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You are here: Home / MOTHERHOOD / The final #BlogBumpClub from me

The final #BlogBumpClub from me

October 10, 2014 by Molly 16 Comments

Blogger Bump Club

This week has passed by in a blur of cuddles, nappies and very little sleep. I’ve spent most of the week in my pyjamas gazing at my brand new baby girl.

I’ve loved hosting the #BlogBumpClub over the last few months and finding lots of new blogs to follow. It’s not the end of #BlogBumpClub though, as Becky from The Mummy Adventure will be taking over. Whether you’re newly pregnant or about to pop, it’s a chance to connect with other pregnant bloggers and share the highs (and lows) of pregnancy.

Because I can barely string two words together this week I’ve made a little picture video instead for my final Blog Bump Club. Kind of amazing to think what started as a tiny bump is now a hiccuping, milk guzzling cute bundle of gorgeousness currently keeping me awake all night…

Link up

Link up your latest pregnancy post here and join in the #BlogBumpClub here. Don’t forget – birth announcements are also welcome!

 

Filed Under: MOTHERHOOD, Pregnancy Tagged With: birth, labour, newborn baby, Pregnancy, pregnancy blog linky

« The day I had a baby
Things I’d forgotten about life with a newborn »

Comments

  1. Sarah says

    October 16, 2014 at 10:37 am

    Congratulations Molly. Lovely video. How dare you look so glamorous just after giving birth. 😉

    Enjoy all the special moments ..

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 17, 2014 at 6:13 pm

      Ah thank you! I don’t feel glam at all – very thankful for concealer this week! x

      Reply
  2. Bex @ The Mummy Adventure says

    October 12, 2014 at 7:30 pm

    Congratulations! I can’t wait to read more about baby girl and I look forward to carrying on BlogBumpClub x

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 14, 2014 at 7:11 pm

      I look forward to following the #BlogBumpClub over at your place now. It’s been brilliant connecting with other pregnant bloggers – feel a bit sad I won’t be hosting it any more and that part of the journey is over! xx

      Reply
  3. ghostwritermummy says

    October 12, 2014 at 5:47 am

    Oh what a beautiful video!! She is adorable and how wonderful do you look?! Also I NEED to know where you got the chevron blanket from!!! Huge congratulations lovely, it’s been an honour to join you on your wonderful journey and I wish you and your new little family all the happiness in the world. I also want to say thank you for all your support over the last few weeks too. Thank you thank you thank you x xx x x x

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 14, 2014 at 7:10 pm

      Ah you’re MORE than welcome. Not long for you now – you’ve been brilliantly strong during your pregnancy and it’s been my pleasure to offer any support that I have. The blanket is from Mamas and Papas by the way, it’s from their Patternology range. Properly lovely designs. xxx

      Reply
  4. Anna says

    October 12, 2014 at 4:38 am

    Such a beautiful video! Congrats on your baby girl 🙂

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 14, 2014 at 7:08 pm

      Thank you! x

      Reply
  5. Emma says

    October 11, 2014 at 7:16 pm

    Love love this montage. Awesome you

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 14, 2014 at 7:08 pm

      Can’t wait for you to meet her. xxx

      Reply
  6. Hannah Budding Smiles says

    October 11, 2014 at 6:57 pm

    Beautiful video and baby girl Molly, congratulations again!xx

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 14, 2014 at 7:08 pm

      Thanks Hannah! We’re all settling in to life as a four now. It’s been a pretty incredible week. x

      Reply
  7. MummyandMonkeys says

    October 11, 2014 at 4:02 pm

    Aww lovely video, just made me cry 🙂 congratulations again xx

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 14, 2014 at 7:08 pm

      Thank you! And same to you 🙂 xx

      Reply
  8. Alison says

    October 11, 2014 at 7:05 am

    What a beautiful video. The third time you’ve made me cry since Monday 😉 I’ll keep reading the Blog Bump Club posts over on Becky’s blog.

    Reply
    • Molly says

      October 14, 2014 at 7:07 pm

      Sorry! If it’s any consolation – it made me cry too. Wuss that I am.

      Reply

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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…

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Hello. How are you? . I’ve noticed something th Hello. How are you? 
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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. 
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Maybe it’s because we’re all on our last nerve now - the loss, sacrifice and stress is amplified that bit more. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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Except it’s not just faceless people on the internet that we’re upset with anymore. It’s our neighbours, family and friends. 
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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. 
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We are sociable creatures. We need community not just to thrive but to survive. 
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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 ❤️
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[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✨
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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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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.
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Tell me, what parts of the inner you are you working on learning to love? 
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[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 😅
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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. 
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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” 🙄). 
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When it comes to my own family - here are some of the privileges we live with which make movement easier for us: 
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✨ 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.
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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). 
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Some accounts which often discuss movement and privilege: @thephitcoach @amysnellingpt @theaishanash ❤️
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[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.
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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. 
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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.
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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. 
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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.
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(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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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.
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[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. ❄️☀️ 
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[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.]
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