The Rainy Day

Good Evening, Everyone. This is a post about what I wore on Wednesday. I had to go on a little shopping trip, so I decided to take this lovely dress out for the first time since getting pregnant :)
I'm really liking the moss/khaki green this autumn :)

Dress - h&m (bought last year autumn)

Tights - Primark

Boots - River Island

Cardigan - h&m

Since I now always go out with Oscar I don't get to wear my bags anymore :D I don't have a diaper bag, but I do have my New Look slouchy black leather bag on the pushchair handle, so this is where I keep all my things. I don't even know what it feels like wearing a bag anymore :D

Hope you enjoyed the post :) I must start getting ready now, as O is asleep (FINALLY) and we are going to go watch Jon Richardson tonight. So it's kind of like date night, except we are only going to the show and then coming straight home (my friend is babysitting :)). There shall be no dinner before and no drinks after :D I guess that's what it's like having a baby though, you make sacrifices...it's still good to get out every now and then without O and play grown-ups :)

Stay tuned, everyone :)
xoxo

2 Month Update

I know I'm 5 days late with this post, but since my sister was here at his actual 2 month birthday I didn't want to waste any time on the blog because we only had 4 days :)

I say waste time...I don't mean it in a bad way, but it is quite time consuming.

Usually I try to write when Oscar is asleep so I won't miss out spending time with him because he is so alert these days I feel bad about leaving him to entertain himself...which he actually quite enjoys sometimes :D

This is the big boy on his 2 month birthday. We are celebrating with cake, and the only presents are the books I'll be buying every month :) I must admit I bought 4 this month rather than just one, but I just couldn't choose :D

Anyway I'll go through all of it in detail now. Hopefully I won't leave anything important out :)

SLEEP

I have been trying to give him a bedtime routine since month 1 and I really think he likes having this routine, knowing what comes next. For us it starts with him waking from his last nap at around 6, I then feed him and have a little play, he does get tired after and hour and a half or so, so I usually let him have a nice 30 minute nap around 7.30. The hard part is not to get carried away with having the grown-up time and actually waking him up after half an hour. 

That is the key for us, as if I let him sleep longer he won't go down in time and doesn't sleep as long when he does. 

After the nap I wake him up by changing his diaper and then it's bath time. We give him a bath every night now. I tried not giving him a bath yesterday just to make it a bit easier, but I just felt so bad, and ended up doing the bath anyway :D He just gets so excited once I start taking his day clothes off that I couldn't not give him a bath :D It's a nice thing though, because he still really enjoys them.

After the bath I give him a little massage and we have a little play and sing along on the changing table :D This is just to get him ready for food. Around 9PM I do his last feed of the day. I give the bottle at this feed, because I like to know how much he is getting.

He usually falls asleep while eating and then doesn't wake up until 2-3 AM :)

This is the longest stretch of sleep we get during the night, but it's not too bad, because once I change and feed him at night, he goes to sleep so quickly again (max 30 minutes) and then sleeps another 3 hours or so. 

I use to get up at 6 AM and then feed and change him in the living room, because it takes him longer to settle after having a good 8 hours of sleep during the night, but now I just stay in bed and get up around 8/9 AM instead :)

And during the day he does have a few naps, but they are not very long, apart from around 12pm when he goes down for as long as 2 hours :)

He always sleeps through our walks as well, so I try to do them at this time. 

Another thing sleep related is his bed. He still sleeps in the co-sleeper at night, and has his long nap in the stroller, but these small naps during the day he has on the couch (nice and safely, I hardly ever leave the room) on the pregnancy pillow, and I have noticed he is much more calmer when it's softer, so I have just been delivered a Clevemama foam baby pillow, so I will be testing it out tonight to see if he sleeps any better with that. 

He is just so wriggly I find him sideways in his bed about 7 times a night :D

FOOD

He still feeds every 3 hours. I still do combined feeding, so I breastfeed him and then top him up with formula/infant milk about 30 minutes later apart from the 9pm feed, when I solely use a bottle to monitor how much he is getting :)

We are still using Hipp Organic Combiotic First infant milk packets, but now are also using the powder version. 

I thought it will be really annoying to boil the water and then get it to the right temperature, but it's actually been quite easy. I boil the water and poor some in a another bottle for the next feed, and do that every time. The reason we decided for the formula powder is just the cost. The packets are not too expensive at 74p each for 200ml but the massive box of formula is only 8 pounds :)

The one thing I did expect to be happening with Oscar was reflux and lots of spitting up, but we have managed to get a baby who is pretty good at holding down his food :D

I'm not saying it has never happened and never will, but the amount is so small I hardly notice it when it does happen.

The amount of milk really varies I think, I think 2 month olds need to eat 150ml at every feed 5 times a day, but Oscar eats around 120ml each feed every 3 hours (7 times a day). I'm really not worried about that though, because it seems normal :) Eating 5 times a day would mean he feeds every 4-5 hours and that's just not going to happen, as he only lasts longer than 3 hours after the 9pm feed, when he goes down for 5-6 hours :)

I'm also quite looking forward to starting him on the solids. We will start around 4/5 month mark rather than the 6 month mark I hear from everywhere. It's just that we've read that starting earlier will help with his development and he is less likely to get allergies and be fussy about food :) I'm not saying everyone has to do the same...it's about finding what suits your family I guess.

DEVELOPMENT

At his 6 week doctors appointment, he weighed at a hefty 4.56kg and was 55cm long :) I would say that now he is nearer to 5 kilograms and is about 60 cm long :S I'm taking this from how his clothes fit him rather than actual measurements, so I can't be too sure. He is a big boy though :D :)

The main thing that is different from last month is that he is now able to hold up his head. He also pulls himself to sit if we hold his hands, and he loves sitting like that for ages. He just feels so happy and alert. Another thing I'm actually really happy about is that he is quite into listening everything we are saying, so I've been reading him some fun books every now and then. I realise that he can't understand any of it just yet, but hearing different words and colourful pictures help with his development, and it's something we can do while cuddling :) 

Another thing I have noticed is, that he is getting more and more hair, which I'm really happy about :D He did have really dry skin on his scalp for a long time, so the hair took time to come out, but it looks like he's going to have a full set of hair very very soon.

And I think this is it...at least it's all I can think of at the moment :)

Hope you enjoyed the post and if you have any questions why not leave a comment below, and I will be sure to answer as best as I can.

Stay tuned, Everyone 

xoxo

Outfit Of The Day

This is the first outfit of the day post about the fashion buys I did with my sister. I did only buy two things but one of them is a dress, which is a whole outfit on it's own.
The item I'm talking about in this post  is the burgundy red blouse with white cuffs and lapel.
And it is from Primark (I got it from the Primark section in Selfridges though, as I just can't go to the normal one in Birmingham with a baby). I do think it's all more civilised in there as well. Everything is nicely organised and pretty and clean.

I just think that for what it cost (10 pounds) it looks so much more expensive, not that I care if I look expensive :D And I love the dark red color for autumn :)

It was also the only sunny day we had, while my sister was here, but even though it was sunny it wasn't that warm, so I wore a coat and a scarf...damn you windy cold air...go back.

Camel color Coat - New Look (bought last year)

Green jeans - Zara

Leopard print Espadrilles - h&m 

Camel color Scarf - h&m

And these are my two monkeys :) Miss her already

Enjoy the time with your family, you guys :)
Appreciate every moment
and stay tuned for the bargain dress outfit of the day post :)
xoxo

Picture Problems

For some reason I can't upload the pictures for my posts. I will try again later :)
Sorry about that

Shopping With The Sister

Good Evening, Everyone :)

My sister came to visit us this week, which meant it was time for a serious shopping trip. I must say the weather has been incredibly horrible...it's rainy and it's cold and it's windy. Nevertheless we made our way to town for the second time today.
We've kind of tried to divide the days with different themes. Yesterday it was Beauty and today Fashion. So in order to not confuse myself and leave something important out I'll write this post about our amazing beauty buys and new finds and do an Outfit of the Day post about my fashion buys. I will also be telling you guys about where to find the bargains at the moment and which beauty stands are giving away the best gifts :)


To begin with, we went to Superdrug to have a look around the makeup counters and find some new beauty products.
I picked up these 4 Maybelline Color Tattoo eye shadow pots. I know they are not quite new products so to speak, but they are new to me. I have heard amazing things about these little pots and I must say hey haven't disappointed me yet.
They had two different types...I went for the 3 classic shimmery colors and one leather effect color.

The colors from left to right are... 65 - Pink Gold (this is my favorite), 55 Immortal Charcoal, 36 On and on Bronze and the leather effect Vintage Plum 97

I also picked up this So Eco brush from TK Max. It's meant to be a shading brush, but it's quite stiff so it's perfect for the color tattoo shadows since they have a creamy consistency. I have found that applying them with my fingers is the best way to go :)

And then I also picked up this lip gloss from the Maybelline counter. I absolutely love the packaging. It's called Color Elixir lip lacquer and I chose the nr 105 Petal Plush tone :)
Loving it and using it daily. I might actually go back and get it in every single color there is because it's just so pretty :D

The last thing I bought was this Bourjois Paris Mega Liner. I tried it on my hand one day and just had to go back and buy it. It's actually 3 pounds off in Superdrug at the moment so it was only about a fiver :) It's just so easy to apply and it stays on for days (over exaggerating here :D). I don't use eye liner daily but when I go out every now and then I do like a little cat eye and it's so easy to get it right with this felt tip liner :)
The only thing I don't like about it is that when I put it on the color tattoo eye shadow the creaminess of the shadow doesn't let it dry completely so it ends up at the top of my lids and gets a bit smudgy. But on a regular powder shadow it doesn't happen so it's all good :)

And these are my latest little buys. I must say I really like all of the products and just feel that lately the high street products are worth buying over the premium beauty products :)

Here are some of the offers I've found in the beauty department :)

In Superdrug they have a Buy 1 Get 2nd 50% off on most products, the only thing is that you have to stay inside the brand. So you might end up buying more than you needed :D
And they have 50% off most skincare ranges at the moment.

In Boots there is Buy 3 for the price of 2 on all skincare products and you can mix and match between brands which is very useful :)

At the Premium Beauty department I must say if you're going premium do it before Christmas, because most of the brands are offering amazing gifts with 2 or more buys :)
Estee Lauder is giving away a whole beauty bag (in Boots and Debenhams, I'm not quite sure if House of Fraser does that offer) if you buy 2 products, one of which is skincare. And they have gift sets designed for Christmas presents :)
Same goes for YSL and Clinique (gift bag with 2 products)
And Lancome and Benefit will give you a free Mascara if you buy any 2 of their products.

The other thing I love about Christmas are all the beauty packs and gifts. It's escpecially good if you're thinking of trying out something new and don't want to buy a full size product in case it doesn't suit you. Most beauty stores do the gift packages and they usually cost less than the counter price.

Who said it has to be a gift for someone else ;) treat yourself :)

Stay tuned for the Outfit of The Day posts that feature 2 items from....wait for it...Primark. So you know it's going to be affordable :)

xoxo

Healthy Happy Life

Good Morning, Everyone :)
It's time for the weekly healthy living update. I'm aware that I missed last weeks one, because it was my Birthday weekend and my friend was over from London. So this will be a two week update...I guess.
I must admit that I haven't been that healthy. It's not the food I eat when I do eat that's unhealthy though. The problem is the food I'm not eating. I haven't done it on purpose, but most of the days I kind of miss breakfast and lunch. I use to have porridge for breakfast on most days, and now it's a banana :S and sometimes a yogurt as well. I feel like I'm living on coffee. I still only have 1-2 normal coffees a day and then the rest of the 6 are decaffe :D But they do fill me up, especially when I have my coffee with milk and hazelnut syrup (damn you Starbucks )
On a good note though I've skipped so many calories I'm pretty much down to my pre-pregnancy weight now. And even If I will start eating more at lunch and mornings I don't think I will gain any weight because I'm breastfeeding more now. Which is why I really need to stop the coffees and start the healthy meals.
D has told me to prepare some lunches for the week, so It would be easy for me to just grab and eat them when I get a spare minute, but it's just the matter of doing it rather than just thinking about doing it :D
SO the update from the past 2 weeks is, that I've done good at the weight loss front, but not so good at the health department.
Another thing is that I'm back on the pill. My idea was to get the implant again and then take the pill as well to regulate the bleeding, but since I'm breastfeeding I can't do that just yet. I haven't taken pills with this hormone before though, so I'm not sure how they will affect me. I guess time will tell...hopefully I won't get bad skin and intolerable hunger :D

Here is what I look like at 7 weeks postpartum :)

(pictures coming as soon as possible...I promise :))

I have been doing a few exercises with Oscar..I use him as weight :D he likes it :D And they have really helped to get my stomach back into normal tensity, there is still a long way to go, but every little helps and I'm sure it will only get better as the days pass by :)

September Favourites 2014

Good morning, everyone :)

This post is about my September favourites. Beauty, fashion and food.

FOOD
I will start with food. Because it will be the smallest part of this post. Last month our favourite food was sea bass. D has started eating more fish, and sea bass is so easy and quick(we need quick meals because we have this little demanding man to take care of :D) to cook. Just pan fry it for a couple of minutes on each side (I like to fry the skin side more to get it crispy) and add a knob of pesto butter...voila...done...and delicious :) It is quite pricey though so we usually have it once a week. Also if we would have it more often we would get sick of it...probably :D

FASHION

My favourite fashion buy was this bag. It's from New Look but looks so much more expensive in my opinion (I paid £19.99 for it). I am loving the dark blue colours these days and the beads just add a little bit of something extra to it. I do still need a good shoulder bag, and I've been drooling over a Alexander Wang slouch bag :( But I must be sensible, so I'll be on the lookout for a high street substitute.

Another favourite fashion item is this kimono style flowery short sleeve jacket thingy :D I hope the weather will turn warm again like the weather man said (they are expecting an indian summer in England this October) and I will be able to wear it without having to put a jacket on it. 

I have also been wearing my River Island boots pretty much daily (picture here )

JEWELLERY

These earrings were actually gifts for my birthday. 

The bow diamante ones I got from my friends. I had mentioned to one of them that I have been on the lookout for a good bow earrings since I lost one from my previous pair and she'd remembered :) These are Ted Baker and I will definitely be wearing them a lot.

This second pair I will not be wearing a lot because I'll be too scared to lose them. These were a gift from D :) The green stone is actually Oscars birthstone, which makes them even more special. I think they are just so beautiful and classy, but I do have a history of losing earrings :D So I'll wear them on special occasions...guess it's useful they are insured :D 

It seems to be all about jewellery for September. I haven't done it on purpose though. But this ring set is my favourite ever since I bought it. I've mostly been using the gold ring with the turqoise stone, because it just matches everything I wear :D 

BEAUTY

I already mentioned the L'oreal Micellar water in my Recent Beauty Buys post, but I just have to mention it again on here. It really is the best product I've come across recently. And it's so inexpensive.

Another favourite is actually something I stole ( I actually said I liked it so she gave it to me :D) from my friend Jo :D And it's this Bourjour Paris lip gloss. I really like that it's only a gloss with a bit of colour. 

I have been wearing my purple lipstick all summer now, so I think it's time for a change. I also bought a coral lipstick just for those days when I need a little more pop.

These 3 nail varnish colours. I am loving the pastels at the moment. They are by MUA and were only 1 pound each :)

And these were my September Favourites for 2014 :)

What have been your favourites ??? Leave a comment below :)

xoxo

Baby Update

I have been meaning to write this post for ages. It's just that being a mother kind of takes up a lot of my time. But I do want to share a few things now rather than with Oscars 2 month update post :)

This post will be about the things we have gotten him. Or shall I say gotten for ourselves that make life with him easier :)

There is this drying rack :) It looks like grass, and it's so useful to dry those bottles and teats. And there is a lot of them during the day. The one thing I like about it is that it just looks super cool :D It's by Baby Bloom and I got it from Amazon for under 20 pounds (I don't remember exactly how much it was)

Second thing is this Tommee Tippee travel bottle warmer. I use to work in a restaurant and the most annoying thing was when people would ask for hot water to warm up their babies food/milk. Not because it's a lot of effort...it's not, but there was never anything the right size to put the water in. So you're busy taking orders and taking out food, making drinks and now you have to go find a container for someones baby food...it was just a lot of hassle. SO I decided I am not going to be one of those people who will annoy the staff.
The bottle warmer is really just a plastic container and a thermos. So you out the hot water in the thermos before you leave the house and the plastic container is used to poor out the water and hold the milk bottle. It's just super easy. To be honest we haven't really been warming up the formula/infant milk anyway and have been giving him room temperature milk.
This is mostly when I have breast milk in the fridge and I don't have time to warm it to room temperature at home before I leave :)

Biona Organic Coconut oil. We have a big jar anyway for cooking, but bought a small one just for Oscar. I use it to moisturise his skin and it's great for those bedtime massages :) it's oily and makes it easier, but then it goes into his skin really fast :)

We have been using the Tommee Tippee bottles and they are still great, but D bought 2 of these MAM self sterilising bottles as well. And I really like them. I don't think O finds anything different, but it's just the cleaning process I like more. No need to find space in the sterilising box...they are just easier to handle. I really like the look of them as well. Another thing with these is that they should reduce colic because of the vent holes at the bottom.

I finally got the baby gym last week as well. I got it from Mothercare and it's Disney's Little Einstein sea life themed one. I do keep a fleece blanket under the mat as well though, because it doesn't seem that thick and soft especially because we have hardwood floors and no carpets what so ever in the whole flat. O seems to enjoy it. He is a big fan of the mirror :D Like mother like son I guess...

And lastly this is actually for me, but I guess you can say it benefits O as well. It's the Lansinoh HPA lanolin cream. I have been using it since week one and stopped using it for when I was only pumping, but now I am trying to stop using the nipple guards, which means I have to do the whole sore nipple thing all over again. I think it's much easier to deal with it this time around though, because I know what to expect. Anyway...this cream takes the pain away and I think actually heals the nipple much faster. I swap breasts, so each breast has 6 hours or so between feedings so in all reality it's not too bad :) I'm definitely not dreading feeding him now like I did in the first week.

And as probably most new first time mums, I have bought him a lot of new clothes :D I won't take pictures of all of them, because there is quite a lot of them, but we are still using the new baby size which is meant for babies up to 10.5lbs or 4.5 kg.

Hope you enjoyed this post :)
Stay tuned
xo

I have actually written a few posts, they are just waiting for the pictures. One of them is my Healthy Happy Life update, which I was meant to upload on Saturday....I'm sorry for the delay :(

Daily Outfit

This is an outfit I was thinking of wearing on my Birthday night out. I ended up changing the shorts for a pale pink dress though and the shoes for light blue high heel sandals. I don't have a full outfit photo at the moment from that night, but once I do get it from my friend I will upload it to probably instagram, so follow me there.

Wearing:

Shoes - Zara

Shorts - h&m

Belt - New Look

Lace Top - Forever21

Blazer - h&m

It's very strange to actually have a waist now :D and being able to wear waist belts. I do still have a bit of a belly though, so I will be holding back on wearing the curve hugging dresses :) For now...

Hope you enjoyed the post.
Stay tuned
xo

No Time

This is not going to be an excuse post if that's what you thought looking at the title. It's just going to be a post about the weekend and a little update of what has been happening :)

First things first. It was my birthday on Friday, but it didn't really feel like a birthday, because we were going out on Saturday. On Friday though we went for dinner with D and birdie to a local italian restaurant then came home and watched some tv. I went to bed at 10 :D I did get some beautiful flowers though from D and from my friends so that was nice :)

On Saturday I got up really early to go meet my friend, who was coming down from London :) I took birdie with me as well, but he was so well behaved I hardly noticed he was there :D
We had a glass of champagne and then did a bit of shopping. (I'll do another post on the things I got :))

And in the evening we headed out for a few drinks.
It felt really weird leaving O at home (D's sister and her boyfriend were babysitting for us). Again he was really well behaved though, fell asleep 10 minutes after we left and actually didn't get up again until 2am (we got home at around 12). It was probably because he was so tired from the day. We did have a few people coming round to ours as well before we left, so O was passed down from person to person for a good hour...he really likes people though, so it's all good :) I did get a cake as well :) D's brother keeps calling me Merilin, so if you think they have made a spelling mistake, then no, its his idea of a joke :D

The place were we were meant to start out(Marco Pierre White)was packed when we got there, and they were actually not even letting people in, so we went to the good old Pennyblacks downstairs and had a really good time. I managed to have my margarita as well :) Then went to another bar, where I only had a coke and headed back home.
We didn't want to leave Oscar for too long the first time. It's good to know that we can though, and it was pretty nice to get out and be a grown up :)

My friend from London didn't leave until Sunday evening, which we spent in town doing a bit more shopping. We also met up with a few more friends for dinner. After dinner y friend Jo got her train and D went to the gym  while me and my other 3 friends ventured to Carluccios for a coffee and dessert (I just had coffee). I got home about 8pm and me and O were completely and utterly tired from the whole weekend. I think he just needed some quiet mommy time, which is probably why he fed for a whole hour and a half. Then again he slept pretty much through the night only waking up once for a quick feed around 4-5am.

And now it feels like he is not sleeping at all. He has been so fussy for 2 days I think he is actually missing the action. Hopefully he will be better tomorrow, so I can finish another post and upload it :)
In the meantime, why not read my older posts :)

Have a good evening, everyone and stay tuned
xo