Hello,
I bloody love homeware. I may have a little bit of an unhealthy obsession actually. Primark homeware is absolutely amazing at the moment and I just cannot leave some of their stuff there. I recently got a little bit bored of my living room and decided to spruce it up by adding a little bit of pink and copper.
Hello,
I am really excited to share this story and hopefully, you will enjoy reading it.
Eight Days Overdue
Last August I was eight days overdue with my first baby. As you can imagine I was beginning to get extremely impatient and uncomfortable. We were going through a heatwave where we live and I was just feeling so fed up.
My midwife called me to ask if there was any sign of this baby. I explained that unfortunately there was still no sign and that I had still not even had a date for induction. She told me that she would call the hospital and sort something out for me.
About 10 minutes later, I had a call back where my midwife told me to get ready and go to the hospital and they would give me a date for induction.
Stretch and Sweep
My Mum and I arrived at the hospital and waited. I was eventually called in by a Doctor that I have never seen before. She explained to me that she was going to give me stretch and sweep now to try and get baby moving. If he was not on his way by tomorrow I would be induced the next day (I know, it was all so fast I was freaking out).
She asked me how old I was and I explained that I was 18. She went on to say “So, you’ve never even had a Smear Test?” and I said that I hadn’t. She explained that it was going to be very uncomfortable and she went to go and get a nurse to talk to me during to take my mind off of it.
I can honestly say this was the worst experience of my whole labour and delivery story and if you want a whole post on my experience with a Strech and Sweep, let me know.
Beginning to have Contractions
I came out of the Sweep and explained to my Mum what had just happened. She told me not to walk anywhere if I had just had that done so she went to get the car for me. I called my partner to tell him what I had just had done, he was excited and now admits that he was scared. She dropped me to my boyfriend’s house and I was alone. I thought that I would be completely fine. The nurse had explained that I may have some bleeding and that I will probably feel uncomfortable after having the Sweep.
I started to get pains and I told myself that they were Braxton Hicks (P.s. you will definitely know the difference between actual contractions and Braxton Hicks, I promise, you just will). I texted my friend and said that I thought that it was happening.
I waited for my boyfriend’s Mum to get home and explained what was happening. At this point, my pains were quite mild and quite far apart. I then began to (this may be TMI) keep having to go to the toilet, if you know what I mean.
In this time my partner had gotten back to his Mum’s. I began to be sick and remembered that everyone had told me that when it was happening I would begin to clear myself out. I called my Mum to let her know and if I am honest, I think she thought that I was just being a drama queen.
Then, I had my show and I really started to panic. My contractions went very quickly to 2 minutes apart but I refused to go to the hospital until I really could not cope with them anymore.
Arriving at the Hospital
When we arrived at the hospital we explained what had happened to a midwife. She said, “first baby, yeah?”. They really did not believe that I was very far in labour at all. They took me into a room and put me on a machine, the nurse explained that “If I am actually in labour, the spike on the machine would go up and down out of 100”.
I was in real pain now and the machine kept going up to 100. In this time, my Mum and her boyfriend had arrived at the hospital.
After half an hour, the nurse came in to check me and said: “Oh, actually you are having really strong labour, I am happy for you to have some pain relief”. I had Gas and Air and I hated it. It made me feel so sick, like imagine the drunkest you have ever felt in your life. That is how I felt.
At this point, I was only 4cm dilated. My Mum said she thought that we were going to be there for absolutely ages. She was wrong.
“I really need a poo”
Now, for all my fellow mums out there – you know how loopy gas and air makes you. i hardly remember anything from my labour. What I do remember is repeatedly exclaiming that I really needed a poo.
My midwife told me over and over that it was just the pressure of the baby and that I did not need to go to the toilet. She proceeded to leave the room and I then turned to my mum and said “mum, I really do need to come off of this machine and have a poo”. When the midwife came back into my room my mum explained that I was still saying that I needed to go to the toilet.
My midwife went to the foot of the bed and said “poo then”. I proceeded to push as if I was going to the toilet and my midwife told me to do it again – I did. She explained that something was coming, it was either baby or my waters. She asked if I wanted her to break my waters and terrified by all the horror stories of the pain of having your water broken for you – I said no.
Within seconds of this, my waters broke. I went into full on labour and baby was coming!
Delivery
I really do not remember much of my delivery. It felt like it was over in a matter of seconds. All-in-all it took 10 minutes from my water breaking to me having delivered my son.
What I do remember is my partner holding one leg, my mother holding another and that bloody burning sensation. I was told the next day that my midwife told me my baby was in distress and had I not delivered him that quickly, she would have had to get a doctor. I also delivered back-to-back so the delivery was little more difficult than normal and my back is still messed up from it! I am also gutted that I do not remember my other half crying.
All that aside, I delivered a beautiful, healthy baby boy with a head of blonde/ginger hair weighing in at 7lbs 5oz. His name is Oscar and he is now nearly 1 year old.
K xx
Hello,
Recently I picked my son up a couple of winter pieces as we are coming to the end of the summer (if you can even call it that) and I thought that it might be fun to show you what I picked up.
The first thing that I picked up his actually the reason that this haul is happening and that I did this damage to my bank balance. I had never gone up to the kids floor in my local Primark and just my coincidence I went up to it on my way to the floor I wanted in the lift and I saw this coat and I was obsessed! I had to go and pick it up. It is this beautiful little mustard parka coat with a faux fur hood (which is removable) and I think that this is such beautiful quality – I can not fault it.
The next thing I picked up was this little coat. Again it is the same style as the first just in this lovely khaki green. We couldn’t get the first coat in Oscar’s size as he is very small for his age so we bought the first to put away for a little bit and this one for now.
How bloody cute is this little denim jacket? I bought this mainly because Oscar’s Daddy has the same one and I wanted them to match which you may have seen on my Instagram. It is again, really lovely quality and this one have the little faux sheep kind of collar which is such a lovely detail I think.
The last thing I picked up was a simple but staple piece. This cute little knit jumper in mustard (can you tell that I love my son in mustard). It has these cute little buttons on the size and I think that this is a wonderful transitional piece for autum.
K xx
Dear Oscar,
I want to make this sort of a running tradition, for mummy to write you a little open letter each year for you to read when you are bigger. I thought that you may find it interesting to see what you were like, what our lives looked like at different stages of your life. So, here is your first one.
Last week, you turned one. Myself and your Daddy cannot believe just how fast this first year has gone. We also cannot believe how far you have come and how much you have changed in just one year. To show you just how crazy the change is here is a picture of you as newborn compared to you now –
It is like a whole different baby!
So, what exactly is one year old you like? You have finally gotten the hang of crawling and you are just constantly shooting about the flat. You are starting to try and walk but you are not quite confident enough to do it when Mummy or Daddy is not holding your hand. You are however, pulling yourself up on ALL the furniture.
You are have been saying some words for a while but at the moment you can say:
You don’t say ‘no’ yet but you did learn to shake your head for no a while ago so it’s lovely that you can finally say ‘yes’ to some things!
What are you like with food at one? BRILLIANT. I fully think that food is your favourite thing, you get so excited at meal/snack times and you scream when all the food is gone. We actually have not come across a food that you do not like yet. Which is amazing and I really hope that you stay this unfussy! You also no longer have any formula bottles – all food which is brilliant.
What about the topic every parent dreads, sleeping. What are you like in the nights? You have set us up to fail with any other children that we may have because you have been a Godsend. You were only really a once a night baby anyway but, you now go down from 7pm-7am which is a lifesaver. At the moment, you like to sleep with ‘Barca-Bear’ and your ‘cwtchy’ when you go to bed.
One of the funny things that I have noticed is that you are getting like how Mummy was when she was little. I couldn’t stand having anything on my hands and still get really stressed if I have dirty/sticky hands. I have noticed that you are starting to really hate having things on your hands too. We have fluffy grey rug in our living room which you love because you love everything fluffy but when little bits of fluff come off onto your hands – you will shout ‘Mum’ at me until I get it off.
YOU ARE A DADDY’S BOY. You are all for your Daddy. When he is around you will go to nobody else, including me. I love that you have such a lovely bond with your Daddy and hope that this continues.
All that is really left to say is that we love you so so much and we hope that you know/feel that. We are so proud of you and love watching you learn and develop every single day. We cannot wait to see the person you become over the next couple of years and to see where our little family goes from here.
Love you always,
Mummy xx
Hello,
So, this is a post that I have promised for bloody ages. I have been waiting for the room to get to a point that I was happy with before I showed it in a post. It has finally gotten to that point and I am so excited to give you a nursery tour! If you read my Home Wear haul: Nursery Edition – you will have seen some of these bits before!
So here is an overview of the whole room, as you can see I have gone for a white, grey and blue theme which I am obsessed with.
Here is his cot-bed which he has recently switched to from his crib (why is he getting so big?). I think that the actual cot-bed is from Mamas and Papas, this adorable Dumbo bedding is from Dunelm, the decorative cushion is by Sass and Belle but I got it from EBay, the blue and white blanket that Oscar sleeps with was hand knitted by my cousin and lastly, the little bear is a Barcelona bear that my mum got him while she was there and he adores it – he sleeps with it every night.
Next, we have this little draw from IKEA and if you are wondering they do actually come with different colour stickers for the handles or you can leave them white. I love the little bits and bobs on top. It is just a little collection of the gifts we received when he was born along with a couple of other nice things like – the Born in 2016 box which has all our keep-sakes in and the Mickey Mouse figure that we bought whilst in Disney when I didn’t even know that I was pregnant! We keep all this nappies, wet-wipes, towels and bath products inside the draw.
Here, we have Oscar’s toy basket which is from H&M and his rocking horse (which is vintage and bloody adorable).
On his radiator, just to make it look a bit prettier we have this blue and white bunting which I actually do not know where is from – sorry! As we live in a flat we cannot hang things on the walls so I just lent these little white frames against the walls and they read – You are our greatest adventure, Let me love you a little more before you are not little anymore and Dream Big Little One.
One of Oscar’s favourite areas! Here we just have his little bouncer/play gym and his little Planes toy – which he gets hours of fun out of.
Here is Oscar’s wardrobe – possibly the least organised area. These are of course from Ikea again. We just have his changing matts on the left and cushion for his bed that I need to get an inner for on the right. On the top, we have – a box with some bath products in, nappies which are now too small, a box with all the cards that we received when Oscar arrived and some little decorative bits.
On his window sill, we have all his books and just some letters that spell out his name.
Lastly, here is a little shot of my little man on his little H&M grey and white rug.
I hope that you enjoyed this and I think that it will be really lovely for me to look back on to see his first big boy room!
K xx
Dear Father of my Son,
Happy first Fathers Day. I will just worn you that this post is probably about to get really bloody soppy. Since Oscar is too little to thank you for the Daddy that you are, I will attempt to do it for him.
Being a young/single parent and experiencing loneliness.
It feels weirdly good that an opportunity has arose to write my first post surrounding loneliness in motherhood, thanks to the brilliant blogger that is Keighley. I am in the process of launching my own blog but I felt I had to get involved in this particular topic because it is something I experience often.
For those of you that do not know me or have not come across my twitter (@LifeMilk2016), my name is Jen and I have recently turned 28. I have an 8-year-old daughter, in year three and I guess I first ever experienced loneliness going back to when I was pregnant in 2008. I was 18 years old, and had fallen pregnant at a time when my life was all about going out, dating and having fun. I had always had a huge group of friends and was planning / hosting our teen days out which changed dramatically, once I decided to have a child. My peer group dropped me, I guess because i could no longer binge drink, party all night long and have girly holidays. Being so young, terrified of becoming a mother and feeling alone throughout my whole pregnancy – is something I will never forget!
