Are You A Blogger If You Don't Pick A Pumpkin?

 

 Apparently not.

 

We had such a lush morning on Sunday visiting our local pumpkin patch, (who knew this was suddenly a thing? and especially where I live.. nothing ever happens here!) I wanted to take Alfie just so we could take some nice photos for his memory book, I wasn't too fussed about the pumpkins which definitely makes me a blogger haha.

 

It was so windy when we arrived but Alfie absolutely loved it, we popped him on top of a few of the pumpkins which he seemed to find hilarious, and generally spent a good while trying to find the perfect one.

 

We found the perfect one, well nanny and granddad did!

 

 

 

 

 Just look at Alfie's little face?! Our main aim was to choose our pumpkin and carve it together, and get a cute photo of Alfie sat in it. We took so many nice ones of him smiling away which are adorable, but my favourites have to be the ones where he's crying haha! I promise I'm not a bad mum, but they're just too cute not to share. I vlogged our whole week last week as we were super busy seeing friends and pumpkin picking, so make sure you have a watch of that over on my youtube channel, it's definitely my favourite vlog so far!

 

 

 

Soph xo

 

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Alfie | 2 & 3 Month Update.

Where the bloody hell have the last 2 months gone?!

I genuinely don't know what I've been doing with my life for it to go so quickly!? Whats going on ahah! Im really sorry this post has taken me so long to do (if you care, lets be honest you probably don't) trying to do anything with a baby in the house that has now come to realise when I've left the room is pretty difficult, Alfie just wants attention all the time which, isn't actually a bad thing really, he's a baby so, everything's new to him. But it means anything I want to do for myself like write a blog post, dry my hair, eat, all takes a back seat. Ive mastered eating a meal with one hand free now.

Alfie is doing really well! He's certainly developed his own little personality which at 3 months old consists of giggling at thin air and crying when he's not being cuddled, but he's such a happy boy (most of the time) which is so lovely. He's sleeping really well still, we've been so SO lucky with that, he will generally sleep from around 10pm to 7-8am without waking up once, he's bloody amazing at sleeping through! He has been since he was born really, he even slept through the very first night we brought him home, he's literally a dream child. But yes, I am awaiting the mix up when he starts teething, although I'm not emotionally ready for the lack of sleep yet so, we'll continue NOT to think about that. 

He rolled over twice last week from front to back which literally blew my mind, he's such a little baby so he doesn't look like he should be rolling anywhere yet.. but he does it so happily. He will lie on his front holding his head up watching the tele or looking up at the bright light from the window, and he will also stand holding his weight if you hold his hands. Where is my little boy going?! Im loving that he's changing and growing every day but at the same time, I don't want my baby to grow haha.

We've noticed he's starting to dribble a lot more now, he constantly has his fists in his mouth, so bibs will soon become our best friend and luckily, it feels like we have hundreds. Not an exaggeration at all, we have loads. 

Tomorrow Alfie will be having his first lot of jabs which I'm not looking forward to at all, I've made Matt take the day off to come with me because I don't think id be able to hold Alfie when they do it, I'm sure he'll be fine but it's not nice seeing your child so worried/upset. It'll be a relief to get it out the way though!

Alfie loves;

- lights

- his peter rabbit teddy

- having his nappy changed

- splashing in the bath 

- his sensory area

Alfie dislikes;

- being left alone for longer than a second (!)

- when mummy has to go for a wee, selfish mummy

- being held too much, he likes his space!

- having his arms pulled through jumpers, not sure why, but we need to stay warm love!

To keep more up to date with us and our family life, I upload weekly, sometimes every 2 weeks, over on our Youtube channel, it's super casual and you'll get a beautiful glimpse of me looking slightly worn out but, it'll be lovely for us to look back on in years to come. You can find all of our vlogs HERE.

Soph xo

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August & September | Instagram Photo Diary.

I loooove me a photo diary, possibly because I'm a little Insta obsessed but y'know, aren't we all?! The past 2 months have just flown by haven't say?! So annoying that I always say this, but it will soon be Christmas and I'm definitely not financially ready for that ahah.. 

I finally took the time last month to go through my makeup collection and bin the products that didn't make it through the summer, and I gave away an awful lot.. it occurred to me that a lot of the makeup I own is either pink, or comes in a pink packaging?! This is becoming a reoccurring problem and I probably should stop buying things purely because they're pink.. 

If you're a regular on my blog you'll know that my pal bought me this Too Faced highlighter in September, I won't go on about how much I love it as it has it's very own post which you can find HERE. How bloody BEAUTIFUL is it though?!

I made a HUGE Lush order in September because they came out with all of their christmas and halloween products, I bought so much. Annoyingly though, I've used pretty much all of this already and it's not even been a month yet?! How I'm managed that I've no idea- I'm thinking of placing another order but all of this cost me over £60 and it really doesn't last me very long, so good though. & that giant golden wonder was friggin gorgeous in the bath, I was a glittery goddess for an afternoon, the clean up though was pretty horrendous haha. 

Alfie is 10 weeks old today and I genuinely cannot get my head around the fact that in 2 weeks he will be 3 months old?! I remember posting when he was born and It doesn't feel like that was almost 3 months ago.. I hate how quickly he's growing but he's such a clever little lad now. Theres rarely a time when he isn't giggling which is lush, and he's now trying to roll over?! He's so advanced for his age I can't quite believe it. Love him to bits. Ive also signed him up to a nursery today ready for when I go back to work in March, which will no doubt come around super quickly :(

The end of August and the beginning of September, means doing a makeup shift around. Away go the pinks and oranges, & out come the reds purples and berry shades, which are actually my absolute favourites. Ive been living in MAC's Diva throughout September as I usually do.. but I really must get round to wearing the others, I own so many lipsticks that often they don't all get used, but I'm making it my mission this year to use them all.. a different shade every day maybe?! haha.

Here are 6 of the pinks that sadly have made their way into a drawer until spring, am I the only person who does this because I feel like it's a really silly thing to do?! But I have so many shades that if I kept them all out my bedroom would just look ridiculous. If you're wanting to know the shades I've listed them on my IG HERE.

I'm currently trying to write up Alfie's 2 and 3 month update, but as I'm sure you can imagine it's taking a little while as he's just so needy and demands all of my attention haha.. but it's on it's way, promise!

Soph x

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*all products in this post we're bought by myself, and all opinions are my own*

Alfie. | 1 Month Update

I know everyone is bound to say this but I genuinely cannot believe that Alfie is a month old?! Im really not sure where those 4 weeks have gone, it's gone so so quickly considering the days feel so bloody long because I'm so sleep deprived haha, but we're getting there, and I feel we're now pretty settled into mummy and baby life. 

SLEEP.

Yeah, gone are the days when I could go to sleep when I wanted, and get up when I wanted. Alfie generally has his last bottle before bed at around 10/11, we'll then pop him in his moses basket next to the bed and he'll sleep for about 4 hours now minimum, sometimes longer, before waking up for a bottle. He's actually a really good sleeper, he's slept up to 6 hours at most through the night which compared to my friends babies, is a bloody godsend haha. I think the more chilled out you are with the whole thing, the more chilled the baby is. He cuddles the same teddies at bedtime every night which I think has helped him associate them with going to sleep - if that makes sense? We were sent 3 gorgeous teddies from GUND which are part of their Jungle Friends range, honestly the softest teddies ever. They sent Alfie the Lion teddy, the Lion rattle, and the Lion puppet, his favourite is the rattle and he'll happily chew on this one as he slowly drifts off to sleep which I have to say, looks bloody adorable. He hasn't really shown much of an interest in any of his other teddies friends/family have given him, I'm thinking it's because the teddies from GUND are so soft, he seems to have a thing with really soft blankets too haha. We used teddies in his moses basket from birth so it was important we didn't use anything too scary looking or too brightly coloured as this would've just been a massive distraction and kept him awake rather than send him to sleep, the GUND toys we were sent were muted pastel colours so we had no problem there. I would really recommend sticking to certain teddies for bed time, as this has really helped with Alfie getting into a routine already. You can find the teddies pictured above HERE. the peter rabbit toys are bloody gorgeous and on my list to purchase. 

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS.

They say that babies don't smile until they're around 6 weeks old, as I write this Alfie is just approaching 4 weeks old and he's already had his first smile. This isn't just wishful thinking on my part haha, I know what a 'wind' smile is now, and this was completely different - Matt was giving him kisses and he gave us the biggest grin, it was so lovely. theres nothing like your child's first smile. He's also more aware of whats around him now, his vision is a lot better (newborns are born with pretty shite vision) and he is recognising faces, he stares right into your eyes taking in everything which is lovely. He is also loving my fairy lights at the moment as I'm assuming the bright lights are pretty eye catching for him.

FEEDING.

Good lord do I have a hungry baby - he is always hungry. Definitely his mothers child haha. He's having 5 ounces of milk currently and near enough finishes the bottle each time, and he'll go about 3 hours before he decides he's hungry again - but I'm 100% sure that if I just kept feeding him he'd drink it all haha.. I shan't be doing that though don't you worry. But with being a greedy baby comes the constant sickiness and burping - Alfie isn't usually sick but when he is, good god it's like a fountain haha. We've had a few troubles with him not being able to bring up his wind - Infacol has been an absolute godsend with this and I honestly don't think we would've got through the first 2 weeks without it. He's a star now though, and burps away whenever his back is rubbed. 

I think I'm going to do one Alfie update every month - as I don't want this blog to become just a mummy blog, so keep an eye out for them and ill try my best to make sure I stick at it.

Sophxo

Introducing Alfie.

24th July 2017.

Alfie Stuart Dera was born, at 7.10am. 

.. and I had no idea I was even in labour. We rang our local hospital as I was getting what I thought were just constipation pains?! Mad looking back at it now, but they didn't feel like contractions - my waters hadn't broke, the 'plug' hadn't come away, and I had no back pain at all, so what I assumed contractions and labour to be like, it really wasn't at all.

We went in at 12.00am, thinking they would check me over and give me tablets for the pain and send me on my way; turns out I was actually 2cm dilated! the next few hours were a bit odd as we were advised to go back home but then told to stay as they just wanted to confirm something with the doctor - didn't actually see the bloke in the end though because I went into active labour so quick. We spent this time chilling in the 'relaxation room' which, wasn't all that relaxing. 

I was around 3cms dilated at 4am, so opted to jump in the bath and wait the next cm out as you have to be 4cms to even have gas and air. This did basically nothing as I was in so much pain, so I hopped straight out and asked for pain relief. My midwife gave me something, honestly couldn't tell you what it was, but again it did nothing. It made the space in-between contractions really peaceful but by the time they did come around, I was so tired and it made things 10x harder. Not ideal really. 

It was then that I was basically screaming my head off demanding an epidural. So my midwife popped the tube thing (soz, I don't supply the sciencey words here, clueless) into my hand ready for the epidural. However, no one (including myself) realised that it was far, far too late for this as id managed to go from being 3cms dilated, to 10cms in just an hour, my midwife says this could usually take people up to 10 hours, and it took me just one!? This absolutely terrified as I suddenly realised Id have to push this baby out on gas and air alone. But that's exactly what I did.

A few pushes later, awful, bloody painful pushes later, our little baby was here. The first thing I said was "I did it, without an epidural!" I was so proud of myself.

The pain was honestly like nothing id ever experienced. I don't want to put people off of having babies haha, but it was horrific. Im so glad it was a quick labour as Im not sure I could've coped had it been any longer. 

3 hours later at 10.10am, we made our way back home. Never in my life did I think I would be heading home just 3 hours after having a baby, that seemed mental to me, but everything was fine despite a tiny tear down below, and actually it was so much nicer being back home. 

Finally, before I head off for more baby cuddles, I wanted to say a huge thank you to the lovely people at Very Vez for sending Alfie his very first printed quote (pictured above) to hang on his bedroom wall, we absolutely love it. They've also very kindly given you guys a 10% off code should you fall in love with any of their prints like I did; you just have to use the code SOPH10. 

We are so so in love with our little boy and couldn't feel more proud to call him ours. Its so surreal that he's actually here now, that's taking a while to get our head around haha, but he's just so lovely.

Soph & Matt x

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*this post contains a gifted item, however all comments and opinions are my own and 100% honest because telling lies isn't cool*