I’ve been expecting it for a while… and have been surprised that it’s not happened sooner. Ironically… (oh how I love irony!!!) when I got on the scales this morning I was happy to see that I am back down to my first pregnancy weigh in weight. Naturally I did what everyone does when you know you’ve lost/gained weight (I’m more familiar with the gained 😂) and went to inspect myself in the mirror. Still a looooooooong way off where I want to be, but admitted to myself that actually, yes, my humongous mummy tummy did actually look a little smaller. So I got dressed and went about my day.

Fast forward to 2 hours later, I nipped in to Tesco Express to get some bottles of formula (Think the stress of last week has hit my milk supply!), I left Isla in the car as she was fast asleep. When I ran back out the store there were two young lads trying to raise money for charity. They smiled at me, I smiled back… and that’s when it happened. One of them, opened his mouth and said….

”Excuse me, can I ask when you’re due”

Fucks sake. So yeah, that pissed on my parade.

I guess he thought that would be a good conversation starter and that I’d make a donation. Turns out it wasn’t.

I guess at least I have actually had a baby. The fact that she’s nearly 4 months old probably makes it less ok though 🤦🏻‍♀️ Need to up my diet and exercise game pronto. Or just get pregnant again 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

We had some fantastic news at Isla’s 4week hospital check up for her hips – she’s doing so well that we’ve been allowed to start weaning her out of her splint early! We were originally told that she would have to wear them constantly for 6 weeks and then of things were going ok we could start taking them off for an hour a day, she’s had them on for 4weeks (well, 5 now!) and they’re so happy with the progress that we’ve started doing this already!

She loves her wriggle hour so much!!! And I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see her kicking those chunky little legs ♥️ And I can bath her again, and cuddles without the splint are just the best ♥️

Also means we have fortnightly appointments now at the hospital instead of every week! Next scan is in 3 weeks, hopefully at that one we’ll be told we can take her out for 4 hours a day! It shouldn’t be long before we’re able to go to nigh time only and then have them off completely!

I’m so proud of my little lady for how well she’s done with them!

Hey! Not sure if anyone is still checking in on this page, if you are – thanks! You’re awesome!! I’ve had a busy few weeks, and I’ll put lots of updates on here now – who knew binge blogging was a thing!

Soooo… what’s new in my little world? My dad had a heart attack last week! Completely out of the blue! We go over and stay with my mum and dad every Sunday, my mum cooks us dinner and in exchange they get lots of baby cuddles (and the occasional bottle of wine and beers 😉) Monday morning my dad had some cuddles with Isla while I got ready to take her to her hospital appointment, everything was normal. Monday afternoon I get a call from my mum to let me know that my dad is being blue lighted to hospital as he’s having a heart attack.
My dad is literally the last person in the world that I’d have expected that to have happened to. He’s in really good shape, eats well, walks 5mile a day with the dog, and is so laid back he’s horizontal. So it’s been a huge shock to all of us.
He was fitted with a stent straight away and has to go back to have another fitted in a few weeks. Thankfully he got to hospital in time for there to be minimum damage and he was back home with us on Wednesday evening.
The silver lining of it all I guess was that we got to spend lots of time together as a family last week. Me and Isla moved in and were on parent/grandparent sitting duties and my brother (who lives in London so we don’t get to see him much) also came up to stay.
I love this pic of my dad, brother, Isla and Poppy (the dog!) chilling on the sofa together ♥️♥️♥️

Happy World Breastfeeding week!
When I was pregnant I had no doubts that I wanted to breastfeed. I thought the biggest challenge would be sore nipples. Oh how wrong I was!!! Despite trying very, very hard, Isla just wouldn’t take to my breast. She got so upset she’d scream until she was exhausted and then go to sleep instead of feeding. I felt like a failure. Which wasn’t helped by the hospital teams coming round and making me keep trying, despite the fact that Isla was clearly getting distressed by the whole thing. It was a difficult decision to stop trying to breastfeed as such and move to solely expressing.
14 weeks later and we’re still going strong with the expressing. I’d lie if I said it hasn’t been incredibly difficult and challenging at times – the sore nipples, the leaking breasts, the occasional drop in milk supply, the constant need to express and the fact that you basically have to give up a part of your body. Breastfeeding may be the “natural” option, but it certainly isn’t the easiest and doesn’t feel like the option that comes naturally to some mamas and babies (Isla took to a bottle no problem, my nipples, not so much!)
So I have massive respect to anyone who has breastfed, whether you did it for one day or one year, whether it’s straight from the breast or you express, it’s amazing that our bodies have the ability to produce the food we need to nourish our most precious gifts. And to everyone who gave it a go and had to make the call that it’s not for you – kudos to you too, I know how hard that decision must have been, especially if you had your heart set on it! ♥️

This pic just sums up my day. This is how grumpy my daughter was when she was ASLEEP!! So you can imagine how joyful she’s been while she was awake!

She was an absolute ANGEL last night – went from 23:30 until 7:10… clearly she feels like she needs to compensate for that today.

She’s started dribbling loads and putting her fists in her mouth. I’m praying she’s not cutting teeth just yet… I don’t think I can cope with that, feel like I need to mentally prepare myself for it and trust me I’m not there yet!

When she’s not been exercising her lungs today she’s been eating or sleeping so not expecting much sleep tonight 😩

Luckily the extra sleep has helped me maintain my sanity today else the little mardy bum would have really stressed me out… bless her!

Figured out that I’m expressing nearly 8litres of milk a week!!! (Not as impressive as it looks – I’m exclusively expressing, my little madam is too greedy and lazy to eat from my boobs… wonder who she gets that from 😂🐽🤷🏻‍♀️)

Anywayyyyy… I read before that you use 20 calories to produce and pump 1oz of breast milk. So by this calculation I SHOULD be burning an extra 750ish calories A DAY… over 5000 extra calories a week!!
So I’m struggling to understand why I’m not a size 10. FML.

On top of the fact that my nipples and boobs seem to have tripled in size, they also hurt, a lot, need emptying ALL THE TIME, they leak all over my clothes and I miss them. Like no one tells you how much you’re gonna miss having your boobs to yourself when you breastfeed!

As I’ve said before, my body definitely isn’t the best – my boobs were my best feature 😂 and now they’re just milk machines 🤷🏻‍♀️ If I hadn’t spent soooo much mo eh on breast pumps I think I’d probably be quitting the expressing to be honest, I can’t see me doing it for much longer after we start weaning Isla.

Absolutely no point to this post, other than to confirm that I am now basically a cow in every sense of the word 🐮