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

Labour & Delivery Story

Hello, lovelies!

On the 24th of June, ten days after my due date, at 04:54am, my partner and I welcomed our son, Caelan, into the world. Now he's four weeks old, I figured it was time to sit and write this all down. Partly so I can read it and look back on it later, and partly so I can show it to him in years to come.

Saturday 22nd of June

After a day of reduced movement, I phoned maternity triage at about 10pm. Because I'd already tried all the usual tricks to get him moving -- cold water, lying on my left, eating something sugary -- they told me to pop in so they could check me over. Thankfully, my best friend, Eve, had her car that weekend and was able to come and pick us up. We arrived at triage at 10:45pm, and got strapped up to a monitor straight away.

Two hours of monitoring later, they said everything was fine and I was alright to go home, but they needed to take my blood pressure one last time before we did, which is when everything started to go a little bit pear shaped. They don't know why, but my blood pressure had sky rocketed, and since I was already so over-due, they decided to induce me then and there. Panic stations, lads, since we didn't bring any of our hospital bags with us. So, James and Eve had to run back home at nearly 1am to get our bags, and I was admited and taken to the early labour ward.

2:45am, a midwife came in and put in my pessary, which was possibly the most uncomfortable experience of my life, and I had to stay awake for an hour after that to make sure my body didn't reject it. It didn't, thankfully, and I finally got to sleep about 6am. Sleeping in hospitals isn't the easiest, but luckily we had a private room so James was allowed to stay with me.

Sunday 23rd of June

Quite possibly the slowest day of my life. My mum and auntie came to the hospital at 11am when visiting hours started so James could go home and shower. I spent the day walking around, bouncing on a maternity ball, and trying my hardest to force down the sorry attempt at hospital food. Because it was a Sunday they were doing a roast dinner, but I only had roast potatoes and gravy. It was dire, and I'll probably have emotional scars for the rest of my life from it. Seriously. Yikes. 

At around 3:30/4pm I started to get noticeable contractions, which was exciting, but terrifying, since I wasn't entirely sure what they were going to feel like due to being induced. I'd heard that induction makes them worse, but to start with they really did just feel like annoying, uncomfortable but ignorable period pains.

As the evening went on they got more and more uncomfortable. At 10pm I asked to go into the ward bath, as my contractions were getting more and more frequent and a fair bit more painful. The hot water helped a lot, and I spent a good hour or so in there before I went back to the room, and started on gas & air, which definitely took the edge off the pain for a little while. I didn't last long after that, maybe two hours before I asked for pain-killers, which was annoying because I was so convinced I wanted to do it drug-free and as naturally as possible. The midwife at the time suggested I try another bath, which I did, however half an hour in I was starting to feel like I was going to crack from the pain, and like I needed to start pushing, so I was smacking the midwife alarm like a crazy lady. 

When I got back to the room it was about 3:30 in the morning, and they finally gave me some morphine -- let me tell you guys it was the best thing in the world, completely knocked me out. Between contractions I was having little cat naps, and only woke up properly when a midwife, who was the sweetest woman EVER, came in to check me, I was four and a half centimetres dilated, and give me some more morphine. Twenty minutes later I was screaming that I needed to push, so a doctor came in to check me, and this is when everything started to go crazy. 

Monday 24th of June

Twenty minutes is all it took for me to go from four and a half centemitres, to fully dilated. I very vividly remember the doctor looking at the midwife and saying "Well I don't know what your four and a half centimetres feel like, but she's fully dilated and this baby is coming." 

I spent an hour pushing, and it was a pain unlike any I've ever experienced. I truly cannot describe it, and I don't think I ever will be able to. I started to lose momentum then, and was begging for them to help me. It was 4am, and the doctor said she could go and check to see if theatre was free for a forceps delivery. I was desperate at that point, nearing 26 hours since my pessary was put in, and agreed. Another 35 minutes passed before I was taken down to theatre, and the five minutes between leaving the room and getting the spinal block put in were hellish, because I couldn't take the gas & air with me, and the second lot of morphine had worn off already. 

James was brought into theatre, and I spent the whole time focussing on him, and the next thing I knew, I was being told my baby's head was born. My first question? "Is he real?"

This is where everything starts to get a bit fuzzy, so I'm going to base this entirely off what James and my mum have told me. 

We were taken back to the room, and I tried to give Caelan his first feed, but I was still numb from the boobs down so James gave him a bottle. I was lying in the bed, and completely lost all colour, and couldn't focus on anything. Everything sounded like it was miles away, my head felt like I was underwater, and when I looked at my mum I was seeing four of her. She ran to get the midwife, who came and checked on me and hit the panic button, and before they knew what was happening, nine doctors were in the room with me. 

Turns out, my uterus haemoraged pretty badly, and in the 45 minutes between Caelan being born and then, I lost nearly a litre and a half of blood very quickly. I ended up needing two transfusions, a lot of fluids, was given a cathater, heart monitors, pressure monitors, and I really didn't realise at the time just how awful it was. It wasn't until the next day that the doctors told me that I could have died. What a scary thought, right? 

We were kept in hospital until Wednesday the 26th, under extremely close watch and near hourly check ups for the first twenty four hours. I had to give myself at home injections to stop blood clots for ten days after we got home, and am now officially on iron tablets for the rest of my life. 

It's been four weeks now, and every day I'm starting to feel more and more like myself again. It's been the toughest, most emotional, longest yet fastest and best time of my life. Being a new mother is hard, and I know people told me constantly how difficult it would be, but I truly never expected this. 

Caelan Craig Thomas Stewart, you are the light of my life, and I've never felt a love like the love I have for you, my little prince. I would go to the end of the earth for you. I would go through that labour a million more times for you. I am so glad you are my baby boy. I love you. 

Baby Names We Love... But Won't Be Using

Hello, lovelies!

Now that we've finally, finally, settled on a name for our little boy, I thought I'd share the list we'd narrowed it down to before we finally got here.

When I say narrowed it down, I mean cut from roughly 100+ names for both girls and boys, who knew naming a Bubba would be so hard? I certainly didn't, and I was convinced I'd end up with a nameless child since even the ones I'd loved since childhood suddenly didn't seem right.

There's still every chance we'll end up picking something new again once he's made his appearance.

We'll start with girl's names:

• Autumn
• Rose
• Anastasia
• Indi
• India
• Nova
• Charlotte
• Kira
• Paige
• Darcy
• Victoria
• Scarlett
• Daisy
• Grace
• Delilah
• Delia

Boy's names:

• Grayson
• Fletcher
• Jack
• Bodhi
• Oliver
• Nathan
• Avery
• Robin
• Charlie
• Noah
• Leo
• Alfie

I've obviously left the name we've picked off here, since we're keeping it a surprise until he's here -- but these are what we'd managed to get it down to. A lot of names that I loved, James didn't like. A lot of names that James loved, I didn't like. It was a vicious cycle of "What about..." "Or maybe..." "This sounds nice..."

These posts are always so fun to read, so I figured I'd join in on the fun and make my own!

Hope you all have a lovely week! 

I'll see you all 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