this little house

BOY, OH BOY! IT'S A BABY BOY!!

Sorry for the radio silence!!

It gives me great pleasure to introduce our son to you, Archie.

He was born 3rd June at 9.55pm, weighing a glorious 9lb 1oz. Since his arrival it's been a bit of a whirlwind. A whirlwind I'll explain better once I get the chance to spend longer than five minutes at a computer. I promise I'll be back before 2030 ;)

In the meantime, I'm going to be loving hard on my household of boys. Boys that make me so proud on a daily basis. I've got Caleb, who is a natural big brother, he literally makes my heart melt a thousand times a day. Archie, who is so super chilled he goes by the nickname, Dreamboat, and that husband of mine....I don't know what I'd do without him.

I look forward to sharing more of the last few weeks with you very soon, in the meantime if you'd like to follow our Instagram @thislittlehouse_ I try to post a little daily insight into our life as a family of four over there and we'd love for you to join us.

Saturday, 14 June 2014 Comments: 13

Wow, baby bump. Well here we are. 38 weeks.

The last few weeks have just flown by. Lots of getting ready for you, sweet baby, and lots of running after your big brother. Life is hectic, tiring, full-on, but beautiful, that is for sure.

I've been experiencing Braxton Hicks for a couple of weeks now. A gentle reminder of the task ahead ;)

I'm feeling surprisingly relaxed about the labour, which was not the case a few weeks ago. I think the idea of that pain again had slowly started to freak me out, but as I suspected, with the due date drawing closer I've got my bring it on attitude back, because let me tell you, I am crazy excited about meeting this babe of mine.

A little baby that will soon fill all those dinky white vests I've been washing. Oh how these white vests get me every time. Cutest things ever.

Not long now and I will bid goodbye to this bump of mine. The thought brings me a mix of relief (sleeping with a bump is HARD!) but also a little sad.

For this unique time will never be repeated. Not saying I may never be pregnant again, who knows what the future holds (if we're mad enough ;)), but I will never be pregnant with this baby again.

It reminds me to savour every last moment of this pregnancy, with you, my dear one, nestled warm inside of me. Just easy on the ribs and bladder, thanks, 'cause seriously, you can certainly pack a punch and a kick!!

Tuesday, 20 May 2014 Comments: 5

A couple of weeks ago, thanks to my lovely Aunty Linda, Michael and I found ourselves toddler free for an ENTIRE weekend.

Three whole days of no one to think about or put first, other than ourselves. A crazy, almost surreal like notion, when you're a parent. There were equal measures of excitement and anxiety. On one hand I wanted to shriek through the streets, 'I'M FREE!!!', and on the other hand cry, 'Bring my baby back'.

So what was a gal to do with herself and all this toddler free time?? A whole lot of nothing and a whole lot of everything.

Long lies, breakfast in bed, crap TV (no cartoons in sight!!), nails painted, girlie catch ups, and dates, dates, dates with my man. Oh yes, we brunched, we lunched, we had dinner out. Dinner out with a 9pm booking, no less! Yes, 9pm, as in the '9pm' that we usually go to bed. Who'd have thought ;)

It was a lovely weekend. Not only did it make me appreciate the much needed rest and alone time, but also my life as a mama. As much as I was relishing in my freedom, I missed Caleb like crazy. Do you want to hear something completely bonkers? I slept worse than I have in a long time because Caleb was not in the house. Oh the irony.

These pictures were taken after our Friday night dinner in Stockbridge. Instead of doing our usual rush home to get Caleb bathed and to bed, we were able to stroll along the canal. It's those moments that have really stuck with me from the weekend. The simple things, like a walk with my love. Just chatting, laughing, with not a care in the world.

Wednesday, 30 April 2014 Comments: 0

Oh yeah, we are 34 weeks pregnant, baby!!

Where the time has gone is a mystery. I still think Christmas was just last week, and here we are with Easter now already been and gone.

So as you may have guessed from the title of this post I am nesting like a crazy lady. The exact same thing happened before Caleb was born. Anything broke, no matter how insignificant, needed to be fixed. Any changes to our home that I've been debating for the last two years have had to be done....like yesterday. In the flurry of all the running to Ikea, B&Q, Homebase, the hammering, nailing, drilling, painting, cleaning, comes this sense of peace and satisfaction. It's addictive. As soon as I finish one task, I'm eyeing up another. Strange how not only our bodies but our minds react to pregnancy.

I have to champion my mum this last week, she came up to celebrate Easter and I'm pretty sure she thought she had landed herself in a episode of DIY SOS. Thanks, Grandma Liverpool. We love yooooooou!

As for baby bump, active is an understatement. I'm starting to think I have a little gymnast in there. I had forgotten the movement at this stage, gone are the subtle kicks and in their place are ones that pack so much force behind them, it brings the reality home that there is a real, live baby in there, with bones that are growing stronger by the day. A baby that will be with us in a short while. A thought that terrifies me and makes my heart swell twice its size, all at the same time. We first stepped foot on this path over two years ago, and here we are, soon to be a family of four. This life can be crazy, it can most certainly be tough, but my god, how I wouldn't have it any other way.

On a side note, what about the Easter weekend weather? Sunglasses out, light jacket on (or even off!), bare legs (gasp!). We'll have more of that please :)

Tuesday, 22 April 2014 Comments: 6

Beep! Beep! Man coming through with (soon to be) two babies!!

Oh yes, we're in the, 'how the hell are we going to get around with two littles?' conundrum.

Finding a double pram that fits all our needs is proving tricky. We want slim line, but we want light. We want it to be easy to collapse and car boot friendly, but preferably collapse in one piece. The side by side doubles are just proving too wide for everyday life but at the same time I'm not the biggest fan of the doubles where the baby is stashed underneath like hidden cargo ;)

So we've decided to wait till baby bump is here before we make any big purchases. In the meantime, I always knew I would want a buggy board for Caleb. Rather than wait till the baby was here (we didn't want it to appear like he was getting his eviction notice from his own pram ;) ) we thought we would get it now so Caleb could get used to it.

After a tricky start, where upon he thought it was a seat :/. Nice try, Caleb, if only it was that simple! He is loving it. We road tested it in town to see how easy it was to get around and manoeuvre, and I'm happy to report it was a complete success. Caleb adored the perspective of the world he got from standing tall, it's actually the most content I've seen him in town in a long time. He's become pretty restless in his pram of late (hence us not being so keen to make a big purchase for a double just yet) and prefers to walk mostly. With the buggy board we get the best of both worlds as once he's tired or if it's too crowded he can just jump on.

Since the buggy board has been such a success, I'm thinking the way forward for us may be a sling for baby bump. That way when Caleb is tired or needs to take a nap he can hop into the pram and baby bump can go into the sling. Sounds simple. Right?!

Well, if there's anything I've learnt from this mama gig....only time will tell ;)