What's in our just-in-case hospital bag and toddler bag

For our second baby boy, we have a home birth planned, so the bulk of my recent planning has been around ensuring we have everything we need in the house to bring baby boy into the world.
However, that doesn't mean we're off the hook for bag packing!

Ever the organiser, I've packed a normal hospital bag as well, just in case I have to be transferred to hospital.
Hopefully this will be completely unnecessary, but I'd rather pack and not need it, than be unprepared.

I'm also packing a second bag this time, specifically for Henry, so that if I'm in labour during the day he has a bag packed to go to his Godparents house until he can come home again.

Luckily, last time around I packed a pretty good concise hospital bag so I'm pretty much sticking with that as a base, but with a little update, and less in the way of comforts as this is just an emergency bag!

Opening birthday presents:A toddler gift guide

Post contains review items*

My little man turned two!!
That's still pretty crazy to even think about, let alone say out loud.

However turning two was a whole lot of fun, and involved a very early morning (he really does not believe in lie ins) with presents and cinnamon buns!

I have to admit, shopping for kids is actually really hard work. There's literally so much available to buy kids, so it's working out what they will actually enjoy. And it's so easy to fall in to the trap of buying and buying, because you see just another gift that would be perfect.

Maternity Leave Round Two - what are my plans?

I'm about to start maternity leave for the second time, and I am oh so ready for it.
I won't lie, this pregnancy has been hard, and although I only work part-time, it's been difficult juggling pregnancy, a toddler and a job.

With Henry, I didn't actually start my maternity leave until the day after he was born (a Sunday) and I only had one week of leave prior to his arrival. So not an especially relaxing start to my leave. Of course I wouldn't change any of it for the world, but this time around I've decided to go off a little earlier than 38 weeks. My maternity leave officially starts at 36 weeks so I'm hoping for a good couple of weeks before Baby Boy joins us.
At the same time, Henry is dropping one day of nursery, so only attending two days a week, so although I won't be getting rest and relaxation every day, I will get two days a week to myself, and then some extra time with my little man before my time is split between two!

So what do I plan to do with my maternity leave this time around?

22 little things you can do as a family to be more eco-friendly

I've been working on this post for the last few weeks compiling as big a list as possible of little things you can do as a family to reduce your impact on the environment.

It's something I've become more and more aware of as I've gotten older, and especially so since having Henry and knowing that I need to teach him how to treat our planet. He's already an avid fan of David Attenborough and his wildlife shows (yes, a very proud parent moment when he pointed at the TV saying David!) and adores all animals, so it really is more and more important that we show him the best ways of leaving a good planet behind for future generations.

I'm not saying we do everything in this list, but we're well on our way to doing a good chunk of it, and making progress with others. And I think that's the important thing, that we're at least trying. Every little steps help a little bit.

You know you're a mum when....

After weeks of feeling totally useless and spending a lot of time in bed, I finally feel like me again.

It really took it's toll, especially on how I saw myself as a mother as I wasn't really doing a huge amount of actual parenting as I either in bed or the bathroom.

But I've got my mama crown on now, and am feeling top of my motherhood game. In fact I'm pretty excited to become a mum of two this year.
So I thought I'd share some things that are clear-cut signs that you are a mum (tongue in cheek, of course).

6 things that every tattooed girl knows to be true

Did you know that as soon as you get a big visible tattoo life kinda changes a bit! 

Now I've been extensively tattooed for some time now, like 5 years (I started my right sleeve at 22) so I guess I know a thing or two about living with tattoos now!

As I'm working on bringing more tattooey (is that a word? Yeah sure, let's stick with it!) content to the blog here's xx things that every tattooed girl goes through.