of a strange one for me. After my pregnancy health scare last weekend I’ve been more aware than ever of the need to slow down a bit. And when I say “slow down” I don’t mean sitting on the sofa all day. I mean reverting back to a normal pace of being, that doesn’t involve running up and down the stairs, rushing everywhere and constantly fretting – to the point of waking in the night – that I’ve forgotten to do something.  Continue reading »

The Blogger Bump Club Week 4 #BlogBumpClub

05 Thursday Jun 2014

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Blogger Bump Club

After Friday night’s pregnancy health scare I’ve been doing my very best to take it easy this week. But anyone with kids and a job will know that taking it easy is easier said than done.
I’ve scaled back some of my radio shifts, but I’ve still got deadlines coming out of my ears. Plus, in a spectacular act of bad timing, the husband was landed with a week from work hell too, which has meant he’s been working til gone midnight most nights and I’ve been on my own with our almost-four year old. An almost-four year old who has decided to wake up at 2am for the last few nights and not go back to sleep.
Still, amidst the mayhem there have been moments of calm. At 23 weeks, my bump is really starting to get rounder – meaning I can finally fit properly into my new maternity tankini by Mamalicious (review coming up soon). I wore it to a session of aquanatal this week – my weekly pregnancy exercise session. I find it’s the one time in the week when I can totally indulge in being pregnant, chatting to other mums-to-be. The bit at the end is my favourite, when we float around the pool to relaxation music. Mmmmmmm.

Continue reading »

The living room revamp and a sneak at my shelfie

04 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Home, Style

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living room redecoration

This is the first time in forever we’ve had a room that we can say, hand on heart, is completely “ours”.

Before moving into this house we’d always lived in rented places – a flat, then a cottage, then a little house while we went through the process of buying where we are now. Our rooms were filled with second-hand furniture given to us by kind relatives, because all our money went on saving for a huge mortgage deposit.

Our homes were loved and comfortable but not necessarily entirely of our own choosing. We couldn’t paint the walls or look for beautiful furniture to upcycle, because we didn’t know where we were going to end up and didn’t own the houses we lived in. If we ended up in a tent somewhere, that huge sofa purchase would have seemed like a hasty purchase, you know?  Continue reading »

Spoiling the man

03 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Family, Relationships

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Father's Day gift ideas

The first time I ever kissed the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine it was by a toilet, in a sticky-carpeted nightclub in the romantic hotspot that is Reading. Later, he warned me he wasn’t the “slushy” type, because “Where I’m from – in Rochdale – we aren’t like that.”

Two years later we welcomed our baby girl into the world and a year after that we got married.

Married

That will be three years ago this summer but, in many ways, it feels like much longer. We’ve been through lots together in the past three years: saving up for a house, moving 200 miles to another part of the UK, buying a house, working hard in different jobs, getting pregnant with baby number two. Continue reading »

When pregnancy doesn’t go to plan

01 Sunday Jun 2014

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I’ve never been a fan of hospitals. As a child I didn’t have any hospital experiences – my sister was the clumsy one, breaking her arm or biting a hole through her tongue (yes, really). My first overnight stay in a hospital didn’t happen until I was 26, after giving birth to my new baby.

When I had my pregnancy dating scan and then my anomaly scan a few weeks ago, my husband was with me. I was nervous – partly because I don’t really like hospitals and partly because I was worried about the results of both scans.

But on Friday night, at around 10.30pm, I had to go to hospital on my own. As I sat in the back of the taxi, trying ever so hard not to vomit all over the leather interior or sob too loudly, things shifted sharply into focus.  Continue reading »

Saltskin Wetsuits – rocking the beach this summer

30 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Kids' fashion

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Saltskin

When we moved to Devon last summer we pledged to buy ourselves a wetsuit each. Living so near the beach means we spend a lot of time by the sea and it’s certainly not just a bonus we enjoy in the summer. The beach is for all year round, in my opinion.

Being in my pregnant state means that I haven’t got around to getting a wetsuit yet. Nor has the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine. My daughter, on the other hand…

Saltskin Wetsuits

This is from the shorties range at Saltskin Wetsuits, possibly the coolest brand of wetsuits available for kids.  Continue reading »

The Blogger Bump Club Week 3 #BlogBumpClub

29 Thursday May 2014

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Blogger Bump Club

Somehow, I am hurtling towards being 23 weeks pregnant. Somehow, we’re in our third week of the #BlogBumpClub (the new blogger antenatal club!). And somehow, it’s Thursday of half term already. I swear time is speeding up for me at the moment.

That’s sort of how it’s been throughout this pregnancy actually. Although I felt really sick and tired in the first trimester, it did hurtle along pretty quickly. And now I’m already over halfway there it seems kind of unreal. I remember being pregnant with Frog four years ago and forgetting what it felt like NOT to be pregnant. Time seemed to move more slowly back then! Continue reading »