A trip to the zoo

A couple of weekends back we did our longest trip so far with Henry up to Cotswold Wildlife Park for my sister's birthday.
We had glorious sunshine for the entire day which meant we got some brilliant photos. Dann took most of the photos with my long lens and seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself.We're definitely developing the camera love in the Bradford household.

Cotswold Wildlife Park is an old family favourite of mine as I used to go with my family when I was growing up. It's been at least 10 years since I've visited and it was so nice to recognise the building and the house from when I was younger, but also see how the park has developed and grown since I was a kid.

Advice for new mums, from real mums

The first few weeks of parenthood are a huge learning curve. You spend a lot of the time in a warm fuzz of love, sleepily googling everything under the sun. Or at least you should be. Well maybe not the Google thing.

Before I had Henry I knew I would want lots of advice from people who had been there and brought the proverbial t-shirt.

I'm lucky. I have a wonderful sister in law who not only has her own daughters, but is also a trained neo-natal nurse so knows a thing or two about babies. I also have a number of friends with little ones who have brought their children up beautifully and are a beacon of knowledge. I've also connected with a great group of mummy bloggers, who I've spoken to almost daily since Henry arrived to share the midnight feeds on twitter or just chat and get advice.

Without them all I think I'd feel very alone.

So I wanted to try and help out my readers and collect on this knowledge and share it.

The first few weeks

Newborns are hard work. There's no denying it. You're warned about the ups and downs. The sleepless nights. The endless nappies. But it still doesn't quite prepare you for the emotional rollercoaster that the first few weeks puts you through.

I've never been more physically and emotionally drained than I have since having Henry. The most amount of sleep I've gotten in one go is three hours. Even four lots of 2-3 hours isn't enough because it's so broken. And I've often woken completely confused on the time and when I last fed him as I've dreamt about feeding too!

Henry's Birth Story

Today I'm sharing Henry's Birth Story in the hopes it helps other mums to be for the future. I know I personally really enjoyed reading birth stories. I mean they're intensely unique and interesting after all. I'd highly recommend you also read Sophia's with Willow, and Emily's with Little Lady.

As you may know from this blog and my social media Henry arrived eight days early on 12th June 2016.

The first week as new parents

The first week of having a newborn baby is pretty much one of the most life changing weeks a person can experience. It's filled with ups and downs and as with pregnancy and labour, completely unique to everyone. 

Our first week was a pretty good one actually with visitors and cuddles and not too many tears (from me or Henry). 

So our first full day was spent at the New Forest Birth Centre. Henry was born at 10:28am and it was pretty quiet in the centre so we were left to bond in the birthing room. Whilst I was checked over Dann had his skin to skin with Henry. We then started our very first time breastfeeding with the help of Carla who is kind of the resident expert at NFBC. It was a lovely moment for the three of us and I'm so pleased that Carla picked up my camera to capture the moment. 

We were then transferred to a side room to have our own space, I had a well needed shower and lots of cuddles. Overnight was hard as I was still getting used to breastfeeding and he wasn't always happy to settle which I can kind of understand after being cosy and snug for nine months.

Newborn shoot with Studio1314 - plus special offer

Baby spam alert!! To be honest you guys are probably getting used to all the baby photos now. We've been making the most of some quiet time in our early days with Henry, and of course getting lots and lots of photos in too.

I love photography, taking photos and keeping all those memories.There's something about photos that just make me really happy. Looking back at a moment caught in time. Which I guess is why getting lots of photos of Henry whilst he is little is so important to me. Children grow up so so fast, especially when they are really little. I mean Henry is already a few weeks old and it's absolutely flown by, and I really can't imagine my life without him, though a few hours extra sleep would be amazing on some days!

Anyway, when we were asked by Studio1314* to come by their studio for a newborn shoot I just had to take them up on the offer, plus we wanted to do a special offer for you readers too (see the end of the post for full details and T&C's. You may remember these guys from our couple's shoot last year which captured some of my favourite photos of Dann and I.