Blogmas #2 - Nearly Yummy Mummy Christmas tree!

The Christmas decorations are finally up in the Nearly Yummy Mummy household! I usually have the house sufficiently glitter bombed and ready for Christmas by the first of December. As a self confessed addict of fairy lights and anything sparkly, I like the tree up as early as my husband will allow (apparently the beginning of November is too early?!)
This year due to a migraine on my part and hideous bouts of sickness from the baby, decorating the house happened a couple of days late. However the decorations are now up, and I am feeling super festive!

We unfortunately can't have real Christmas trees in the house as they make me really sneezy. I have to say I'm a little bit sad that we don't get to have the lovely pine smell wafting through the house as it's so Christmassy. However I make up for it with copious amounts of festive scented reed diffusers and thankfully it means I'm not hoovering needles out of the carpet for months!

I am usually a fan of matching everything - I love to co-ordinate! But my Christmas tree is the exception to the rule. When Pete and I first moved in together, we decided to buy one really special tree decoration each year. Now this didn't quite go to plan as I got carried away the first year and bought about 9, But since then I have been very good and stuck to our little tradition.

My favourite places to buy decorations are TK Maxx and a beautiful independent shop in Bath called The 25th of December which is a lot of fun to shop in as it just oozes Christmas. I always leave feeling ten times more excited than when I arrived. This year we did something a bit different. Back in October when we were in Cyprus, we found a beautiful Christmas bauble in one of the shops and decided to buy it as this years decoration to remember our first family holiday. It felt very strange buying a Christmas ornament in hot, sunny Cyprus, but it's beautiful and I love it. 

One of my favourite pieces on my tree was actually something given to me by a very dear friend rather than one I bought myself.
Every year my best friends from school and I get together to catch up, eat good food and drink lots of wine. I think it might be favourite Christmas tradition, and every year the hosts mum showers us with beautiful gifts. Last year I got given the most beautiful Christmas tree decorations from Liberty in London. They are mercury glass hearts which have a hinge and open up so you can hide a chocolate in them (chocolates which I have yet to buy...) They are by far my favourite ornaments and they make my tree look super glam and fancy :-)

As a last minute Christmas idea thought up whilst traipsing round Tesco, I decided to make Pomanders. They smell totally amazing and once I have dusted them with orrisroot they will be finished and ready to make my house smell delicious. I have to say it was oddly therapeutic making pretty patterns out of cloves, I highly recommend it.

I have also dotted cutesie Christmas ornaments around the house like tea light holders, Father Christmas paraphanelia and glittery pine cones (they're a must in my house!).

I am now starting to get very over excited about Christmas and I'm sure I will only get worse as I'm about to head online and get our Christmas cards printed! What is it that gets you in the festive spirit?

Happy Blogmas! X

Blogmas #1 - Christmas pottery painting!

I woke up this morning to see Twitter covered in #blogmas posts. As a big lover of Christmas (I am an avid fan of anything that allows me to cover the house in even more glitter!) I have decided to join in. So welcome to Blogmas day 1!

As it is Luke's first Christmas and my first as a mummy, I feel the need to go a little overboard this year. I mean you only have one first Christmas! 

So this morning we went to Flying Saucers pottery cafe to make some Christmas presents for Luke's Grandparents. 

I had the idea of doing handprint mugs after we had Luke's hand and footprints done on a plaque at 4 months old, so when a friend asked us to join them for pottery painting, I was totally on board. 

With 5 mummies and 6 babies (one set of twins!) it was a manic adventure to say the least. The little ones were not totally in love with the idea of being painted and printed so shouting and tears were a fairly dominant part of the session! 

That being said, Luke was very compliment and I was actually really pleased with the way the the handprints turned out. 

I then added bunting around the top of the mugs and polka dots to fill in the gaps. I wanted to personalise them a bit so I wrote a little message on each of the mugs. My mother in law is more of a 'cup and saucer' kind of lady so I wrote a something around the saucer which I think looks really cute, if I do say so myself! 

As my mums didn't have a saucer with it, I wrote 'Granny's cup of tea' on the bottom so people can see it when she takes a sip :-) 

Unfortunately the end of the session took a turn for the worse as Luke was spectacularly sick over himself, his seat and me. He's since seen the Dr and is all ok but may have a little bit of a bug. Not that you'd guess it - two minutes after converting everything in sick he was back to his happy, chatty self! 

Unfortunately this meant I didn't get a picture of the finished pieces (I also had to skip making a first Christmas bauble which was a bit sad).

However they will be ready next week so I will pop a photo up on my Instagram so you can see how they turned out. 

Pop back tomorrow for our next Christmas adventure. 

Happy Blogmas! X

Our week in pictures #3

Hello all welcome to another week in pictures! As promised, I did more this week than just sit around in my pyjamas and take selfies! 

We started off our week with a trip to baby gym class with a mummy friend and Luke's best buddy Ted. It is so much fun for the boys, and us mummies had a wail of a time on the trampolines (they're the sort of thing that you find extremely exciting when you're a mummy!) 

They are getting so grown up now, it's hard to imagine they were once tiny newborns with floppy heads! 

I also had quite an emotional week. While writing a blog post on being a preemie mummy, I scrolled back through all my photos of Luke as a newborn. I have to say it hit me harder than I expected and I got all blurry eyed looking at my little boy in an incubator and realising how far he has come. 

Our week has also been filled to the brim with mummy play dates this week.  Although it is mainly so us mummies can keep some degree of sanity and gorge on obscene amounts of chocolate, I also feel it's really lovely for the boys to have some bonding time (and I think they enjoy seeing something other than mummy's boring face!)

Despite the gloomy weather today, our week couldn't have had a more perfect end to it. As my husband has been away a lot this week, we decided to have a family trip into Bath and wonder round the gorgeous Christmas market. I had the most wonderful time, keeping myself toasty with an all important glass of mulled wine and I am now finally getting into the festive spirit! I was also spoiled rotten and my darling hubby got me a new iPhone as an early Christmas present! Mine was rapidly dying and I had been angling after the rose gold one ever since it came out (My wedding ring is rose gold so of course I needed a matching phone!) 

We were cold and damp by the one we arrived home so cooked and devoured a delicious roast - I think I have decided it's my all time favourite meal. Sunday's are the best :-) 

Lastly, we hit a very important milestone this week - exactly one week before he turns 8 months, Luke is sitting up by himself! So I am an extremely proud mummy. 

Be prepared for a very festive 'Our week in pictures' this coming week - we are putting the Christmas tree up, making hand print decorations and blitzing the Christmas shopping! Expect tinsel, baubles and obscene amounts of fairy lights! 

Baby boys Winter wardrobe!

I think winter is my favourite time of year. The crisp, cold winter mornings (which sadly we haven't had many of recently). Warming, hearty, slow cooker beef stews and of course best of all the lead up to Christmas! 

Winter is one of my favourite seasons for my own clothes, so you can imagine how exciting I've found it getting a winter wardrobe for little pickle! Here are just a few of my favourite winter wardrobe picks from Next and Tesco. 

Now Luke is starting to look a bit more like a little boy, I quite like having the option of proper trousers rather than just trackies or onesies. I am a bit in love with cords at the moment and have bought a grey pair from Tesco and a navy pair from Next. They both have adjustable waist bands which I loved or baby boys trousers as it makes them a lot more comfortable. 

I really hope we get some cooler weather heading our way soon as I am totally in love with the little chunky knit jumpers that are in all the shops at the moment. Between Tesco and Next I got some gorgeous jumpers for Luke - my favourite ones are the little cream one with the brown suede on the shoulders (which looks gorgeous paired with the grey cords I got) and the little car jumper from next because it's just such a little boy jumper! Also the colour makes Luke's eyes look amazingly blue. 

I also got a couple of little baby shirts from Tesco as Luke we are having Luke christened in A couple of weeks and I wanted him to look a little bit fancy! He's going to wear the navy cords and gorgeous little checked shirt! 

Lastly my mother in law got Luke a gorgeous coat from Tesco. It's a little parka style coat with fur round the hood which looks totally cute when it's up! Also from a practical mummy point of view it is really warm and has extra padding - the sort that makes your child resemble a starfish! 

On top of all that I of course stocked up on little tops and obscene amounts of babygrows! I also indulged in some little Christmas outfits but you'll have to wait until Christmas day to see those! What are your favourite winter buys for your little ones and where is your favourite place to shop? 

Being mummy to a preemie

I remember repeating it like some sort of mantra - "he's due the 11th May" I would say over and over again to each person who looked at my bump and asked when he was coming. So when I was taken to hospital on 28th March and told that my waters had broken and baby would be with us in the not too distant future, all I could think was "but he can't come... my baby's not due until the 11th May.

Funnily enough I had a feeling throughout my entire pregnancy that Luke was going to make an early appearance (lets call it mothers instinct). I had my hospital bag packed from about 26 weeks after having a horrible nightmare in which I went in to early labour and had nothing to take with me. That weekend I promptly bought everything I needed for my bag and left it buy the door, waiting for babys birthday to arrive.

         The day that Luke arrived 

I was measuring big from very early on and on the night of 28th of March, I sprung a hind water leak at my friends engagement party (thunder stealing much?!) I will never forget the feeling of panic and uncertainty when the doctor told me "your waters have started to go. We will keep baby in as long as we can but it looks like he's coming early". What followed were a very stressful few days of blood tests, steroid injections, bed rest and scans. We managed to keep him in an extra week but on 6th April, exactly 5 weeks early our little baby boy entered our lives.

                  Baby's first photo 

Having your baby come early, every step of the way is filled with worry. I was lucky to have a relatively straightforward labour and birth. However at the end of it I only got to hold Luke for a couple of minutes before he was whisked away from me and taken to NICU. I didnt get the post birth cuddles and closeness. When everyone else was on the ward with their babies next to them, I was alone with what seemed like a million miles between me and my little boy. It seemed so unfair at the time that everyone else was getting newborn cuddles and spending time with their little bundles of joy and then there was me. Stuck in a nightmare of bad news.

          Luke at just a few days old 

There is also a slight sadness to being a preemie mummy. I am hugely grateful and feel very blessed that Luke ended up being ok. He is now no different to any other 7 month old. However I can't help but feel a pang of jealously whenever people mention being in that 'newborn bubble'.
Being mummy to a poorly little preemie you don't get to be in a bubble of feeding and cuddles and pyjama days on the sofa. My bubble was full of wires, machines, blood tests and hospital food. It is a really hard place to be in, especially when it feels like the rest of the world are living in a happy little bubble of love. And quite honestly with all our problems along the way, I didn't find it got any easier until Luke hit 6 months.

            First cuddles with Daddy 

Unfortunately when you are pregnant, you don't get told about how to deal with being mummy to a premature baby. No one tells you how hard it will be, how drained and helpless you will feel when it all starts to go wrong. When we were in hospital, we had to deal with things I hope I never have to go through again: Our baby being rushed to the resuscitation table, not being able to hold him properly until he was 2 days old, having to navigate your way around a mass of wires whenever you wanted a cuddle. No one prepares you for what it will be like if your baby comes before your due date.

Having a baby earlier than planned is a really scary, difficult thing and I personally think that pregnant women should be educated and made aware of what they could potentially face. I am just thankful that I was lucky enough to have a really wonderful support network of friends and family along with my lovely husband.

     Now a happy, healthy 7 month old 

Our week in pictures #2

To be quite honest we have had a relatively lazy week this week. Luke has been teething like crazy and as a result we have had a slightly grumpy baby and a very grumpy mummy! 

At the beginning of the week my Daddy came to see us and we had a Grandad day. He works away a lot so I treasure the rare times I get to spend the day with him. Luke is totally in love with his Grandad - seeing them together makes me heart melt. We went to Starbucks and I tried their hot mulled fruit which is hands down the best Christmas drink ever (except actual mulled wine!) totally in love!

I also got my first set of Christmas nails done this week which I got extremely over excited about and I have already planned my next two sets! They look kind of like Frozen nails, however this wasn't intentional and they are actually meant to match our Christmas decor at work - I felt super co-ordinated this weekend!

At least 3 days this week I have also invaded my friend Rebecca's house (partly due to the lack of coffee in my house and partly because she is lush and plies me with chocolate!) her little boy and Luke are totally cute together even though their play dates usually involve chewing each other feet and trying to grab each others faces!

My biggest feat this week is a little bit pathetic but a major triumph in mummy world! Trying to get Luke to sleep when he is poorly is a total nightmare so this picture was a very proud moment! Haha lame I know!

Honestly the rest of the week has mainly involved snuggles and selfies with a teething, poorly milk monster - my sincere apologies that I haven't been up to anything more interesting! 

I will do my best next week to get out of my pyjamas and get some more interesting and exciting pictures for next weeks 'Our week in pictures'!

What have you been up to this week? Share your favourite picture below! 

5 tips for returning to work

I recently had my first weekend back at work. As you may know if you read my post about returning to work, I was extremely nervous. However I actually had a really wonderful couple of days (and sold a rather expensive ring which made the boss happy!) In a way it felt like I had never left - a perk, I guess, to only taking 7 months maternity leave. However it was also very different - I found myself worrying about Luke throughout the day, I got major baby brain and forgot what I was saying half way through talking to customers and by about 3 o'clock I was starting to flake.
Here are a few tips from me to you other working mummies out there to help your return to work run smoothly.

Get a coffee machine:
Before I was a mummy I didn't drink coffee. Now I live off the stuff (she says while sipping her deliciously strong espresso!) As well as being an essential mummy item, it also came in handy for my first day back at work. I have a Nespresso machine which my wonderful parents got me for my birthday this year. I love it because it makes espressos (the perfect mummy drink - all your caffeine in about 2 sips!) or you have the option to add water and make a full sized coffee! Fab for returning to work as it saves me spending silly amounts on Starbucks and usually making myself late waiting in the queue!

Wear a pair of killer heels:
Obviously I'm not talking 6" platforms, but I find wearing a pair of heels automatically boosts my confidence and makes me feel like I can conquer anything that is thrown at me. Having a little bit of extra confidence will make your return to work that little bit easier.

Buy a new handbag:
It sounds ridiculous, but one of the things I was most excited about on the day I went back to work was taking a handbag! Not a changing bag full of babywipes, bottles and various brightly coloured toys, but my beautiful, shiny, grownup Ted Baker handbag. I felt like the fanciest person in the world strutting through town clutching it! Of course to everyone else I just looked like an ordinary person carrying an ordinary handbag. But to me it felt like I was queen of the world!

Throw your whole self in (This feels like the start of the hokey cokey...):
If you decide as a mummy to return to work, whether full time or part time, my advice to you is to go for it with everything you've got. I have found that when I am at work I need to distance myself from being mummy Laura and throw myself into being work Laura. This way I really enjoy my days at the shop. Ok it helps that I get to spend my time selling diamonds and sparkly stuff (and of course trying all the beautiful jewellery on just to make sure it looks as nice on as it does off is an added bonus!) but I find that if I think about Luke too much, I miss him and it makes me sad which in turn means I don't enjoy my day. So I get on with being work Laura in the knowledge that I will have a whole 5 days of the week to be mummy and get all the cuddles I can to keep me going through those two days without.

Do something you love:
Ok, I am aware that this is not always possible - sometimes you just need something that pays the bills. But as a mummy, its surprisingly hard to leave your little one for a whole day especially when you are used to being with them all the time. If you can go back to doing something you enjoy, it makes leaving your baby for the day a whole lot easier and dare I say it... you might actually enjoy the break.

Those are my tips for going back to work - have you got any words of wisdom to share?