Lifestyle: Project Home Renovation

We don’t like to do things by half, in less than a year we have got married, been on honeymoon, had a baby and are now renovating our entire home!

We love our home, it’s in a great location for family, friends, work and having children but it was in need of a bit of a re-vamp and we were limited on space. However, we had a giant garden and so we decided to extend out the back of the house, as well as completing our to-do list below.

Upstairs

Step 1, was to re-carpet and re-paint the entire upstairs of the house – Complete

Step 2, was to install custom fitted wardrobes in our bedroom – Complete

Step 3, finish Willow’s nursery.

Step 4, decorate the hallway and our bedroom e.g. small furnishings, pictures etc.

Step 5, (Long-term plan) Loft Conversion

Downstairs

Step 1, rear extension.

Step 2, re-decorate lounge.

Step 3, tile and decorate hall & porch.

Step 5, Garden.

Our rear extension is now well underway and it has been a long time coming! I never knew the complications of permits, council regulations, planning permission etc… it’s a total minefield. Also finding the right builder took ages too.

This is our garden before the work started, it was in much love of some TLC and was on 3 levels.

And this is some of our inspiration for the new space once it is built and knocked through to join our house…

Images taken from Pinterest

We want a big bright open-plan space; for a kitchen, dining table and living space (we need room for toys!).

Here are some pictures of the progress in the first few weeks, digging out the garden was a HUGE job and there was over 150 tonnes of clay to be dug out. So this week the actual building work has begun.

We are now starting to plan the interior and the main part which is our new kitchen! I think I’ll do a entirely separate post on this to show our inspiration.

I can’t wait to share further updates on our home renovations, real-time updates are over on my Snapchat – bea_atreides

Motherhood: Willow at 2 Months

Height/Weight: At her 8 Week check up at the GP, Willow weighed 10lb 13oz and is just below the 50th Centile, at her 6 week check up with the Health Visitor her length was 56cm which is also just in the 50th centile.

Routine: We still don’t have Willow in a strict routine, however, we have a rough guideline of the day. We are usually up by 8am to feed and then get dressed and play, followed by a long morning nap… throughout the day differs as I’m still exclusively breastfeeding on demand but it’s usually between 2-4hours, with naps also added in.  In the evening, we have a bath, winding down & cuddles plus a feed and then bed time… however, this isn’t always at the same time and she usually goes down for the night at the same time as us around 9:30pm/10pm. I try to always get out everyday, even if it’s just for a short walk.

Sleeping: Willow is a very good sleeper, in the last month we have been treated to a few 5-7 hour sleeps and even one all night sleep (just after she had her 8 week injections, so I’m not classing it as the first official ‘sleep through the night’).  We usually have her last feed at around 9pm – 10:30pm and then she’ll wake up in the early morning around 3am – 5am for a feed and then again at about 6:30am and we wake up properly for the day at 8am. It’s been a bit of a heat-wave in the UK hitting temps of about 30 degrees, this has meant that her daytime sleeps sometimes were a little disturbed by being too warm. She’s spent a lot of time kicking about in just her nappy. She still loves her Sleepyhead but also has no problem sleeping for hours whilst we are out and about!

Eating/Feeding: We are still exclusively breastfeeding and it’s going really well and I’ve got a lot more confident at feeding on the go when needed. Although I still prefer to express where possible for days out, such as when we visited Oxford for the day or for Wayne’s Mum’s 60th Birthday party – it is just so much easier. Willow has still been suffering from Oral Thrush and we have ended up needing to use the anti-biotic gel, this has helped clear it up really quickly which is a relief, she still has a little bit to go. I’m actually really proud of myself to have come this far exclusively breastfeeding and occasionally doing so (very discreetly and covered) in public when needed; it’s something I never though I would do. Willow also had been experiencing some discomfort that the doctors put down to constipation, but my gut instinct told me this wasn’t right. Thankfully, after some research, speaking to other Breast Feeding mum’s and seeing a second GP it was confirmed she experiencing mild colic.  Now that we know that is what it is, she has improved greatly; winding her and giving gripe water when she is really uncomfortable really helps!

Sizes: I’ve finally had to give in that she no longer fits in ‘First Size’ and most of her ‘Newborn’ clothing, which is very sad and it’s all been put away for storage. She’s now in mostly ‘Up to 1 Month’ and ‘0-3 Months’, with the occasional newborn vest and sleepsuit (although it’s been a bit too warm for these at the moment).

Milestones: Lot’s of smiles and almost laughs. Making lots of sounds and chatting to us. Her head and neck are getting much stronger and she can hold her head very well. Sleeping much longer through the night. Having her first set of injections, it was horrible, she cried whilst having them but was very brave! She’s also so much more aware of her toys, the TV and people talking to her. I’m just loving spending every moment with her and seeing her change before my eyes.

My Body: I’m gradually losing weight, but I’m not where I want to be yet and definitely need to tone up. I do occasionally feel like a slave to breastfeeding, but this is outweighed by how much I enjoy having that bond with her. I’m definitely feeling more confident back in my old clothes and jeans, than I was in the first month (even though they fit, I didn’t feel right). I’m still having the odd hormonal and emotional moments, but I’m sure these will settle down eventually!

Looking forward to Month 3!!!

Lifestyle: My Travel Bucketlist

 I’ve always been keen to see as much of the world as possible, it never worked out that I had a gap year or went ‘travelling’; but that hasn’t stopped me trying to see the world through my holidays.  Wayne and I have visited lots of places separately and also together: two trips to Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Dublin and then Dubai & The Seychelles for our Honeymoon. A lot of people tell you that once you have children, that’s it… no more holidays and travelling around the world! However, we both agreed that if and whenever we can, we wanted to continue going away and seeing new places… the difference being, our children will be coming with us!

I’ve seen so many of our friends, as well as, some of my favourite bloggers e.g. Amber from Barefoot Blonde  and The Michalaks still travelling with their babies and so this has inspired me to not be afraid. I can’t imagine a better childhood than seeing as much of the world as possible!!

Our travelling as a family of three starts this September, when Willow will be just 4 months old. I may be naive but I think that the earlier we start taking her away, the better! We’re heading to Spain, near Marbella for a week. Breaking ourselves in gently with an All Inclusive holiday and attending our friends wedding… I can’t wait for some sun, a pool and a tan!

I thought it might be a good idea to write a Bucket List of 10 Places I want to travel as a family…

Family Travel Bucket List

Florida – I’ve already been to Orlando and Sanibel Island when I was a teenager but I’d love to go now I have my own family. Who doesn’t want to take their little ones to Disney (and The Cheesecake Factory)?!

Dubai – Wayne and I loved visiting on our Honeymoon, we stayed at The Atlantis Hotel (Mermaid Heaven!) and visited two of the giant Malls, we felt even then that it was a good place to go as a family.

Greek Islands – I LOVE Greece, it is my favourite European destination! I adore the food, the culture and it’s just so beautiful. I’ve previously visited Athens, Santorini, Crete, Pavos, Naxos and Rhodes. I’d love to see more of the islands such as Mykonos or Zakinthos and also re-visit Crete now that I’m older.

Malta – after seeing instagram pictures of The Blue Lagoon (Comino Island) I decided I needed to visit Malta! It looks beautiful and I’ve heard the island has a really relaxed vibe.

Australia & New Zealand – I have lots of family in Australia that I’d love to visit and Wayne & I always discuss moving out there. It is so different, yet so similar to home and there is so much to experience there. I also would love to add New Zealand whilst we were over that side of the world, it looks beautiful and I could pretend I was in Lord of the Rings ha!

Ski Trip – now this might be cheating as it’s not an actual destination! I’ve never been skiing and most of my family have… it’s something I’d love my children to be able to experience but maybe when they were a little bit older!! I will totally be that girl ‘all the gear, no idea’ ha!

Amalfi Coast – my Grandad’s family is Italian (from Naples and Sicily) and I’ve always had a fondness for the country. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Lake Garda and Venice when I was younger, but I’d love to see a lot more of the country… starting with the Amalfi Coast.

New York – Wayne and I have both been to New York separately (during the Winter) but it’s always had a special place in my heart… There is nowhere like it, there’s always more to do and see and I’d love for my children to experience it; particularly at Christmas in the snow! Although, a summer trip and a stop at The Hamptons would be amazing.

Lapland – pretty self explanatory… we need to go and see Santa in his homeland.

Thailand – I’ve never been to Asia but Thailand has always been on my bucket list. The food, the culture, the beaches etc… it’s like nowhere that I’ve experienced.

I could go on with my list (Hawaii, Mexico, Cyprus etc), but this is my Top 10! We obviously want to take our children to The Seychelles too, as this is where Wayne’s father is from and it would be so lovely for our children to see their extended family on the island that he is from.

Other places that are on my dream list but maybe not as child friendly are Vegas, California and Fiji/Bora Bora. Not asking for much am I?!

I also want to make the most of living in the UK and seeing more of my own country and also of London… working there you forget to take it in!

 

Motherhood:Willow’s First Month

Phil Palmer Photography – @Phil.Palmer

Height/Weight: At 4 weeks she weighed 9lb, her height is being measured at her 6 week Health Visitor appointment but at her first appointment they put her in the 75th centile, we have a tall little lady on our hands, taking after her daddy!

Routine: We haven’t really got Willow in to a strict routine just yet, more just following her wants and needs, whilst fitting her into our normal lives.  I’m breastfeeding, so am feeding on demand but this tends to be every 2-4 hours. We do try to follow a routine of a bath and winding down at night-time with cuddles in a dim lit room with her nightlight, before we put her down in her crib for the night. However, bedtime isn’t always the same time but usually we go to bed around 9:30pm(ish) as Wayne gets up super early for work. However, she has been with us at a friends BBQ and we’ve also taken her out to dinner a couple of times. During the day I try to take her for a walk in the afternoon, to give her some fresh air and take in new surroundings.

Sleeping: Willow was definitely nocturnal for her first couple of weeks, we were a very tired Mummy & Daddy! She also loved to sleep snuggled on our chests and hated being in her bedside crib, in the end we invested in the Sleepyhead; it is expensive but has worked wonders at her being able to sleep on her own at night. This baby loves her sleep, at night we are now at the stage where she can go roughly 4 hours after her bed-time feed (so roughly 12am – 2am) and then she’ll fall back to sleep and then go another 2.5 – 3 hours before her early morning feed (3:30am – 6am) and then has a long nap in the morning, this is where I catch up on my sleep too. She then usually has random sleeps throughout the day and evening, depending on when she feeds. We’re pretty lucky though and she is a good sleeper and sleeps through anything, especially when we are out and about, she’s very content!

Eating/Feeding: We both took to breastfeeding really well and are still exclusively breastfeeding. It’s the weirdest (and quite painful) feeling at first, but I’m loving the experience of being able to breastfeed her. I’ve had my moments but it is very rewarding, the first two weeks were pretty intense and I did question it, establishing her feeding and being the only person that could do this for her was hard. Also, my milk coming in (SO painful!) and leaking lots (now invested in these pads which are amazing). I’m starting to get used to feeding her on the go, whilst I much prefer to express (I use the Tommee Tipee electric pump) but have needed to feed in public, I bought some giant muslin swaddles and I haven’t faced any negative experiences yet. My next step is to establish more of a routine expressing, so that Wayne can join in feeding her and I can take more bottles out and about with me. She has been suffering from Oral Thrush and we are on her second course of antibiotics, however, this doesn’t seem to have affected her feeding. Also, just to note we do use a dummy (We use the MAM ones) and have used a bottle occasionally (with expressed milk) and she hasn’t suffered any nipple confusion, which we were warned about.

Sizes: She’s definitely going to be tall, but is on the 50th centile for weight. For most of her first month, she has been in first size (up to 7lb  5oz, even though she was 7lb 15oz at birth!) and newborn. I’ve just started putting her into ‘Up to 1 month’ from her turning a month and gradually starting to put her in to 0-3 months but these are still very big on her!

Milestones: In her first month, Willow has had her first bath which she LOVED, I’ve been trying to get her into a swimming class but won’t be able to until September. We have also had her first smiles, which are probably my favourite thing in the world. This month has mainly been about settling into our lives together and enjoying all her newborn snuggles!

My Body: I recovered relatively quickly and easily from labour, I did feel like I had been hit by a car for a few days and my stitches stung a little at first. I took paracetamol for a few days and my bleeding stopped after about 2 weeks. I was back in my jeans after a couple of days, however, I definitely need to work on toning up my body and still have a bit of a mummy tummy at the moment! I haven’t weighed myself yet, I’m too scared too haha but I’m eating healthier and going on lots of walks for exercises. I was lucky not to get any stretch marks during pregnancy, but my boobs have grown a lot from breastfeeding and I’ve got a few on them from this.

Pregnancy: My Labour/Birth Story

Taken just after she was born.

It’s officially 6 weeks since I gave birth to our daughter Willow, I can’t believe how fast time has gone, whilst I also feel like she has been in our lives forever!

I’ll start my labour/birth story from the beginning…

For 2 weeks leading up to Willow’s birthdate, I had been suffering with ‘period cramp’ style pains and I had numerous ‘false alarms’. However, on the Monday evening (23rd May) the period pains felt slightly different and stronger in my back, but still not super painful. I put this to the back of my mind as I had kind of been put off by the false alarms I had experienced before and didn’t want to jinx myself; by this point I was convinced she was going to be late!

On the Tuesday morning I still had the same pains, but carried on about my day. I went to get my eyelashes and eyebrows tinted (priorities!) and then came home, bounced on my ball for a while and got on to do some chores. Whilst I was hanging out washing at around 2pm, I felt a sharp pain and then a small wet sensation, I quickly ran to the bathroom not sure if this was my waters breaking or perhaps my plug (gross!) and rang my mum who advised me to call the hospital.  The hospital asked me to come down to be checked to see if it was my waters.  After an hour of trying to get hold of Wayne at work (SO stressful!), he left and we ended up at the Birthing Unit at about 5:30pm.

On our way to the hospital I started to experience some contractions but they weren’t super painful and weren’t regular or close together.  The midwife checked me over and sadly told me it wasn’t my waters and nothing was happening, the pain was just little niggles, so to go home and see my midwife on Friday. I was gutted and so sad, I just burst into tears; I’d had so many false alarms and I was in quite a bit of pain… I was so fed up!

On the way home my pain and contractions increased very quickly, I was so scared and thinking if this was the pain when nothing was happening, what on earth does actual labour feel like?! Once we got home I could hardly walk to the house, Wayne ran me a bath and got me some paracetamol. I was instantly sick and in SO much pain, I asked Wayne to time my contractions and they were so close together, the app told us to go to hospital.  It hadn’t even been an hour since we left, so I was scared they would tell us to stay at home but they told us to come back.

I had my eyes closed the whole journey back the hospital, I was in agony. When we arrived I could hardly walk in from the car, stopping numerous times, even though it was about 2 seconds from the car to the door. By this time it was about 9:30pm, we were shown to our room and the midwife asked me to do a sample.  As I went to the bathroom my body started to push, I called out to Wayne who got the midwife, who then went to examine me. I was expecting her to tell me I was maybe like 1cm but she told me I was 8cm!!!!! I felt so relieved that I wasn’t such a big wimp and the pain was real not in my head, but shocked I had progressed so quickly.

I was given gas and air, but I couldn’t muster a deep enough breath to take it in, I had my eyes closed permanently it seemed to be the only way I could cope with the pain.  My waters still hadn’t broken so I had extreme pressure as well as pain.  At 10pm, I got into the pool where my waters broke and then after some pushing… at 10:34pm, Willow Mabel Rose Bedier was born.

I was in so much shock, it all happened so quickly but her being placed on my chest was the most amazing feeling in the world. She was born with a head full of dark hair, deep brown eyes and weighed 7lb15oz.

I have to say my birthing experience was amazing (despite the pain!) and the Birthing Unit I was in were fantastic and I’m so pleased I got to have the water birth that I had hoped for! I feel very lucky, especially as I know a lot of people who haven’t had smooth labour experiences, so I know I’m very fortunate.

Welcome to the world little one…