28 weeks pregnancy update

28 weeks pregnancy update

Here we are again, it feels like I just blinked and suddenly another 4 weeks has passed and it is time for my 28 weeks pregnancy update. I am now 27weeks and 4days but I saw my midwife this morning so I thought I would write my latest update a few days early.

Before I get stuck in with what has been going on with me and my baby bump, here is my gender reveal video in case any of you missed it…

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Pregnancy milestone cards from Babyblooms

Pregnancy milestone cards from Babyblooms

I have mentioned before how much I am enjoying documenting my second pregnancy. I love writing regular bump updates and taking lots of photos of my rapidly growing baby bump. Pregnancy is such a special time and I know from experience, that once it is over, it can be forgotten all too easily. Maybe writing a pregnancy blog isn’t for you but there are lots of fun ways you can document your pregnancy. When Babyblooms got in touch and asked if I wanted to review their pregnancy milestone cards, I said yes straight away, I couldn’t think of a more adorable way to record all those important moments that happen when you have a baby on the way. View Post

How to save money when shopping for a new baby

How to save money when shopping for a new baby

Having a new baby is an exciting time for every parent, be it first time around, second time or if you are expecting your tenth baby. As most of you know by now, I am expecting my second little boy and I can’t wait for us to become a family of four in October. I am very unprepared though and with just 14weeks to go it is about time I started doing some shopping for baby. Bringing a new little life in to the world can be quite an expensive business, babies just need so much stuff.  If you are looking to bring the cost of shopping for a new baby down, here are my tips on how to save yourself some money. View Post

Bumpbix – The BEST pregnancy snack ever

Bumpbix – The BEST pregnancy snack ever

When it comes to biscuits and sweet things, I am a teeny tiny bit addicted. I am that person who doesn’t stop at just one biscuit, if I have opened a packet in the morning there is a very good chance I will have scoffed every last one of them by the time bed time comes. Pregnancy has not suppressed this love of biscuits, I would say being pregnant has actually exacerbated my sweet tooth.  Instead of craving weird things like lumps of coal or whatever, my dominant pregnancy craving has simply been all the sweet things.

I try not to act on these cravings all the time as I want to make sure baby boy is getting the best possible food and I am not turning him into a baby made of cookies and chocolate.  When I stumbled across Boobbix on Instagram and they offered to send me some of their Bumpbix cookies, specifically made for pregnant ladies, I could not have been happier. I can eat biscuits and they are actually doing my growing bump some good? It was like a dream come true for my inner biscuit junkie. View Post

5 awesome reasons to start a pregnancy blog

5 awesome reasons to start a pregnancy blog

There are so many different reasons people write blogs. Some people start blogging because they want to share their love of fashion, photography or travel. Others spend hours tapping out recipes and healthy lifestyle tips for their readers. There are also the book, TV and game lovers who want to share their reviews and opinions online. Blogs focussing on current issues, politics and lifestyle are easily found floating around the internet – there are even blogs solely about blogging! Like thousands of other bloggers out there, I write about family life and parenthood. I started my blog when Leo was 19 months old back in March 2015 and I am still loving every second of it. After becoming pregnant with my second child at the beginning of this year my blog has grown from just a family lifestyle blog and is now a pregnancy blog too. View Post

24 weeks pregnancy update

24 weeks pregnancy update

Welcome back to another pregnancy update, these weeks are just flying by! I am now 24 weeks pregnant and baby is now officially viable. If for some reason I was to give birth now, doctors would do all they can to help baby survive. Fingers crossed nothing like that happens though, I am happy to wait out the full 40 weeks of pregnancy. So, here is what has been going on with me and bump over the last month and how I am feeling at 24 weeks pregnant.

 

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Dressing the bump for Summer 2016 – A wishlist

Dressing the bump for Summer 2016 – A wishlist

So the Great British Summer is here (apparently) and it is pretty clear that there is no way I am squeezing my ever expanding baby bump into any of last years summery outfits. All the pretty vests tops, little dresses and those high waist shorts I wore to death last year will be staying hidden away in the deep dark depths of my wardrobe this summer – and don’t even get me started on all my bikinis *sob*. Although I am a bit sad I can’t fit into these clothes anymore, I am overjoyed to have a baby growing in my belly and what a great excuse to go shopping for a whole new wardrobe. Finding nice maternity clothes can be a bit of a challenge as sometimes they just look a bit frumpy but I have found some really lovely outfits in the Dorothy Perkins sale perfect for the – hopefully! – warmer Summer months.  View Post

Could my second pregnancy be turning me into a bad Mum?

Could my second pregnancy be turning me into a bad Mum?

Being pregnant the second time around is so much harder than I ever expected it would be. I am, of course, over the moon that we are having another baby and that Leo is going to be a big brother, there are just times when I feel a bit overwhelmed. The fact that in a few short months a newborn will be joining our family and things are going to change (big time!) really does stress me out sometimes. Things are already starting to change now and baby hasn’t even arrived yet. Being pregnant and having a very energetic two year old don’t really work together harmoniously, there have been times in the last 23weeks where I have worried that my second pregnancy is turning me in to a bad Mum. View Post

5 things you notice on a night out when you’re pregnant

5 things you notice on a night out when you’re pregnant

I love a good night out and by night out I mean an evening out of the house with friends than involves lots of chatting, dancing and, of course, a gin or six. Being 22 weeks pregnant and already a mum to a two year old, my nights out are extremely rare, and the nights like the one I describe above are now just a happy yet some what blurry memory. View Post

20 week pregnancy update

20 week pregnancy update

Can you believe that I am now half way through my pregnancy? I sure can’t! Since I last wrote a pregnancy update, when I was 16weeks, my bump has probably tripled in size and I definitely feel pregnant now.

So apart from having a bump that is growing bigger by the day. here is what has been going on with me and baby bump lately. View Post

16 weeks pregnancy update

I don’t know how this has happened but after the first 12 weeks moving by at the pace of a snail, all of a sudden I am now 16 weeks pregnant. I am very obviously pregnant now as well.

So this is what has been going on with me and bump since my last update at 12 weeks..
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5 early signs you MIGHT be pregnant

I found out I was pregnant this time around when I was already 5 weeks gone, I probably knew I was pregnant from about 3 weeks though. I don’t know if it is because this is my second pregnancy or because Oli and I were very much trying to make a baby but I knew I was pregnant at least a week before ever reliable Aunt Flo decided not to show up. When I sat on the loo and took a test on that Wednesday afternoon in February, I was positive it was going to be..well..positive!

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When someone else shares your pregnancy secret.

When someone else shares your pregnancy secret.

At one point or another, we have all had a secret we have kept from everyone else. A little bit of information we have held on to tightly and guarded as if it were gold. If and when we decide to disclose this precious truth, great thought is given to who can be trusted with it. View Post

The big reveal

The big reveal

I have some exciting news.

I have thought long and hard about how to tell you all my big secret. I considered posting some kind of cryptic image of an oven or something on my InstaGram account, or perhaps I could have vlogged about it. In the end though, I decided to just keep things simple. After all, I have been desperate to tell you all so I may as well just get straight to the point..
I’m having a baby!
Today I am exactly 12 weeks pregnant and yesterday we got our first little glimpse of baby number 2 when we went for our dating scan. Up until the point I saw that grainy image of my tiny baby just chilling in my belly with his/her legs up in the air, I hadn’t let myself believe this is actually happening. But now I have photographic evidence, proof that I am indeed having another baby and Leo is going to be someone’s big brother. I am so happy and now, after a couple months of uncertainty, I am feeling completely besotted with baby number 2 and I can start to get properly excited.
I found out I was pregnant when I was about 5 weeks gone, I waited until my monthly visitor was over a week late as I wanted to be completely sure before I took the test. It was only late November when I had my contraceptive implant removed so I was really shocked to get a positive test after only 2 months of trying! 
For the past 12 weeks I have felt so unbelievably tired, being pregnant with a toddler to run around after is exhausting! Luckily I haven’t been sick or anything, just feeling a bit queasy sometimes and needing to eat the second I wake up other wise I feel like I might pass out. There have been no weird food cravings yet, although there have been a few foods I have gone off and the smell of cooking meat really does make me want to spew. We cooked a beef joint in the slow cooker the other week and it was 8 hours of pure torture, I couldn’t stay in the kitchen for more than 2 minutes without feeling the need to run away to the bathroom.
Me and my babies.
Blogging has been hard too. Every time I start a new post all I have been wanting to write is I’M PREGNANT!! Instead though I have been writing about anything and everything else, if has felt strange not being able to write about the one thing that has constantly been on my mind. I have seen so many other blogger’s announce their pregnancy news over the past couple months and have felt a bit gutted that I have had to keep my news quiet, up until now that is. 
So, baby number 2 is due on October 21st but if he/she takes after their big brother they will probably arrive somewhere closer to Halloween. Leo will be 3 and a couple of months and I am really happy with that age gap, hopefully he will be able to understand more of what’s going on and won’t get too jealous of the new addition, only time will tell but I can hope right?
As for pregnancy updates, I will be uploading weekly vlogs over on my YouTube channel, so if you want to see how bump and I are getting on as the weeks progress then that is the place to go. I will be writing updates on here around the times of my midwife checks/scans, so my first official pregnancy update on here will be when I am 16 weeks.
Here is my belly the day after I found out there was a little baby growing in there..
Please ignore the pjs and the horrendously messy bedroom.

And here is my belly now, if my bump keeps growing at this rate I am going to struggle to fit through doors by the time I’m 6 months. Baby is measuring just over 5cm so no idea why I look this big already.

It feels so good to finally let the cat out of the bag! I look forward to blogging my way through this pregnancy and I would love for you all to come along for the ride too. 
Have you recently announced your pregnancy news too? Anyone else expecting baby number 2 and feeling way more exhausted than they did first time around? I would love to know how you revealed your secret and how you have found the first trimester.
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My Random Musings

Telling your boss you’re pregnant

I don’t know about you but when I was pregnant I worried about every little thing. Should I be eating this? Am I exercising enough? Have I bought enough baby grows? Early on in my pregnancy, besides the health of my growing baby, the thing I worried about the most was telling my boss the good news. I was new to my job and was nervous about telling my new boss I was pregnant as I was yet to feel like a fully established member of staff, I was very much still the new girl.

My 12 week scan was rapidly approaching and I knew it would soon be time to tell my employer about the pregnancy, I wasn’t going to be able to hide it forever. The day after my scan I decided to tell her, I convinced myself I was stressing over nothing. Yes I was new but I was doing well in my work and we seemed to have a good relationship, surely I had nothing to worry about.

Unfortunately, I was right to be so concerned.

I was not greeted with congratulations and well wishes, instead I was told it was very likely my employment would be terminated as my boss wanted someone who was fully committed to the business, I had every intention of working up until the very last few weeks of pregnancy and planned to only take 6 months maternity leave, it was my first job after university and I was eager to make it work. I was never able to prove what the business meant to me, the following week I was told the job was no longer mine.

3 moths pregnant and unemployed. Not exactly the ideal situation.

Friends and family told me it wasn’t fair – ‘she can’t do that?’ , ‘is that even legal?’. As it turns out, no it is not legal. My not so lovely boss had breached discrimination laws set out in the Equality and Employment rights acts. A quick phone call with citizen advice bureau revealed what happened to me was not just illegal but I also had a strong case for compensation.

This is not what I wanted when I first found out I was expecting. I wanted my boss to be OK with it and to have my job waiting for me when I came back from maternity leave. I did not want to be dealing with a solicitor and a messy compensation case up until the time I was 8 months pregnant. I did not want to have to read my now ex employers defence statement, full of lies, painting me as an incompetent employee, when in fact I worked hard every single day.

We don’t always get what we want though, do we?

After everything, I only came away with £4000 in compensation. Just over 4 months worth of wages. 4 months I could have still been working for her, by that point I would have been 7 months pregnant and still very capable of sitting at a computer answering emails and making phone calls. This £4000 by no stretch of the imagination covered my loss of earnings, let alone my loss of maternity pay. This was a settlement reached out of court, a trial could have resulted in a much higher payment but could have also resulted in nothing. It all would have depended on how the judge was feeling on the day. 8 months pregnant, extremely hormonal and stressed, I decided to settle out of court. I could not stand to listen to my boss tell the judge her web of lies, so for my health and my baby’s, we took her offer.

Now I am not saying this is going to happen to you or you should try and claim compensation if it does. That decision is up to you. All I am saying is know your rights before you tell your boss about your pregnancy. It is better to be informed, just in case.

As a pregnant employee you have 4 main rights –

1. The right to paid time off for antenatal care
2. The right to not be treated differently/discriminated against due to your pregnancy
3. The right to maternity leave
4. The right to maternity pay/maternity allowance

If your employer denies you of any of these things then they are breaking the law. Also, you do not have to tell your employer you’re pregnant as early as I did. If you have a physical job that may put you or your baby’s health at risk you may wish to share the news early on, otherwise you can wait until you are 25 weeks before you tell your employer. How I wish I had waited that long. If I wasn’t such an honest idiot and just invested in some baggy tops, I could have worked an extra 13 weeks. But I didn’t and there is no point looking back now.

Anyway, there is no way I would have swapped spending these 2 years I have had off with Leo for more time working for an employer who ultimately, wasn’t that nice or caring anyway.

If you want to find out more about your rights as a pregnant employee, .gov website and citizens advice have lots of useful information.

How did your boss react when you told them you were pregnant? Did you have a similar experience to me? If you are pregnant now and are looking to tell your boss soon, good luck and don’t worry, luckily my story is quite an uncommon one.

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