Welcome To The World.

As many of you may already know, last Sunday 12/01/14 @ 3:10am we welcomed our beautiful baby girl Jaime May into the world weighing 6lb 7oz. After having contractions for 2 days baby was here. A little earlier than planned but luckily I was very organised and even managed to wait until hubby finished work to call the hospital and seek some advice on if I should go in or stay home! 

     Welcome to the world Jaime May :))

Once hubby had returned home and an hour of timing the contractions I decided I  needed to be seen. However I also wanted to get a bath and do my hair which I did all before leaving to attend the hospital. 

No horrid details (honestly none here) after a natural, pain relief free birth baby Jaime May was officially here. I'm very proud of myself and how I actually managed to go through all the pain without help from meds. Hubby was with me all the way through, holding my hand and telling me how amazing I was and that I could do it. Once my waters broke 5-10 mins later I heard the first cry from Jaime. I've never felt such love as I did in that moment. Thankfully without issues me and baby were allowed home, I for one couldn't wait. I wanted my own bed, no noise, I wanted to start my recovery. Recovering with a new baby is hard. You want to do so much, but your body also has other plans, everything takes time! I relied heavily on hubby for housework, baby duties & basically everything else you can imagine. I felt as if I had run a 200 mile marathon, without any training & smoking 2000 fags per day, recovery wasn't going to be easy. Now I'm a get up and do kind of person. This didn't help me at all, in fact I could probably say I actually made myself worse by doing too much, even after hubby telling me I shouldn't. It was 1 step forward 5 steps back kind of a week. Highs and lows, mood swings and tears. I never know what mood from one minute to the next I'm going to be in...... I'm glad hubby has been understanding and has done his absolute best to insure everything has gone to plan. Anything he could do, he done and is still helping loads and loads.

What has helped me no end is the fact I can officially throw away the maternity clothes and I'm back into all my old clothes. I feel like I've been given a whole new wardrobe :) I am not living in leggings, long vest tops and oversized jumpers. This makes me happy! I seem to have sprung back (thankfully) to my original size and feeling great to be me again.

Endless visitors. We have had more visitors in 5 days here, than we have had in 10 years. Honestly! It's been nonstop! I'm not complaining tho. It's nice people are taking an interest, but some stayed till late, meaning princess was unsettled because everyone wants a cuddle and she does get annoyed with being passed around :( I would be the same! 

8 days old. We are still working out a routine and trying to be the best we can be as parents. Hubby has returned to work, leaving me and princess to get to know each other and to become the best of friends. She is amazing. I know every parent says that about their children, but she is such a content baby. She rarely cries and when she does it's only for the usual feed or nappy change. We have had a bit of a nightmare with sleeping arrangements. Baby does not like the Moses basket she won't settle in it at all. We have tried hard to make her want to settle in it but she just won't. We have finally given in. 

First outing. Now I for one can't stay cooped up in the house all day so today me and princess went out for a walk round the shops. My words, it was hard work!! Loaded baby into the car, strapped her in which was a nightmare in itself! I clearly don't have the family vehicle that is required. I have a sporty hatchback car, so climbing into the back to strap her in, is a pain in itself. The journey then the whole 1 mile to Brent cross began! Jesus I was paranoid, I was driving like miss daisy! People cutting me up, pulling out in front of me gahhhhhhh. Apart from the horrendous paranoia and silly drivers on the road we had finally made it. Massive complaint, no mother and baby spaces, which meant parking in a normal space & also meaning not loads of room to open the door of the car. GRRRRRRRRRRR anyways, Walking round with a buggy, without a handbag and a changing bag as my new must have accessory, I certainly had fun! Jaime slept the whole time. I think she likes her new wheels. She was comfy & was a little angel. After an hour I started to get tired! I seem to forget that I am still recovering and that I shouldn't push myself too much or I may well do myself an injury. I have to remind myself that I only had a baby 8 days ago...... 8 days is no time. No time at all.

Baby steps. This whole parenting thing to me is like having a baby for the first time ever. No one would think I already had a child, that I had indeed been through this before. Only having a child almost 13 years ago, qualifies to have forgotten most things about child raising. Princess changes everyday. She is becoming more alert by the second! I really don't want to miss a thing!! I find myself staring at her, overjoyed and proud! Every moment I have with her is precious! My iPhone memory will be full soon, luckily I have the camera to hand too! Snappy happy proud mummy :) 

              Mummy & Princess ❤️

All in all life is pretty great right now, I may be living on minimal sleep and finding certain things challenging, I can honestly say I am loving every moment of being a mummy again. My family is complete. Baby J doesn't realise how much happiness she has brought us as a family! She is truly loved to the moon and back by us all. 

Happy New Year.

So its official, The festivities are over and its time to return to normal day to day life. I am hoping you all had a great Christmas and New Year, as I did. Nothing new to report really apart from was lovely spending much needed time with the family and friends. Hubs actually had time off this year, which was nice, however by the new year he was starting to get under my feet. He is an active lad, who cant seem to sit still for longer than a few minutes at a time, so when you want to chill and have much needed DVD days, under the duvet he is the one that cancels that out.

As many of you are aware (if your not then my god where have you been?) I am in the last month of my pregnancy. Right now I have 22 days to go until the arrival of Baby J. I am starting to get more and more tired, suffering with back ache and tiredness 99.9% of the time, so I am hoping the next few weeks pass quickly. I have decided not to do pregnancy posts and bump photos, mainly because I am not feeling great and the prospect of posting photos makes me feel a bit BLEUGHHHHHHHHH.

In other news, My brothers GF had her baby girl (Harley) on the 2nd January by C-Section @ 4am weighing 6lb 9oz. Funny story really. We (my brother and I) have not been speaking due to an argument which flared up last year over a disagreement about priorities. I had an appointment at the hospital on new years day with the midwife (I know who the hell works new years day) just to check and run through some stuff. As I was walking into the hospital my brother was walking out, there was seriously no escape, I couldn't not speak to him. Hubs was with me who also said it would have been ruder than rude if I hadn't of stopped him, even just to find out the progress of labour and to see if baby had been born (which at that point she had not arrived).Once Harley had been born, my sister called me and asked me to go the hospital with her because she didn't fancy going on her own, I agreed. It means I have done my duty. I wonder if they will bother with me when it is my turn....... We shall see.

Starting a fresh.

NEW YEAR NEW START?

I never do new years resolutions, Its not in my nature to give myself goals as I am the kind of person who thinks ah sod it rules are to be broken. I did however say 2 days before Christmas that this year I would steer away from drama. Family, Work and anything else that causes me to overly worry about anything. Not as a new years resolution but because I have enough to be getting on with, without pointless nasty drama. I have a new baby to prepare for, my own little family to concentrate on, without added stress. I am very much insisting that my home, my comfort zone is in great need of becoming a stress free zone for us all. I know that once princess arrives then it will be majorly manic for a few weeks/months until a routine has been put into place, however once that has been sorted, it will work. Its a must!! Its funny that I read the same Facebook and Twitter updates every year, saying about diets, giving up smoking etc etc and to be honest I just roll my eyes and scroll on through. Now in my opinion giving things up in January is destined to fail. We all know that January is a long month. Most people have been paid early for Christmas and it feels like an absolute age till next payday. The weather is miserable which both together doesn't do much for uplifting goals and sticking to them. I have a few things that I want to aim to achieve this year, mainly things that I need or have wanted to do, but never got round to. I am not calling them resolutions because they are not. They are just simple things that I didn't do previously, but need doing.

My List:

Be More Organised

This weekend, me and Hubs spent 2 full days de-cluttering the house. I kid you not when I say we didn't stop all day for two days. The amount of rubbish alone was horrendous. I have lived here 10 years and believe me when I say, I don't think I have ever thrown anything away. I threw away 6 black bags of clothes, a bag of shoes and that's just my stuff, that I just didn't want or need. That's without the normal crap that fills the cupboards, the stuff people buy you for birthdays and Christmas that one would call 'Dust Gatherers' because they have no idea what else to buy you. I am determined though, that i shall keep on top of it from now. No clutter, No pointless dust gathering knickknacks.

 

Take More Photos

I love a photo me! I get snappy happy, I love looking back through them, my memories. I just don't take enough! I have to once princess is here to make sure that I capture as much of her and us as possible. I didn't do it enough with my little man and this is something i really regret. Luckily there are snaps of him, on major moments, Birth, first day of school, sports days. Yet none of them taken personally by me! I guess this was due to not having all the mod cons we have today. :(

 

Moving Home

This is the year we have to move. Its not an option, its a must. We just don't have enough space. We de-cluttered the weekend and we still have no room. I want a home in a location of my choice, with views of my choice and we need to do it soon.

 

Get A New Job

I have finally decided that the job I have now just is not for me. I kind of fell into it and to be honest I was too lazy to change from it. Again most of you are aware of the issues I have had with work. I'm now on holiday before I start my maternity leave on 15th January. Now the clause is I will have to return for a small amount of time, which I can and will do for maybe a few weeks, but to be honest whilst I am on maternity leave I shall be putting my CV out there and job hunting. If I have to pay my maternity pay back then so be it.  I have a brilliant support network around me which will allow me to return as soon as I want to. I will see how finances go and make a final decision once I know what is what. Being off work for the amount of time I have been (6 months so far) I am actually itching for a routine. Once baby is here then of course I will have my hands full but once baby is in a routine then if needs be then I can and will return. I am aiming to change my field of work completely. I want something less demanding, closer to home and one where I can progress. My current company don't offer that. To go places your face needs to fit. Mine does not :(

 

Enjoy Every Moment

I know I know it goes without saying, enjoying every moment of life, I shall tackle all the hard stuff head on instead of moaning about it. Planning lots of fun outings for us, I shall make sure that 2014 is a good fun memorable year for us all.

 



So its a massive Happy New Year to all from me, I wish you all wealth, health and happiness for 2014. If you have made resolutions, I hope you see them through and succeed :) 

 



I shall be toasting with champers once Baby J arrives :)