beautyconstellation: 2016

The 3 minute Mama face

Here is my recent guest blog post, written for the fabulous KeriKit Bags blog. If you're in the market for a luxury leather changing bag, definitely give their website a peek - there are some wonderful treats to be found!

This is for those moments in life when you literally have all of five minutes to get ready. You’ve had a grand total of two hours sleep, Mama’s got places to be and you need to get out, and fast! You seize your moment. You have that tiny, glorious, golden window of opportunity in which to do so. Pre-Mama life I would relish getting ready, it was my favourite part of the day. I'd take time to try out new products, skincare routines and generally indulge in a bit of a pamper session. Now, time is an exceptionally precious commodity so I've learnt to utilise it to the best of my ability. Enter my '3 minute Mama Face'. On a hectic day, I've been known to condense this down to just two minutes!

Moisturiser is essential; I've discovered that if I have a good moisturiser I can quite happily forgo foundation, which is an act I'd rarely do pre-parenthood. I apply a five pence size blob of moisturiser (my current favourite is this Elizabeth Arden one), it stops my face looking sallow and flat with the added bonus that you don't need to spend any time blending like you would with a foundation.

I love a good concealer. Especially as motherhood has a habit of stamping your face with it's tell-tale dark circles. I apply few dots of Clarin's Instant Concealer under my eyes and around my nose and use a damp Real Techniques sponge to blend it in. My face is instantly perked up, coverage without that terrible cakey feeling I despise. Some days I'll just leave it at that, but if I'm wanting to look a little more polished I'll sweep a touch of Estee Lauder bronzer over my cheeks. I feel this helps lift my complexion so I look sprightly and alive and less like I've walked off the set of The Walking Dead.

On to brows, a few strokes of my NYX Micro Brow Pencil and a comb through with a spoolie and I'm straight onto mascara. My final step. I don't know what it is exactly about the brush on the Lancome Grandiose mascara but it's able to give me the most amazing eyelashes with minimal effort. I swear, it's a one coat and we're done job. Maybe it's the angle of the brush, or maybe it's the formula of the product itself but it's like doe eyes in a tube. My ultimate mascara that never flakes or loses a curl throughout the day.

A sweep of a no fuss, long-lasting lipbalm like Nuxe Reve de Miel and I'm feeling much more human; I'm ready and waiting to face whatever the world (read: grumpy, teething baby) decides to throw at me! Wearing make up isn't particularly high on the list of priorities for new Mum's. We have our little babies and a list as long as our arm of jobs to be done, but taking these 3 minutes out of my day and spending them on myself gives me a much needed pick-me-up. A happy Mum makes for a happy baby, so carve those 3 minutes of the day out for yourself and spend them on whatever makes you happy. For me, it's my mini make-up ritual. Spending a few minutes of a morning to pop on a little make-up changes my mindset and makes for a much more productive day, because as much as I'd love them to be, not every day can be a duvet day!

06:16
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Where does all the time go?

20 weeks old

I'm not sure about you, but when I was pregnant I was constantly told by friends, family - even strangers in the street! - just how quickly time will pass once you've had a child. Naive little me, I obviously didn't believe it for a second. Surely that's just another one of those old wives tales that are constantly tossed around? On one occasion, an elderly lady stopped me in Booths to tell me how I was clearly having a baby boy (wrong) and how I would definitely go at least a week over my due date because my bump was small (also wrong, Edie was born nearly 6 weeks earlier than expected!). I just figured it would be another one of those things, you say 'Yeah, ok.' Smile politely and then completely forget the conversation. Maybe the time went quickly for them but it will be different for me, right? Now I'm faced with the realisation of just how wrong I was. I'm sat typing this blog post with a 20 week old tugging on my hair and pulling on my shirt, entwining her perfect, tiny fingers around whatever she can while she babbles and dribbles away.

It's come to the time when I need to seriously consider my options for returning to work. I was left with no other choice but to take my maternity leave early as I was so unwell during pregnancy, and this means I will have to resume working much sooner than I would have hoped to.

So, I've been to see a few nursery's. Read every Ofsted report I can lay my hands on. Spoken to nearly every Mum at my local baby group and I've found one stand out nursery that I'm sure Edie will love. My only issue being that I'm just not ready yet. How can you prepare yourself for something like this? I know in the grand scheme of things, handing your baby over for a few hours to more than qualified carers, it makes me sound like I'm being a little dramatic but I've actually not left her for more than 15 minutes since she was born. Even then, she's only been with her Daddy so I know that of course she's fine. I don't know how I'll ever be able to leave her or what effect it will have on our breastfeeding journey.
I have until the start of October, so any tips you could give to help us through this transition would be greatly appreciated. How could I ever leave this little face for something as mundane as work?!

06:23
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Busy Mama

Kate and Edith Illustration

10:33
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The First Weeks

baby

04:22
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Week 36 Pregnancy Update - WE HAVE OUR BABY!

first pregnancy

13:21
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Week 34 Pregnancy Update & Pre-Term Early Labour

Pregnancy

34 weeks. It doesn't really feel like that long. Maybe it's just because I've been living those weeks, not viewing as an outsider, to me it's flown by.

I'm now officially classed as 'in labour'. Everything feels so highly charged and up in the air at the moment but I'm doing the best I can to stay calm and wait patiently for little lady's arrival. I'm trying not to make this sound too dramatic, I just feel like I need to get this all out. This is my first pregnancy so I feel completely naive to the fact that I would face any complications or the need for medical interventions, now I've had this little 'hiccup' it's all that seems to be circulating around my head!

The time spent from my last post to this has mainly been spent pottering around my apartment, going backwards and forwards from midwife and consultant appointments, picking up bits we need for home and baby bump's room and starting to get things organised for my baby shower on the 28th February. I was officially on maternity leave and felt like I had all the time in the world, everything was feeling nice and relaxed and I was enjoying some 'me time'. I even got my hair and nails done!

I had a consultant appointment on the 24th February. This was to check baby's kidney development, as well as standard checks like fetal growth and cord flow. Everything was looking great. She was head down, approximately 5.11 lbs and we could see her practising her breathing up on the screen, a sign of a happy baby! The consultant had noticed that she wasn't really moving too much and wasn't responding to touch, just to be on the safe side he sent me over to the pregnancy assessment unit for a CTG. It took a while but after an hour and a half the criteria for movement was met, she was much more lively and I was able to go home.

Over the next few days I immersed myself in baby shower planning and organising the nursery. I made a huge H&M home order, sanded and painted two old sets of pine drawers and continued to stalk Pinterest, compiling images of my perfect bedroom for my baby girl.

It's still very much a work in progress but it's getting there. I went with my Mum for a big IKEA trip and we bought a fair amount of bits, it was really satisfying purchasing the finishing touches for my apartment before my baby shower on Sunday.

The next day my Mum called round whilst Liam was in work and helped organise our IKEA buys from the day before. I was feeling a bit achey but wrote it off as I'd recently been diagnosed with Pelvic Girdle pain, so attributed it to all the walking we must have done the day before.

I spent the morning fluffing up the new cushion covers we'd purchased for our sofa and making up lampshades to be hung up in the rooms - we've had bare bulbs since we moved in back in December so this was a pretty big deal! We spruced the apartment up, munched on hot cross buns and sipped cups of tea. All very pleasant. I noticed a small amount of blood when I went to the loo, I gave the pregnancy assessment department a quick call and they advised popping over in about an hours time. My Mum drove me down and offered to wait with me, it was only a going to be a quick check and more just for reassurance. I was hooked up to the CTG machine and within 15 minutes I'd met the movement criteria and could be taken off the machine. There weren't any doctors available in triage as they were all in theatre, because I'd had a small bleed I was advised not to leave until I'd been checked over. This was standard procedure so they could rule out where the blood had come from.

We must have waited for close to three hours, I was feeling really uncomfortable however I sat on the bed and I was getting impatient because I just wanted to get back home to prep the food my sister had bought for my baby shower the next day. The doctor was eventually free, she had a quick feel of my tummy. Again, all normal and of no concern however she would need to do a quick internal check to locate the blood loss, however small it was. The rest all becomes a blur. The doctor used a speculum and found a lot more blood than she originally anticipated, this wasn't the pink blood I had described but fresh red blood. I could see the face of the midwife who had been backwards and forwards to me throughout the day change. I just remember her saying "Oh, there's quite a lot there." The CTG monitor was strapped onto my stomach, I was pushed down flat and turned onto my left side. The alarm kept going off on the CTG machine as baby's heart was experiencing late decelerations. A nurse I didn't recognise was leaning over me telling me to stay as still as possible, not to move from my left side. I was wheeled through triage on the bed over to the labour ward. I could see all these people around me and hear alarms going off but I had no clue what was happening. All I could think of was trying not to move off my left side but my body had started to shake uncontrollably and I needed to call Liam.
I was moved onto a bed in a private room in the delivery suite, one doctor was putting a cannula in my arm and another was performing an internal exam as I had continued to bleed. I was 3cm dilated and my cervix was 100% effaced. The registrar arrived, he informed me that 1) I was in labour and 2) there is nothing they could give me to stop it progressing, my waters hadn't broken yet but if it's going to happen it's going to happen. He held his hand over my abdomen and explained how he could feel uterine contractions and discussed the possibility of a c-section. I remember him saying how impressed he was with the fact I was so calm and called the midwife over to give me my first steroid injection.
I never really felt any pain, I was hooked up to an IV and had a total of 3 litres of fluid pumped into me over 10 hours. I don't really remember much of what was happening around me, I just spent most of the time asleep.

The next day came and I'd slept on and off the entire night, only waking to be sick into the cardboard trays scattered around the bed. Liam was by my side curled up in the chair and my Mum had left in the early hours of the morning after baby's heart rate had returned to normal. The registrar came to do his ward round and was happy that I could be moved out of delivery and across to the antenatal ward to be monitored. I'm home now but I spent the next 2 nights in hospital. I've had uncontrollable nausea and vomiting, high temperature, raised blood pressure, raised heart rate (at one point they had to take me off the CTG because my heart rate kept setting the alarm off and there was only one midwife to 5 patients). I was given a course of antibiotics to take at home as they initially thought I was suffering with a water infection but the doctor informed me it was highly unlikely as there was no sign to indicate infection in my blood or urine samples. My iron levels have dropped in 2 days from 116 to 94, I'm due my next appointment for bloods and checks on the 7th.

The human body is so confusing. I'm doing everything I can to make sure my little girl gets as many days as she can inside before she enters the big wide world. Lots of bedrest for me. I just want to let her know how excited I am to finally meet her but I'd really prefer it if she waited until April to make an appearance!