Things which have changed lately….

1. My new friends in my phone come in pairs e.g Shelley and pippa
2. My bath is full of squeaky toys and a colorful no slip mat
3. Sleeping for 5 hours feels like a luxury
4. My daily points allowance jumped from 30 to 43!!!
5. Doing one major outing per day is plenty
6. It takes me about 15 minutes to get out the front door as long as I have started preparing to leave half an hour before that!
7. If my husband and I won a fancy stay at a hotel we would say thank you we have been looking forward to injecting some extra SLEEP in our lives
8. Life has never been at a slower pace for me
9. Life has never been more fun
10. I have never been so in love with one person, actually two people because one of them helped me make the other!

Operation health kick

So I decided weight watchers was too full on right now. Between the classes I do, walking with the pram and general life it is all a bit much. I still have the goal to be back in my jeans by Christmas though and need to work towards it. Gluten free and dairy free is really serving me well so I would like to continue this.

I read back through my last weightloss posts and what really seemed to help then was switching it up and including a small treat daily. I also planned a lot on here. I have been working on switching things up to work for my daily diet. The end goal is 80/20 with the80% healthy being week days and indulgences being the weekend.

Currently I am eating….

Am porridge made with quick oats, almond milk, sultanas and a spoon of peanut butter ( tweaks would be to remove sultanas as they are fructose heavy which I am not good with and replace peanut butter, as it is a legume and therefore a fodmap, with almond butter).

I am also able to have a coffee with lactose free milk again.

11am: I tend to need to eat at 11 so I have energy for my classes. I need to start making the old green smoothies for this snack. My favoured low FODMAP recipe is coconut water, banana and spinach. Perhaps I will start to throw in some chia or something or consider a protein powder again.

 2pm: Lunch. I would really like to organise some salads, veggies and dips or a soup at the weekend to make sure I get some goodness at this time.

6 or 7pm: dinner. Currently this is usually some kind of protein, carb and veg combo usually using the slow cooker.

Evening: a couple of squares of dark chocolate.

I know If I follow this I should never reach the point of extreme hunger which is when I reach for the sugary stuff. At the weekend I am going to try and include some home baked treats also.

Other tweaks to my day are I would like to include 20 mins on the cross trainer in the morning, body brushing and also a hot lemon first thing.

How do you tweak your diet for health?

Making time for mum….

I have to be honest here and as delightful as being a full time mumma is….. it can be exhausting. You wouldn’t have it any other way….. but sometimes you need to do a little thing for yourself. I have found that far from being selfish taking small amounts of time in the day to indulge myself has only helped me to be a more present and happy mum for the rest of the day. Here are some of the small treats I like to do for myself….

Have a coffee- I mean not just instant but taking the time to either make myself a fancy one or buying myself a fancy one which I drink whilst taking Milly out in the pushchair.

Have a bath- when she is asleep in the morning I generally do housework/jobs/baking etc but at least once a week I have a longer wallow in a bath. I have also started to pop on a facemask and get out a little earlier so I have time for a nice body oil or gradual tanner.

Statement necklaces- Often clothes are plain and/ or based around easy boob access. You often don’t fit a huge amount of your clothes. A cheery necklace makes me feel more together when I look in the mirror.

Doing my hair- I cut off all my hair into a bob not long after Milly was born and my post pregnancy hormones mean that my hair only needs a wash twice weekly ( 3 times max). After at least one of these washes I try and straighten my hair and wear it down in its intended style.

TV Show- Have a show you like to watch. Each day at 4pm Milly has a feed and starts to need to wind down. This often involves lots of mummy cuddles and a nap on me. No problem I get set up on the couch and watch an hour of UKTV or TOWIE.

In other news….

So you may be forgiven for thinking that I am all about baby lately… and oh my gosh you would be right. But I am still me and I still have other things going on so lets have a chat and if you have advice that would be awesome.

The Car- we may need a new car. The husbands ute is not big enough for all of us and it is so old it just keeps costing us. I have a new swift ( well it was new when I got it in 2011) and it has cost so little to run. We love it and there is space for me and him and the bubba and a pushchair but that is all. I think we need to trade in the ute and get another Suzuki the size up… This week the boredom that is car shopping begins and I am scared of using savings when we don’t know what is happening work wise for me next year.

The house- well our house is a well placed house for 2 people. Add the third in the mix and it is fine but you have to keep on top of clearing out. Anymore and it is pretty cramped. I have been looking for the dream family house ( requirements; 3 beds and a study or 4 bed or 3 bed and a granny flat, a full size block so there is garden, ideally an older house) and it is so hard to find. A lot of the sale for us is based on area which means we are looking for a fixer upper in a nicer area. We don’t mind living in a rough and tumble house which we could do up over the years of it being the family house. The trouble is we are unsure which hemisphere it should be in? if I will manage to work as I want to? if we would even be blessed with another baby? so many questions. What do you do in these situations? do you buy for what you think the future will hold or do you just focus on what suits for now ( i.e. this house is perfect)?

I am loving food. As in looking at recipes and finding what to make and buying ingredients. So very desperate housewives but I am really enjoying finding new meals. I drafted a post on things which helped in the first few weeks of a baby and one of them is Dinner Twist. Through this one delivery we have two new fave meals ( beef stroganoff and thai red fish curry in case you were interested). On this weeks menu is a dairy free, gluten free carbonara and some kind of healthy ish cake, possibly involving salted caramel sauce!

Have you heard about Pop basic? They release micro collections each month which you can buy. I bought one a few months ago which contained a white t-shirt, grey and white striped infinity scarf ( excellent to hide baby spew incidentally) and a beautiful grey leather clutch. I was delighted with both the value and the quality. The t-shirt has washed really nicely.

I have also signed to bellabox both the beauty box and the baby box to see whether I like them. I tend to dip in and out of subscription boxes as I don’t like having lots of excess around.

On the subject of shopping did you know tiffany do cocktail rings? Did you know as an aquarian my birthstone is amethyst? Make mine this one if you ever fancy treating me…

My house is due a clear out again. Of both my clothes, lots of which are pretty rough now, shoes and also baby stuff. There is also a few items which I need to sell on ebay! Jobs, jobs, jobs…..

 

and on that note I guess I should go get started!

 

My Labour story

Here is a most requested post… my labour story. When I was pregnant I loved reading other peoples stories as some made me feel better and others struck me with the fear of god. Before I start I should mention that my birth plan was literally…..

For the OB to do what he needed to to get my daughter out safe and keep me as well as possible.

It was that simple for me. We had no other plans.

When Milly was around 34 weeks in pregnancy my OB mentioned that we may need to talk about a Csection. She had been sizing in large at every scan, which for me was every 4 weeks in pregnancy until the end when it became every 2 weeks then weekly, and he was unsure if my hips could cope. The ideal situation would be an induction before she got to large but if this wasn’t possible I should be open to a C section. Ideally I wanted a vaginal birth and felt sure it would happen so I didn’t worry too much. At around 36 weeks Milly was not only large but also brow presenting which would have caused more pressure on my pelvis. Due to her being brow presenting she was unlikely to drop enough for an inducion to be sucessful and as such a Csection was scheduled for when I was 39 weeks pregnant.

In all honesty I was a little upset by this. I knew that to have a scheduled C section was my preference over a long, hard labour which had a high risk of ending in emergency C section but I had really wished for a vaginal birth. Because I felt so wobbly about it all I was sent to a second OB which allowed me to have the situation explained to me again as well as a second opinion, I also was scheduled for a final sizing scan a few days prior to the C section. All of this, we felt, would allow me to feel strong in my descision. Basically the thoughtless comments made by a few people, who really didnt know my situation, made me feel like people thought I hadnt tried hard enough and was opting out! This wasnt the case, I just wanted what was best for both my daughter and I.

On the friday we were all excited to meet our little bubba in a few days and I had got my head around having the CSection. We went for the scan and would you know it she had moved! She also sized in only a little above average. We went back to the OB in shock and he told me there was no medical requirement for a C Section and asked what I wanted to do. I think I would have been allowed it anyway as we were all set for that date and emotionally we were ready. I didnt want it.

In the end I went into hospital at 5pm on my due date. They were going to put gel on my cervix to ripen it for an induction the next day. Over the past week I had been walking and walking and each time i did a big walk i felt she dropped down further. Also, towards the end of pregnancy I had little stomach room and the two days before I went into hospital I had massive hunger ( and I mean massive!). The gel was applied and my mum and husband stayed with me until 8pm. I felt teary as they left but wanted them to get a good nights sleep at home as tomorrow was going to be a big day!.

In the night at 2am i was in quite a bit of pain. I had been having a lot of back cramps the past few weeks and they were getting quite strong and frequent at this point. I told the midwife and had a sleeping tablet and panadol and got another two hours sleep. By 4am I was quite sore and was wandering the coridors- If this is what the gel feels like imagine how painful labour will be – was the thought running through my mind. I texted my husband to say I couldnt sleep as I was sore and could they come as soon as they were up. By half five there were there ( my husband and mum) and I had told the nurse that the gel was making me sore so I wanted an epidural for the labour when it started please…. she did an internal examination and told me that I was infact 1cm dilated and already in labour! Brilliant.

My epidural was scheduled for 7am but a lot of other ladies jumped in first as they were screaming loudly and on second babies which tend to come quicker. I had a bath at this point with my husband putting cold face cloths on my head which felt amazing. I was silent and just focussing on breathing through the contractions which were really quite painful. I was also a bit sick at this point. At 7 ish the epidural was given and my OB came to check me, I was 5cm. In and hour and a half I had dilated 4 cm- no wonder it hurt. He also wanted to break my waters but it went on its own accord as he examined me.

For the next six hours I was just dilating, roughly 1cm per hour. I had infact been experiencing my contractions for a while before I went into hospital but hadnt recognised them as that as I was having what they call a back labour. This was because Milly, whilst being the right way up, was spine to spine with me or posterior. At 1pm the OB checked me again and told me she is not a c section baby now, I can get her out in 3 minutes if I need to now.

Because of her position the pushing was going to be hard so he decided I could have 20 minutes to try and get her out on my own. If I couldnt he would assist and turn her using a vacuum hat or ventouse. Apparently I could safely try for an hour but he felt we would know after 20 minutes if I could do it and he didnt want me to get exhausted as I would still have to do most of the work even with him assisting. As it was I needed help. I was topped up with the epidural as it was painfull and we did it. At 14.14, with the best coaching and encouragement from the staff and the assistance of my OB, Milly Rose was born.

Millys dad and my mum saw her head come out and dad cut her cord. Through the whole labour it had been really peacefull I had not made one noise I was just doing my breathing. She came out pretty relaxed too. She lay on my chest, did a massive poo on me, and then latched straight onto the breast.

I feel so positive about my labour. I felt it was really well managed and the series of descisions made ensured I had a safe labour. I know a lot of people are against epidurals but I really felt having one made all the difference. If I had not had those few hours to dilate in relative comfort and rest it is unlikely I could have got this baby out without some serious assistance. After the birth the doctor visited me daily in hospital and when he told me I had actually had quite a hard labour compared to lots of others I was so shocked, I had genuinely thought mine was a straightforward stress free one! I also really think all the exercise classes ( pilates and aqua) which I did with physios, and contained a lot of breathing and pelvic floor work, really helped as my breathing really got me through both the pain and the pushing.

Anyway I suppose the main lesson for me was dont listen to others. You and your OB need to determine what you believe is the best approach, at the time, with the information you have. Yes with hindsite you may have done something different but to be honest you will never be in that moment again so as long as you are comfortable with your OB’s advice then I dont think there should be any regrets as you did your best. Since giving birth I have had people make comments about the epidural etc to me and I stand my ground. I believe having the epidural  meant my daughter was born vaginally in a very calm manner all of which I prioritised over a drug free labour.

How was your labour? Did you have drugs? Do you have a birth plan?