5 Minute Meals - Chicken Tikka and Wholegrain Pilau Rice

Meal 1 in my experiment to find healthy, 5 minute meals for new mums.

Post Natal Exercise

Following on from yesterday's post on eating well when you have a newborn, today's post is about exercise when you have a baby (or a toddler for that matter).

Before I fell pregnant with C I worked out that exercise was the key to me staying reasonably slim.  For me personally, as long as I exercised regularly, then I could pretty much eat what I wanted (in moderation).  It was swimming that really helped keep me in shape.  I have been a strong swimmer since childhood and have found half an hour speed swimming twice a week could do me wonders.

After C's birth I wanted to get back into exercising as soon as possible before I lost momentum but waited until after the 6 week check to be given the all clear by the doctor (waste of time in my opinion).  I then ran in to a problem.  First I tried exercising in the evening (my original exercising time) but found I was too tired after a day of looking after a baby on my own.  I then switched to trying to exercise first thing in the morning when I was most awake.  This worked great for the exercise but meant I was too exhausted for the rest of the day to effectively parent C.  I needed sleep!

Nearly 18 months later and the same problem is still an issue.  How does anyone have the energy to exercise and look after a child full time?  I seriously would like to hear all sensible suggestions or your own experiences!!!

5 Minute Meals for New Mums

With a newborn baby I found it incredibly hard to find the time to cook anything! In those early days Celeste would not sleep anywhere but in my arms and the odd 5 minutes I might have my hands free was not enough to prepare a decent meal.  If I was hungry, i found it all too easy to reach for that pack of biscuits rather than preparing anything decent. Hubby was all to eager to reach for the takeaway menu rather than offer to cook anything himself.  Both of these had a huge effect of my wasteline - a mistake I am determined not to make this time around!

Labour Problems

All the talk of the Duchess of Cambridge's labour and delivery has got me thinking of my own impending delivery
Ok, so I might not be at the stage of putting together a birth plan yet but I am slightly concerned I have no idea how to go about this labour.
As many of you have read from my previous birth story, it did not go exactly as I had imagined.  It has however given me plenty of idea of how I would not like to do my next labour.  Unfortunately it has not given me many ideas of how I would like to do it.

Thought of the Day

What I Love About Being A Mummy

I realise I spend a lot of time on here moaning about how difficult I have found the last 17 months, therefore I thought I would dedicate a post to listing what I enjoy most about being Mummy to a toddler...

• Kisses
• Snuggles
• Giggles
• Their little idiotisms
• Watching them develop and achieve new things
• Watching their knowledge and understanding of the world around them continually delvelop and evolve
• Watching their relationship with significant others, especially Daddy!
• Being that no. 1 person in their life

What do you enjoy most about being a parent?

Five Little Monkeys

As part of improving Celeste's speech I have been taking her to two "Bounce and Rhyme" session at local libraries each week.  Here we sing a variety of fun action songs as well as more traditional nursery rhymes.  As yet we haven't seen an immediate improvement in her speech but she is starting to pick up the actions to many of the songs which is very cute to watch.  I thought I would share her latest accomplishment.  I have never seen her do this until today...

Dressing A Boy

So yesterday we found out we are expecting a little boy.
I am trying not to go overboard buying too many things at this stage as there is still a long way to go however I am aware that many companies are currently running their Summer Sales and therefore I am keeping an eye out for any good bargains.

The thing that has always struck me about boys clothes is how uncomfortable many of them look.  In my opinion babies and toddlers need plenty of flexibility for sitting, rolling, crawling and eventually walking and should not be couped up in stiff jeans and inflexible waste bands.  Little girls are lucky as they have the option of both tights and leggings but where is the alternative for boys?

20 Weeks Pregnant

This week I am 20 weeks pregnant and today was my Anomaly Scan.
My appointment was at 4pm, the latest I have ever had scan, which meant a long wait beforehand.

I suspected by this time there would be a long delay to be seen however it was actually only about 20 minutes.  We made the wise decision to leave C with my parents as a fractious, hungry toddler would not make for a pleasant experience.
We were ushered into the room and informed that there would be two sonographers carrying out the scan, one trainee, one trainer.  This was fine with us and the trainee began the scan.

A Stranger to Myself

This post was prompted by one written yesterday by BakedPotato Mummy on how her life has changed since becoming a Mummy.   It got me thinking about my own life and how it has changed, or rather it prompted to think about writing it down as it has been on my mind for a while.

On leaving university with a postgraduate degree in Archaeology, I got a job working for local government maintaining a database of all the archaeological sites in that county and providing archaeological information for developers and member of the public.  I loved my job and I loved the people I worked with.  However the reality was the pay was rubbish, there was little chance of any career progression locally until my boss retired (she was in her 30s at the time so that was not likely to happen soon), and our jobs were looking increasingly shaky with every local government cost cutting reshuffle.

Baby Names: Present and Future

It is less than a week now until my 20 week scan.  First and foremost I hope I am told that everything is well with my baby.  Secondly I hope to find out if the baby is a girl or a boy. 
This week hubby and I have vaguely begun discussing names.  Nothing too formalised yet as there is still a long way to go but just checking we were both on the same page.
 

During my first pregnancy we were pretty decided on a boy’s name but when we found out we were expecting a girl, a name proved more complicated.  I like vintage names and names that have a family connection.  I love the idea of a name being passed down through the generations.  Unfortunately this is something that has never happened in my family with girls and none of the individual names jumped out of me.  I therefore started to look at my husband’s family tree.  It was here I came across the name Adelaide being passed down the female line.  I know someone who recently named their daughter Adelaide and have always thought it a beautiful name and a family connection over many generations made it perfect.  The only problem was my first name begins with A and I definitely did not want any of my children to have the same initial as me having seen the confusion it caused in other families.  This therefore left the option of having Adelaide as a middle name.  I started looking at girls names that would work with it…..