I have been thinking about the summer, looking forward to making more memories with all my boys and it made me think about our little glamping trip last year. We made our first trip to a Featherdown farm to celebrate my husbands birthday. We made the trip back in August 2023 and we were blessed…
Make those memories…
Although the pandemic slowed us down, we have always been keen to travel with our children, go explore the outdoors and have adventures as a family. We travelled before our children were born and we are keen to show the boys as much of the world as we can. I’ve written before about our trip…
Summer Holidays: what do you need?
I’m sure lots of you will be planning and preparing for summer holidays and I always find that the majority of my time is focussed on ensuring we have the kids covered. So I thought I’d highlight my must haves to help you prepare for your own adventures. For the plane I’d been really worried…
Disneyland Paris: Tips, tricks and must dos!
If you’re thinking of booking a trip to Disney or have one planned, then this blog is for you. I’d say my biggest thing is if you want to make your trip as stress free and as enjoyable as possible then you need to take some time to plan and get organised before you get…
Disneyland Paris: Top 10 things to take with you…
We have just returned from a magical trip to Disneyland Paris. Exhausted, with sore feet but fabulous memories that even my 2 year old keeps chatting about. This was our first time to Disneyland Paris and with a 2 year old born just before Covid , this was his first trip out of the UK,…
Guilt…
I want to talk about guilt. Some people talk about “mum guilt” but for me, it isn’t that simple. I have mum guilt, wife guilt, daughter guilt, friend guilt and career guilt, all rolled into one – I feel like every day I am letting someone down. Never quite achieving all the things I want…
This is how you remind me…
I think a lot of people start on their journey into parenthood and think that having kids won’t change them. Everyone has friends who say, “oh, just wait till you have kids”. I never thought I’d be one of those friends, but I did not anticipate the magnitude of change that I have experienced –…
That question…
I’ve been sorting through baby stuff. It’s a slow process but I thought I’d use free time in lockdown #2 for something useful. On the one hand it’s been good – I’ve enjoyed going through bits and remembering when Rishi (our eldest) or Jamie (our baby) used to wear an outfit or play with a…
The Jump from 1 to 2…
Having kids is mind blowing, and I don’t think anything quite prepares you for how your life will change. I think a lot of people think they will have kids “when they are ready” but to be honest, I don’t think you are ever totally ready. I have wanted kids for years and I wasn’t…
Breastfeeding tips from a second time mum
I’ve been thinking a lot about breastfeeding recently. Not just because it’s World Breastfeeding Week but also thinking about how the pandemic will have impacted on support for mums. With both of my boys, I have found support in different forms – but always essential to my mental and physical wellbeing. One of the tricky…
Off he goes!
This won’t be my longest blog or my best for that matter but I felt that it would be wrong if I didn’t mark Rishi’s return to nursery with something. It seems like quite a big thing in this whole lockdown situation! Rishi’s last day at nursery was 16 March. That night I had a…
They just haven’t met you yet
Jamie wasn’t a lockdown baby, he was born in early January. He is our second beautiful babe and when he had just arrived we were really keen to have some family time. With our first baby we had lots of people over in the first few weeks, and we loved that but it’s a bit…
It’s anything but morning sickness…
I’ve always wanted a family, dreamt of days running around after my children and blooming as a pregnant woman. I hadn’t expected my pregnancies to be some of the darkest times of my life, full of A and E admissions, weekly hospital check ups and being unable to leave the house. During my pregnancies I…
It’s ok to not be ok.
Is anyone else feeling really cheated right now? For me, I feel robbed of my maternity leave (after a not very nice pregnancy). For some of my friends the effects are more severe – some have postponed their weddings or buying a house, others have had to abandon a once in a lifetime family trip…
Life after birth
It’s amazing how your life can change in a flash …how one moment can be so defining that it changes everything. Having a child is one of those, but for me, the change was two fold. Of course I was blessed with the arrival of my gorgeous son, Jamie, but the birth also ended my…
Pregnancy with Hyperemesis
I’ve debated publishing this post for some time – in fact months. Every week I’ve said to my husband that I’ll finish it off but I’ve always found an excuse not to. I’ve been plagued with worry about what people would think – whether they would think I was pathetic, dramatic and over the top….
Adventuring with Rishi
My husband and I are lucky enough to have done some travelling and we have had so many memorable and amazing experiences to date. I am keen that Rishi can join in our adventures and we can bring him on our holidays. For someone so little, he’s already travelled halfway across the world and stayed…
It’s the final countdown
And so it’s here. The final month of my maternity leave. I don’t think a year has ever passed this quickly before. It only seems like a few weeks ago that we were with Rishi as a newborn, and now I can’t keep up with him, with the new things he masters and the happiness…
Baby purchases – my mistakes
I made it to my first NCT sale a few weeks ago. I was keen to tick it off (another item off my maternity leave bucket list) but having gone, I am certain to go again. I’ve always got a thrill out of sale shopping and finding a bargain – and crowds don’t put me…
Staycation: the new normal?
Our next trip as a family was a staycation…something which my husband seems to be a fan for the foreseeable future. He organised this weekend and I have to say, hats off to him, he seemed to think of everything! Krishna arranged a surprise weekend for us all to go stay at Cliveden House. Some…
30 days and 30 nights: San Fran & Sonoma
The last stops on our epic adventure were San Francisco and Sonoma. Crucially it meant that we could break up the very long flight home and also edge a little closer to the U.K. time zone. Looking back, breaking up our flights was a definite win, but it didn’t make that much difference on the…
Managing Maui with a baby…
Our next stop on our adventure was Maui. Prior to the trip I was the one that had researched Maui and so I probably was looking forward to it more than Kauai. But then someone we met on our trip said that Maui is more developed and quite touristy. This isn’t my thing at all!…
Our time on the Garden Island, Kauai
We were lucky enough to spend three weeks adventuring around Hawaii, and split our time between Kauai and Maui. We did so much in Kauai, I could write about it for weeks (and I may still do some spotlight blogs if I have the time) but will instead just focus on the must-dos based on…
My thoughts on shared parental leave…
We’re currently over half-way through our trip on what is a honeymoon of a lifetime. Visiting two spots in California and two Hawaiian islands and lots in between. We were planning our wedding when we found out we were pregnant with Rishi and we were over the moon. I had been wanting a baby for…
How we survived jetlag with a baby…
Now, we are by no means experts on this and every baby is different but these are some things they have helped us cope with reversing night to day and day to night (this has only worked on flights going back in time so far; we still have the return legs to come …) Get…
Our First Christmas
We have made it through our first Christmas as a proper little family. It feels like it was over as soon as it started… and I am feeling pretty shattered… but it was so worth it all. But here’s what I learnt from my first Christmas as a mum. Things I need for next Christmas:…
A letter to my husband…
I cannot believe our little man is 6 months old. It seems like just yesterday that we drove from the hospital to our new home (using the sat nav as we didn’t know the best way to get there). And now, as we are now planning our shared parental leave, it’s made me think about…
Celebrating multiculturalism
As you may have guessed by the name, Rishi is part Hindu …but that’s not actually why we picked the name. Being a mixed race baby we were keen to avoid traditional English names and to be honest, we struggled to find a name that ticked all of the boxes. We just happened on the…
Sleep is not overrated
Getting enough sleep can never be overrated. It’s been a little while since I got my computer out and started on some new blogs. I find it really therapeutic but we are currently in week 5 of sleep regression and, in this last week in particular, we have become a bit of a zombie family….
Ten essential things for the first three months…
When you’re pregnant the list of things that you need to buy for your future little bundle of joy is endless. We tried to limit it to the “essentials” and even then, this resulted in mammoth shopping trips and an endless amount of research trying to identify what we needed! My list below doesn’t concentrate…
Under pressure…
I think if any new mum is being honest, they will tell you that it’s not how they had imagined it would be. There’s so much pressure throughout pregnancy and as a new mum on all manner of things – how you look; how you are with your baby; how you feed your baby; how…
Ten things I’ve learnt from being on holiday with Baby Rishi…
1. Apply lotion: I’m fanatical about Rishi and the sun, meaning I’m all about sun suits, sun shades and factor 50. However I rarely remember to apply lotion to myself! So my advice is: buy some of that “apply once a day” stuff and go from there or accept that you’ll get sun burnt! 2….
Me and Rishi est 20 May 2018
For as long as I can remember I have always wanted children. So when I found out we were pregnant I was on top of the world. At the same time I was shocked, scared and left wondering where this new adventure would lead (for all three of us). At the age of 35, I…
Chronicles of a New Mummy 