Dieting

I have spent most of my teens and all of my adult life dieting. I've tried weight watchers and slimming world and they don't work for me as I have terrible willpower. I found I had better results with slimming world though. I want it to be a change in lifestyle so these juice/smoothie diets, appetite suppression pills or meal replacement diets won't work for me as this is a long term thing not a quick fix (it has taken me so long to get in this frame of mind). I had considered doing something like this to kick start the weight loss but again for me I don't think it will work. I'm starting to realise the best thing for me is to eat healthily. I've tried winging it and reducing portion sizes or trying to eat healthy and just eat salad. I'm now planning to go low carb. As a diabetic this is highly recommended but I never took the plunge as I love pasta far too much and I thought, being ignorant, that I could never eat this again. To begin with there will be a lot of trial and error as to what I can eat without it spiking blood sugars. I may find I can eat a small amount of pasta but not potatoes etc. or neither. It's going to take some adjusting to this way of eating but it will be worth it improving my health and losing weight too.

Ooops!

It's been a while... Again. I really don't have an excuse, I'm just rubbish at this blogging lark. I am going to keep trying though. I've actually compiled a list of things I want to blog about so I will plough through those then hopefully soon it will have become second nature to me.

I'm hoping to give this blog a new lease of life. It's been quite forgotten about so I'm gonna give it a makeover ready for a fresh start.


A lot has happened since I lost blogged. We all went to Disneyland Paris in March. It was amazing! I went when I was 6 but my memories are a little fuzzy now. We all enjoyed it so much I am already planning for our next visit there!

Bumbly is at nursery now, she started in January and it has been so good for her! She loves the intereaction with all the children and loves the learning too.

Just this week Roo turned 2! I really don't know how this happened. I'm sure he's still a baby, right? Though his tanturms do say otherwise!

A big focus of ours now is to save up a deposit to buy our own house. This has been something we've deperately wanted for so long and now we are finally putting things in motion. This is going to including a rejig of our bank accounts, but more on that later. I will also get back into posting recipes and meal plans. I have a fab camera now instead of one on my phone so hopefully the pictures will be much nicer to look at.

In this crazy, hectic, stressful, amazing journey of parenting I really do need something like this blog for a personal space to vent, think and share. It's good for parents (actually for anyone) to have something they can focus on, something of their own that reminds them there is a life beyond children, even for the most devoted of parents.

Adios for now x

Revamped mirrors

I wrote here about how I painted my lamp to give it a new lease of life and update my living room. I've done the same to two mirrors.

The first mirror is hung in my living room. It was a bargain, picked up at a charity shop for £5 for two large mirrors!

I cleaned the frame with a sugar soap solution and covered in a few coats of chalk paint.

The mirror now takes pride of place above the fireplace. The other mirror is still in the loft waiting for some TLC!

The second is very ornate and was gold

(This picture is actually upside down...)

Just like the first mirror I gave it a really good clean with a sugar soap solution. I then covered the mirror in a few coats of the chalk paint

The finished product!

I love how it's turned out. I've put the mirror in my dining room. I will eventually be decorating the whole room too. 

I've caught the revamp/decorating bug!

My Birth Experiences

I'm going to be very honest in today's blog post. I don't talk about this subject very often as I feel very alone and when I do talk about it I get upset.

I am Diabetic and when pregnant it's hard to keep under control. With Bumbly I often had low blood sugars and needed to keep a supply of chocolate and sweets for those low numbers. I even lost body fat when I was pregnant with her. My birthing experience was overall good. I went to hospital at 38 weeks to be induced. The midwives used a pessary and it worked. I was contracting. A lot! They were in top of each other. When I was checked I wasn't dilating. The decision was made to take the pessary put and try again the next day. I finally stopped contracting about 10.30pm and went to sleep. At just gone midnight I woke up with a very painful contraction. I jumped out of bed. I'm not even sure why I did that I just knew I needed to move. Straight away I had another contraction and I threw up. I sat down on the bed to see if that eased the pain and had another contraction and with that my waters broke. When I first started contracting I was screaming out. It was so so painful. But then it was a very quick labour so I imagine it was hours worth of contractions in a short time. The head midwife actually came to me and asked me to be quiet because of the other women! Once my waters broke she soon changed her tune. I was taken to the bathroom to change out of my clothes because I was covered in sick and waters. It took a long time to get changed because I just kept contracting. At one point the midwives asked if I was ok. I think they were worried I was delivering the baby haha! Anyway, once changed they took me up to the labour ward. I was given gas and air. I had a puff but I didn't like it so stopped using it. I was just getting contraction after contraction and I was offered pethedine. I jumped at the chance! I needed a rest. The doctor came and got the injection easy and my midwife said she'll just check how far dilated I am. So she looked and said "Oh I can see the head. You need to push!" And that was it. A few pushes later and she was here. 47 minutes from first contraction and she was in my arms! 12 minutes later the placenta was delivered. Bumbly was born at 1.07am and weighed 7lb5oz. She was perfect and I cried. Because she was so quick being delivered I tore badly and needed stitches so I had to go to theate. That was really hard to deal with. You've just had your beautiful baby that you ttc for 4 1/2 years and you had to be parted. It was lovely that papa got that special time with her but I hated being away from her and I missed her so much! She breastfed like a dream and was a ver positive experience. I loved being pregnant and giving birth.

Roo was a very different experience. He was conceived the first month. We were trying but very shocked as it took so long for Bumbly. The pregnancy was going fairly smoothly. Once I'd hit about 5/6 months I had scans every 2 weeks to check the growth. He was measuring big. I was huge! I was also having a lot of braxton hicks. I had a scan at 36 weeks (a Tuesday) and he was measuring off the charts. He was so big because I am Diabetic. I spoke with my consultant and he decided that the safest thing was to get him out. As I had tore badly with Bumbly he opted for a section. He wanted me to come in the next day (Wednesday) to start steroid injections ready for the section on the Friday. It was all moving very quick and I was scared. I went to hospital the next day to be told they were struggling for beds in NICU. It was just a precaution as he was going to be premature. Thursday came and still no beds. My consultant started to worry. He was ringing around other hospitals trying to find a bed but they were full to. Friday came. We had a bed for him in NICU but there was an emergency. Saturday came.  There was finally a bed. He was born at 3.31pm. He was perfectly ok. He didn't need to go to NICU after all. He was fully checked over and they took a blood sample from his cord to check his thyroid (which came back fine). He was fine to come home once I had recovered enough. He breastfed amazingly from me. I had a lot of support from the midwives. I had issues with my scar. It split in 3 places and got infected.

It's been very hard. I wished so much for a natural birth like Bumbly and I grieve that so much. I still get affected by how things turned out 14 months later. I am grateful that he's here and is ok. I also cannot even think or talk about his birth without is upsetting me. I feel like a failure to Roo and myself. I hate my body (even more) because I have this huge scar. I already have a lot of scars on my body due to operations and I didn't want another one. I hate how he could have been very poorly and been in NICU. I feel like I should've done more to keep him safe. I wish that I'd had the chance to give birth to him. I tore with Bumbly because of the very fast labour so there's a good chance I could've managed a natural delivery. Or maybe a delivery with forceps. I feel I've failed him that he got so big because of my diabetes. He has slimmed down a lot now and is fine but this all haunts me every day. I know I shouldn't still be bothered by all this but I am. It gets a little easier as time goes by.

 I have made it my mission that if there's a number 3 then I will have lost weight and my diabetes is amazing controlled. I would actually love to reverse my diabetes, which could happen if I lost weight. I feel that I couldn't have another baby if I want in the best possible shape. And if I am then threw a good I change I cousin have a vbac. So for the future I am feeling positive. I am making steps to feel better about what happened too.

This has been an incredibly personal post but I feel it has helped getting it all written down. Wow it is long!

Things don't always go to plan but something beautiful can come of it.

Meal Plan - Week Starting 4/8/14

Last one to the party but here's our menu plan this week.

So far we've had:

Macaroni Cheese
Creamy Sausage Gnocchi

The rest of the week (in no particular order):

Lamb Meatballs
Chinese Pork & Rice
Spaghetti & Meatballs
Chicken & Chorizo Risotto
Creamy Beef & Vegetables

I'm linking up with MrsM!

Revamped Lamp

I was given a lamp by family and although it was too dark for me I knew with a bit of paint and a nice shade it would look great in our front room.

A lovely little lamp.

I used my chalk paint recipe and painted it white. I started off by putting masking tape around the connector at the top and the lead. With chalk paint you don't actually need to sand your piece down first, just give it a good clean. I used sugar soap. It took quite a few coats to paint this beast because it's a dark colour. I did a coat of chalk paint then a coat of white emulsion to block out some of the under colour then topped it with a couple more coats of chalk paint. In hindsight I should have given it a light sanding just to lighten it up a bit prior to painting.

It's actually turned out really nice! I'm so chuffed as this is my first chalk paint project. I just need to give it a light coat of wax for protection and it's good to go.

Perfect for our family

Homemade Chalk Paint

I love the effect chalk paint gives. I'm into the whole shabby chic style. I do not like the price for a tin of paint.

I've had everything I've needed to make this for ages now but never got around to making some up. A friend bought a tin of the stuff and up cycled a mirror. It looked great and I kicked myself for not doing anything sooner. So yesterday my projects got underway.

The recipe I use:

2 tbsp of powdered grout

A splash of water

A cupful of paint (you can use any paint here, any colour but Matt is best)

You put your grout in a bowl and add a splash of water and mix until it resembles pancake batter. 

You need to make sure there are no lumps at this point, it does not leave a nice finish. I use a metal whisk for magi this up. Once it has been whisked to within an inch of it's life add your paint. I use an old ladle for this and 2 ladelfuls equal about a cup. Give it a good ol' stir and it's ready!

This dries up quickly but add a splash of water and a quick whisk and it good to go again.

So simple to make and most will have a pack of grout kicking around. It was so relaxing too!