Date nights for parents

Being a parent means foregoing quite a few things in favour of your little ones. Hot meals. Hot cups of tea (I miss them the most I think). Using the bathroom in piece. Having clean clothes for an entire day. Eating alone. Going out alone. And going out as a couple alone... well we've gone 8.5 months without going out alone.
It's a sacrifice we were of course willing to make, but man do I miss a good old date night.

We're now at a stage where we feel Henry is in a good enough place with his night time routine that we can leave him with someone else (hoorah!) so that's what we did. Henry's Godparents kindly took over the ropes for the night and allowed us to go out for our very first date night as parents.

Henry's nine month update

Oh my goodness I really can't believe we're at nine months! I no longer feel like I can say I'm a new mum, or that I have a tiny baby, because he's been outside in the real world for longer than he was inside. He's now 39 weeks old (39+2 to be accurate) and he was born at 38 weeks + 6 days! It's hard to get my head around. I felt like I was pregnant FOREVER, waiting and waiting to meet this tiny human, and now he's here, the time is flying by. He's not a defenceless little baby anymore but a bouncing, climbing, standing and babbling little lad who is growing into the most wonderful human being that I could ever have wished for (soppy mum moment over...... maybe).

So yeah, nine months old. Nine months and two days.... and wow has it been so much fun.

So what's new?

Becoming a Conscious Parent

The world of parenting comes with decisions. Oh so many decisions.
To breastfeed, or bottle feed?
Baby Led Weaning or Traditional Weaning?
Organic Cotton or Normal Cotton?
Baby Wearing or in a pushchair?
Disposable nappies or cloth nappies?

None of them wrong, all of them right.
Today's post is about nappies. Honestly a topic I never really thought I'd ever blog about, but I love a good debate, a little education and trying new things.

Mother's Day Breakfast in Bed Recipe

This is a collaborative post*

Right so it's my first Mother's Day at the end of the month, and to say I'm excited would be an understatement! We didn't do anything last year whilst I was pregnant, as for me it just didn't feel right.

Anyway this year,since becoming a mother myself, I've really realised how important our mums really are (yep, I'm super important don't you know!). I know for a lot of people Mother's Day can be really hard, and in some respects it is for us. We don't live too close to our family, so seeing them on Mother's Day isn't hugely logistical and remind me that, like my mum, I'm basically doing this motherhood on my own (of course credit to Dann where it's due).

So to celebrate Mother's Day, and hopefully get you inspired, with Blind's Hut* I've put together a little recipe post (and back story) for the perfect alternative Mother's Day Breakfast in Bed!

Seven mum and baby essentials

Having been in this game for 9 months now (where did the time go?!) I feel like I'm in a reasonably good place to give some friendly mama advice.
We've been pretty lucky that most stuff we've bought or been given has been useful, or at least used, with very little being a waste of money (thank goodness as babies can be sooooo expensive).

As a little disclaimer, I'm of course working from what worked for us, and this is definitely not the be all and the end all. Just a few things that I think really helped us, and honestly, most mums should probably try if they can.

Now you're obviously going to need the basics, such as a travel system/pushchair, car seat (you need that as a minimum to get baby home from the hospital!), a place for them to sleep, and clothes, nappies etc. This list is the little bits and pieces.