I think it’s pretty safe to say that when you have kids, anything remotely cute you want to get them, I’m trying my hardest constantly not to over buy or spoil Archer. If I had endless money, there’s no doubt he would be dressed to the max in super cute outfits, and have every colourful book under the sun, but instead I buy rarely, and try to really support the small business community. I love Etsy and have come across some little shops recently that I thought I’d share…and I think I might start a dressing the little man post, because I know how difficult it can be finding colourful, bright and full of pattern clothes. boy’s sections are always so tiny right? Anyway. Moving on to some cute things I found which just show you how on point the world of product design is right now! Enjoy all. Everything will be linked below.

1. Two toned cup, Peek and Pack, €8.00,   2. Salvador Kokeshi, Peek and Pack, €35.00,   3. Make a face, Moon Picnic, £34.00,   4. Cardboard People, Moon Picnic, £16.50,   5. Giant ice cream, Moon Picnic, £18.90,   6. Paper city, Moon Picnic, £12.50,   Frida Kokeshi, Peek and Pack, €35.00,   Alphabet Pebbles, Moon Picnic, £16.00

So above are a couple of new shops for you to check out Peek and Pack and Moon Picnic. I just brought some magazines from Moon Picnic, and when they arrive I will instagram them…so excited! But both shops have items that are to die for, design genius and just adorably cute too!

Happy Friday all!

1. Pineapple Print Organic Bloomers, Lola and Stella, Etsy , 2. Organic Baby Set with hat and swaddle blanket. Bear print, Lola and Stella, Etsy , 3. Paper Plane T-shirt, Earth Cadets, Etsy , 4. Bear Fabric Bag, Tell Kiddo, Etsy , 5. Leather Baby Shoes, Born Bespoke, Etsy , 6. Organic Cactus Print Baby Blanket, Lola and Stella, Etsy , 7.Fox Coat, Olive and Vince, Etsy , 8. Cloud Pajama Set, Shop Hello Sunday, Etsy , 9. Cotton Stripe Dress, Swallows Return, Etsy

I love Etsy for baby things, it’s all handmade, with a lot of organic and eco-friendly pieces. Also due to the vast majority of things on Etsy, more often than not, you will find unique pieces that other people might not have. I could spend a fortune on Arch, though he’s growing so fast, I’m happy with the hand-me-downs from his gorgeous cousin fin, and just buying the odd piece here and there. Though I’m in love with the cloud pj’s and the fox coat..maybe when he’s a little older and not growing out of a clothes size every few weeks.

Have a good weekend all and Happy Easter!

This is my gran and Archer when he was a few weeks old. My gran had been poorly and my mum was a little worried she was becoming more and more fragile, so we decided to make the 3 hour trip to go see her so she could meet Archer. Archer’s middle name is Charlie, named after my uncle who died  just over a year ago. I found out I was pregnant with Archer about a month after he died, so Charlie was given in remembrance of him, which means an awful lot to my gran, who took his passing extremely hard.

I think we all know how important family and friends are, but sometime we all get too busy, and we forget to send the card, or to make that call, or to even just catch up with loved ones. When I remember something I have forgotten to do, or I think oh I should really give so and so a call I find myself saying are you really THAT busy? The truth is yes I am super busy, raising a baby, doing commissions and running a business takes a lot of work. But I still manage to find time to watch tv during the day, or to sit on facebook or pinterest…I really think I need to start fixing my priorities. Spend less time liking a status and more time chatting to friends and family face to face.

This year I made it my mission to get more organised with birthdays and special days like mother’s day. So far so good! I got cards and presents out on time, with even a day to spare. I think it’s nice, even if it;s just a card, to send to someone on their anniversary to let them know your thinking of them. Especially if like us you live miles away from all your family!  You could also look into getting a personalized gift from somewhere like DNA2Diamonds that they can cherish forever.

Talking on the phone  isn’t really the go to communicative route anymore, but for the older generations it means the world to them. I know when I ring my grandma or gran, they are thrilled to have a chat. Though with my dad and aunty being the tech savvy people they are, when they are with my grandparents, we facetime each other. They really enjoy seeing Archer over facetime. Thats for sure.

We get stuck in daily routines where we end up doing the same thing all the time. Again, we lose oversight of some of the more important aspects of life when we do this. If you’re just not able to spend quality time with someone you love, book some holiday and go away with them. You’ll be able to explore the country (or another country) together without having to worry about work or anything else. Whether it’s the beach, the hills or just a trip down the road to another city, it’s a great way to de-stress and spend some quality time together. Me and Richard try to make sure we see our other families as often as we can, though with his shift work, it’s not always the easiest, but when we can, we do.

So on Monday we took Archer to London..for the very first time, and it was pretty exciting. Especially as I havent been to London since I was 20 weeks pregnant. I was getting some major withdrawal. I love how inspired I feel even just walking around London. I always come back feeling super charged and wanting to grab my camera or a paint brush! I think London is by far one of my favourite cities, and I love that it’s just a short train ride away! We spent a whole day there, of which Arch barely slept. I think all the hustle and bustle kept him happily entertained for a good few hours. We ate good food, met up with my sister and my mum, browsed the British Museum and walked miles. It was just a really lovely day. One which I would like to try and schedule in at least once a month, especially as my little sister has taken the plunge and moved there!

Arch was very well-behaved and navigating a baby with a pram, nappy changes and finding hot water on tap was pretty easy! A lot easier than I thought it would be! Stairs at the underground were a bit of a handful, even with extra people to help. So we ended up walking most places…which in my eyes is the best way to do it. If you’re not in a rush, walk. You will always find little places and streets you will want to return too!

Abby channeling her inner russian goddess. I really don’t know how we survived before picture phones. I took my polaroid camera, and my phone and that was it! I think I’d like to attempt to do a fashion shoot in London with Abby just using my iphone.

My favourite thing about London are the details. The shop windows, the buildings, the people. We went to Covent Garden and everything is so stylishly done! I loved having a quick look in Chanel…plus I’d quite happily have a giant lit up pink 5 in my house!  I think I’d like to do a series on London for great places to take your little ones… Arch really liked Covent Garden purely because of all the lights, and the live music playing…but I think next month I’d like to do an aquarium. If anyone has any good ideas do share. I totally reccomend the British Museum. We just did the Eygpt area, and even Arch was pretty fascinated by the mummies.

Until our next trip!

So Archer is 3 month olds now. 3 months..crazy right? It’s been the hardest 3 months of my life. Totally worth it but boy do babies completely turn your life upside down. But the comment I always get when I talk about the sleepless nights and the teething troubles,(yes Arch has started teething already…I birthed a toddler apparently) is they aren’t little for long. Enjoy it. Which is exactly what I am and trying to do!

Times have changed since I was little. I remember my dad pulling out his 35mm camera and snapping away with the excitement of getting the photo’s developed and putting them in an album. Now we are in the digital age, a lot of the time we take pictures on our phones and with our digital cameras, pop them up on facebook send them to family friends over email and thats often where it ends. I’ve taken so many pictures of Arch, I find myself taking at least a couple a day. Normally funny positions or faces he’s pulling that I send to Richard while hes at work. But some of the more funny and cute ones I have got printed at Photobox. As there are so many vouchers for that site it really is cheaper sometimes then printing your own at home. That and my printer is on the brink so it’s a lot less stressful. I’ve started a photo album which I’m making into more of a scrapbook like thing..as I found the pictures I ordered were a little too big to fit in the slots. Look at the following link for a few tips for taking photos of babies. For example  be careful when it comes to using flash as it can be harmful for their little eyes which are still developing.

Newborn photos are very popular, and there are so many places ranging in different prices to get your little ones snapped professionally. This is a great option if you don’t have a fancy camera and you feel your phone pictures just aren’t cutting it for you! Or if you just want a few picutres that look utterly awesome.

But don’t forget to docuemtn the little things, even just how they change from month to month. A friend of mine told me how she took a picture of her daughter every month surrounded by the same toys to look at how she changed from each month to the next! I loved this idea and paired it with memory cards, which are super cute by the way, and the difference in Archer jsut over 3 months is crazy!

I love that Arch is flipping off Winston the whale in this picture, but look how tiny he is and how much he changes in the next 2 pictures.

It’s crazy how much he has changed in each picture. But I love I have this as a timeline. Why not start doing it now? Even if your baby is 6 months, there’s so much more change to happen, and sometimes it happens so fast you forget just how tiny they are and were.

Being a working mum can be super difficult, especially when you have to go back to work so many months after having your baby. I know a few of my friends who are going back to work in December and some not until later next year. All dreading the day when they have to leave their babies for the day when they go back. Which I think is another reason it’s so important to enjoy these first few months. I have found them emotionally and physically quite difficult, mostly due to Richard’s shift pattern and not having my mum down the road to be able to pop in and have a nap while she watches Arch. But even though I have found it hard, seeing Arch discover and learn new things is stupidly exciting. I’m lucky because I don’t have a job I will have to go back to in a hurry. I have the blog though, and sods law, as soon as Archer was born I had a large influx of commissions and blog post sponsors. So I’m spending my day time being a mummy and my night blogging and creating. Which if I’m to be honest. Is perfect.

I’ve struggled a bit with my moods and finding time to eat properly and such. I lived off toast pretty much the last month while Archer’s teething has been particularly bad. It’s shows in my energy levels and my waist line. But I’m learning ways to organise myself in order to survive the day. Tips I will perfect and tweak then share with you one day. But one tip which I really only came to realise the last couple of weeks is how important groups are. Many day’s I’ve stayed in especially if Arch is having a grizzly day..which has been my downfall. Going to groups, meeting other mums and eating cake is a great way to break your day up. It’s a place where you can swap tips and stories that will help you. You also discover that other mum’s are just as stressed and eat a lot of toast too.Plus there’s always someone there willing to hold your child so you can have a hot cup of tea and take a breather.

Richard chilling with Arch and it’s crazy how similar they are! Arch growns to be more like his daddy every day!

But all in all, enjoy family time and document everything because you never know what you might miss!

Ok so when I was doing my antenatal classes with the NCT (which I highly recommend as a way to make friends) breast feeding was obviously a big subject. Obviously it’s one of the most natural things you can do and the benefit it brings can’t be denied, but it’s not for everyone. We have two options when it comes to feeding our babies. Breast or bottle (formula). I was pretty sure I wanted to breastfeed. I was looking forward to having that bond with my baby thats been around since the beginning of time, but it never really occurred to me what would happen if I could’t breast feed and what my options were.

Our first 48 hours with Arch were pretty intense. I’ve written a post all about it but haven’t yet wanted to publish it..I think i’m still coming to terms with it all. But to give you the jist, due to my gestational diabetes, of which I was borderline, Arch was born with low blood sugar..making him one very lazy baby. Add that to me not having skin to skin for the first hour, I didn’t manage to get that first initial latch.

23 hours later and after having my boobs touched by way over 20 midwives and apparent breast experts, I decided to put Arch’s health first and give him some formula..The next few days had me expressing a few mls of breast milk to give with every formula feed. I did this to keep my milk coming in, so I still had a chance to try and get Arch to latch. In his first day of life I managed to get him to latch briefly..which he did once more, but then never again. Now I really wanted to breastfeed, and I was pretty persistent. Every feed, mid giving him formula so he was a little calmer, i’d try him on the boob.. and as the days went on he became more and more frustrated by this. When he was 6 days old I went to a breast consultant who told me about nipple shields. Now I brought really shit (excuse my language) ones from boots which were really flimsy, and came off everytime I tried to feed with them. So after trying them for a couple of days, it just wasn’t working as Arch would only feed every now and then on them, and only for about 5 minutes before getting too frustrated.

So while I was still hand expressing, I decided to step it up a notch and we got an electric pump. This worked brilliantly for the first two weeks. To the point I managed to feed Arch purely with my milk solidly for about 2 and 1/2 weeks. As his appetite incereased I had to one feed using formula, but this lasted another week and a half. The problem is, to keep up your milk supply while expressing, you need to do it every 2-3 hours..including during the night. Add that to feeding your baby with the bottle too, you spend most the day feeding, then pumping then feeding then pumping. As Arch started to get older, and started to drink more and sleep less..it became harder and harder for me to keep up the regular expressing with the amount he was feeding..at which point more and more formula got added in.

During this time, i’d try Arch using the nipple shield and without a couple of times a day…let’s just say Arch is pretty impatient…which is what the breast consultant said..and it is every mothers best interest not to irritate their baby too much..I mean it’s a lot of extra effort and hassle if you have an unsettled baby. Plus at this point I’m tired, still recovering from labour and getting used to life with a four week old.

I kept up expressing up until last Saturday (10.10.15). Arch had his last bottle of breastmilk that morning. It got to the point I was only expressing 25 mls at a time..which took me about 40 minutes to get…which by the end of the day would only get me one bottle, and I have to say it’s not the best feeling being hooked up to a machine like a cow, and only getting a tiny amount..in fact..it’s pretty heart breaking.

But I thought I’d share some tips that I have found with you, if your thinking of breastfeeding, just incase you find yourself having difficulties.

If you struggle to breastfeed at first, don’t wait til your health visitor comes for her to refer you to a breast consultant. As she comes around the 10 day mark..seek one yourself as most places have a local one.

If you are struggling due to flat nipples, or inverted ones. Look at getting some nipple shields. Go for Medela or MAM ones..I found these to be much sturdier.

Also don’t let the pressure of society get to you…I felt like a failure that I couldn’t breastfeed…because I really wanted to…but also because people don’t really talk about what if you can’t breast feed. It more you want to or you don’t. I wanted to but couldn’t. And a lot of people just assume every one can (or sometimes even should) breastfeed.

So most people know about the benefits of breastfeeding..health benefits for both you and the baby, the special bond between the mother and baby and its pretty good finance wise too. But i’m here to tell you the benefits about formula..because sometimes people just need to give their babies formula, and I felt guilty for it..like I shouldn’t..but it was my saviour.

Formula fed babies..

They have a bond with both parents pretty quickly. This is because they associate the mother and the father with food..It’s recommended that you stick to just you and your other half to feeding the baby. As this creates a bond, and the baby gets comfortable knowing it’s you that feeds them in a certain way.

Formula babies sometimes (not always) sleep more…this is because formula takes longer to digest. Breastmilk is completely natural so there is hardly anyway waste and it’s digested very quickly. Hence cluster feeds and feeding regularly for random amount of times occur.

Instant formula is a life saver for when your out and about..It stays at room temperature until opened then lasts 24 hours in the fridge.

You can see exactly how much your baby is getting..this is pretty handy.

There’s no time suggestion on when you can give your baby a dummy and theres no worry of nipple confusion…this came in handy due to Arch crying everytime he had his nappy changed when he was just a few weeks old…now he giggles..thankfully.

But there are some negatives…I felt it took me a while to get a bond with Arch..because I was so set on breastfeeding. It took me a while to get over the thought in my head that I failed..it’s still hard..But i’m not a failure and neither is anyone else who either chooses or has to use formula. Your feeding your baby and giving him/her the strength they need to grow..add love to that equation and your the perfect parent.

Making up formula can be a nightmare..especially if Arch suddenly decides he’s stupidly hungry just after he ate an hour ago..once agin this is where instant formula comes in handy..

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