Luna's 4 Week Update!

So it't that time of the week again which is Luna's update! This week Ben went back to work so I've been thrown in at the deep end with both little squishes and I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been hard! 
This week Luna has started becoming even more restless in the night and doesn't seem to be settling at night. She's really having trouble bring up her wind and the moment and is getting so so uncomfortable bless her! So we're gonna try her on some Infacol or some Coleif to see if that helps her a bit. She seems okay with during the day and worse with it at night, I think because the rocker we put her in during the day has a little bit of an angle to it and obviously the moses basket is flat.

We've also had a trip to the GP this week as she's had a bit of a gunky eye for a while, they seem to think that she has a bit of a blocked tear duct so we've been given some eye drops to try and unblock it they've also sent off a swab to make sure that its not anything nasty that requires anything like antibiotics but we haven't heard back so I'm assuming no news is good news! 
Routine-wise we've just upped her bottles to 5oz and she didn't seem to be settling and was still getting hungry after downing the 4oz, also now that her oral thrush has cleared up I've also managed to get her to latch back on to breast surprisingly! I'd noticed a couple of days ago that my boobs had begun leaking again for some unknown reason so I thought that I'd try my luck and she latched back on straight away! I've decided to give myself so much pressure this time so I've decided to offer her breast and then top her up with a bottle depending on how well and how long she feeds from me for but the last couple of days she's been feeding from me for around 10 - 20 minutes and then taking about 3 - 4 oz from the bottle, we're also exclusively feeding from bottle during the night as that's when she's the fussiest and gets hungry and worked up the most at the moment! So I figured that would save her any more distress when she's trying to latch on when she's really hungry! 

I hope you've enjoyed my 5 week update for my Luna bug and I'll be back next week when she'll be five weeks! 

Me and Mine | May 2018

This month saw us literally rocket through Luna's first month and when I say rocket I really do mean it! 

Our full photo this month is the morning we took our first family holiday its not the best but its filled with so much love and excitement. Ben and I are exhausted because isn't everyone when you have a newborn and a toddler and Oliver isn't even looking at the camera but instead looking at his sister with so much love but I don't care that it doesn't look perfect it captures our family how it is tired but filled with love. 
We also had our first family holiday as a family of 4 this month and it wasn't as awful and stressful as I thought it would be. We jollied off to Butlins Minehead this month for a just for tots break and whilst Luna had absolutely no clue what was happening, Oliver had an absolute whale of a time, he had his first proper experience of sand and thought that it would be hilarious to sit in the wet sand at the bottom of the beach. He repeatedly rode the same rides and had a few tantrums because he had to get off and let other children have a go but other than that it was wonderful to see him so so happy and just loving life. 

This month also saw Ben leave us and go back to work after having 5 weeks. He started his time off a 3 and ended it as 4 and it has been a massive adjustment not just for me and getting into that routine with both babies, but also for him not being with us 24/7 and being away from us for several hours a day and Oliver has had to adjust to daddy not being here all the time. 

I hope you've enjoyed my first month taking part in the me and mine project and I'm looking forward to taking part every month from now on! 

Postpartum Update

So I'm writing this a 4 weeks postpartum and well I feel pretty good if I'm honest! Ben has gone back to work now so that was quite a big adjustment and I have gotten upset a couple of times but I don't think that there's really anything underlying to it, I think my emotions were just a bit all over the place because it was the first time I'd been properly on my own in 5 weeks and the first time I'd had both children by myself so I was a little bit overwhelmed! I have struggled I'll admit that as I'm trying to find that routine that's mine with both of them and it feels like Oliver has just acted up for the sake of it but he's started calming down a bit now as Ben has just entered his second week back at work. 
Physically I feel really good the bleeding has all stopped now so now I'm just waiting for the appearance of mother nature (yay)  and I'm dreading it because anyone reading this will know how awful your first proper period after giving birth is! 

I'm also still trying to work on loving what my body looks like after 2 beautiful children but it's hard there's so much that I want to change and that I'm working on changing! Admittedly I've eaten nothing but junk since Ben has gone back to work as it's been grab it as and when I can just to say I've eaten something and it has been a bag of crisps or a handful of biscuits with a cup of tea not exactly the best diet! but I am working on changing that! I've got bit that are wobbly and I'm riddled with stretchmarks and my body has been filled with that much junk my skin is literally swearing at me right now! I'm also still on iron tablets as my levels are still low but hopefully when I go for my blood test next week they are happy for me to come off them! 
I've also been having a little think about contraception as after everything as much as I love my 2 beautiful squishes I'd love to not have anymore right now haha! I know that I don't want anything heavily hormone based so I'm think maybe the copper coil as it stays there until you want it or need it out and it doesn't release any hormones! So I shall see what my GP says when I go for my 6 -8 week check!

Hello everyone I'm back again for Luna's 3 week update! Time really does seem to be flying by I'm writing this on Sunday night feeling a little bit anxious if I'm honest as Ben goes back to work tomorrow and even though I've done it before I'm getting myself a bit worked up about being left on my own with both babies. Anyway I think that's one more for my postpartum update so on to Luna! 

Lucky little lady has had her first holiday this week! Granted that it was only a 5 day break to Butlins at Minehead but it was just so lovely to get away for a few days and relax by the sea. She's been slightly unsettled this week I'm not sure if its the fact we were in a new place or whether she's going through a growth spurt we're not too sure but hopefully she starts settling a bit better again soon! 
We're not sure how much she weighs this week as we don't see the health visitor again for another couple of weeks but she definitely feels like she's filling out and she no longer fits in newborn and some first size clothes so I take that as a sign she's putting on weight nicely! 
Again this week she's starting to get more aware of her surroundings and she's even trying to lift her head up slightly so we've started on giving her a bit of tummy time. We've also started introducing some toys in as well mainly noisy ones that she's beginning to respond too! I also think she's starting to crack the odd smile here or there but I know deep down its probably wind as they say as she is a rather windy madame when she wants to be especially from the bottom end which is quite funny when she passes wind I think she startles herself and pulls some quite funny faces bless her!

Routine-wise we're trying to work out a routine that works best between her and Oliver, we've just started bathing them together which at the moment is working out quite well. She has her last bottle of the night around 10pm and then doesn't wake up till around 2 am roughly then she'll sleep again till about 5 - 6 am. She's currently on 4oz bottles every 3 - 4 hours roughly. We had her first proper unsettled night this week too I'm hoping that this was just a one off and she settles back down. 
I think that's it for this week really so I shall see you all in my next update about little Luna! 

Hello everyone I thought that in this post I would do a how to entertain a toddler on a long car journey. We've just come back from Butlins in Minehead which is a two hour car journey for us which for Oliver who is two and half can be quite long and boring so we've obviously had to keep him entertained for the whole time and try to avoid any kind of meltdown. I'm hoping this will be helpful to any other parents with children of similar age when travelling on long car journeys! Let crack on then shall we! 

1. Snacks and Drinks! 

Snacks and Drinks are a must for any car journey especially with a 2 year old. You know how cranky then can get if they go too long with out food or drink and you don't really want to end up stopping off at the service stations and spending extortionate amounts of money on food and drink so I made sure to pack some of Oliver's favourites in his bag for this trip I packed some of the Bear YoYo fruity wind up snacks and some of the Fruit Bowl Strawberry Fruity Bars, 2 of Oliver's firm favourites! I also made sure to fill up a couple of Oliver's drinks bottles with his favourite juice for the journey. 

2. BBC Kids iPlayer App

I recently downloading this to my iPhone after it was recommended by a few people on one of the mum's advice and support groups I'm part of, which is fab as Cbeebies has so many shows that Oliver loves to watch like Bing, Octonauts, RaRa the noisy Lion and Hey Duggee (I on purpose avoided the stick episode mind you! hehe) 

3.Toys
I also made sure to pop a couple of Oliver's favourite toys in the bag that I had in the back of the car, I think we ended up packing Hoppity Voosh and Bing as he really loves those too. He in the end fell asleep for a good hour of our journey cuddling those two. 

4. Regular Stops 
We also made sure to stop at least once on the journey so he could get out stretch his legs and have little run around the service station, we also used this opportunity to change nappies and Luna also had a bottle. 

I hope you've enjoyed my quickfire tips on how to survive a log car journey with a toddler and I hope that those of you who are about to brave your own long journey with children have found this helpful! 

Well I can't beleive that I'm writing Luna's 2 week update already! She's defintely coming on in leaps and bounds and it's amazing to think how much she's growing. I'll start with her weight she's almost back to her birth weight now so formula is defintely doing it's job pefectly for her and she hasn't been sick as much as when she was on the normal apatamil milk. She now weighs 8lbs 8oz which is amazing and its much nicer and less stressful knowing that I've got total control of how much she's drinking unlike the breastfeeding where she was just on my breast and losing weight instead of gaining. We met her health visitor for the first time this week who seems lovely, she came along for her first home visit and did her weight, length and head circumference - she's 54cm long and her head circumferance is 37.7 cm. 

Her cord also fell of around day 12 so little lady was able to have her first bath finally as top and tailing wasn't quite doing the job and she had some awfully dry skin which seems to now of improved now she can be bathed properly. I've inserted a picture below from her first bath and she only looks so unhappy because she actually fell asleep during and slept through the whole thing and then got stroppy because we took her out to dry and dress her.

She's also becoming so much more aware everyday and opening her eyes more and more and she's also starting to interact with me, daddy and her brother more by grabbing hold of things like our hands and hair. 

I hope you enjoyed Luna's 2 week update and we shall see you again in a few days time for her 3 week update! 

Well I'm braving the update about me! I'm not going to lie I'm feeling a little bit wobbly about the whole thing (no pun intended!) and I'm already getting worked up. I debated whether or not to share an update about myself because I knew I'd end up getting upset but then I thought why not my body has done something amazing for the 2nd time. I've got a way to go in loving myself and how my body has changed in the last almost 3 years.

Mentally
Mentally I feel in a really good place, I feel really happy and I'm embracing the changes from one little to two, which in all honestly I haven't found that difficult or challenging but I'm sure there will be moments where things aren't going to be so easy. I have had a bit of cry over stopping breastfeeding as I felt like a bit of a failure but then I realised that as long as Luna is fed and gaining weight it doesn't matter how she is fed.

Physically 
Physically I stopped bleeding around Day 8 which was wonderful I think the hormone drip they gave me after delivery helped with how long I bled for to be honest. I'm currently on a course of iron tablets as I'd lost a litre of blood and I'm due to go back to the doctors again in a couple of weeks to have my full blood count taken again to see where my levels are at but the doctors think I'll need the tablets for around three months to get my levels back to a normal level. The couple of stitches that I had for the tiny tear a pretty much healed now although I couldn't really tell that they were there and I couldn't tell I'd tore to be honest. Something I had forgotten was how awful the after birth sweats are and in the weather, they've not been to bad but I have had the odd one for no reason and gosh doesn't it make you feel gross. All my swelling has all gone now too and I'd gained the most awful puffy fingers, ankles and feet.

Body Image
Body image is the massive one for me at the moment, I know that my body has done something incredible again but its so hard to like what you see in the mirror and embrace how you look when other people are so quick to judge you and comment on how well you've snapped back, although I have definitely lost some kind of weight as some of my clothes fit better than they did before I fell pregnant with Luna I still feel that pressure to snap back. My boobs feel like I've got two massive uncomfortable bowling balls strapped to my chest as I'm no longer breastfeeding or expressing so I'm still leaking a little bit and I'm just waiting for my supply to dry up.

I don't really feel comfortable with sharing a picture just yet mainly because my hair is a big grease ball that needs washing and I'm writing this in my Pj's with my hair piled on top of my head, maybe I'll share one next week if I feel a bit more comfortable and I still don't look pregnant haha!

Thank you so much for reading and I'll be back in my 3 week postpartum update! 

I'm Back

So I've been away for a little while you may remember I left off with a pregnancy update. Well after a complicated last few weeks where I've neglected my blog completely we've finally welcomed our beautiful little girl Luna Jane Brooks into the world at 11.23 am on the 26th of April weighing in at 8lbs 8oz. I'm just so relieved that she's finally here after so much happened in the last few weeks of my pregnancy with many hospital stays, steroid injections, high blood pressure, Group B Strep infection, bleeding and testing positive for pre term labour she's finally here safely. 

Anyway I am back and I have a load of new content ready to post and that I'm working on and I'm hoping to get my mojo back a bit .