A Helping Hand With Asda

Being a new parent is literally like being thrown under a bus. Pregnancy is exciting, but then the show gets started and it's pretty darn daunting coming home with a little human that does not come with an instruction manual!

Any help is certainly a blessing from family and friends. Thank god we are lucky to have lots of family for support and to ask questions. You usually learn and find things out through your family and friends. However if you don’t have family around who do you turn to?

A few weeks ago I had the honour of meeting the oh so lovely Dr Hilary Jones and having lunch with him at The Ivy and a group of fellow mummy bloggers. Dr Hilary has teamed up with the folks from Asda to help us new parents.

The lovely team at Asda Little Angels and Myraid have put together four short videos full of helpful tips on subjects such baby weaning, nappy changing, bath time and nap rash with the help of Hilary.

I would like to thank Myriad and Asda's Little Angels for inviting me to a fantastic afternoon.

Angela x

* I was invited by Myriad, I was not paid to attend the event. All opinions are my own!

My Muji And Liz Earle Eye Combo

Do you ever buy something and then think to yourself "why the hell did I buy that??"

Totally. All the time.

A few years ago I picked up these eye patches from Muji. I LOVE Muji, I have bits and bobs from their store everywhere in my house. Acrylic drawers for my makeup, tall storage units with wheels in my bathroom and under the stairs and their little vanity unit containers in my bed side drawer. And to top it off I LOVE their gel pens too. I'm a sucker for a good old pen. What is awesome about Muji is the prices. You're buying top quality items for a really good price that won't make you shudder at the tills when you hand over your debit card. I urge you to check them out if you haven't done so already - they have a lot of stuff and some may float your boat.

Anyway, lets get back to the eye patches.

I thought they'd be kind of cool to use at home to keep me looking younger and youthful and at only £1.50 for 20 patches I weren't going to be breaking the bank. However roll on a few years, I never got round of using them and they sat in my beside drawer gathering dust. I was decluttering one day and thought it was time to say good bye. Then it hit me, a lightening bulb moment and I saw my Liz Earle Eye Bright Soothing Eye Lotion in the drawer. Ta-dah! I now had a use for my patches.

I take two patches and soak them in the solution and pop them under my eyes for 5 to 10 minutes. Hey presto refreshed under eyes here I come. Unlike conventional cotton wool pads, the patches are really thin and absorbent - they almost resemble a second layer of skin. You can lay back with these on and chill or you can do the washing up as they stay stuck to your under eyes. Whereas cotton wool patches would fall off if you stood up.

Don't I look glam? Fingers crossed these will give me my youthful looks back!

Angela x

One Year Today

Wow. It is one whole year today since I found I was carrying a small cluster of cells in my body that in 9 months time would become my beautiful baby girl.

That day will never leave my memory, because it was such a shock. We'd be trying since January 2015 to have a baby, I'd just turned 31 on the December 2014 and it felt like the right time to become a family of three (four if you include the cat). Months rolled by and I'd peed on countless ovulation and pregnancy tests and still no joy. Trying for a baby can be such a sad journey when you're not getting the result you desire oh so much.

On this day in 2016 I woke up like any other day but with added period cramps as I was due in a few days time. I always had a few tell tale cramps a few days leading up to Aunt Flo coming to town. What instantly ran through my head was 'Oh no well this month will be a no no again'. And a flood of disappointment ran through me like all the other months previously. I generally had this habit of doing a cheap dip stick pregnancy test on the days leading up to my due dates, so I could 100% rule out that I weren't pregnant. This month I did a test like always and just popped it on the window sill and walked away - so hygienic. I didn't even stick around to see the result as I weren't pregnant was I - It was ground hog day. About half hour later I went back to the test on the sill and saw a faint line.

I gasped. 'OH MY GOD' was what immediately ran threw my head 'it must be an evaporated line'. 'It cannot be real?' I then tried to squeeze out the smallest wee and I grabbed a super doper test (I had a whole collection in the bathroom drawer). I popped the First Response test into the tiniest amount of wee and before I even had the chance to throw the test wrapper in the bin two lines we appearing. It had happened. After all the waiting, I was carrying a life. My baby. I was going to be a Mum.

After that, I then rushed down stairs and grabbed my hubby and pulled him into the bathroom to show him the test. Once he realised what I was so emotional about (he thought the cat had died) he said 'Oh Baby' and hugged me so tight whilst I literally cried 'OH MY GOD... OH MY GOD' into his chest.

Roll on a year from that day we have a healthy beautiful baby girl who is 15 weeks old this Sunday and I feel blessed beyond anything in this world. I never thought the miracle of having a baby would ever happen. It's like that scene from Friends when Rachel finds out she is pregnant with Emma and Phoebe tricks her in to thinking she's not pregnant when she really is (clip HERE if you've never seen it). That morning I peed on a stick I thought it's going to be a negative and I was so upset inside. Another part of me had died again. Then my dream came true.

Back in 2014 I wrote a hand on your heart a post asking How Do You Know You're Ready? I always thought in my twenties that being a mum would change my life and I dreaded it and basically put it off. I thought my life would end and it scared the shit out of me. The wiser me now will say I was completely wrong and if I could I would go back in time and give my younger self a serious talking to I would. Yes my life has changed, but for completely ten million percent the better. I would NEVER change my life now, well only perhaps a smaller waist line! Lol. All those worries from my past seem so stupid and I regret not getting started with a family sooner. However they do say good things come to those who wait. We never gave up on our dream and I guess what I'm trying to say is you shouldn't either. No matter how long it takes.

Night night and god bless.

Angela x