Hello! It's been such a long time since I've blogged, I really wanted to do more since Freya arrived but then came the year of the pandemic and lockdowns, she turned from a baby into a toddler right before my very eyes and suddenly needed chasing after, lots of cuddles, milk, storytimes, a million park trips and the never ending cycle of cooking and scrubbing of the high chair along with trying to fit bits of work in where I can so it's pretty much been about survival rather than having much time to think about blogging. {Plus Instagram pretty much is a blog these days right where I'm sure you see enough of us?!} But now I'm pregnant again! Eeeek! And it's winter, and she's pretty good at taking a long lunchtime nap now and I'm not *so* exhausted anymore where I feel too sick or need to just close my eyes for the five minutes I get at the end of running around getting everything done so it's been nice to log back into this space. I'm typing this from my bed, it's a cold grey January day just after Lockdown 3 has been announced. I wanted to document this time, for me and the future baby to look back upon {I've set a precedent with Freya's pregnancy story that I don't want to start that classic second child not as many milestones documented off already ha} and because that first trimester is so so lonely - especially this year with lockdown after lockdown. You're full of crazy symptoms but probably haven't told many people yet, you're googling everything, trying to tick the weeks off and wondering what's normal and I'm always so happy when I get messages - still 2 years on - from mama's saying how helpful the pregnancy blogs were first time around. So this will probably be a little samey to Freya's pregnancy story but I wanted to document it all nonetheless and share this special journey so far... 

*just to note - please don't take any of this as anything other than my personal experience, I'm certainly no medical expert and every pregnancy is so individual and different so please don't worry if you have a very different experience. Just sharing my personal perspective xx 

I'm so pleased to finally be publishing my birth story, this is probably one the blog posts that has taken me the longest to write - partly because of the sheer lack of time when having a newborn, and also wanting to go through it all with Ben over the past few weeks, some of the details were really blurry to me. I wanted to write this all down for my own sake as well as sharing for those who are interested in reading it. It really was the most incredible experience I have ever gone through, and looking back at it now, I wouldn't change a single thing. In fact, I felt a real sadness {and still do in a way} when each Saturday goes past, that it's been another week since it all happened. I'm a week further away and fear that the memories of it will all start to fade. I'm sure I'll stop thinking soon 'this time five weeks ago, it was all kicking off' but I hope I never forget it and the way it all felt. Although it is SO true what they say, that old cliche that the very minute it was over and I had a baby on my chest, despite saying just an hour before that I'd never do this again, I'd forgotten the pain and just felt elated and wanted to do it alll again tomorrow.

I devoured as many birth stories as I could when I was pregnant - each one so special and unique. It's incredible how different every single one is, which is why they're all so interesting to read I think. I looked especially for the positive birth stories, hoping that mine - as every woman would - would be straightforward too and to avoid any fear of what could happen {although weirldy, I think you can take comfort in reading those which are scary and know that both the mama and baby were fine in the end}. And likewise for homebirths {I've written all about wanting and planning for a homebirth in this blog post}, I couldn't get enough of reading about those although couldn't find that many, especially for a first baby. So anyway, in my true indecisive, include everything fashion, here's our story {split into two parts as it's pretty long}. The story that brought baby Freya into the world and changed our lives forever <3.

Freya was born at home, and whenever I tell anybody this their instant reaction to ask if it was planned or not - you hear of more babies than you'd expect who are born super fast and unexpectantly at home {or in the car!}. But yes, it was planned - and I feel so, so grateful and lucky that it did all work out in that way, but I purposefully didn't tell many people that we were planning a homebirth - for so many reasons. I've had a tonne of messages of Instagram all about our homebirth, and so before I start writing my birth story, I thought I'd start from the beginning. Just note that I'm a little {probably a lot} sleep deprived right now, so this might not be the most coherent post but I'll just scribble it all down for those who are interested.
And as with all things pregnancy/birth/parenting related, every person's experience is completely different so please don't let this turn into a debate or start criticising others for their choices. It goes without saying that this is just my own personal experience and blog, I'm not an expert nor medically trained, just sharing because people have been interested. 

Now that the baby could arrive at any time, I thought it would be fun to list a few things that I'll really miss about pregnancy after the past nine months, along with some things I'm looking forward to again once it's over. Pregnancy for me has been such an incredible, special time that I've felt so lucky to really enjoy and really hope that I'll experience again in the future. Would love to hear what you'd add to these lists...

On my list of things to organise before the baby arrives was some batch cooking. Filling the freezer with nutritious meals to get out, and throw together with some quick microwave brown rice and fresh salad/veg when we’re sleep deprived and hopefully be grateful that we made the effort now whilst we still had lots of time on our hands. I still have no idea really how we’ll feel with a new baby, I don’t think anything can really prepare you? And all babies are so different. So we might have gone overboard and not end up using some of this until autumn if we’re feeling up to cooking or if friends/family take care of us with some meals too. But I can kind of imagine me being stuck under a feeding baby and starving and this making Ben’s life a bit easier. And even if you don’t have a baby coming, it’s so great to get ahead once in a while and batch cook and have all these healthy goodies in the freezer for when you're short on time.

All of these recipes are suitable for freezing {aside from the granola}, just label them with the date you've made them and keep a note of what you’ve made to remind yourself. I’ve also included some snacks/energy bar kind of things as I’ve heard that if you’re breastfeeding you’re starving hungry and just can’t eat enough. So I don’t want to be reaching for rubbish, instead I can just turn to the freezer! {we’ve got a big chest freezer to store these in}.

- update, I typed out so many recipes then realised a couple are copy-righted as they only appear in the books! So have had to remove, so sorry. But most are here or linked, or details of the book they're in.

I was going to put together this post in a couple of months but then had a couple of messages from different followers who are also pregnant, like us trying to navigate this new world of baby shopping and working out what exactly you do need from what the marketers are telling us that we need, who said 'Help! I've bought nothing yet, what have you bought so far?'. So I've put it together a little earlier, sharing our list of everything so far that we’ve bought for the new baby’s arrival and what we still plan to buy. Most of these recommendations coming from friends who had babies last summer who have given us so much invaluable advice from their experiences. {this post contains some items which have been gifted which I've marked against each item, but I’ve done lots of research on everything myself. This is not a sponsored post but I hope might be helpful if you’re looking, also contains affiliate links}.

When you're pregnant, there's suddenly so much to start thinking about and this whole new world of parenting/baby shopping that you didn't really know existed, and where to even begin {or at least that's how we felt}. Everyone kept asking us if we'd started to look at buggies yet, but we didn't want to look at anything until I got to the 12 week scan, and even after that felt it would be better to wait until the 20 week scan. So for a long while, it all seemed far away and something we didn't have to think about yet. Then, we got home from California and realised that we'd better start getting organised! I've spoken before about how we booked a John Lewis Nursery Appointment around the 20 week mark which was really helpful in starting us off to get an understanding of exactly what we'd need, and what brands were out there. The buggy, and travel system, was definitely the biggest decision to make and something that we'd be using everyday for the next couple of years, or beyond, and felt super important to get right. I'd love to share some key things that helped us decide which buggy to go for and why we've chosen the Bugaboo Fox. *we have received the Bugaboo Fox as a PR gift but, as ever, all opinions are 100% my own.

You might remember this post from a couple of months back where I debated whether we should find out the sex of our baby or not. It’s such a divisive topic and I loved reading all of your discussion on in on Instagram - this post, some having some really great points I hadn’t thought of. It’s also an incredibly personal decision and of course, not one that has a right or wrong answer at all. Since writing that post, we found out that we’re having a baby girl {!!} so I wanted to share some thoughts on why I was suddenly desperate to find out and how we did it;