Bank holiday and vintage fayre!

I love a bank holiday. I love having special family days out on bank holidays. Today was bank holiday Monday and me, Andrew, my mother, my friend Sam and of course baby Hallie all went to Cardiff bay.

We first had food in oriental garden which is a lovely Chinese buffet. I love it in there! I find that it's really child friendly and the food is always really nice at a great value for money. We only paid £7.99 and it was all you can eat, you can't go wrong for that great price! Oriental garden is inside the red dragon centre so whilst we were eating our food we noticed that the characters from monsters ink, mike and sullie were walking around the centre. After food we took Hallie to see them! She was fascinated it was so cute.

We then took a lovely walk over to the bay. The bay is such a pretty place to take a walk and Hallie loves being in her pram. We went past the millenium centre and noticed there was a vintage fayre going on. I couldn't miss the opportunity to pop in. They had lots of different stalls selling all vintage things like clothes, homeware and jewellery. The clothes were so lovely to look at! They also had people dancing to 70's music it was a lovely atmosphere. Hallie seemed to enjoy listening to the music, she always loves music, she definetely takes after me! I picked myself up a gorgeous pair of floral sunglasses in the vintage fayre for only £5 and also a lovely candle.

When we left the vintage fayre we walked by the harbour and noticed they were doing fast boat rides on a speed boat. Myself, Sam and my mother went on. It was so much fun! The boat went super fast and went over the waves really fast and tilted us to the side! It was so funny! Our hair went wild and we couldn't stop laughing! 

I really enjoyed my bank holiday! It was a perfect day out! How did you spend your bank holiday? :) thanks for reading! xx

Labour and delivery

Here is the story of Hallie's birth. Be warned this contains a lot of detail! 

My pregnancy with Hallie was not exactly the smoothest of pregnancies. I started having dizzy spells from around 20 weeks, at 32 weeks my rib cracked and from pretty much the moment I found out I was pregnant I developed severe exzema from all the hormone changes. All these factors led my consultant to decide I needed to be induced. At 38+4 on Friday 6th February I was taken into hospital for my induction, I was terrified and excited at the same time. I was given a 24 hour pessary first to see if this would get things moving. I think I had it in my mind that I would have this pessary and instantly be in active labour. I was extremely wrong. I felt no different with the pessary, I was gutted. The following day 24 hours later it was removed and I was examined to be told there was no progress. Next they tried a 6 hour pessary. With this pessary I walked the whole length of the hospital about 40 times over. At one point I distinctively remember star jumping, squatting and running, probably the most exercise I'd done in a long time. 6 hours later again I was examined and again there was no progress.

In the evening I started to cry to one of the nurses I had been in the hospital such a long time and had no idea the induction process would take so long. Girls were coming in and leaving with their babies and I felt like I was making no progress at all. The nurse agreed to arrange me a sweep with a dr called dr jazz who is known for starting people off. Another DR came to examine me before Dr jazz and she gave me a sweep. Honestly it was horrific, I cried my eyes out. I was linked up to the heart monitoring machine and after my sweep Hallie went into distress. I was kept on the machine for an hour and a half in total until 2 dr's came in and had a discussion with me. They told me they were going to take me to labour ward immediately to see if they could break my waters to start my labour off, if they were unsuccessful with breaking them I would have an immediate section because of the baby starting to become distressed. I was taken to labour ward where I was again linked to the heart monitor machine they were keeping a close eye on Hallie's heartbeat, It seemed to have settled down a lot and was now going at a normal pace again. I was given gas and air and the legendary dr jazz tried to see if she could break my waters. I was only half a CM dilated and they told me this normally isn't attempted until at least 3CM. The thing used to break my waters to me just looked like knitting needles. After what felt like hours she eventually broke my waters. It was the oddest feeling there was just so much water I couldn't believe it had all came from me. I was aloud to sort myself out and have a clean up and then I was linked straight to the hormone drip. They started me on a low dosage but within 2 hours my contractions were coming every minute, they had over stimulated the hormone drip. I was in agony! I coped with gas and air until the midwife said she felt the best thing would be an epidural. My epidural arrived within a few minutes. They had a problem inserting my epidural and I had a bleed on my back. They eventually inserted it. When testing my epidural they realised it had failed as I was still feeling the contractions and they were stronger than ever. They then took my epidural out and they tried again to insert it. Again I could feel everything so it was removed. They called this a failed epidural and apparently it's extremely common. I didn't even know they could fail! Going through the labour with just my gas and air was hard. My pulse and oxygen levels kept dropping and the midwife was constantly checking I was responsive. At one point an alarm sounded and lots of DR's rushed In. I just remember it like a blur they were all standing around me and checking me over. The midwife examined me at around 1pm and said I was 4cm. I was feeling all the pain above my left hip, they inserted a cathator to see if releasing my bladder would help, it didn't relieve any of the pain. When it came to 4 o'clock I was naturally pushing I was addiment I was ready, the midwife told me there wouldn't have been that much progress so quickly but I knew I had to push. I insisted on being examined and I was right, I was 10cm!! I was told to take in massive gasps of air, hold my breath and then push as hard as I could. All my pain was still being around my left hip area. Hallie started to become in distress again and there was now 2 midwifes in the room they told me I really needed to push as I was now at massive risk of having a section and her head wasn't even fully crowning yet but it could be seen. This was clearly the motivation I needed. On my next contraction I held my breath and I pushed as hard as I could with all my strength and then Hallie just came out in a big massive pool of water. The midwifes actually had to try and catch her because they didn't expect her to come the way she did without crowning! I knew she was in distress and that gave me the most motivation it could have to get my little girl safely into this world. She was Born on 9/2/15 at 4:28pm. The cord was wrapped around her neck so they did have to act quickly! My little girl was then passed to me and Andrew cut the cord. I instantly fell in love with her! She weighed 6lbs 1oz (which is small considering I was now exactly 39 weeks and was told to expect a big baby!) I was then back on the gas and air an hour later when they fitted my internal stitches.  

We were then taken back to the maternity ward and were aloud home the following day. When we arrived home I started getting horrendous headaches. They kept getting worse. A midwife visited the following day and by this point the headaches were so bad I couldn't lift my head off the pillow without screaming in agony. The midwife told me it was a side effect of my failed epidural and I may even need surgery called a spinal block, as there was a leakage on my brain caused by the failed epidural. I was taken straight back into hospital immediately that day where I was linked to a drip giving me the fluids I was loosing from the leakage on my brain. Dr's were also giving me lots of painkillers and heaps of caffeine which is known to help this pain. These headaches were so horrendous it was honestly worse than my labour pains. I was so annoyed that I had been pressured into having the epidural and I was now having all this agony and the epidural hadn't even worked! I had done my labour on just gas and air. After hours of having these fluids they allowed me to go home. It took a few days for these headaches to fully disappear. It was awful I felt like I couldn't really do a lot and I needed help doing everything when all I wanted to do is be the best mammy I could to Hallie. As soon as the headaches cleared I was so happy I could finally be pain free and enjoy doing everything I wanted with my little girl.

Hallie is now 15 weeks old and I love her more than I could ever imagine I could ever love anything! I didn't have the easiest labour Andrew, my mother and my nan were amazing, I couldn't have done it without them! But I would honestly do it all over again 10 times over because being a mammy is the best feeling in the world and I've never felt a happiness like it! I love my perfect little family! 

Thankyou for reading! Xx

Weaning

Hi everyone,

Today I thought I would do a post on weaning. Hallie is currently almost 15 weeks old and I have been preparing for our upcoming weaning stage. I have made the choice to start weaning her properly at around 4 months, I'm aware some people may think this is a little young and some will choose to wait till 6 months, but myself and my health visitor think she is ready. She's been having a few little tastes of some things I've been making up ready for the freezer and so far she is loving it. My blender is really good and it blends the food so smooth there is never any lumps and the consistency is perfect for her to be able to have a taste.

My plan is to continue making as much of Hallie's food up fresh as I can.

Some of the things I have made up to freeze so far are

*carrot and potato 

*peas

*brocolli and potato 

*banana

*carrot & swede

*carrot, swede & brocolli

Hallie has tried little tastes of all the food above, so far her all time favourite is banana. She loves banana. I think it's because of the sweet taste. My plan is to try to wean her and get her used to vegetables before getting her used to eating sweet tasting fruit, I want her to love eating vegetables too!

I have had a lot of recipe ideas from this annabel karmel quick & easy weaning book. It has lots of recipes and tells you the best foods for first tastes and then what to give them after first tastes etc. I'm finding this book very helpful and I'm looking at getting some more of her books.

 

I have also stocked up on things like porridge, banana porridge, rusks and baby rice. She's had a little taste of the porridge's and also tasted rusk mixed in with milk. She is a big fan of the banana flavour porridge so far! I have also bought a couple of the ready made sachet foods, I chose the Ella's kitchen sachets. I picked up peaches and baby rice and also mangoes and baby rice. I thought these are useful to keep in my changing bag incase I do ever need to use them. 

The products which I have bought for weaning vary. I have bought the tommee tippee food pots as you can see above (the pink pots) they were on offer for a pack of 4 in asda for £1 so I bought a few packs of them. I also picked up a couple of the mothercare own brand packs of food pots. I have bought the munchkin multicolour spoons from 4+ months, a pack of 7 was also £1 in asda which I thought was a great price so I had a few packs of those too and I have some of the mothercare own brand spoons which are also very good value for money.

I have been so excited to start this weaning process. Hallie is a very hungry baby and so far she is really enjoying the little tastes we have been giving her, so I'm looking forward to properly starting this exciting weaning process.

Thanks for reading xx 

Mini next haul

Hi everyone,

Today I done a little bit of shopping in Next. Next is my all time favourite place to shop for Hallie. The quality of the clothes is always amazing and they wash so nicely. In all honesty, there isn't a lot of clothes in Next that she doesn't own, I'm such a massive fan!

Today I just wanted to pick up a few pieces. I wanted to branch away from buying so much pink. As much as I love little girls in pink clothes, I think it's nice to add more colour for a change, here is what I picked up, you'll have to excuse the poor quality on the pictures I'm only using my Iphone camera taking these.

I love the print on this playsuit. It's different from most floral patterns you see with little girls clothes and the bright colours are perfect for summer, this was only £9. I'm pretty impressed with that price and I think she will get lots of wear out of this.

I bought these leggings with the same floral print on, these were a great price of only £4! You honestly can't go wrong with such a pretty pair of leggings for such a great price.

These trousers are different to anything I've seen for a baby. They're baggy by the bum, then fitted by the ankles. I actually have a similar pair to these myself and find them so comfortable to wear, they're like pyjamas when I'm wearing them.. So I couldn't resist picking Hallie up a pair, she will probably love how baggy they are, and will feel like she has lots of room to wiggle in them. These were £10.

This dress is my favourite of all the items, my nan bought this for her. I love giraffe's, they're one of my favourite animals. This dress is so cute I just couldn't resist. This was £15. 

This little shirt is so adorable. I'm loving the all the yellows so much at the moment, so perfect for summer. This was £12.

I picked up this pack of 3 socks because they go with all the outfits I picked up. They were only £5 which I think is a great price.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this mini haul.

50 things that make me happy

Hi everyone,

I've seen a few of these posts lately, so I thought I would do one myself.. Here are 50 things that make me happy along with some pictures :) ..

1) Hallie

2) Andrew

3) Family

4) Being a mammy

5) Seeing Hallie smile

6) My little sister saying "I love you"

7) Long walks

8) A relaxing bath

9) Being with my friends

10) Makeup/beauty 

11) Baby shopping 

12) Cuddles

13) My mothers pug puppy

14) Christmas

15) New bedding

16) Yankee candles

17) A 'lush' bath bomb

18) Meals out

19) The parent trap (my favourite film)

20) Miracle on 34th street

21) Going to baby groups

22) Speaking with other mammy's

23) Watching my favourite youtubers

24) Disneyland

25) Having a sparkley clean house

26) Singing in the car

27) Taking photos

28) Looking at old photos 

29) Matching underwear

30) New pyjamas

31) Home cooked meals

32) A full fridge

33) A cold can of coke

34) Making plans

35) Date nights

36) Strong cups of tea with lots of sugar

37) Family outings

38) Taking Hallie swimming

39) Unexpected surprises

40) Making memories

41) Scrapbooking

42) Blogging

43) Reading a good book

44) Reading mother & baby magazine

45) Listening to Hallie babbling

46) Play dates

47) Catch ups with old friends 

48) Frankie and bennies

49) Nights in with a takeaway

50) Getting dressed up

Thanks for reading xxx

Swimming and laughing

Hi everyone;

Im writing this post on the 03/05/2015 today has been a very exciting day for two reasons;

We took Hallie swimming for the first time and Hallie laughed for the first time.

I'll just tell you a bit about our day now.

We took Hallie swimming to a swimming pool just outside of our home town. We took her to one a bit further away because the one closest to us is too cold. The one we took her to is a surprisingly warm swimming pool which is great for babies and children. When we first got into the pool Hallie looked unsure on weather or not she liked it, she soon settled in and was splashing about in the water. We took her out for a feed half way through and when she went back in she loved it even more, she was in a lovely mood and really enjoyed being in the water. She liked swimming on her front and lying on her back and liked to splash her legs. She looked so cute in her swimming costume. A picture of her costume is below, the costume is from the disney shop and my mother bought it for her, it's just sooo adorable!

We will definetely be taking her swimming again and I'm looking at starting in a swimming baby group called aquatots. If I do start I'll do a review on the class and explain what activities we do.

After swimming we went for a meal then we came home. When we got home I set Hallie's play mat up to let her have a kick about. Whilst playing on her play mat she sneezed and she had the cutest little giggle afterwards. She sounded adorable. A few people was there to hear it, me, Andrew, his brother, his sister in law and niece, it was such a special moment. 

We had a lovely day. I'm planning on doing a post all about swimming soon, including hints and tips and a what's in my swimming bag. Thanks for reading xxxx 

VIP's and meetingTanya Burr!

Hi everyone,

My friend Leah won 2 tickets to go to the 'can't wait for summer' very.co.uk party. The party was a theme all about summer and it was full of celebrities. Along with winning the tickets she also won a meet and greet with Tanya Burr, eeeeeeekkkkkkk!!!! 

When we arrived we couldn't believe who was there altogether. Tanya Burr was of course there, stars from the only way is Essex, Danny from Mcfly, stars from made in Chelsea, Naomi smart, little mix and so many more. 

The bar was unlimited and we could choose whatever we liked, I started the evening the right way with a lovely relaxing mojito cocktail.

The party was based around a swimming pool in a hotel. They had put candles in the swimming pool and the whole venue looked stunning. I felt so special to be in a party for celebrities and it was such a nice experience.

At the meet and greet we got to sit right by Tanya. There was about 12 of us there and she took time to speak with each and every one of us. She was so genuinely lovely. The types of questions she was asked were what advise would she would give to any upcoming youtubers, her advise was to make every video unique and let your personality shine through so that your video is individual and stands out from the rest. She was asked if she preferred savoury or sweet, her answer was sweet. Another question was weather she would rather a slice of cake or a cupcake, she said she would rather a slice of cake and her favourite slice would be Victoria sponge. It was a lovely experience to meet her, she was so nice. I told Tanya it was the longest I had ever left Hallie for. Since I left her from 2 o'clock in the afternoon and wasn't home until 1:30 in the morning. It was hard leaving her. Tanya asked me some questions about Hallie and took her time to really get to know us. 

After the meet and greet we got to go back to the party and enjoy ourselves. We also got to pick a free goody bag. We could have chosen a camera, beats headphones, a men's gift bag containing 212 sexy men cologne, a toner and a beard trimmer, a women's gift bag containing, nails inc varnish's, Marc Jacobs daisy perfume, and St Tropez makeup. I chose the men's gift bag for Andrew and Leah chose the ladies gift bag. I couldn't believe we got to choose such a nice gift to take home with us!

I had such an amazing night. Thanks very.co.uk for giving us this opportunity!