Meal ideas for baby led weaning

Hi everyone,

This is just a small post on some ideas for foods you can try to first start off when trying baby led weaning. I did originally start Hallie off with puréed food at around 4 months old. I then decided when she got to 6 months old on the 9th of this month that we would try baby led weaning. Which basically means she eats what we eat. She's having little tastes of everything we are eating but here are a few things she most enjoys. 

This is the lunch I had at ikea. Salmon, mash, peas & brocolli. Hallie had a try of all of this from her bowl. She loved the salmon and it was something she had never tried before. It's also easy for her to chew. Of course make sure the salmon is boneless. 

This is the dinner I made Sunday. I made us giant Yorkshire, sausage, peas, mash & mushrooms. Then I have Hallie a smaller Yorkshire, peas, mushroom and mash. She loved suckling on the Yorkshire and really enjoyed the dinner. She are quite a lot!

Hallie loves fruit salad. Her favourite fruit is melon and strawberry. 

This was Hallie's first tastes of chicken. She had chicken and potato waffle. She loved both!

Some other things she likes ls, beans, toast fingers, cucumber, scrambled egg, and ham. 

Hope you enjoyed this post. 

Hallie Ann 6 month update

So.. Our beautiful little girly is now 6 months. August 9th our Hallie Ann turned 6 months, I shed a tear or 2 to say the least. Time is flying by and I can't believe how lucky I am to be a mother to such a perfect little girl. 

She's so clever. She loves her jumparoo, baths and playing with her toys. 

Rolling over, Hallie rolled over for the first time at 17 weeks. She now won't stay on her back for longer than about 5 seconds. She loves tummy time.

Weaning, we started to wean Hallie at around 16 weeks, weaning is a topic all parents will have different views on and all children are different. I personally felt Hallie was ready at 16 weeks and it was a gradual process. She now has lots of different foods and loves experimenting with different textured food. A favourite of hers at the moment is toast fingers. Yesterday she enjoyed tucking into her very own dinner with me I mashed it up when I had mine. She has breakfast dinner and a snack. Currently she has 3/4 6oz bottles a day. She's been on 6oz from around 3 months and is quite settled on 6oz. We have not yet started her on follow on milk as she has a protein allergy. 

Sitting up, Hallie has started to sit up she now sits for around 15/20 seconds on her own. Another thing she has started to do is walk in her walker. She's so cute when she finds her feet and she loves wandering about in the walker. 

Hallie has been teething from very young, in our appointment at just 6 weeks the dr said how hard her gums were. A tooth first started to come through at around 4 months. She has now had all her injections up until she is one! She was so brave having them all, much braver than I was taking her! 

Hallie loves her sleep. She sleeps the whole night through. She does not like to be put to bed early so she goes down at around 9 o'clock. But wakes back up at about 10:30 until 11:30. When she goes back to sleep she will then sleep right through until around 9 o'clock in the morning. She has slept this well from young. The routine we normally have is bath, bottle bed. This has definetely worked best for us. She also has a story most nights before bed and we have done this since birth, I find this really soothes her in the evenings. She's such a good sleeper which I'm so greatful for (as I'm no good unless I have my sleep hahaa!) she's not in her own room yet. As it stands I'm nowhere near ready for her to be in there yet. I feel much more comfortable with her being in her cot in the room with us. 

She is currently still wearing 3-6 month clothes. She's in the process of going into 6-9 month clothes. I haven't had her weighed in around 4 weeks when she was last weighed she was 14lbs. Exactly where she should be for the weight she was born.

That's a little update on our gorgeous girl. She makes me so proud every day. She's so clever and beautiful.

Thankyou for reading! Xx

We are getting married!!!

Hi everyone,

I haven't posted in a few weeks, I've been really busy, I've been doing something really exciting... WEDDING PLANNING!

We have been engaged for 4 years now but had not started planning a wedding yet, to be honest I imagined in 30 years time Andrew still not considering actually planning the big day, haha!

But he's clearly an old romantic.. Andrew planned us a night out to a steak restaurant called miller and carter which do fabulous meals! My mother looked after the baby for a few hours when we went. We had a lovely meal and then at the end the waitress brought us the bill which to my surprise there was writing on saying "let's get married 2016 by the sea" with a pen for me to write my reply, which was of course "YES!" After a 4 year engagement, will be 5 year, we are finally going to be getting married! We are both so excited! I can't wait to call Andrew my husband. I also can't wait for my little girl Hallie and little sister Eve to be my gorgeous bridesmaids, along with a few of my best friends! So much to look forward too! 

We are planning on having the wedding abroad, I would really appreciate it if anyone has ever had their wedding abroad, or been to a wedding abroad to leave me a comment saying how it went. We would like to have the wedding abroad as we have always loved the idea of it and it would also help us with expense. I'm loving planning my dream beach wedding, we are still stuck on a destination at the moment but will do updates on the wedding! So yes that's our big news, OUR WEDDING!! 

Thankyou for reading! Has anyone done any posts on weddings lately? Or have any tips or shops I could look in. I'm very open to ideas and I'm just so excited I could burst!!!!! Xx 

Daddy's 1st Father's Day

Hi everyone,

Yesterday was a very special day for 2 reasons in our family. It was Andrew's 1st Father's Day and my mothers birthday, so we had 2 reasons to celebrate!

I'll take you from the beginning and take you through our day!

When we woke up in the morning Andrew and Hallie opened his presents together. We bought him a mug, a pint class, Stella (his fave drink), a keyring, a daddy teddy and some chocolates. He loved all his presents!

Hallie had also wrote her own little bit on Andrew's card which made it that extra bit special for him! ❤️

After opening his presents we all cuddled up in bed and watched a film, and had a proper lazy afternoon. 

Then we got ready to go out for the evening! Hallie wore an adorable little ballet tutu with a daddy's girl top, specially themed for Father's Day!

After we all got ready, we went into the car and travelled about 40 minutes down the road to Cardiff. We had a table booked for 5:30pm in Miller & Carter. It was a lovely family meal where me, Andrew, Hallie, my mother, Eve (my little sister) and my grandparents all attended. I love family meals, the chat is always lovely and your always guaranteed a good time with lots of laughs! My grandparents had also just came back from holidays so it was lovely seeing them! My mother loved her presents. We got her a Yankee candle scented fruity melon, this is a favourite of mine! Also as a present from Hallie I framed one of her photoshoot pictures, she loved this!

Our meal was lovely as always with lovely surroundings in a great atmosphere! I had the 8oz Rump steak and I really recommend it! It came with fries and an onion loaf! Which was so nice! It also came with a side salad (served before the main meal) which was also lovely and I had a blue cheese dressing with that!

Overall it was a lovely day which we really enjoyed. I know Andrew had a great, well deserved 1st fathers day! 

Thanks for reading! What did everyone else get up to for Father's Day? :) 

Loosing the baby weight

Hi everyone,

Today I thought I would do a post on weight. Weight is quite a sensitive subject with me. In all honesty I've struggled with my weight since I was around 13/14 years of age. Just before I fell pregnant I started to do slimming world and successfully lost 5 stone. I think this is also contributing to how I managed to fall pregnant with Hallie (I have polycystic ovaries) during my pregnancy I tried my best to eat healthy and exercise as regularly as I could. I only gained 10lbs throughout my whole pregnancy, which is actually reasonably good. After having Hallie I went back to slimming world and on my first week back I lost 17lbs which meant I had in fact lost the baby weight and an extra 7lbs on top. Since then I have coninued to loose weight and I am now an extra 14lbs down. So I've lost a total of 31lbs since having the baby.

But I did and still do still have the jelly belly (to put it nicely, haha) and I would ideally like to loose another 3 stone. I know this is going to be a gradual process and I'm not in a major hurry to loose it, it's not just for the Weightloss I want to do this for the health benefits too.

My diet isn't the best. I'm very much an eat on the go kind of person and I don't do a lot of cooking. I thought I would show you an example of what I may eat in a week, kind of like a meal plan. Hopefully this will help anyone who is trying to loose any extra weight or just maybe trying to get healthier.

Meal plan:

Monday -  

Breakfast: Granola, low fat natural Greek yogurt and a banana.

Dinner - Wholemeal pitta bread, ham, salad and tomato.

Tea - Tuna, mayo pasta.

Snacks - Chocolate freddo.

Tuesday -

Breakfast: Wholemeal toast with sliced banana on top.

Dinner: Jacket potato with cheese and beans.

Tea - Slimming world chips, fried egg and ham.

Snacks - Bag of skips, grapes.

Wednesday -

Breakfast - Porridge with raspberries. 

Dinner: Chicken salad sandwich.

Tea: Chicken, mushroom stir fry.

Snacks- bar of galaxy.

Thursday - 

Breakfast - fruit salad with low fat natural Greek yogurt.

Dinner: Beans on toast.

Tea: Steak, potatoes, mushrooms and onions.

Snacks: cookies & cream flavoured kitkat.

Friday -

Breakfast - Low fat peanut butter spread with Wholemeal toast.

Dinner: Salmon salad.

Tea: Chicken & prawn curry with boiled rice. I buy the sainsbury's own brand curry sauce it's low fat and really tasty. 

Snacks: Can of full fat normal coke.

So that was just roughly the kind of things I would eat on a daily basis. I've not got a perfect diet, I'm still having my daily treats but this is just what works for me. 

Exercise

Alongside eating well I also try my best to exercise regularly. Since having the baby exercise can sometimes be difficult to squeeze in. We will often go for walks as Hallie loves being in her pram. Another exercise I can do whilst still having Hallie with me is swimming. I've taken Hallie swimming a few times. She loves being in the water and it's also keeping me healthy at the same time.

Recently I have started attending more exercise classes. I used to go to exercise classes before having Hallie and they helped me to keep fit and I really enjoyed them. Me and my friend Alex decided to go back to the classes. We have done 'kettle bells' which is a really good class! It's high intensity and it works your whole body. We have also tried 'begin to spin' this class has been given a medium intensity rating, but honestly it's so hard! To put it nicely the sweat was dripping off me! That was such a hard work out. My legs and back side were killing haha!

I hope you enjoyed reading my post, hopefully it's maybe given you some inspiration to get a more healthier lidetyle. Thankyou for reading! 

Has anyone else been doing anything lately to keep healthy? Or tried any new exercise classes? I would love to hear about them!

A day in the life, mammy and baby.

Hi everyone Hallie turned 17 weeks old yesterday! Time has truly flied by! Exactly a year ago today I found out I was pregnant. It's crazy how quick it's gone!  Hallie is now 4 months old and I thought I would do a 'day in the life' post. This is my day in a life from yesterday 8/6/15

9:30am - Hallie slept the whole night through so I woke her ready for breakfast. Lately she has been managing to move herself up the cot and turn onto her side, so she ends up side ways in the cot, I have no idea how she does this! So I continuesly will move her back the right way up during the night. 

9:45am - Andrew leaves for work. Hallie has her first bottle for the day, a 6oz bottle. Even though she's been the whole night without a feed she will never normally drink the full bottle, she will usually drink between 4 and 5oz. 

10:15am - breakfast! Hallie always has porridge for breakfast, she will either have creamy porridge or banana porridge. Yesterday I chose creamy porridge for her. I find this will fill her up and she really enjoys it. We've only just started the weaning process. So far she is having lots of fun exploring different foods. Porridge is a definite favourite of hers!

10:45am - We start to get ready to leave the house for the day. I start with packing my bag. Then I give Hallie a wash and dress her, lastly I get dressed and try to make myself look remotely acceptable by doing something with my hair and makeup! Hallie always looks amazing and I normally look like I've just rolled out of bed haha! 

11:30am - We leave the house and go to pick up friends ready for baby group. 

12pm - baby group. Yesterday we went to language and play with my friend Nerys and her baby, Rosie is 3 months older than Hallie and they really do love eachother already! Both babies really enjoy language and play. I love going to baby groups the atmosphere is always lovely. It's a great place to meet other parents and for babies to also be around other babies. The session will always start off with us all reading a story in a circle with the babies, then we will make a craft relating to the story. We made handprints and footprints because we read the story 10 fingers and 10 toes. They always try to get the babies as involved with craft time as we can. Then we let the babies play for a bit there's loads of toys down there. Yesterday there was a big foil blanket and the babies loved it! They loved the sounds it made and the feel of it. Before the session ends we play knock on the box. This is a game where there are lots of toys in the box and we always say "knock on the box, who's there, lift up the lid..." Then a child will choose any toy they like out of the box, then we sing a song relating to the toy they choose. Hallie chose a duck so we sang 5 little ducks. Rosie chose a crocodile so we sang 3 cheeky monkeys. They loved language and play and we always make sure to try to take them every week! 

1:00pm - language and play finished and we went straight to the sensory room because we had privately booked it for the babies for 30 minutes. It was lovely and relaxing to go there afterwards and It chilled us all out.  I actually think I could have fallen asleep in there. The baby's really love it, it's full of lights, bright colours, relaxing music and things for them to look at. Hallie also had a 6oz bottle in the sensory room and a change.

1:30pm - left the sensory room and went for a little drive with the babies when they had a nap in their carseats and me and nerys gossiped. They're always tired after baby group and need a nap. 

2:15pm - Arrived home and me and Hallie had dinner. Hallie had some apple, she loved it! I peeled and cut the apple, boiled it for 10 minutes then blended it. I make most of Hallie's meals up fresh because she prefers it and will eat more that way, I also think it's also much healthier for them without all the additives etc that's put into baby food.

I cooked myself some tuna mayo pasta, which is one of my faves.

3pm - After dinner Hallie had a little lie and kick about on her playmat. 

3:30pm - Hallie watched 20 minutes of TV, (peppa pig) in her bouncer and I hoovered and the house before Andrew arrived home from work, I like to relax with him when he comes home and not have to think about doing things like hoovering. I don't like her to watch anymore than 20 minutes a day. 

4pm - Andrew arrives home and Hallie goes in her jumparoo when I make him tea, he had spaghetti bolegnaise. Hallie has a 6oz bottle with him.

4:30pm - When Andrew has his food, Hallie has some time in her swing and I have a clean of the kitchen and do the washing, ironing and mop the floors. I also decided I would burn my new candle I had from my birthday on Sunday. This is vanilla lime, it leaves such a lovely scent when burning!

Whenever I clean I always have candles burning I love a fresh smelling home. Yankee candles are my all time favourite candle.

5:30pm - We go for a walk most evenings, the weather where we live is gorgeous and we only live about 2 minutes away from the local park. So yesterday evening we went on our usual walk and done 3 laps of the lake. Me and Andrew are trying our best to get fitter and eat healthier we are hoping to keep this up! I always feel so lovely and refreshed after a walk and I like Hallie to get some fresh air.

6:30pm - Bath. Hallie has a bath if not every night then every other night. She loves bath time, it really settles her nicely before bed. Last night she went in the big bath (our bath) she loves splashing in there. Some nights we will use the baby bath or the top and tail bowl if we are just giving her a quick wash. 

7pm - Hallie had 4oz of her bottle and spent some time on her playmat and then cuddled up on the sofa with me & her daddy.

7:45pm - Hallie has a small nap. 

8:30pm - Hallie wakes up, has a change and we read a story together. We read a touch and feel book which is an interactive book for babies. It tells little rhymes and a story, and has things to touch, we love this book. I love spending quality time reading with her in the evenings.  

9:15pm - Hallie has a 6oz bottle and cwtches in. (We are welsh, incase you're not welsh, cwtch means cuddle)

9:45pm - Hallie goes to sleep and then we put her in her cot for the night. She will normally sleep the whole night through and as usual she did! She's such a good baby! 

This is pretty much a daily routine for us and is what happens on most days. I hope you liked reading this. I love reading other people's posts like this! Thank-you for reading! 

New hair and Afternoon tea

Hi everyone,

Today me, my family & friends all went for afternoon tea as part of an early birthday celebration for me, I turn 21 on Sunday! You only turn 21 once so I'm starting it the right way; tea, cake and gossip! 

We went for tea in the angel hotel in Abergavenny. I've been here previously for my 19th birthday and really enjoyed it. Andrew looked after Hallie for me to go with the ladies and Sam as it's not really the most child friendly of places although I would have loved to have brought her with us, I missed her loads! 

Now that I am turning 21 I fancied a change I wanted something to make me look a little bit older. Plus now that im a mammy I want to branch out a bit from my usual hair style and be a bit more adventurous. After a lot of thinking and a brave decision, I decided I wanted to go quite a bit lighter. I'm really happy that I did make this decision! When I told Sam I had made the decision to go lighter he pretty much jumped at the chance to do my hair. He owns a beauty salon called 'Sam's beauty bar' and he's a newly qualified hair dresser. I must say he done an amazing job since he's only just qualified! Having a friend who owns a beauty salon really has it's benefits! He got my hair colour lighter by adding in some foils. He also curled it for me which I really like. My curls are naturally messy Afro curls, he curled it very neatly and got the curls exactly how I like them. The outfit that I wore for the tea is this little black dress with a blue & white floral pattern all over it. It's £25 from next and it's a lovely comfortable fit. 

When we arrived at the Angel we got given menu's and had to choose if we wanted the set afternoon tea or the high tea, we all chose the high tea as this also included strawberries & cream and pastries along with the usual afternoon tea items. This cost £26.80, it's well worth it!

My favourite things of all were the salmon on crisp bread and the scone with clotted cream and jam! Everything was so delicious! 

When it came to choosing my tea I had earl grey, I loved it! I normally take milk in my tea but I don't with this tea because the taste is enough by itself without needing to add the milk. It has a very rich, strong taste, I suppose you could say it's an aquired taste, personally I really like it!

If you live local to Abergavenny I would really recommend a visit! I can pretty much guarantee you won't be disappointed. 

I had a lovely start to my birthday celebrations I have a family meal planned at a resteraunt on Sunday for my actual birthday which I am really looking forward to. 

Has anyone else tried afternoon tea? Maybe even at the angel? What's your favourite part of afternoon tea?

Thanks so much for reading! Xx