No matter how much you love pregnancy, there will always be some things about life before pregnancy that you really, really miss. Things that you simply can’t wait for once you are no longer pregnant. It goes without saying that the thing I am most excited for after pregnancy is meeting my baby boy, holding him in my arms and embarking on a new journey together. But there are also some other things that I can’t wait for, things that I have sorely missed throughout pregnancy.

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I’ve written many, many posts now on the subject of making our rented house, our home. Everyone who rents will know the struggle of not wanting to spend too much money on a property that isn’t yours but also desperately wanting to put your stamp on it. We’re lucky in that we are able to decorate our house however we wish, but that does also make it harder to resist the temptation of splashing the cash to make it ‘ours’. The best way I have found to not waste money on decorating a rental property is to keep the walls simple and neutral and to create the personality with accessories. It’s all in the details. (more…)

Dear Little Bump,

Today I  found out that you exist. I already knew you were in there, I recognised the signs way before a pregnancy test could pick you up, but seeing those two little lines still made my heart burst and my hand shake. It was different to the day I found out I was pregnant with your sister because she was my first and so there was so much fear of the unknown mixed in with the joy of finding out. With you there is just joy, elation, and pure excitement. I also found out a lot sooner with you, I think you can only be around 3 weeks old and so I can barely imagine you in there yet, apparently you are the size of a sesame seed. (more…)

Ahh, changing bags. When I became a mum I morphed into this new person who looks at prams the same way some people look at cars. I also became so nosy as to which changing bag people have and I’m always wondering ‘what they hell do they have in that massive bag anyway?’. When Dan and I were first shopping for baby bits while I was pregnant with our daughter I was adamant on the sort of bag I wanted. I’d done my research, by which I mean I had had a good look at what all the mums my age seemed to be carrying, and I had decided that I had to have a massive tote style bag to hang from my buggy that would tell all the world that I was a ‘yummy mummy’. Oh wow, I cringe at that now. But at the time I was convinced that I wouldn’t be happy unless we splashed out close to a hundred pounds for one of these bags. You probably know the ones I mean, sorry if you have one. Dan was less convinced and thought we should go for a more practical style like a rucksack, and something a bit less ‘yummy mummy’ so that he could carry it and keep his pride intact. We argued and argued and in the end we compromised and bought a cheaper, less girly tote bag. Within a month of having Darcie, I went out and bought a rucksack. (more…)

Dear Darcie,

As you may have realised by now, there are going to be some big changes in the next month or so. We’ve been talking to you about ‘Baby Ernie’ for a while now, and telling you all about how there will be a new baby soon. We’ve told you about how amazing it will be and how you will have a friend for life. This will be the most amazing change for our family, but still, it will be a change. I’m really not too worried about how you will adapt to life with a baby brother. You have adapted to every change so far in your life and flourished with every new phase you have entered. You’ve actually been loving helping us to prepare for your brother even if you didn’t realise that’s what we were doing. You’ve been putting your teddies in his cot ‘for the baby’, pretending to paint the walls of the nursery and even ‘helping’ me pick out his tiny clothes. (more…)

At nearly 36 weeks pregnant, my nesting urges have totally taken over. All I want to do is clean, tidy and generally just make sure that my house is ready for a brand new baby boy to arrive in around a month’s time. Call me middle aged but I’m a sucker for new cleaning products and gadgets to make household chores easier. So you can only imagine my excitement when I received the Miele Blizzard CX1 Parquet Bagless Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner to review. I’d been struggling with our ancient vacuum cleaner for so long and I hadn’t realised quite how badly I needed an upgrade until I tried the Miele Blizzard CX1 out. I suddenly realised how heavy our old one vacuum was and quite how basic the settings were compared to this new machine. As a mum of a toddler I spend a lot of time dragging the vacuum around and so I’m not exaggerating when I say that the Miele Blizzard CX1 has totally changed my everyday life for the better. (more…)