Learning Lessons in Mummyography: Blogging

Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts

Wednesday, 7 August 2013

Third Trimester; Believing and Waiting

Today marks the start of my third trimester. The beginning of the end when I only just feel like we've got started.

I imagined it would all seem more real this time. I've witnessed the reality of bump turning into baby once, surely the miracle would be more believable given the experience? No. It's not.

If anything it's all less believable, could I really, seriously and realistically be that lucky twice over in a lifetime? Does that even happen? I can't bring myself to feel worthy of it one time around most days...

Apparently if you smile you can make yourself feel happy. So let's apply the same logic here... If I write like I believe this baby is coming, maybe I'll start to believe...

Hi Baby

Right now you're in my belly. You've just kicked me to the left of my belly button to prove it. Let's get acquainted. I'm your Mum. Well initially I'll be your Mumma, then I'll be Mummy and eventually when I admit defeat that you are old enough I'll be your Mum. Actually before I'm any of those things I'll be the woman with the food on her chest.

Any which way I'm here and waiting for you. Waiting for you to come join our family. Waiting for you to teach me that all my love isn't used up, that there's reserves beyond my imagination. Waiting for you to show my daughter how to love a sibling. Waiting for you to unteach me all the things I thought I learnt about mothering with Euna, whilst I learn how unique and special you are. Waiting for cuddles. Waiting for feeds. Waiting for those locked eyed newborn stares that bore into me like a train.

I'm waiting baby and I am going to start to believe in you. I don't know much about you yet, I don't know what sex you are, I don't know what colour your hair is or if you have your Dad's long legs. But I know I love you, before I really believe you are to be, I know that. I know what your head smells like and I know it's going to make me want to die on the spot because nothing will ever smell that good again. I know I'll cry at how small you are. I know there's so so so much to look forward to.

Yours sincerely believing in you and waiting for you,

Mum

****************

Slow mornings...

And zoo fun...

27+4...

Drawing with Grandad...

Babysitter in training...

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Co-Hosting Lena B's Tuesday 10... My Life in 10 Photos!

Exceptionally excited to of been asked to co-host this week with Lena B for her Tuesday 10. Lena B hosts two blogs Lena B Actually and Lena B Photography... Basically these two blogs highlight that she is not only a killer professional photographer but also a seasoned blogging dynamo... Cue a doe-eyed and very flattered Charlie... *Sigh*.

Here we go Tuesday 10... My Life in 10 Photographs... Very fitting to start the new year off with a fresh introduction to all my new wonderful followers and readers (*drops to knees and hails you all... thank you thank you thank you!*)

1) First there was us. There was this day. He's Steve. Whatever's going on with me, it's with him too. For the record this is my favourite picture of me EVER. In about three seconds I will look to my right and see that despite the odds and the miserable morning we will have glorious SUN on our October wedding day. I will walk out the door into it, be served a glass of champagne and right before everyone follows us out into the sunny English gardens there will be a minute where it's just us, married and we'll breath sigh of "WE DID IT!!!".

2) Pregnancy. Me/Us pregnant. A time that changed it all. Changed my perspective on everything. Big things shrunk and small things grew.

3) HOLY GRANOLA! A BABY! Euna Irene. I didn't even attempt to find my favourite photo. This post would never get published if I did and I think I would implode in the process, but I love this one.

4) This is one of my favourite ever pictures and I have Mr Rawles of The Life of Mummy Rawles to thank. It's us at Euna's blessing. My Dad on the left. This photo represents how my family is big and involved and supportive. My family make their own tea when they visit. How my husband really is loved by my parents. That's awesome. It shapes my life most days.

5) Before I was a Mum, I was an Aunt. To these 3. They're a big part of my life. My sister being a Mum is a big part of my life. She's my trail blazer.

6) (Now we get to a bit more of ME) Bia Hoi Corner in Hanoi. I love travel. I LOVE this photo and this evening was probably one of the happiest of my life. The beer in Hanoi is made fresh and lasts a little over 24 hours. So at 5pm, to get rid of the beer, vendors set up beer kegs and plastic chairs and people gather to drink and be merry. The beer is 5p a glass and bars close when the kegs run dry in an hour or 3. We'd been in Vietnam only 24 hours and it was a wonderful trip. In 20 minutes we meet a French couple and get DRUNK and test the theory that because the beer has no preservatives you can't get hungover... That theory is wrong.

7) Taking pictures. This is the happiest I can be away from my family. I am not trained and in the grand scheme of things I am little over average in ability. But I love it. I love it so much I don't need to be motivated by being good at it and I have never felt like that about anything. I want to DO this. I want to be a photographer. (First time I've written that down.)

8) Friends. This is my closest and oldest friend. I didn't know how much I loved her and how indestructible our friendship was until our lives completely changed and we STAYED just as close. That's friendship. There is no convenience in our friendship now but it works without any work. If you can ever say the same about a friend count that blessing every day.

9) 18 months ago there would have been a picture of me dancing on here. Today there is this. It's my proudest crafting project to date. I have not replaced dancing with sewing but I have realised that I NEED to be creative in some capacity at all times. I believe everyone NEEDS to be creative whether they know it or not. Counsellors and psychotherapists all over the globe would sit unattended and landfill sites would burst with out of date meds if everyone was creative. You are an artist.

10) Walking. "What do you want to do today Charlie?" I want to walk. I always want to walk. Field, forest, town, city. Whatever. I want to walk it. I do my best thinking when I walk on my own and I do my best talking when I walk in company. The air. The smells. The happy endorphins that spin around your body as you feel your body in USE. It's not exercise, it's therapy. (And this is my favourite picture of me and her together.)

So there you go... If you hung around long enough you now probably know me better than a lot of people in my real life. How great is blogging?

Thank you Lena B! :D

NOW GO LINK UP YOUR LIFE IN 10 PHOTOGRAPHS!!!!

Note: Photographs 1 & 2 were taken by the very talented Katherine Peachey at Peachey Photography.

Monday, 3 December 2012

Snap Your Whipper Snappers #3

We're baaaaaaaack! For week THREE of our blog hop series! My choice for my first feature is this gorgeous snap from over at The Beekeeper's Granddaughter I love how he's stood up straight for his picture and those cheeks are simply SCRUMPTIOUS! Plus as a Brit (who's tree have to be imported) I LOVE the idea of being able to pick and cut down your own tree, it looks amazing!! Thanks for linking up!!!

Charlotte has picked a great feature over at The Life of Mummy Rawles so go check it out and maybe if you linked up last week it's YOU...!

So here's the hop... If you take an excessive amount of photographs of your little ones then THIS is the blog hop for you...

Snap your Whipper Snappers

is the third in a series of six weekly blog hops we will be hosting where you are invited to link up posts featuring pics of your little pickles!

We will leave the hop open Monday to Friday and then next week Charlotte and I will each

FEATURE OUR FAVOURITE!

Here's how it works...

1. Follow your hosts...

Learning Lessons in Mummyography

The Life of Mummy Rawles

2. Grab the hop button and post it on the post you want considered for a feature.

Saturday, 1 December 2012

First Frost...

It's here. Winter.

Once again I am not prepared and have yet to purchase a winter coat but regardless winter is here. So let's get Winter Happy with a few snaps of Essex's first frost of the season...

Friday, 30 November 2012

Tongue Ties...

Yesterday we went to the doctors, Euna has had a string of colds and bugs and as much as I KNEW I was going to get the "it's just the time of year" speech I wanted to double check.

As it would happen I got the loveliest German doctor. He had a real soft, calm doctors voice and whilst he did indeed give me the "it's just the time of year" speech he did it so nicely without the slightest hint of "you hysterical moron, do not darken our doors with you idiotic neurosis again".

So understanding, he was, I took it upon myself to ask a couple of nagging questions I'd had, one of which was about her tongue tie. Now previously when I had asked about this I had been told it was slight and as long as she was feeding I shouldn't worry.

Anyway... Turns out her tongue tie is significant, about 75-80% which is apparently a lot. Doctor was surprised we were breastfeeding and when I said "oh no she's always been a good feeder" he asked hadn't I been in pain? Well yes I had. ALOT! Tears were had at every feed infact, then right at the point of breaking I was admitted to hospital for other reasons, administered a fair amount of heavy duty pain killers (this is all pre-blogging days, I will catch you up one day) and so the pain was masked and forgotten.

Apparently it's to do with the tongue not being able to come out and around the nipple and make a proper latch. The latch is consequently then achieved by harder more concentrated suction on the nipple. Dr. Google also informs me it can lead to permanent nipple damage! YOWZERS!

Well this happy ending goes that that didn't happen and since about week 4/5 breastfeeding has been a joy but it's good information and further confirmation that we could all benefit from knowledge like this being more widely available! How did it take SO long for this to come to my attention? And I am by NO means a passive parent, if this had been on the radar I WOULD have picked it up.

Lesson

1. Keep working on my EPIC breastfeeding post... Clearly there is still much to learn.

2. More research to be done on the tongue tie, for now we have decided to leave it and avoid "the snip" until such time that she will not need a general anaesthetic for it or if we see it causing her some issues with speech.

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Introducing Crockery...

THE book (Gill Rapley's "Baby Led Weaning") says not to confuse them with crockery at first. It will distract from eating, they will think it's a toy and they will play with it.

Now look at this face...

This face tells me "LIES GILL! LIES! Would I PLAY with a plate of food?"

Erm... Well she looks keen...

Granted Gill... there is some mess...

Well that's not the right way up...

Ok now you're PLAYING the bongo bowl...

I concede Gill. My 9 month old is not ready for crockery. In my defence however, it makes for great photo opportunities.

Lesson

1. We don't know until we try.

2. I need to read up on teaching table manners and using plates and bowls.

(Note: I was given this Nuby Flower Child bowl for free but I was not paid for this post and all thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own.)

Sunday, 25 November 2012

Happy Endings

The other day I was watching a Derren Brown programme and in it he told this woman he would be following her with hidden cameras and setting up scenarios that would cause her to make profound decisions and consequently change as a person. He did no such thing but because the woman had this in mind she saw deeper meaning in her daily occurrences, reflected on everything intently and made profound changes to her ways of thinking and conduct by the end of the week.

I spend a lot of time thinking about why I blog, what's the point, why do I enjoy it and what is this satisfaction I find? I had put a lot of it down to the sharing part of blogging. The "putting it out there" and receiving feedback. But after that Derren Brown programme I wonder... Is the real value the fact that this blog makes me look for meaning in the mundane? Is it that it brings out the essential optimist in me?

After all I wouldn't have much hope in gaining faithful followers if I ended every post in the negative! So it does make me look for the happy ending even just in a crappy day. That's cool. Essentially everything in life is about perspective. Glass half full or half empty? A bad day or an opportunity for growth?

I'm really grateful for my blog this week. It's been a great resource to help me problem solve my Mummy blues. The solution was back-up... And back-up was called. Good times. Happy weekend all!

If only these guys could write a blog... I'd wanna read that blog...