Wednesday, 7 February 2018
2018 Here We Are! A 2017 Round Up
I know this post is exceptionally late, but I'm like a bus - they never run on time and usually two come at once! The year of 2017 is over and dusted. A year of joy and sadness. End of eras and a start of new chapters. I was kind of sad to say good bye to it, as it was a big year. Lets round up 2017 with a few points.
If you didn't know, 2017 was the year I lost my job. February 9th - d-day! 11 years of hard work, tears, laughed and friendships... it all came to an end due to the fact my colleagues and I were too expensive. They wanted cheaper labour abroad. I could of kept my job if I was willing to relocate (to Spain) but due to the next reason and many of reasons I decided to shove their offer where the sun certainly did not shine. If you have ever been through redundancy, you will know it's not very nice and our redundancy process went on for nine months. Nine months of shit, nine months of training our replacements, nine months of fighting for what we were entitled to. Nine months of hell and stress to be honest which we could of done without!
July 28th 2017 I officially hung up my work hat and put my feet up for a month. August was blissful - I bonded with my Mum so much as we basically became joined at the hip. It was so nice to have real nice mother daughter time. We had little day trips, we were ladies who lunched, we went conker collecting and dog walking. I will cherish those memories and times with my Mum. She's one in a million.
Then on September 17th, I got a new job. I became a Mummy. After a some what speedy labour... which I'm yet to write about I gave birth to a daughter. My little precious. When earlier in the year I found out I was losing my job, I was a mere 10 weeks pregnant. I was an emotionally wreck and due to that I ended up telling a close colleague about my pregnancy before any of our families. We hadn't even had a scan to find out if our little was was doing OK. By the end of February we had it confirmed everything was fine.
Telling my family lifted a major weight off my shoulders. I was so drained physically and emotionally and to finally say "we're having a baby" let go of some pressure. The look on my Mum's face will forever be etched in my memory. Shock and surprise. She was surprised we'd managed to keep such a big secret for 13 whole weeks. One time when I was driving her to afternoon tea with friends I got completely lost (totally unlike me as I know my way around anywhere...) she jokingly said you're acting like you're pregnant. Lol! If only you'd know the truth... I was! It felt horrible to tell a white lie and say "nah it's STILL NOT HAPPENED" while in fact I was growing a little peanut in my belly.
Roll on September and out popped Grace. Ha popped! After then the rest of the year pretty much became a blur. The newborn phase takes it out of you. You're recovering mentally and physically from your body taking a battering, but I would never change it for the world and I'd do it over and over again and again if I could. There is nothing quite like watching your baby grow and develop. I'm so grateful to have a healthy baby girl to call my own. Every time I see that beautiful little bundle, I thanks the gods that I was finally blessed with a child I could call my own.
I'm currently just penning together a post for my goals for 2018 and any plans I have for the next 11 months. I say 11, as January is now a memory.
What was the best and worst things to happen to you in 2017? Also I forgot to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Angela x
Thursday, 4 January 2018
Spritzing Your Bits

Everyone likes to remind you how awful both pregnancy and birth can sometimes be. I'd like to firmly say both of mine were pretty darn good... a dream in fact. I got my healthy little girl - finally. My pregnancy seemed to be blissful apart from a few little niggles here and there which is expected. As for the birth, well that wasn't hell like everyone seems to refer to. I'll no doubt write a post about it all in the near future if the little human allows.
Anyway, what most people don't talk about is after birth and how you can feel... down there. I knew you could feel pretty tender down there after child birth, but I didn't quite realise just how sore. John Wayne walking at about 2 miles per hours comes to mind with the added sounds affects of oooh ahhh ooohhh. With my little love I had to have an mediolateral episiotomy cut to get a bit of access due to my bubba needing a vacuum to get her out. The healing process was a painful as you can imagine, I mean in a small paper cut hurts like hell let alone a cut down there.
Fast forward to being kicked out of hospital and feeling like my lady garden has had a run in with Edward Scissor hands and the recovery process. If I could of spent the entire time flat on my back with my legs apart in the air then I would of, but when a small human relies on you every waking moment of the day well you can't. I admit I did have it slightly easy as I had help from Mum (....god bless her - an angel without wings).
What I absolutely loved doing and I mean ABSOLUTELY in capitals bold underlined is spraying My Expert Midwife's Spritz For Bits on my bits directly. The only way to describe its affect is like aloe vera on a sun burn. A beautiful soothing effect which was very much needed indeed. Doing this whilst also spraying my maternity pads every time I changed them was just the best. Made from all natural products like lavender oil, witch hazel and tea tree oil I found it helped with the general soreness of my lady garden.
This isn't the first time I have used My Expert Midwife, I already wrote a post HERE talking about the Peri Prep . I loved that too but as the bigger you get the harder it is to reach down there to massage yourself if you catch my drift.
Caring for your bits is essential after birth and I will say now if we are blessed with baby number two then this beauty will certainly be on my shopping list!
What helped you recover from child birth? Any recommendations?
Angela x
Sunday, 31 December 2017
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.
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!
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CHATTING WITH ANGELA
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