I'm Back, And Better Than Ever!

Hey!

Oh how I have missed this!

It's been around a year since I last wrote here, a year where I have battled with so many demons in my head, I would repeatedly think I'm going to give blogging a go again, and would quick as a flash convince myself I was not good enough, utter pants and give it up again.

But not this time! for YEARS I have loved reading other blogs, watching women and families vlog and create content on YouTube, once the children were in bed it is how I chose to spend my time, I lost count of how many times id say to Steve, 'I'll do that one day', then let my lack of confidence, and the fact that I'm not a size 8 nor do I look like a airbrushed supermodel stop me. But now, I have decided that none of that really matters, I have a passion, and sure I might end up being no good at this, but I will never know if I don't try, and I don't want to get to 50 and regret not giving it a go.

So this is the first post of many, and along side some of these posts you'll find a link to my shiny new YouTube channel!

I'm still working on a schedule, but I am so frigging excited to do this! I hope you'll come along for the ride x

check back soon for a fresh post, and if you fancy you can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and now of course, YouTube....just search All About Jemma.

Much Love

xoxox

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

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

 

 



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

 

 

It's Been A Long Time........

Hey!

 

Am I the only one who begins to sing the Aaliyah song 'Try Again' when they see the words 'it's been a long time'...yea? ok......

 

Guess who's back!

 

Hey everyone, I'm back after a very long break from blogging, my last post was back in September, when I announced my pregnancy.

Carrying my third child certainly took it out of me, physically but emotionally too, I didn't feel in a great place, and suffered from pregnancy related anxiety...no doubt not helped by the fact that I was pregnant so soon after a difficult miscarriage. Unfortunately this meant I felt unable to blog, I was really disappointed because I was looking forward to sharing my experience as a plus size woman, and honest "YEP THIS CAN BE SHIT" look at pregnancy from a fat birds point of view, but I had to stick with what kept me sane for those 40 plus weeks.

 

Anyway, just 9 short weeks ago my husband and I welcomed our third child, a baby girl named Isabelle Susie Jade!! She is beyond perfect and I am still very much in that new-born bubble. I plan on sharing my birth story soon and a little about her first few weeks in the world, I am so excited to share a new twist to All About Jemma, my baby girl!

 

Look out for lots of Mummy/home related posts in the near future, along with my usual subscription box reviews, including a new one aimed at children which really excites me......told you I was still in that baby bubble!

 

For now, don't forget to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snap chat too for daily pics and rambly crap!

 

Much Love

xoxox

Mommy Monday - A Catch Up

Hey Hey!

 

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last week, life has been a bit all over the place! I have lots of posts planned for the coming weeks but thought I would use today to have a little catch up, a kind of week in review I guess!

 

Friday 13th March

I spent the day in the hair salon! I'm a natural red head, but after years and years of incessant bullying as a child I began colouring my hair when I was in my early teens, it has stayed that way, only varying in intensity, and maybe adding a flash of colour over the past year. I have started to notice over the past few months, especially since I turned 30 that, as I also have the colouring of a red head, the dark hair was doing me no favours, I look washed out and pale, and If I left the house without foundation, blusher and bronzer on I'd be asked if I was poorly! I think it was particularly aging as well, my trusted stylist of around 4 years, Fran agreed, and we decided to strip the dark brown, almost black out and apply a colour more forgiving!

I wont lie, I was so nervous about leaving the dark behind, such a silly thing to be worried about I know! But I trust Fran completely, she knows me fairly well when it comes to my hair now and I know she wouldn't do anything I would hate......didn't stop me not wanting to look in the mirror while the colour developed though!

In the end, after over 4 hours, I was, and still am in love with the end result! The colour isn't overly bright, and definitely not close to my natural colour, it's a beautiful red toned copper, I'm in love!

I could instantly see a change in my colouring, it was amazing and I left the salon feeling so glam! I am 100% sure i will not be heading back to the dark side again any time soon!

A subtle but gorgeous change!

 

Sunday 15th March

Mothers day and also the day my husband, Steve, ran his first competitive half marathon in aid of the Stroke Association.

A day that really didn't go to plan, and scared the bajebus out of me!

Steve made a great start in the race, he passed me at around the five mile mark and looked amazing, his pace had been good and he was at that point in the top 50/60 of nearly 1000 people, I cried with pride as he passed me looking so strong and confident!

My family and I made our way into town and closer to the finish line to get something to warm us up, it was freezing and sustenance was needed! Eventually we arrived at the finish line ready to welcome him home, I was such an emotional mess, I literally felt like I could burst with pride! Just after 1hr45 our friend crossed the finish line, I thought at this point Steve shouldn't be far behind.....after nearly 10 minutes had passed my stomach sank and I instinctively knew something was wrong, Steve is a strong runner and I knew he had the ability and should have crossed the line already, even if he was struggling on that day he's a stubborn sod and will push himself to do better, the fact that he was running this race after having an upper respiratory infection all week says it all! It was then that I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see our friend looking worried, Steve had collapsed and was in an ambulance. Then something so rare happened....I ran! Ha! I don't think I have ever moved so fast, running in the opposite direction of the Marathon runners to get to him. When I arrived the paramedics wouldn't let me the ambulance and I was met with people telling me he was exhausted, it didn't make sense, I knew he could run that distance with ease, my intuition after 13 years of loving that man told me something else was going on.

I was finally allowed into the ambulance after around 10 minutes. I was met with my strong man, the guy I always refer to as my protector and super hero, covered in vomit, as was the ambulance and paramedic! He was grey, soaked in his own sweat that was still pouring off him and on oxygen. He could barely speak and when he did it made no sense, the paramedics suspected a heart attack as he complained of a tingling sensation in his left arm, my heart broke in that few minutes, I honestly felt as though I was going to lose my one and only, my constant. I thank god daily that his 12 lead was clear, his heart was strong and healthy, but he was dangerously close to seizure. It was discovered that the glucose gels Steve had used had utterly messed with his body, his blood sugar had dropped like a brick and he was seriously dehydrated. After two hours of treatment he began to come back to me. In the days after we were filled in by people who had seen Steve in the minutes before he became unconscious, even receiving a card from someone who had tried to help carry him to the finish line! He had been dangerously poorly for the last 3 miles of the race but pushed himself to and beyond his limits.

Once Steve was stable I spoke with the organiser of the race as I at least wanted to get him a medal, he had worked so hard and raised over £500. It was decided that as he was just yards from the finish he was a finisher, he had covered the distance and was placed in the top 470 and given a finish time of 1hr58 along with his first medal.

I honestly couldn't be more proud of him, he is a true star.

 

The following days were spent quietly at home, I came down with an awful head cold and felt rotten all week, hence no posts on All About Jemma.....I did go along to parents evening at the boys school, another proud mummy moment, they are both progressing well and very clever little chickens!

 

I'm back and feeling good so will be bugging you all with lots of my ramblings! Steve is ready to get back into training and will hopefully take part in another competitive run soon!

 

Check back tomorrow for a look at my March Glossybox, it's Spring inspired and really quite a lovely box of treats!

 

Until then enjoy the start of your week!

 

Much Love

xoxox

Happy Mothers Day!

Hey Hey!

 

Welcome back to All About Jemma.

 

Todays post will be short and sweet, much like my mum!

 

 

I decided as it's a special day, and even more so for my family and I, after a tough year this year, that I would share some pictures, past and present, of my mum, my sisters and I.

My parents had me when they were just 17, so you could say we have grown up together, my sisters followed 9 years later.

 

 

A few of these pictures aren't of the best quality as they were taken a few years ago, but I love them all the same!

 

My mum and I have had a strained relationship at times, I don't always agree with the things she says or does, and vice versa, but she is my mum, and the only one I will have. I always thought my parents were invincible, until last year when my mum suffered two huge strokes, time with her has never been so precious.

 

We will spend this mothers day together as a family, starting the day supporting my husband as he runs a local Half Marathon in aid of the Stroke Association, and finishing with a meal at our local family favourite restaurant.

The day will no doubt be full of laughter, our days often are when we are all together.

 

 

I hope that whatever you do, whether your mother is still with you or not, that you are happy and healthy. Enjoy the day, laugh and love, be thankful for the small things, they often create the best memories when things change.

 

 

Take care lovelies,

 

Much Love,

xoxox

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Sunday! - Jemma's Chocolate Mug Cake!

Hey Hey!

 

Welcome again lovelies!

 

It's Sunday evening, everyone's fed, bathed and in their pj's, school bags packed and lunches prepped. You just get comfy on the sofa and you get a craving for something delicious and naughty, but who can be bothered to spend Sunday night in the kitchen?! Not me! So after doing a bit of the old Googling, I took bits of recipes I liked and created 'Jemma's Chocolate Mug Cake!', prep takes less than 5 mins and it takes just three minutes to cook....yes, its a microwave cake!

 

You will need - 

A mug.

Three tablespoons of plain flour.

Three tablespoons of cocoa powder.

One tablespoons of caster sugar.

Two tablespoons of dark brown sugar.

An egg.

Two tablespoons of vegetable oil.

Dark chocolate chips (as many as you like!)

And milk, as much as it takes to create a batter like consistency!

Oh, and not forgetting a microwave!

 

The method could not be more simple, it's completely elegant.....just like me! You quite simply, bung everything in a mug, mix it up until you get a batter like consistency, viola!

You then pop it into the microwave, mine is an 850w, for 3 minutes.

 

You are left with gooey, messy, rich and delicious chocolate mug cake!

 

 

Now, these are not the most aesthetically pleasing treats, but they're yum! They rise right up in the microwave and then sink a little when they hit the cool air.

 

You could even switch the chocolate chips for a drop of vanilla, a spoon of peanut butter, a spoon of chocolate spread, or even a few marshmallows!

 

Either way it will definitely not be 10 minutes wasted!

 

Let me know if you give making these a go, did you add anything extra?

 

Don't forget to give an ol' like over on Facebook, or follow along on the Twitters and the Instagrams, links can be found bellow or over in the side bar < :0)

 

You can also check out my last Sweet Sunday post by clicking here.

 

I'll be back in a few days, for now though, bye bye! Have a wonderful week!

 

Much Love,

xoxox

 



 

 



 

 

   

Mummy Monday! A Little Look At My Family!

Hey Hey!

 

Welcome back to my blog.

I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend and a great start to the new week.
 

It's half term here for us, so I thought i would do a little post about my boys! I thought it might be fun to share a little bit about my family with you lovely people.

 

Steve and I have been together for very nearly 13 years, and married for almost 10. By the time we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary we were almost 6 months pregnant with our first little munchkin! Evan came into the world in 2006 and changed us forever!

 

 

 

He's a handsome chap isn't he! 

He is so incredibly kind and thoughtful, and totally laid back, just like his daddy! He's unbelievably intelligent too, the boy can do maths that baffles me! His love's in life are his scooter, video games, his best friends...AKA 'The Crazy Bulldog Gang' and anything non vegetable!

When Evan was one we got a little surprise, we discovered we were expecting again! Totally not planned so soon but we were in love instantly.

In 2008 our little firecracker came screaming into the world. Meet Harry!

 

As you can see from the little selection of pictures, Harry is completely individual! He has a fiery personality and keeps us on our toes, he also keeps us laughing too, he's a tiny little comic!

His loves in life are video games, dressing up and pizza......oh, and chocolate cake! 

 

My boys, are quite frankly, my world, so will no doubt feature highly as this blog grows, I hope you'll enjoy the little snippets of them as they grow.

I've never really known what I wanted from life, but as soon as I became a mummy I knew, it's probably the most rewarding job in the world, although they drive me batcrap crazy at times I wouldn't be without them!

 

 

So that's it for today, I hope you enjoyed this little snippet!

I'll be back later in the week so watch out for more ramblings, don't forget you can also follow me on my other social network outlets!

 

Have a great evening!

Much Love,

xoxox