Starting from the beginning...

How on earth has 5 weeks gone by already?! I'm not quite sure how we have survived this fog of becoming a family of 4 but we have DONE IT! Last week was quite possibly the hardest, my 2 year old unfortunately had a UTI, which meant temperatures of over 40 and a course of antibiotics. The best bit was trying to get a urine sample from a toddler who isn't potty trained and complains it hurts every time they wee. During this week Mr. N decided that he needed feeding every 1 - 2 hours for a chunk of nights was necessary ... all of this whilst I had mastitis. Literally, my boob never felt so sore, you can imagine latching a baby every 1 - 2 hours on a boob that felt like it has needles poking it every time anything brushed the skin ... and when I say boob I mean the whole thing, not just the nipple and a bad latch type pain. Needless to say I am super happy to be into week number 5 which is already much much better ... no UTI ... no mastitis ... Mr. N still feeding 1 - 2 ho...

He is here!! My bump turned into a beautiful baby boy who was in a slight hurry to arrive into the world ... well, actually, he couldn’t make his mind up. I love a good birth story so here is mine ... The birth story I managed almost a whole week off work before I went into labour. The day before my waters went my husband and I decided to go out for lunch as our daughter was visiting her auntie and uncle for an overnight stay. I’m so glad we actually had lunch together just the two of us, as little did we know we would become a family of 4 within a few days. That night I had a very restless sleep, I couldn’t really settle and my mind and body were very restless, I did managed to fall asleep around 1/2am and was woken at 3am by a a funny feeling followed by a little gush ... needless to say I jumped out of bed and went to the loo where my waters continued to go. My husband and I were sleeping in different rooms as I needed the space to be comfy, so I rang him and told him the e...

✫I have some exciting news - I have been chosen as a blogger to appear on MyBump2Baby. This is an incredible website and directory for parents and fantastic for businesses who need advertising space. Please check out the link below ↓↓✫ I am one of MyBump2Baby’s favourite bloggers    As mentioned in my previous blog I have decided to write about a few tips and tricks that have really worked to help sort out my head space during this pregnancy.  A little bit of background.....(here goes)..... Following the birth of my daughter I suffered from postnatal depression, anxiety and OCD. Fortunately I saw an incredible health visitor who picked it up at the 6 week check, she contacted my GP and I was seen later that afternoon. The hardest bit was gearing up to the appointment to actually say "I don't feel right", I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong, I just knew I didn't feel right and I was doing things that weren't normal. I'd constant...

As mentioned in my last blog, I have spent the last few weeks looking for bloggers, inspirational people, and websites that make me smile and feel positive about my journey into a family of 4 with a baby who will be slightly different. Firstly id just like to make it clear that these are people, pieces of information and charities that I have found incredibly positive and have helped me, and I just hope that these little nuggets of information help someone else. I have tried to focus on those with foot differences, but limb differences do over lap.  ⇢Instagram⇠ On instagram a lovely lady called Hayley contacted me and shared that her daughter was born without a hand. Her instagram page is so vibrant, positive and full of love, there beautiful pictures of her children and I could see that her daughter joined in everything and is part of it all. Hayley has allowed me to share her website for anyone to have a look at www.hayleyslittlethings.com  lucky_fin_pro...

I think we can officially say we have reached the terrible twos. My daughter isn’t two until the end of March and I naievely hoped that we would at least have until the beginning of April before we enter this stage ... and my goodness have we entered with a bang ... refusing dinner, throwing things, saying no to EVERYTHING, throwing herself in the floor, refusing to get dressed, refusing to go in her high chair, this list could go on. Between these highly frustrating moments we have times of pure love, a cuddle fixes everything, peppa fixes everything and cake fixes everything (even though she doesn’t actually like cake, but hey she’s a girl after my own heart). I’m praying that by the time baby number 2 arrives we have figured out how to manage her tantrums (if that’s even possible??) or she is over this phase,  and we are coming out into the lovely threenager phase I have heard about. Admittedly I have to confess we have been super lucky with our daughter, she was su...

I have always loved baby feet. As far as feet go they are just the most adorable little things. I remember at my 20 week scan the sonographer putting the probe on my belly and saying "I just love baby feet, they are my favourite part to scan", low and behold the first thing we saw were two little feet. I noticed one foot was clearer than the other but didn't think much of it as I am definitely not a pro at ultrasound scans and know babies can manage to hide certain parts of their body and be tricky customers. We had a trainee monographer who was previously a midwife and was so lovely. I don't mind having students practicing their skills on me, and if anything see it as a more thorough scan. I noticed that she seemed to be scanning for a while and was struggling to get a good view of the feet, it was at this point her mentor took over and did the whole scan again (obviously much faster) and pointed out all the vital parts. Again she struggled to get a proper view of t...

💛Hello and welcome to my blog💛 I'm Steph and this little bundle of joy is called Izzy who was born March 2016 - we have another one on its way and we have left it as a surprise to find out what we are having . I have decided to write a blog to try and talk/connect with others who have had a baby born slightly differently. At my 20 week scan the sonographer noticed that my babies left foot hadn't developed properly. It looks like the big toe is there but not the other 4 digits and some of the foot where the digits are missing. Although this is not the worst thing (I know there are many worse things out there being a NICU nurse) I was devastated. I felt like I had done something, had a missed a sign? did it happen when I fainted? had I been drinking too much caffeine? what had I done? ... the truth is, I had done nothing but I still felt so guilty. We went to St. Georges hospital and were scanned again from head to toe. I know they were looking to rule out any card...