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Friday 27 May 2016

Three Month Old Baby Update!

Welcome back to All About Jemma!
 
Today I'll be sharing a look at my baby girl Isabelle and her development as she turns three months old!
 
 
Isabelle was born on 27th February 2016 so is exactly three months old today! The last three months have absolutely flown by, it feels like I just gave birth, but in the same breath I can't remember life before she arrived!
 
Isabelle was born weighing 9lb 12oz, and although I haven't had her weighed since she was 6 weeks i can tell by just looking at the little chunk that she is growing well, she will next be weighed at her 4 month check. We decided after speaking to our health visitor to not have her weighed between development assessments and trust our own judgement as third time parents.
She moved into her 3-6 month wardrobe around 3-4 weeks ago, like her brothers she is quite long and everything in her 0-3 wardrobe was becoming way too short!
 
She has been smiling since she was a few weeks old and now laughs when funny faces are pulled or crazy noises.....admittedly it's Daddy who gets the most laughs from her!
 
 
She is so alert now and notices noises and things/people moving around her, she recognises different voices and gets excited when she see's people she may have not seen for a while, like her brothers at the end of the school day. She has only slept through the night once, but goes to sleep around 9pm, until 3am when she has a short feed then goes back to sleep until 5am when she will feed again and usually sleep until at least 8/9am. We are still exclusively breastfed and its going fantastically for both of us, we don't have a set routine and I feed on demand, so far it's working well for us, although I am now pumping and storing with a view to introducing a bottle and sippy cup when appropriate, purely because I EBF Harry until he was 11 months, when I tried to wean him I struggled to get him to take anything....lesson learned! I plan to feed her myself until she is around 1year old.
 
Physically she is just like her brothers and developing super quick! The evening before she turned 3 months old she rolled over for the first time! The next day she showed us how she can roll from back to front, and back again.....at three months old! I feel she will be like her brothers and be walking by the time she is 10 months old. She loves being held up on her feet, with us taking most of her weight, and hates being flat on her back, unless she's having naked time, the girl just loves her naked time! 
 
 
 Bathtime is always a bit hit, ive never seen a baby kick and splash so much, she's a little water baby just like her daddy which is just adorable to watch! It's one of our favourite times followed by a massage and tummy time, and lots and lots of chatter!
She is teething and dribbling lots, along with lots and hand and thumb chewing!
 
Overall she is doing wonderfully, and has bought nothing but joy into our family! I will probably share a little update on her every three months here, but if you'd like daily snippets of her cuteness use the links in the sidebar and follow me on Instagram, Facebook and  Twitter, I can also be found on Snap Chat under the username 'Boomtaaa'.
 
Next on All About Jemma will be my baby must haves, for the first three months, things I have loved and found really useful so far!
 
For now,
 
Much Love
xoxox

Thursday 26 May 2016

Medela Swing Breast Pump - Review

Hey again!
 
Today I thought I would share a little review on my new favourite toy, my Medela Swing electric breast pump.
 
I'm a third time mummy, my first son I gave up breastfeeding pretty early, my age, lack of confidence and support led to me putting him on bottles within a few weeks. When his brother arrived 22 months later I was determined to breastfeed, that determination paid off and he had breast milk until 11 months, I didn't pump really and struggled to get him off the breast when I was ready for our journey to end.
So, skip forward 7 plus years and we have our third and final baby! As with Harry I am a confident breast feeder, but I do have an excessive supply and would like to have a stash of milk frozen, so that when Isabelle weans she can use a sippy cup but still drink my milk. I did hours of research into pumps, and overall I was drawn towards the Medela, great reviews, seemed easy to use and a great price, I paid just £99.99 for mine direct from Amazon.
(Picture from www.medela.com)
I was instantly impressed with my purchase, the packaging was bright and attractive but simple. I have to admit I was a bit anxious about having an ELECTRIC pump on my boobie, it seemed far more intimidating than the little piranha that is my daughter! But that was short lived, everything was so simple, the instructions were step by step and easy to follow, I was able to assemble with ease and loved that I could plug it into the mains rather than have batteries in it. I'm not that savvy when it comes to technology so something only I was using had to be simple!
Another concern I had was the size of my boobs, they are pretty damn big! I was worried this would be an issue, I shouldn't have at all, I had no problems easily pumping using only one hand, it was overall a very comfortable and rewarding experience.
The various degrees of suction do to a certain extent mimic that of a baby, and obviously do the job, as you can see from the picture below, taken after just half an hour of pumping!
 
 

The only slight negative I would have is that it is a little noisy, not hugely and definitely not enough for me to either stop using the pump or not recommend it.
 
So overall, a great product, worth every penny and ideal for someone not wanting to spend a huge amount of money but still get decent results!
 
Now to just get Isabelle to drink from anything other than mummy!
 
Enjoy the rest of your week!
 
Much Love
xoxox
 
 


Saturday 21 May 2016

New-born Photo Shoot

Hi Guys,
Welcome back!
Today I thought I would share a peek at the result of Isabelle's new-born photo shoot. We booked her session a few months before her due date, we had seen so many of those adorable, squishy pictures of shiny new babies, and decided as we plan on Isabelle being our last baby, that we would capture the moments professionally, something we didn't do with our eldest children.

Isabelle was just 7 days old when our chosen photographer Nicky visited us at home, this was amazing in itself as many of you will know, the last thing you want to do after having a baby is lug yourself and your entire brood to a studio, she came along with her entire setup and seriously cute props! We found the entire thing very relaxed, even when Isabelle took a while to settle, and then ended her shoot by pooping in the basket prop!


We also loved that our sons, Evan and Harry were involved, they loved having pictures taken with their brand new baby sister, but were clearly very pleased these were done first so they could run off upstairs and continue their Saturday gaming! This left our little lady, who I didn't imagine would co-operate! Watching her be moved around and positioned by a professional was amazing, she didn't flinch!




Within a week we were sent a link and password to our photos, we were able to browse the pictures in our own home and place an order online, we couldn't pick just a few images so decided to go with buying all images on a USB.
So, all in all our experience was hugely positive, and I highly recommend splashing out on something like this to expectant parents, especially if you're local and can take advantage of Nicky at Nicky Peter-Nel Photography, her website can be found here. You can see from the few pictures I have shared how talented she is, I can't wait to add them to our home!


I hope you have enjoyed having a peek and reading about our experience, have you had any shoots for your little ones? Feel free to share your experiences and the final results!

For now, I hope you have a great weekend, don't forget to pop over to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and give me a like and a follow just search for All About Jemma or use the links on the sidebar!

Take care my lovelies!

Much Love
xoxo

Wednesday 4 May 2016

My Birth Story

Welcome back!
 
As promised I have decided to share a little about my birth story!
 
My third child, a baby girl was born on February 27th 2016,as far as labours go it was fairly textbook, and for me the best birthing experience I have had.
 
I went into hospital on the Friday, the day before she arrived for monitoring, at this point I was 5 days past my due date, the baby was measuring very big and I was having some reduced movements. The decision was made to keep me in over night and induce the following morning. I was admitted and given a bed on a ward, at 9pm Steve went home and i settled down for what I thought would be my final nights rest before the onslaught of nappies and sleepless nights began once again! How wrong i was.... the midwife on duty decided to give an internal examination in the hope things would start on there own over night, well, within 20 minutes I was contracting quite intensely, Steve was called back to the hospital and I was moved to a delivery room, I spent the next two hours having regular contractions fairly close together, we thought she was nearing her grand entrance, I was examined....nope, only 2-3cm dilated!!! frustratingly I was making no progress as far as dilation was concerned and spent the entire night awake in very slow labour!
 
by 7 in the morning I was still only 3cm dilated.....I had never been as frustrated as I was at this point, on the bright side the midwife on duty now was able to break my waters and by 8am everything well and truly kicked off! I had decided to try and do this delivery with little to no pain meds, and at this point I was coping well using gas and air. Our little munchkin decided to flip herself into a back to back position so my contractions were agony, if i'm honest the pain never really subsided at any point, I quickly started to regret my decision to be all earth mother but it was too late! I was still only around 5cm dilated but my body took over and it was almost as if it was pushing for me, I couldn't control it at all, we were assured that this is very common with 3rd time mothers, the body just knows what its doing and takes over, by the time she was nearing her arrival I was exhausted and in so much pain my entire body stiffened, I literally couldn't move my limbs, but it was now that I had to put the work in and push!
Steve and I grow healthy babies, long chunky babies with big heads, and Isabelle was no exception! After 40 minutes of pushing our beautiful girl came into the world!
Isabelle Susie Jade, born at 12:09pm weighing in at a healthy (very healthy) 9lb 12oz!!
I was, and still am besotted with her. I am incredibly proud of myself for delivering her naturally with no pain meds or intervention, after my previous deliveries, one c-section one heavily assisted delivery doing this was so very important to me, it was definitely something I felt the need to do.
Unfortunately I experienced some complications and was rushed to theatre shortly after she was born, I had a post partum haemorrhage,  a second degree tear that needed to be repaired in theatre and to top it off, retained placental tissue!
I was away from her for almost three hours which broke my heart, she enjoyed her skin to skin time with Daddy though and as soon as I was back in my room she was on my chest and latched on for her first feed. I recovered really well and although tired and sore was ready to go home the next afternoon.
Since then I have been in my perfect little bubble with Steve and our three beauties, I feel incredibly blessed!
 
Isabelle is now almost 10 weeks and developing her own sassy little personality, I look forward to sharing more on her development with you!
 
For now, have a wonderful day!
 
Much love,
xoxox
 
 
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