Eva Takeover - 10 Things No-One Told Me About Being A Baby

Hi, my name's Eva and I'm a milkaholic.

But that's not what I'm here to talk to you about. I've hijacked my mummy's blog for a very important reason... to defend babies everywhere! Mummy thinks she's got it bad with her '20 things no-one told me about becoming a new mummy' post, but this baby malarkey is no walk in the park either. Apart from when mummy takes me for a walk in the park.

Luckily I've found a new use for these dangly things at the ends of my hands that I like to chew on, and I've learnt to type! I'm very advanced, despite the act I put on in front of mummy and daddy to get them to do everything for me, the fools.

So here are 10 things no-one told me about being a baby... it's a tough old life!

1. Once mummy's done spinning me round, throwing me over her shoulder and thumping me on my back to get a burp out sometimes I decide to throw-up all the milk I've just wolfed down, and I try my best to aim it all over mummy. It makes eating messier and I just LOVE making a mess.

2. Even though I scream my little lungs out whenever mummy gives me Infacol, I can't burp without it. Who'd have thunk it? For once mummy's outsmarted me. But I still yell at her everytime she gives me it, just for lols.

3. Smiling gets you out of trouble. My personal favourite is smiling just before I throw-up. I find it lulls mummy and daddy into a false sense of security and really takes the edge off!

4. As much as I love my red cow toy and my singing flower, what really makes me happy is the shadow of mummy and daddy's wardrobe. HOW IS IT HAPPENING?!

5. Sometimes I hold my poo in for 2 or 3 days and then explode it all over myself and my outfit, just after mummy's got me dressed for the day. It means I get an extra bath and I bloody love bath time! This is another time when one of those smiles comes in handy too... #mummymanipulation.

6. I really enjoy listening to mummy singing slightly inappropriate songs. My favourites at the moment are Natty - Bedroom Eyes and Elbow - Grounds For Divorce. But my best song EVER is Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy. That one sends me straight to sleep even with mummy's rubbish singing voice, so that's saying something!

7. I don't like to nap without my musical seahorse playing my naptime jams, even though it turns itself off after a minute or two so mummy has to frantically run in and turn it back on again before I wake up. What a laugh!

8. Mummy's hair feels reeeeeally nice. My favourite time to grab it is when she's either carrying or feeding me so her hands are full. This means I get to tug on it for longer, and I'm surprisingly strong! Just one of my many talents.

9. As much as I fuss when I want my dummy, I'll also fuss when I don't want it anymore. And sometimes I enjoy having the end of it just touching my lips. Good luck figuring that one out! Muhahahaha.

10. My favourite party trick is doing grown-up sized burps and farts. I think I learnt my burps from mummy and my farts from daddy, and the best part is that mum and dad applaud me when I do it! Otherwise my tummy hurts and I scream for hours, so either way I get to be naughty which is my second favourite thing to do. My first favourite is staring at the wardrobe shadow. HOW DOES IT FRIKKING DO THAT?!

Oops I've got to dash, mummy's coming back and it looks like she's got the Infacol, so it's my time to shine.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

20 Things No-One Told Me About Becoming A New Mummy

1. There will be plenty of days when you won’t be able to shower or brush your teeth until you have back-up (until Sam gets home from work), instead you will be pooed on, sicked on and dribbled on. Yay for being clean!

2. Being a mum is the best diet ever! There’s no time to eat… that is unless you survive off cookies. They’re easy to grab on the go.. Don't judge me :-)

3. A hot dinner is very rare. Say hello to cold chicken kievs with a side serving of cold beans. Mmmmmmm my fave.

4. You will do ANYTHING to make your baby smile!

5. Changing nappies isn’t actually that bad. When you breathe through your mouth.

6. Even if you have an unlimited amount of bibs and burp cloths, you will always run out of bibs and burp cloths.

7. Babies get real life acne! But they still have the best, softest, yummiest skin in the world, so don't worry.

8. The first few weeks aren’t always the hardest. Weeks 9-12 were hardest for us, which are the weeks everyone tells you will be sooo much better.

9. Infacol will save your life, or in other words - make your baby burp. It's not always as simple as a quick pat on the back, so forget everything that films/TV shows like to tell you. Dammit.

10. Babies don’t always like to lie on their back… which means mum and dad get to stay up all night cuddling, rocking and holding the little darling - wahooooo!

11. You will sit and stare at your baby doing absolutely nothing for hours on end and not get bored.

12. You will miss your old life no matter how great your new one is. I miss spontaneous adventures and "just nipping out" so much!

13. You will have the best and weirdest conversations with your baby pretending they're saying slightly inappropriate things.

14. You will make up ridiculous songs and sing them a lot.

15. Dad jokes are real. Sam enjoys saying “just call me Steve Jobs” whilst he does jobs around the house, ho ho ho.

16. Babies can (and will) PROJECTILE poo.

17. Baby poo looks like MUSTARD.

18. You will have a ridiculous amount of conversations about poo.

19.  It can be SO hard to leave the house without another person (or ten) to help. And if you do just about manage it your baby will throw up/ poo/ scream JUST as you're about to walk out the door.

20. You will worry about  every single thing, even when the rational part of your brain tells you to chill out… “OH MY GOD SHE HAS SLEEP DUST IN HER EYE!”

1 thing everyone did tell me about being a new mummy

1. It's true what they say, it is all worth it.

See you soon!!

xx

3 Months Of Eva Bambina

Yesterday Eva turned 3 months old which is a big-ish milestone because this is supposedly where the real fun starts to start... ha ha. So here's a look back at her newborn stage in pictures! She was so teeny tiny, sob sob.

And this is my little munchkin on her 3 month birthday, when she finally got the hang of tummy time! Wahoooo, you go Glen Coco!

Look at the chub on those cheeks ha ha, I just wanna smoosh them!

I think I'll do another one of these when she's 6 months old. I don't know what it is about babies but everything seems to be all about the 'three'... three trimesters when you're pregnant, baby clothes sizes change every three months, yada yada. So I feel like 6 months is the next good time to see how much she's grown! She changes so much every day it's crazy :-)

See you soon!!

xx

Back In Business... My Labour & Delivery Story!

Hellooooooo strangers! I realise I’ve been absent for a crazy amount of time, not sure whether to say sorry in case no one noticed/ cared ha ha! But I haven’t lost the blogging bug so I’m going to try my hardest to make a comeback… woop woop.

I’m currently writing this one-handed while I feed the poop machine with my other hand, so it’s crazy to me that the last time I blogged was my 27 week pregnancy update! Oops ha ha. I now have a 13 week old little bubba called Eva…

…so although I have loads of blog ideas I should probably start with my labour and delivery story? I always love reading these anyway!

(another cheeky Eva pic because... why not?)

My Labour & Delivery Story

So it was the 26^th November and my last day at work before maternity leave, as although I wasn’t due until the 16^th December and only 37 weeks pregnant I decided to use my leftover holiday days and go early-ish to get some much needed rest and relaxation before bubba arrived… ha ha ha… it didn’t happen!

I got home from work all emosh from saying bye to my work buddies and being given lots of lovely gifts, and cooked a sweet and sour chicken meal for Sam and I (exciting stuff I know ha ha) and as I was cooking it I was getting some Braxton Hicks (fake contractions that don’t hurt too much). I didn’t think anything of it but decided to take my make-up off, tie up my hair in a gross bun and get in my PJs. As I was doing this I literally thought to myself “imagine if I went into labour just after doing this and I’ve gone from looking moderately OK to disgusting at a time when I definitely won’t be bothered to make myself look nice again but definitely will have loads of photos that will be looked at forever… ha ha ha just imagine!” STUPID ELLEN.

So about 10 minutes later at around 9pm the Braxton Hicks turned into more period-like pains and actually started to hurt quite a bit. Sam half-joked about me being in labour and I told him “obviously not - I’m only 37 weeks” as I had convinced myself bubba was going to be late and make me be in hospital over Christmas. STUPID ELLEN.

The period pains quickly became worse and I was switching between lying in bed making cow noises while Sam secretly timed how far apart the pains were (5-6 minutes) and sitting on the loo convinced I needed a wee every 2 minutes. This went on for around an hour I think until Sam informed me (while relaxing watching the football, the cheeky poo brain) that Google reckons I’m in in the VERY early stages of labour as I could talk through the contractions and that these pains could last up to 2 weeks. To which I replied “2 weeks?! I’m not doing this for 2 farting weeks!!!” Or something along those lines ha ha. So I forced him to ring the midwifes, who basically said that because my waters hadn’t broke, I hadn’t had a bloody show – lovely, or any other labour signs, that there was nothing they could do yet. So I then forced Sam to ring my mum who said to go in as it sounded like it could be labour, so I forced him to ring the midwifes again and basically tell them I’m coming in. I managed to put on some leggings, tie my hair in a plait and hop in a taxi. I also somehow managed to keep the cow noises at bay in the taxi and to not release my wrath on Sam when he told the driver he didn’t think I was in labour ha ha! (He claims he did this so Mr taxi man wouldn’t be worried about blood and guts going on his nice taxi..pssshhhh.)

So a mere 2 hours after the pain started, at 11pm, we got to the hospital where it all kicked off. As the midwife examined me through my cries of “I can’t do this! Please help me!” …cringe… my waters broke among the other lovely labour signs that happen. But praise the Lord I was 4cm dilated and allowed the drugs – wahoo! I had Diamorphine injected in my leg which was AMAZING and was taken to the delivery room.

This is where it gets a bit blurry due to the lovely drugs, but I think I pretty much slept/ felt like I was sleeping in between contractions, which still really frikking hurt, until not long later when the midwife came back in the room and I declared “I feel like I need to poo!” … oh the cringe, the cringe… so she examined me and I was somehow 10cm dilated and ready to push – so crazy! Sam was amazing the whole time watching everything and obeying my demands of “don’t touch me” and “I need water” to which he panicked and brought 4 bottles ha ha which I had one whole sip of! Oops.

I started pushing and was totally crap, it really stung so I kept stopping before I did a good amount and I was doing really embarrassing screaming! Haaa. So the midwife suggested that I put my screaming energy towards pushing instead, to which I weirdly replied “I’m sorry I know I’m not doing very well, I’ll try better next time” ha ha ha!

And I did, wahoo. I silently pushed and it only took a few of these great pushes before her head was out – OUCH by the way – and I had to do the small pushes to get bubba totally out. And at 12:50am on Wednesday 27^th November, only 4 hours after the labour pains had begun, my little munchkin Eva entered the world at 6 pounds 11 ounces! N’awwww. She was so cute and lovely and all perfect. But I decided to continue to cringe myself and asked “Is she small?” “Does she have 5 fingers and 5 toes?” … why do I do these things? Ha ha.

After all the excitement was over it dawned on Sam and I that because we hadn’t expected to be in real life labour, and once we had realised we assumed it would take many hours so Sam would be able to pop home at some point… we hadn’t brought the hospital bag(s). I’m a heavy packer!

So while I lay naked, covered in blood, holding my new baby and staring thirst-strickenly at the 4 bottles of water that were JUST out of my reach for an hour and a half, Sam went back and got everything. He came back with his Dad who tried to come in before I shouted “Don’t let Eddie in, I’m naked!” Haaaa. And then I hobbled into the shower, introduced Eva to her Grandad, drank some water and was wheeled through to the maternity ward where I stayed for the next few days.

Sam was forced to leave really quickly so I was all alone with a new baby which was pretty scary, and although I don’t remember much because of the lovely drugs my texts to Sam indicate that I had a pretty bad first night with a crying baby and no clue what I was doing ha ha. And I do remember waking up like “where the hell am I?!” then rolling over and seeing my lovely little monkey and remembering!

This is mega long so I won’t jibber on about the stay in hospital, but I will say that the midwifes – one in particular – were AMAZING and despite dreading staying there beforehand, I have really good memories and they helped me and Sam (and of course Eva) out soooo much.

If you managed to get this far I hope it wasn’t too long and weird to read ha ha, and I definitely consider myself lucky to have had a 4 hour labour! It definitely hasn’t put me off doing labour again and I actually think being pregnant was worse ha ha.

I’m going to try and blog once or twice a week – we’ll see how that works out – so I WILL see you soon!!

xx

Bump Update: Week 27

Sorry for the pajama bottoms but I'm wearing a dress, so it's that or my pants ;-) ha ha. Also sorry for the rubbish lighting, it's dark when I'm home from work now! Crazy shenanigans.

Some more apologies for you ha ha - I'm sorry I've been useless (again!) the last few days with my blogging, it's just SO exhausting being back at work that I haven't had the energy. I'm on a rubbish shift this week, doing 12:30 - 8:30, so in the mornings I'm having a small lie in and then doing boring things like chores, and by the time I've caught the bus home and had some dinner after work it's 10pm and I'm exhausted. But I promise I'll do my best to update this as much as possible!

And here's my favourite thing to blog about - my bump update! Woop woop. Also I realised today that for some reason I've missed out a few questions in the last few bump updates I've done, so there are a few new things in there this week :-)

How far along? 27 weeks and 1 day! 

Total weight gain: Oh my God I actually weighed myself the other day ha ha. It was when I was in England (I'm back home in Gibraltar now) and I was at my Nan's house. I was doing a wee (nice) and I noticed she had some scales in her bathroom and I couldn't resist! I just checked my first bump update where I'd written my starting weight, which was either 9 or 9 and a half stone at 12/ 13 weeks pregnant (I couldn't remember ha ha) and when I weighed myself the other day I was exactly 10 stone. So I'm pretty sure I must have weighed closer to 9 than 9 and a half pre-pregnancy, because I'm a big fatty boom boom now ha ha. So there ya go! I can actually answer this one for once :-) I've gained between half a stone to a stone since the start! I've got no idea what's normal though.

Maternity clothes? As I'm back in Gibraltar now and the weather is still hot here I haven't been wearing my maternity clothes, and instead I'm back in my floaty summer dresses that still sort of fit me ha ha. But as soon as it starts to cool down I'll be back in my maternity trousers and big jumpers :-)

Stretch marks? This is one of the new questions! And no I don't have any yet (touch wood). To start with I was using Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula For Stretch Marks every day to try and keep them at bay, but then I got lazy ha ha, and for ages I stopped using anything on my tum. However at the moment I'm putting on The Body Shop's Beautifying Oil (the coconut one, yum yum) when I get out the shower just because it smells so delicious and I love rubbing bumpy (it does nothing for stretch marks ha ha). But my Mum never got stretch marks so I'm hoping it's in the gene pool, or I'm just not fat enough yet!

Sleep: Mixed reviews! I've got a cough and a cold at the moment so that's kept me up a bit lately, but last night I slept sooo good. I only work up to wee once (which is good for me ha ha) and the only other time I was disturbed from my dreaming of cream eggs (fatty) was when I woke myself up scratching my mozzie bites - the evil things!

Best moment this week: Ermmmm I don't know to be honest. I had to stay goodbye to both mine and Sam's families which was really sad, and I'm back at work after two lovely weeks off so that's all pretty negative ha ha. But I have had a nice time being back in Gibraltar with Sam :-) I love our little home together!

Miss anything? Another new question, and the answer is - no nothing! I don't miss drinking alcohol AT ALL which I thought I would. I guess the only thing I miss is a strong bladder ha ha.

Movement: Another new one - yay. And yes, lots and lots and lots of movement! I LOVE feeling her kick as it's like having a secret friend trying to communicate with me ha ha. She's so active in the mornings and evenings and quieter during the day, although she still kicks quite a lot throughout the day too. Especially when I'm eating chocolate ha ha! She's got a sweet tooth like me :-)

Food cravings: Anything sweet I can (and sometimes will) eat aaaaall day long! I could easily have five puddings instead of a main meal in the evening ha ha. But no real big cravings! Nothing mad like coal or rubber yet ha ha.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really, no. I still haven't attempted eating chicken without breadcrumbs though :-)

Gender: Girly girly!

Labor signs: Noooo. BUT I have been having Braxton Hicks contraction things... I think! My belly goes rock hard and feels tight and strange for about 30 seconds, and I've been having that randomly for a few weeks now. However at first I just thought it was growing pains, but I just happened to read somewhere about Braxton Hicks the other day and it sounded exactly the same as what I've been getting ha ha! But they're nothing to do with real labour :-)

Symptoms: Urgh, lots of rubbish symptoms this week. I already suffered from excess acid in my stomach pre-pregnancy (I have this thing called Non-Ulcer Dyspepsia, which is where my stomach is overactive and produces too much acid) so since I've been pregnant it's been getting worse and worse, but this week it's been a killer. Rennie is the only thing that seems to help, or if it's not too bad then a glass of milk does help, but it's so horrible and painful! I've also been getting the WORST shoulder pain ever, especially when I've been sat at work all day. And bleeding gums, constant wees and a lot more tiredness the last few days. It's all fun and games this pregnancy malarkey ;-)

Belly button in or out? IT'S NOW A PROPER OUTTY. Yep, the day has come at long last and it finally popped out properly! I'm not sure how I feel about it to be honest ha ha, it looks mental. But I've been told it will go back in after I've given birth ha ha.

Happy or moody most of the time: I was anticipating being a miserable thing this week after leaving my family, but I've been having such a nice time with Sam that I'm super duper happy!

Looking forward to: Two days off work on Thursday and Friday ;-) I'm so excited to be a bum and do nothing and I don't even care how lazy that makes me :-D

I hope you enjoyed the extra questions in there, I'm not sure what happened with me missing them out the last few weeks! Being blonde AND pregnant is a lethal combination ;-)

See you soon!!

xx

My Must-Have Autumn Beauty Buys

As I'm back in England for two weeks I've properly got the autumn feeling and I'm loving it. I love summer and I'm always excited for it to come around, but if I'm being honest it's got nothing on autumn and winter.

The fashion is better - I love chunky things, layers and boots - and I love feeling all cosy and getting excited for Christmas. I'm still a big kid even if I am pregnant ha ha.

So at the first opportunity I had to stock up on my autumn beauty essentials (Gibraltar isn't the best for make-up) I went a bit crazy, but I've narrowed down my massive Boots raid to these four products. These are the kind that if I can't find them I to start to mildly have a panic attack at the thought of using anything else! Ha ha.

Boi-ing Industrial Strength Concealer 

If you're a regular reader of my blog then you'll know how much I love this product, and I had to feature it even if I'm getting boring raving on about this one ha ha.

Coming from a girl with a huge complex about her eye-bags, this concealer is the best one I've ever tried. And I've tried them all! It's a great texture, covers almost ANYTHING you don't want to be seen and lasts for ages, and I honestly can't rate it enough.

Without a tan to brighten up my skin during autumn I put more of an effort into my skin make-up (if that makes sense ha ha) and on those dark, early mornings Benefiit's Boi-ing helps make me look more awake, even if I don't feel it :-)

Soap and Glory's Peach Party Blusher

This blusher is literally amazing and I'm OBSESSED with it at the moment! I never normally carry blusher around with me in my handbag but I've made an exception for this one, as it's just so beautiful.

It's got a noticeable shimmer to it which is so illuminating, and I prefer wearing peach coloured blusher to pink in the autumn as it stops me looking so pasty.

It has a mix of peach, gold and copper colours which look great together and I love, love, love looking a bit glittery and shimmery - I'm a magpie! :-)

Max Factor's False Lash Effect Fusion Mascara

I've been a HUGE fan of this mascara since I was about 16 (six long years ago - boo hoo, I'm so old) and after trying many, many others I always return to this one.

I recently purchased Benefit's They're Real Mascara after reading so many great reviews and I did really love it, but I honestly don't think it's any better than this one and it's double the price.

Max Factor's False Lash Fusion mascara makes SUCH a difference to my eyelashes, and really does make them look so long ha ha. And the only time I get compliments on my eyelashes is when I'm wearing this! Despite being quick thick it doesn't make my lashes clumpy at all, and it's so easy to apply. I LOVE IT TOO MUCH ha ha.

As well as paying more attention to my making my skin look nice in autumn I also prefer a darker eye, and don't go for as natural a look as I do in summer. So this mascara is a must, must, must-have!

Soap and Glory's Supercat Eyeliner Pen

I love a cat-eye during autumn and I rarely do anything else to my eyes ha ha, I'm a creature of habit! And this eyeliner is by far the best one I've tried.

I always go for a thick 'felt-tip' nib rather than a thin liquid brush when I buy eyeliner as they're so much easier to apply and control ha ha, and this one is amazing. It's great for fine lines as well as thick, fuller ones and it's a really nice, dark shade.

It lasts for ages and tends to flake off rather than smudge, which might sound bad but it's definitely better than a panda-eye look ha ha. I'd recommend this to both first time triers of the cat-eye look as well as experts as it's so easy to use but also a great quality product.

If I had to narrow it down to a few products these would be my top four, but I have so many other favourites as well ha ha so I might do an England beauty haul soon, to show you everything I purchased in these two weeks :-)

Let me know what your must-have autumn beauty buys are and what you think of these products.

See you soon!!

xx

My Surprise Baby Shower

 On Tuesday me and Sam went shopping in Southampton to get bubba some bits and were then planning on going to the cinema. Or so I thought ha ha. When we came back from shopping my friends were all hiding in my conservatory to throw me a surprise baby shower! It was amazing!

I literally had NO idea it was going to happen and can't believe that Sam, my Mum, Dad and brother were all in on it too ha ha. It was such a nice surprise and I'm so happy I got to have a baby shower, as I was worried I wouldn't as I was only home for a short time.

The girls planned it sooo well and got me such lovely presents.

They were so generous and there was a lot to open, including lots of lovely baby clothes, some cute baby booties, a very handy bag of goodies (mainly nipple pads and cream ha ha - sexy) to take to the hospital with me, an amazing little bracelet for baby to wear, a clay mould to imprint baby's handprints and footprints which is so cool, a book of messages to baby from all the girls, a babygrow that the girls all signed with messages which is so lovely, and a cake made out of nappies and scratch mittens which is so impressive!

Everyone put so much thought and effort into the gifts and I can't thank them enough :-) love my babes!

They also got me a lovely necklace and some socks that say "Bestest Mummy Ever" ha ha, love it! So I didn't feel left out he he.

We played the BEST party games - pass the parcel, guess the baby (where everyone brought a baby photo and we had to guess who was who), a celebrity baby name quiz and my favourite - pin the sperm on the egg! Ha ha. And I'm pleased to say I lost them all - standard! I'm no wiser in almost motherhood ha ha.

It was SUCH a good evening and I feel so lucky to have such lovely friends :-) and I'll make sure bubba knows what amazing aunties she has when she pops out!

See you soon!!

xx