Newborn Night Time Routine

Hello, lovelies!

In the last few weeks of pregnancy, I spent a long time looking at other people's routines with their kids. I've always been a lover of routine, it keeps my anxiety at bay and helps me know where everyone is (or should be) at what times, which is a big help when you have a newborn and a three-year-old running around.

For the first month we just went with the flow, let Caelan completely rule our routine and fed as and when he needed/wanted, slept when he slept, and never got any time for us to do, well, anything. Introducing this night time routine has really, really helped.

So, let's start at dinner time, which generally is the most stressful time of day in our house.

Anytime between 5pm & 7:30pm, we try and get all of us fed. Caelan will take 5 & 1/2oz at this point, and while either myself or James gives him it, the other will eat and make sure William (three-year-old) is fed as well.

If it's earlier in the evening, Caelan will usually have a small nap before bath time, but if it's a later feed, like around 7, we'll usually have play time/sensory time before his bath, and while William is having his.

Between 8 & 8:30 is bath time. We try and keep it the same every night, but on the nights we have William we usually do it just as he goes to bed at 8:30. However when we don't have him we do it a bit earlier. We use ASDA's Little Angels bedtime bath, it's 97p and has been amazing at helping settle Caelan for sleep.

After bath time we go straight upstairs for cuddles & settle down time. This is when Caelan and I will have skin to skin/tummy cuddles, and he'll usually snooze a little bit while James and I watch Netflix or YouTube, or a movie if we're feeling wild.

Between 10pm & 11pm Caelan will have his last feed. We usually do a bigger bottle, 6oz, as it helps keep him fuller for longer which means he sleeps longer. He's usually pretty tired by this point so it takes him longer to eat it, but we keep all the lights low and turn the TV right down so theres nothing too stimulating going on to wake him up.

Once he's finished eating, I'll swaddle him up and turn on the lullaby setting on his Ollie Owl and get some last cuddles before putting him down in his Next2Me for the night. He'll usually sleep from 11/11:30 until 4/5am, which is honestly amazing.

So, to recap:

• 5 - 7:30pm - "Dinner" bottle, 5&1/2 Oz.
• 7:30pm - Play/Sensory time
• 8/8:30pm - Bath time
• 9pm - Settle down time
• 10/11pm - Last bottle, 6 Oz.

While I know this routine won't work for every baby on the planet, I thought I'd share it just in case there's some new mum's out there feeling just as anxious and unorganised as I was.

I'll see you all next time!

Ree xo

Caelan At 6 Weeks

Hello, lovelies!

Can someone please tell me where the last 6 weeks have gone?! It seems like I've blinked and suddenly I have this 10lbs little boy smiling and giggling at me!

I know when I was pregnant I loved reading these kinds of blogs from other mama's, so I thought I'd pop my own up here. So, here we go, Caelan's 6 week update!

We've finally started to settle into a proper routine with him at nights. Bottle, bath, cuddle/play time, last bottle, then sleep. Thankfully, he's just like his mama and loves his sleep, so we usually get from about 11pm 'til 4/5am before he wakes up for another feed/bum change. I'm definitely not taking it for granted, because I know he can fall out of that habit as quickly as he went into it, but getting those solid few hours sleep a night has definitely helped me out a lot.

While he sleeps great at night, however, he does not sleep great during the day. I think we've only managed to get him to sleep in his moses basket twice, every other time he has to sleep on me; the second we put him down he pings awake and screams until he's lifted again. Which is usually right away because I can't stand hearing him cry, it truly breaks my heart, even if I know it's only because he's mad I've put him down.

We stopped breast feeding a couple of weeks ago, which I know is quite a controversial thing to do, but to be completely open and honest with you guys -- I was struggling. Really, really struggling mentally, and physically with it. I was constantly worried that he wasn't getting enough, and I was getting no time to do anything but feed since he's such a hungry little boy and was on the boob for 45 minutes every hour. Now, I can quite happily leave him with James for a bottle while I go for a shower and get the chance to feel human again.

The change hasn't seemed to have any affect on Caelan, and he's still just as much a little guzzle guts as he was when he was boob fed. He takes 5 and a 1/2 oz every three to four hours, and has been piling on the weight like a champ.

He's such a happy little man, and every day I look at him and think about how blessed and lucky I am to be his mama.

I want to keep doing these kinds of update posts, so look out for them! I'll also be doing a more in depth post about our night-time routine if anyone is interested in it!

I'll see you all next time!

Ree xo

Top Beauty Products Under £10

Hello, lovelies!

Everyone loves a great beauty bargain, right? And whilst I would love to be able to afford all of those MAC lipsticks, my top products right now are mostly under £10 bargains.

So, here is my current Top Beauty Products Under £10!

Revolution Conceal and Define Concealer - £4, Superdrug. 

If you've been living under a rock, you may not have heard of this product yet, but if you haven't, and you have social media (which you do because you're here) you know the hype around this concealer. I was a devote Tarte Shape Tape user, spending £22 a go to get that creamy coverage, so when I heard that this was a dupe and £18 less, I was thrilled. Sceptical, but thrilled. 

Whilst I didn't wear it everyday until recently - pregnancy has given me some major eyebags - I seriously fell head over heels for this concealer. It's thick, creamy, full coverage, and whilst it isn't an exact dupe for Shape Tape, I cannot sing it's praises enough. I use the shade C1 because I'm ridiculously pale, but it comes in a variety of shades suitable for near enough anyone.

Sweetheart Cosmetics 'STARSTRUCK' Lashes - £9.50, sweetheartcosmetics.com

Billie, the lovely girl who runs this brand, has created several pairs of my favourite lashes. All of Sweetheart's lashes are top quality, with a relatively low price point. Starstruck is but one of my favourite styles, alongside Drama Queen, Daydreamer & Lucy. 

Am I biased because thats my eyeball you guys see on the website? I mean, maybe, but that doesn't stop these lashes being the most comfortable lashes I've ever had bless my eyes. I've worn them to gigs and parties as well as day to day, and they are perfect. 10/10 would pay £3000 for these. 

Buy STARSTRUCK Lashes HERE (they're currently on sale for £6.95 - use code 'reeroganmakeup' for £ off as well.)

Zoeva Cat Eye Pen - £7.00, Beautybay.com 

I'm going to put it out there, eyeliner and I are still not the best of friends. It's a very much unrequited love situation. I love eyeliner, but does eyeliner love me? Not so much. 

However, this eyeliner is so simple to use, and such a lovely formula, that it very quickly became my favourite pen liner. I've repurchased this at least five times now, and every time I use it I'm reminded why I love it. It glides on like silk, and definitely lives up to it's name of "Blackest Black." 

You can buy it from BEAUTYBAY

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Stretch Mark Cream - £4.75, Boots

Does this count as a beauty product? I'm adding it anyway, because oh man, has it saved me. 

I've struggled with stretch marks for a while, even before I got pregnant, due to weight gain after such a sudden weight loss when I was younger, and now I have this bump growing they seemed to be getting worse and worse. I bought this from Boots when I was about 6 weeks pregnant, and have sworn by it ever since. 

Whilst it hasn't made my stretch marks disappear, it has helped the elasticity of my skin and stopped them from getting worse, which is all I cared about. 

Well, lovelies, that's it for now. This obviously isn't the longest list in the world, but I'll be doing a pregnancy skincare post soon for you all as well, so keep your eyes peeled for that. 

Until next time,

Ree xo

16 Weeks Pregnant Recap

Hello, lovelies!

Yep, that's right. I really am pregnant.

To say that I am over the moon is an understatement, so I figured why not start the new year off with a bang and get back into blogging since there is a very limited amount of things I can do now. (Not by my own chosing, my other half won't even let me vacuum.)

Anyway, I figured I would make my first blog of the year a recap on the last 16 (nearly 17) weeks of pregnancy, and wow, what a ride it's been.

I guess, thinking about it, the first time I kind of thought I might have been pregnant was the night of James and I's anniversary, we were going out for dinner and I just felt nauseous. I thought it might've been anxiety, so I pushed it to the side. A week later however, I was still nauseous and I hadn't come on. Tell tale signs right? So I was leaning over James' son's bed saying goodnight and I just got this over-whelming wave of sickness, like, it was wild, I had to sprint to the bathroom. We bought the test the next day, but I waited a few days before I took it.

2nd of October 2018 is the day we got our positive. I cried in the bathroom, and the kitchen, and the living room, and the bedroom. I was happy, of course, but I was terrified.

Telling my mum was... strange. Very strange. I know she struggled to come to terms with it, but she's all over the idea now, and is arguably a little bit more excited than I am.

We waited a few weeks to tell James' mum. Which I didn't want to, but James did, so we waited until I was about 8 weeks to tell her. She cried. Properly sobbed down the phone when we told her, which set me off.

Those weeks between 10 and 14 were truly some of the most emotional, stressful, and unstable of my life. We were between houses, as we hadn't signed anything on the house we now live in, I had lots of blood work done, I still felt sick all the time, I was struggling to come to terms with the changes my body was going through (that first 12 weeks of bloating, man,) and I was generally just run down with the cold and feeling pretty rubbish. I remember thinking "Pregnancy is meant to be beautiful, but I feel horrendous." a lot of the time, to the point I was dreading waking up in the mornings because I knew I was just going to feel worse.

Our 12 week scan came around and I had convinced myself that we were going to get there and they were going to tell me there was nothing there, that I was making things up and to go home. I've never been so nervous in my life. I've also never needed to pee QUITE that badly, but of course everything was fine, and Bubba was wriggling around quite happily. We're due on the 14th of June 2019, which at the time felt like ages away, but now that it is actually 2019, feels like no time at all. Yikes?

At 14 weeks we moved into our new house, and things started to get a lot better. I found I had a bit more energy, I was managing to eat a bit more and more often, and I started to feel happier now that we had our own space back and I could start to organise myself and picture myself with a baby.

15 weeks brought Christmas, and I can honestly say I've never had just so many people grabbing at my belly before. I definitely started showing this week, and everyone knew it. It was a very, very bizarre experience, especially when people started telling me I looked bigger than I was. Struggling with my body image is still quite prominant, however I am starting to come to terms with the fact my belly is getting bigger, and I have stretch marks, and that I can't fit into a lot of my clothes.

This week is 16 weeks, and as I'm writing this I am 16 + 4, which is just... wild. I've been feeling more exhausted this week again which hasn't been fun, but I'm not complaining about the naps I've been getting to have. I'm also starting to get a little uncomfortable when I'm trying to sleep, as I can't sleep on my stomach anymore and I've been getting quite bad acid whenever I lie down, but I guess that's just part and parcel of this whole journey. I have my 16 week midwife appointment on Monday, even though I'll technically be past 17 weeks by then, and then our gender scan next Saturday.

Bets are on about wether we're having a boy or a girl. I'm saying boy, but James is convinced they're a girl, so we shall see.

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and New Year, and I'm so excited to share this with you this year.

See you soon!

Ree x