motherhood

5 wishes for baby 

I thought for this post it would be fun to share with you all my five wishes, hopes and dreams for Rhemy as she takes this journey through life.
1. Courage. I hope you have the courage to pass through your life following your dreams and being able to stand up for your beliefs. To push yourself to the limit and be courageous in all that you try to do. 
2. Education. I hope you are educated in whatever your choose to do. Whether aquiring a university degree is necessary or learning on the job. 

3. Knowing your worth. I hope and will do my best to ensure that you grow up knowing your worth and that you ensure others know it and respect it too. You are worth the world and it’s important to me that you believe that!

4. Happiness and Love. I want your life to be filled with happiness and love in every aspect of your world! 

5. Passion. I wish for you to find your passion in life and that you are able to follow it with all your heart. Daddy and I will do everything we can to give you all the opportunities you require. 
I would love to hear your hopes and dreams for your offspring so please comment at the end of the post sharing them with me! 

Don’t lose yourself now that the baby is here! 

I know everything changes when you have children and they become your whole world. I know that we as parents put their needs before our own and to be honest I truly believe we should. I know that we should be the ones that accommodate them into our lives not the other way around but I am a true believer in that we as mothers can still be us. We are still entitled to some reward for doing the best we can for our offspring. 

Now let me clarify I do not mean that if before kids your Wednesday to Sunday nights were spent out partying that you should continue on with that lifestyle. I do not mean if pre children you spent all your disposable income on unnecessary luxuries and lived off two minute noodles for the week that you should do the same now your baby has entered the world. 

What I mean is that every now and then, things are still allowed to be for you, you can still travel to exciting places with your children in tow, you can still buy something expensive and unnecessary. You can still have a day to yourself and not feel guilty because we all deserve it once in a while. The only difference being things may have to be planned for, budgeted for or talked about with your partner. 

When we become parents we change, knowingly or not, I’m unsure but it is inevitable and I believe necessary. We need to adapt to our new life and we can’t always be who we used to be. However we don’t need to lose ourselves entirely. I have changed since Rhemy and I am happy with that. You can’t be the same person when your baby comes as you become less selfish, more paranoid, guilt surfaces easier and your camera feed becomes filled with photos of your baby and not much else. 

While I say to not lose yourself entirely, I also say not to fight the changes in yourself either. They are happening because of your new addition and will help you on this new, exciting, sometimes scary journey of parenthood. 
Comment below and give me your thoughts xx 

📷 featured image: beautythroughimperfection.com 

Staying Organised

Two days ago I returned to work, I am only working two days a week, so I can guess technically it is now my weekend. The work and my colleagues were fine, leaving Rhemy was not! (but that is a whole other blog post)
I realised that in order to succeed in my 2016 New Years resolution which to be quite honest is more or less just to get my shit together, I am going to have to come up with a way to focus on being more organised. I am heading back to uni in March and with Rhemy, work and also this blog to contend with I would like to have a system in place before the start of the semester. 
I already have a diary/planner and I use it religiously for appointments etc, but I think I can tweak my usage of this, to help me organise dedicated time slots and ensuring I stick to them. I understand things change and it will not always go to plan but it can be used as a guide.

My plan is to begin with hourly slots and go from there. Obviously having a little one means that the time may need to be altered during the day, depending on her naps but if I know Tuesday is study day and Thursday is washing day I can stay more focused and see my way through the week. 
At the moment, I am using this Personal Planner, which is A5 and what can be customised to suit your needs and preferences. I wish I had chosen a vertical layout because after a couple of weeks of use of what I thought was a planner I loved, I realised everything I write and want to stay on top of doesn’t quite fit in this layout. We live and learn. I’m changing now to a ring planner so I can fit all the different parts of my life into one place, but this is still a great option and would recommend to anyone who wants to just simply track appointments or like me would like to become more organised. 

 

I’d love your input! What’s your organisation system? What allows you to stay on top of everything happening in your life. Comment below 🙂

My achievement list! 

Okay everyone knows what a bucket list is, what they want to achieve and conquer during their life. But I present to you an “achievement list” it is a catalog of what you have succeded, participated or experienced in life that you are proud of. That you can look back on and give yourself encouragement of how far you have come, when you are feeling down or just need a reminder of how great your life truly is! 
It’s not to be taken as bragging or to show off. It can be totally private, shared anonymously or shared for the whole world (online of course) to see. 

I would love to share some of mine with you all. The rest I will keep for myself, but here goes: 


Rhemy; duh my greatest achievement in life. No other explanation necessary. 
My marriage; an equal partnership. The only way I want our marriage to be. 
My relationship with my family; we are close friends as well as blood. I have their back, they have mine. 
My study; I have completed certificates in my chosen field and out of it. I’m currently participating in a university degree. My achievement is not what I have become qualified in but the fact that I continue to learn. 
Travel; I have seen many places with some of the most important people in my life at some of the most important times of my life. Hello 21st birthday and honeymoon! I have memories and stories from these trips to last a lifetime. 
There you are my achievements, not material but sentimental. Maybe not what everyone strives for but what I hold very close to my heart. 
Share yours with me or jot them down for yourself but do it! Look back, be proud of what you have already achieved! Dreams are wonderful, hence why the bucket list exists but what about the dreams we have already conquered? Don’t be so focused on what’s to come that you forget about them. 

We are doing the 52 week savings challenge! 

We have decided in 2016 we are going to participate in the 52 week savings challenge. We budget (or at least try to) anyway but feel like this could be a nice way to save an extra almost $1400.00 for the year. 
To find out all about the challenge and how it works click here, but basically for each week of the year you are setting aside that amount of money, for example week one is $1, week two is $2 and so on. There are many articles online saying that it should actually be done opposite, as in save $52 the first week and work your way backwards but we have decided for us it is best to start small and build our savings up. 
I can see why people have suggested beginning with the larger amount as just before Christmas it may be difficult to set aside $200 for the entire month of Decemeber and this is true, however for us right now it is actually harder to find that money following the festive season.

Anyway week one is here, I have a pretty jar set aside and a list next to it for us to check off so we don’t miss a week. So far all we have is $1 but I’m excited! 
Are you doing anything differently this year? I would love to hear about it! 

The bond we share…

She’s six months old today, that’s right Rhemy Sharen is six months old! And what a wonderful, hilarious and beautiful six month old she is.

It’s so surreal when you look down at your baby and you realise that you have created something so gorgeous. It is amazing what the human body can do and what the end result is. 

Watching Rhemy grow and change everyday is what it is all about. I already loved her with everything I had before she born and I knew no matter what, I would do anything for her, to protect her and to be there for her. 

What I wasn’t as prepared for, was the bond we share at such a young age. We are already little besties, the way she looks at me, the trust she has in me and myself for her is out of this world. 

Knowing I have a very close relationship with my mum, you’d think I would have been expecting it, and I definitely was to some degree but not while Rhemy was so young, but here we are. 

She has such a big personality, she makes me laugh on the daily, her smile lights up my day, she’s as stubborn as they come and very persistent in what she wants (I wonder where she got that from?). She is my very best little friend, my heart wandering out of my body! 
Ask me about our bond when she is sixteen, when she is still stubborn and persistent in getting what she wants! 

New year, new me? 

It’s approaching! It is that time of year when we begin to hear all the promises from people to become a better version of themselves in one way or another. It is also when out come the critics, having their say on how stupid they believe new year resolutions are.

What camp are you in? Are you for resolutions of against? Myself, I am for them and I make them, I think they are great incentive to try and stick to something or to change a habit that you are unhappy with. I don’t always follow through but I try and I find no harm in that. 
This year in fact, I truly hope to become a more organised, together woman. I feel like my house is always a mess and my head in the clouds trying to work out what way is actually up! 2016 brings part time work and study so I will have limited time for everything and I know that being organised (or at least attempting to be) will help me stay on top of it all, so I am truly inspired to try and stick to my resolution this year. 
I have always had a diary/planner. I am normally very good about knowing what I have coming up and filling in the days accordingly but since Rhemy come along that has gone out the window, so 2016 I am coming for you! 
What’s your New Years Resolution? Or do you think they are just a waste of time? Let me know below! 

Featured Image credit: http://www.mumcentral.com.au

Do you use a baby bag? 

Anyone who knows me, would tell you I am massively into handbags. Some might say, I have an actual problem! So naturally when I fell pregnant the idea of getting a nappy (diaper) bag excited me! 

I began searching forums and reviews to find out what one would best suit my lifestyle. In the end, I purchased a beautiful Oroton bag which I believed to be functional and the perfect accessory for when my baby arrived. 

Fast forward 10 months or so (I bought it very early on in my pregnancy) and it isn’t getting the use it deserves or that I imagined it would. When I was breastfeeding I used it a lot. I put nappies, a change of clothes, spit rag, etc in and off I went. Now I am bottle feeding I seem to carry more bulky items that struggle to fit comfortably in the bag. 
The nappy bag is too big for the basket under my pram so I have to carry it when I have the pram and to be honest I find that to be a massive inconvenience! So now I just put a lunch bag (holding multiple bottles and formula powder) and a large clutch (with nappies, wipes, spit rag and a change of clothes) in the bottom of my pram and away I go. 

I know so many things on the many, many lists of what you need for a baby are not necessities but I truly didn’t think a nappy bag would be one of them. At least not for me! 
Do you use your nappy bag? Did you waste money on anything with your first born? 

Comment below and let me know I would love to feel better about myself haha! 

Transitioning a swaddler! 

Our five month old, has just began rolling and can even sit for small intervals. We are so proud of her milestones and it is so wonderful to see our little offspring develop and progress daily. 

What we don’t want is our cub to roll in her sleep while still in her Swaddle Up. So a week or so ago, we began the tedious task of transitioning her. The transition swaddles from Swaddle Up are genius and have made the whole ordeal much easier then we thought it would be. 

That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been without its complications. The first few nights after we removed the first arm we had a very interrupted sleep, with Rhemy waking herself up constantly. It was tiring but a success so we moved onto the second arm and that is where we are  right now…

3.30am and wide awake, talking to herself and truly doing anything to keep from drifting off to the land of nod. While I know past experiences have shown me after a couple of nights of this, we will be through the worst of it. I can’t say I’m not missing my sleep or a little grumpy that my little miss has decided that 3.30am is not only when she will be wide awake but so will her Mumma. 

How did you transition? What tactics worked? What didn’t? 

Let’s share and compare, below in the comments. 

Baby name trends! 

Naming our baby was a much harder task then either of us expected. My husband likes names slightly more conservative and myself, a little out there. We “vitoed” each other so many times, I thought that was going to end up being her name.

We settled on multiple names, to then change our minds a week later (okay my mind, I changed my mind)! There really was some goodies in there, so we have no intention of sharing, you know just incase the next one is a girl.

I have read so many articles relating to the trends of baby names, but I have to admit this this last trend has taken the cake. According to Baby Center  #instagrambabies is now a thing! Parents are naming their children after Instagram filters and other related editing apps. Now while some of the filter names are usable, Willow anyone? I am interested to see where our next naming inspiration comes from.

I completely understand the attraction of using a name from somewhere the majority wouldn’t expect, but I do have to wonder where do we begin to look next?

Now I have to say, I support everyone’s decision to name their child whatever their heart desires, it has long been the case that what one couple thinks is beautiful, another does not!

So I ask you, what do you think?

Is your next baby going to be called Valencia or is there somewhere else we can look for the names of future children?

Comment below!