Little Joyful Moments From The Past 5 Months

Baby brain is in full swing at the moment as I was certain I wrote a dedicated post of my happy moments this year, but I hadn’t. So, this post is a re-cap of some jolly little moments since January. Plus a bit of a ramble here and there.

My pregnancy has certainly had its challenges and no-one talks about how difficult the third trimester is. However, I don’t want to dwell on the downsides as this is a reflective post on happy memories. I’m planning to write all about my third trimester in due course. So, anywho… We are in the final weeks and I’m really excited to meet our little girl!

Looking back… We’ve had some really lovely moments since January. Decorating the nursery, purchasing all the baby bits and buying clothes for my mini fashionista. Officially in the nesting era!

There is still quite a bit of organisation to do in baby’s room. I’m chipping away at things slowly, but she won’t be sleeping in there for a while, so I’ve got time.

We’ve had some lovely baby moons in the UK and one abroad to the Canaries too.

The baby moons were amazing. We did three in the end, all in my second trimester. I chat about them all in detail in separate blog posts if you’re intrigued. Sopwell House, Artist Residence, and the Canaries.

We had two lovely baby showers with family. One in Joe’s home-town and one hosted at our house.

We’ve also met lots of lovely local couples at NCT. Which I’d highly recommend doing if you’re pregnant, as you meet a bunch of new mum friends as well as preparing you for the arrival of baby and beyond.

We’re hoping to all stay in contact as our babies will be born at similar times. One of the mum’s mentioned about meeting up every Wednesday post birth which I thought was a great idea. Suggestions of baby yoga, meeting up for cake and coffee or walks.

I’m really excited to have some mum friends close in age to our babies. I do have some mum friends already which is perfect, so I’ve been getting lots of tips here and there.

I’ve been keeping up with lots of daily walking as I stopped running when I got pregnant. We’ve had some really nice strolls around London and Hertfordshire.
I’ve also had some other lovely walks with friends and family too.

It was really great to travel into London for a date day out in Spring. Lots of stepping, wandered around the Tim Burton exhibition and ate some cracking Italian foods. Which I wrote about here.

I was also going to the gym regularly, but it’s been a bit hit and miss in my third trimester. Trying to go once a week at the moment, but it really does depend on how I’m feeling!

In other pregnancy related news… Joe gets amazing paternity leave with work. So, he will be at home with me for six weeks after birth.

He’s been really great through-out pregnancy. Attending every single hospital appointment with me, giving me foot and back massages, making me lunches and dinners when he is at home. As well as building all the baby furniture.

I know Joe is going to be an incredible dad as he is so good with children in our family. He’s naturally calm and patient.

Rest is critical for me from birth as I don’t want my health to slip downhill, so I’m so glad I’ll have his support during the first 6 weeks. Also going to enjoy the newborn bubble as much as possible.

I’ve been in my head, planning all the holidays I’d like to do with baby girl over the next two years. I haven’t booked anything, but it’s just ‘brain-storming holiday ideas’ for when she’s older.
We’d really like to test the waters with a European holiday and then depending how that goes, tick off one of my ‘before I turn 40 bucket-list‘ goals of going to Japan as it’s kid friendly. As well as doing a special holiday for when Joe turns 40 in a few years. Hopefully we get the chance to go Maldives one day too as we had to cancel it the other year due to me being in hospital.

Speaking of Joe, it was also his birthday back in February. We went back to his home-town for celebrations. Before we dashed off on the drive, I got him a dishoom vegan sausage naan roll kit! T’was a 10/10 as always.
It has become a bit of a tradition to get this yearly.

I had a wonderful Mother’s Day with bump, Archie and my mum in late March. Joe bought this gorgeous bunch of flowers from Archie and I treated my mum to a delicious Greek meal in the afternoon of Mother’s Day as well as purchasing her some Doughnut Time doughnuts.

It was my grandad’s 90th birthday in April. I had organised a small family gathering roast down the pub, which he loved.

He’s the jokester of the family and the life and soul of the party. He’s doing so so well for his age. Super active and still exercises every day. And he loves watching the Lionesses play football, so I remind him when they play on TV.

I’m super close to my grandad, we chat on the phone every day talking about how our day has been. Also, he doesn’t have a carer, he is super independent and has a lot of help from family members when he needs us.
He’s also very fond of Joe as he’s often helping him make wine in his garden, laying flooring for him or helping with tech support.

I’ve had some delicious foods out and about… Such as… The Waffle House, a fair few pub roast dins, a delicious sausage roll at Ashridge House, Daisy & Co brunch, Flourish Bakery goodness and pizzas at a local Italian.

I have had some great foods at home too, plus some take-away treats. Frozen Pret croissants that I air-fried, Simmons bakery goods, home-made cookies, five guys, my addiction to very cheesy jacket potatoes and tasty yogurts. Also, trying to drink more Kefir as it’s great for the gut. And, craving a lot of cloudy lemonade! Food is my little joyful thing I always look forward to.

I tried to take some cute pregnancy photos recently. Although maybe not so cute with my awful state of a garden in the background.

Ideally it would be lovely to have a maternity shoot or newborn shoot. Although, I think I prefer my Instax snaps of my bump development.

Other little joyful moments include daily naps, cuddles with Archie, wearing super soft pjs, my Skims dresses or my fave stretchy maternity trousers from H&M.
Little treats from Tatty Devine and Space NK have put a smile on my face too.

Another thing I’m really loving is the jomo (joy of missing out) feels. I love spending time in the evenings watching Gilmore Girls (still I know…), Shrinking, LOL: Last one Laughing (Bob Mortimer in this had me in tears), The Gentlemen, Drive to Survive and The Diamond Heist documentary. Or headphones in listening to the final ACOTAR book while I do house jobs or admin.

I’m making the most of me time before it becomes a rarity in a few months.

On that note, Joe and I were discussing our ‘me time’ when baby is here and we’d like to have some time for ourselves at least once a week. Whether that’s having a bath with no interruptions, dog walk, exercising, running (a few months post recovery), some time out with friends, a solo spa day and so forth.

Things can be a bit unpredictable in the first couple of weeks as baby is no.1 priority and literally attached to you. However, it’s good we had the talk now, as I know a lot of couples struggle with communicating their needs before hand.

One of the midwifes said Joe and I are a ‘good team’ the other day, but that’s 15 years of being together and working on our communication. If I want something, I tell him and vice versa. We don’t beat around the bush about anything and that’s key.

This has been a super chatty post! I do like to ramble, so I hope you don’t mind. I’m just pouring out every brain thought or highlight over the past five months.

It’s actually been really lovely to spend a few hours writing. I need to remind myself to write more of these as I love documenting and looking back on happy times.

I’m planning to spend the rest of the day organising some of baby’s room, hopefully do some yoga and then watch the Lionesses game tonight! Hope you’re all doing well and catch up soon!

If you’re interested in reading my last little joyful moments, it’s here.