Calories and Love

My baby shower.

This was a first for me, I didn't get such royal treatment last time but oh... What a wonderful day. 

Beautiful friends. Delicious baked goods. A game or two. Baby vests were sewn. Wonderful well wishes were wished. All thoughts on baby. On our family. 

That's a lot of calories and a lot of love. What else could you ever wish to be showered with?

The powers that be at Calories and Love HQ...

Now which to choose...

Thank you beautiful friends. Thank you so much. Xxxx

Also if you haven't already... Go enter my GIVEAWAY for a £20 voucher for The Essential One, to spend on baby and maternity clothes!

The Essential One: Ambassadorship & GIVEAWAY!

A while back I discovered this (The Essential One) great little online retailer for maternity and baby clothes... I ordered some maternity pyjamas and was so impressed I couldn't not review them! 

So impressed with The Essential One's fabric quality, fast delivery and I'm a sucker for a bit extra in the packaging department... I got to stalking them on Twitter and was super excited to see them advertising a scheme for bloggers! Cue one application from yours truly and would you know it... I'M A THE ESSENTIAL ONE MUCH LOVED BLOGGER! 

 What does that mean? Well it means new baby A isn't even born and he or she has his ir her first blogging assignment... To model and review a few of The Essential One's very fine newborn bits! YEY!

Just to reiterate how much I love this brand check me out in this maternity tee here...

 And here...

Bought with my very own pennies and hiiiiighly recommended long before the days when I could boast a "Much Loved Blogger" badge! You will not regret treating yourself and/or baby their essential items... The lovely thing about The Essential One is they're not out to clutter up your wardrobe with one wear wonders, their pieces are all about being quality, staple reliables that you enjoy wearing and dressing baby in time after time! I can honestly say this is my favourite go to tee! :D

If you are still not convinced enough to part with your own pennies then how's about you just spend THEIRS?! Fancy a £20 voucher to test them out...? Then enter below using the widget...

Remember to come back everyday between now and the end of the giveaway to receive more and more entries, there are tons of ways to build up your entries too... GOOD LUCK!!! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Woods Walking - Piccie Post!

Stopping Breastfeeding

I've avoided writing about breastfeeding for ages.

I've avoided it because I clearly don't trust myself to be honest enough or informed enough and all the while it's very hard to convey my breastfeeding journey without it sounding like advice. And this was never supposed to be the advice blog.

Regardless, in response to a big week in my own breastfeeding journey, I'm swallowing these fears and insecurities and talking about breastfeeding today.

Because Euna and I ended our breastfeeding journey this week. Why did it end? Well it was just our end. I'm happy with the timing and I'm really happy to report she has taken it totally in her stride.

Me though? It seems I have a little wave to ride. If I go back a way, to when Euna was born, breastfeeding was hard. Seriously hard. Crying everyday for a fortnight through pain and guilt and lack of guidance hard. But I stuck with it and it got easier, then it got wonderful and then it just became really normal.

Of that journey, I am very proud. I am proud of myself for persevering, I am proud of Steve for supporting me through something that must have been even harder to understand for an outsider (considering I didn't really understand so much of it myself) and I am proud of Euna for being this brilliant and wonderful miracle of nature who seemed to be the only party involved that knew exactly how to make this all go down.

And now it's finished.

And I grieve for it, quite genuinely. I'm sad to say goodbye to the final chapter of her babyhood. I'm sad that something her and I have so uniquely shared as mother and daughter is over. I'm a little frightened that it could change our dynamic. I'm a little heartbroken at the prospect of this meaning I am a little less special to her now. I can't help but feel a little unappreciated at the prospect that something so huge to me and my story of motherhood will be forgotten by her.

There in lies the selflessness of motherhood I guess. I can't ask anything of her in this. Just because I gave and I sacrificed and I worked hard does not mean I am owed. Of course not. My goal was a healthy, beautiful and happy daughter and I got that. My rewards are the memories, the story and the knowledge that I tried.

Then it sounds less selfless... I've written myself out of immaturity again. No woe is me. I got everything and more I could of hoped for.

Euna, I'm just letting you know it was special and I love you. xxx

And we have so so SO much more to enjoy... Like our first proper living room den! 

 Euna-zilla!

Still time left on my JOULES FABULOUSLY FLUFFY SOCKS GIVEAWAY!!! Go go go! :D

33 Weeks

Kicking it along the final stretch now! Here we go!

The agonising weeks of frustration trying to get things sorted, shopping, tidying and organising all feel like they're coming together. It's not done, I'm not in the realms of "ready" but it's on the horizon and that feels so so good. 

Baby's moving responsively to a rub or little poke. It feels like we're talking. I try and imagine what baby knows about me, what baby knows about his/her family, what's being heard, what's being transmitted in to there... 

Overall I feel good too. Healthy, mobile and for most parts energetic, as long as I've had my sleep I can et done what I need to with enough left over to be most of the Mummy I want to be. Could be that I just have to be doing it, could be this baby has enough bounce for us both, it could be a little of the positive affirmations I'm practicing for my Hypnobirthing class or it could just be how you learn to get along when you're a Mummy. I'm not too interested in the whys but I'm so happy to report feeling good... 

CHECK OUT MY JOULES FABULOUSLY FLUFFY SOCK GIVEAWAY HERE!!!

Joules Fabulously Fluffy Socks GIVEAWAY

It's no secret after my last review of a Joules product that I'm a big Joules fan! I love their premise for bold, colourful, quality items that suit an active outdoorsy lifestyle. I love their statement prints and I love buying items that I know will last me a while. 

Joules = Mummyography win.

So here I am super chuffed to be able to offer a few Joules freebies up for GIVEAWAY! I have 3 pairs of the Fabulously Fluffy Socks in a selection of colours to send out to 3 lucky winners. They retail at £7.95 and I confirm they are indeed fabulously fluffy! Fluffy socks are always an Autumn/Winter essential, especially for those of you planning to rock a pair of wellies when the weather starts turning everything sludgy and these ones are a particularly brilliant way to kick start your new season wardrobe!

All you have to do is promote my blog and the giveaway shamelessly to gain entries. You can gain new entries everyday so keep popping back and then when the week is up I will randomly select 3 winners who will be contacted for their details for postage. Use the widget below so I can track your entries and that's it! Simple! 

ENTER HERE... 
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Summer Relics...

As we say hello to Autumn, I reflect on exactly how much happiness 99p can buy a one year old on the sea front...

5 Pre-Baby Pledges

I keep saying I am going to make the most of this pregnancy and my last weeks alone with Euna... I keep saying it and then I get a hormonal wave of "oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-have-two-babies-and-then-I-might-not-have-time-to-shower-or-eat-or-sleep-or-perform-any-other-basic-task-ever-EVER-again!" kicks in and I go find something to organised myself.

But I will never be organised enough. I will never be totally prepared so there does need to be a switch off point.

So here's how I'm going to tether the nesting beast within me: by make a few simple pledges to myself for from now until the baby comes.

Pledge 1: I am going to practice my hypnobirthing relaxation exercises regularly to prepare for birth, be in the moment and get perspective.

Pledge 2: I am going to make sure we are doing as many Euna focused activities as possible. Soft play, drawing, zoo trips, park visits etc.

Pledge 3: I am going to make plans for ME. I want my hair done, my nails done and some alone time. Even if it is just a bath. I really struggle with prioritising myself, tell everyone "I'm fiiiiine" and then flip out when it gets too much (and blame everybody else for not being psychic and realising I was heading for said meltdown).

Pledge 4: Get walking. Presuming the cool weather is now settling in, I need not maroon myself indoors anymore. I'm craving crisp air and working up a sweat for a more cardio-centric reason. Feeling sedentary... Must MOVE!

Pledge 5: A date night. Or 2. Babysitters pending. We must must do this.

Not much productive in the above but I need to do them. I need to do the because there's no point in any of this if we're not enjoying the ride right?! Right.

32 weeks... 

32 Weeks

Feels like 32 weeks has marked the pregnancy equivalent of that moment when you change gear on a bike and you do a turn on your pedals that creaks and slips and then clunk; it just snaps in to place.

That's what 32 weeks pregnant has felt to me. Snap in to place. 

The hormones, the stresses and the worries are lifting like a veil and underneath it all I've just realised... I'M SO FLIPPING EXCITED!!!!!!

We're having a baby. A real one. A teenie, tiny, wriggly, pink, little, newborn baby. I'm imagining that head, the smell, the little fingers that scrunch in and stretch out and the tiny toes on the ends of wrinkly, soft feet. The tiny clothes and tiny nappies... Oh. Baby baby baby... Who are you?

I Said Maybeeeee...

Found an old Oasis album the other day...

"You're gonna be the one that saves me."

Will There Be Time for the Good Stuff?

My favourite part of my stay at home mum day happens around 8:30am. Steve's gone. We're up and downstairs but still in our pyjamas. I've done some essential Mummy-chores like changed her night nappy, put a load of washing on and given her her Weetabix. She gets down from the table and I make myself a slice of toast and a cup of tea. Then we haul up in the lounge and have a good 30-60 minutes of down time. She brings me books to read, she demands kisses and wriggly cuddles, I drink tea... No one's calling. It's very rare we have to be anywhere this early. The light in our lounge is lovely in the morning. It's all just really really nice.

There's a few other times of the day like this, but this is my favourite. Why is it so great? Well, yes that down time is important because caffeine and a sit are nice, but really that downtime is important because those are the moments I can seriously enjoy my baby. When I smell her head, kiss her all she'll let me, I read books with voices and I sink in the sofa under the weight of the little person who's wiggling all over me.

Now I have fears about baby two. Of course I do. Anything that's important makes us anxious. Anxious we'll lose it. Anxious we won't do it justice. Anxious our expectations are wrong. Anxious something will take us away from it. Just, anxious.

One of my biggest fears is that the logistics of two babies will rob me of times like my morning down time. That by the time I get done with two morning nappies and two loads of washing and two bowls of Weetabix will there be any kisses? Any books? Any wriggly cuddles? And if there aren't when will I enjoy my babies? When will it all slow down enough for those moments? Do I even get these moments? Will life become all about the necessary stuff and we'll never get the good stuff?

I think back to being a first time Mum and how there were so many unknowns and so many fears. I think back less far to when I was a brand new Mum and I first started to realise "Hey! I can totally DO this!" there's an opportunity here to teach myself a few lessons in not worrying about things before they happen (it only took me 29 years Mum) and in having faith in my own abilities.

It will be fine. I will make time. I know I care too much not to. And any chaos that reigns as a result is good chaos and the chaos we were always after as a family.