PHOTOGRAPHY: How I Prepare and Capture a Photoshoot at Home with my Children

If you've ever tried to take photos of your children, whether you're a blogger or not, then you'll probably know how difficult it can be. Anything from babies being sick, toddlers having tantrums, blurry shots, snotty noses, poor lighting...the list could go on. As someone who takes a lot of photos of my children I have dealt with these challenges on many occasions, but I've also learnt some ways to capture that much wanted shot with relative ease. Now, I'm certainly no photography expert, in fact I'd say I was a complete novice but that doesn't take away from how much I love capturing candid moments and setting up beautiful scenes. Since starting blogging photography has become one of my passions, so getting my first DSLR camera at Christmas was an absolute dream come true. I was lucky enough to receive the Canon EOS 200D, which is compact, easy to use and versatile.

FAMILY: 12 Tips for Surviving a Long Journey with a Toddler and Baby

Two weeks ago we went on holiday to Cornwall, which is about a 5.5 hour drive from where we live. To say I was nervous about the drive is an understatement, thanks to being involved in a serious car accident last year I am one nervous passenger and then the pressure of keeping a baby and toddler happy meant I knew we needed to be organised. On the months running up to the long car journey I started to collect different forms of entertainment as and when I saw suitable things, which meant that when the day came we had a good size stash of entertainment to be enjoyed both on the journey and at the holiday cottage. I'd highly recommend doing this, especially if your child has a favourite character magazine because they only tend to come out once a month.

FAMILY: 6 Ways to prepare a toddler for having a little sibling

One of the biggest concerns when we decided to start trying for baby number two was how Isabella would deal with it. She has been lucky enough to have our sole attention for just over two years now and having that change is something I anticipate being hard for her. When the health visitor came a few weeks ago she said that if Isabella didn't play up after the initial excitement of having a newborn around then she wouldn't be a 'normal' toddler. So, I'm fully expecting some challenging behaviour and to be honest I wouldn't blame her. Her life will change and it is something she has no control over.

WEANING: My Top 10 Tips

I found weaning was an intimidating milestone when Isabella was approaching 6 months. I didn't know where to start, there was a lot of conflicting advice and I was repeatedly warned about the mess. Well, one thing is true...weaning is messy! But it's also incredibly fun and reignited my love for cooking. I love experimenting with ways I can create interesting, tasty and nutritious food for Isabella, that doesn't have any added sugar or salt. Many of these recipes I share here on my blog, a new recipe goes up every Tuesday and it's been incredible hearing/seeing that you've made the recipes too!

5 TIPS: Planning a childrens birthday party

Now that Isabella's birthday party has happened and been enjoyed (read all about it here) I thought I'd share a few tips for planning a child's birthday party that I've learnt along the way. Personally, I've loved the planning experience and very much used it as a distraction from returning to work. Planning a party can either be a small or big job, depending on what you want from the party and your own productivity. I spent 3 months planning Isabella's, just little bits here and there as I knew I'd be strapped for time just before her party. But it certainly doesn't need to take that long and doesn't have to be stressful either!

MATERNITY LEAVE: 8 Ways to Prepare to Return to Work

So, this is the time that I have been dreading for months, but am now feeling surprisingly positive about it all...returning to work. After a full year off I will be returning to work, which I can hardly believe. Where has the last year gone? I can remember my labour and giving birth to Isabella as if it was yesterday, but the rest is just a blur of love, lack of sleep and incredibly special moments. I have been lucky enough to negotiate going back to work part time, so I'll be working three days a week and being a stay at home Mummy the other four days. This was my dream, to be a Mummy more days than I was working and I couldn't feel luckier. I think this has been a big part of feeling slightly more positive about returning to work, my change of contract was organised relatively recently and it's been such a weight off my shoulders. I can finely sleep much better at night!

SLEEP: The top 5 tips that worked for us

Sleep is a hot topic for most parents, as it's something you inevitably lose a lot of when you become one. Those early days weeks are really tough, you're running on adrenaline with the lack of understanding on how you are even functioning on such little sleep!

PREGNANCY: My Top 5 Tips for the First Trimester

Being pregnant isn't as easy, as I naively thought it would be, yet it's the most incredible time as well. I have relied heavily on a small range of tips and tricks that I've learnt along the way that I wanted to share with you. If only I had known about these earlier I would have probably had a slightly easier first trimester. 

(Photo Credit)

Tip #1

Once your sensitivity to smells increases, it will hit you like you wouldn't imagine! There's no questioning, 'Oh I wonder if I've got an increased sensitivity to smells?', you know, trust me. I couldn't stomach a lot of smells: fresh washing, Tom's aftershave, any food cooking, LUSH bath bombs, my own perfume etc. It was pretty hard to avoid these but I would try my very hardest! I found that wearing a light scarf that had a smell on it I could handle (a berry smell was ok for me) was a sickness saver. As soon as I could smell something I didn't like I'd smell the scarf and wouldn't end up gagging. A slightly extreme move but honestly, when I say smells will repulse you, I mean repulse and you'll do anything to get away from it. 

Tip #2 

Sitting up in bed before getting out of bed. Simple, easy to do and it would help my tummy settle before getting up for the day. I found getting up straight away at 6am would leave me feeling light headed, sick and generally not very well. For the last 2 months I've been sitting up when my alarm goes off and then getting up 10 minutes later when the snooze goes off again. I couldn't stomach eating anything at that time, so it really helped to settle my nausea and definitely worth a try if your suffering from morning sickness. 

Tip #3 

Having food with you at all times. I take a 'picnic' of cold toast, apples, bananas and crackers out everywhere I go. Even if you think your only going to be half an hour it's really worth taking food with you. For me, if I don't eat every 2ish hours then I feel so incredibly sick, eating does help to make the nausea more manageable. Sometimes I couldn't be bothered to make toast and bring it out with me but boy did I regret it an hour later when I was feeling so so sick. 

Tip #4 

Sleep with a pillow in between your legs. Very early on into my pregnancy I struggled with lower back pain, which made sleeping difficult. I found that sleeping with a normal (I say normal because it wasn't a pregnancy one) pillow in between my legs and using it to rest my tummy on really helped. It took some getting used to but it was personally certainly worth it. I do plan to get a pregnancy pillow, which offers even more support, at some point soon as my bump is getting bigger by the day!

Tip #5

At times during the first trimester I found it extremely hard to be positive, as I was feeling so sick and knew that I had at least a month and a half still left feeling like that. If only I had known how incredible the first scan would be, I would have found it so much easier. As this is our first pregnancy, it's very much the unknown, so we didn't know what to expect at the scan. We were of course mostly concerned about finding out if our baby was doing ok, which they were. It was just so special, amazing and magical seeing our baby for the first time. They were dancing around, it's just so incredible to think that they are only about 6cm but already look like a little baby! So if your struggling with your emotions during the first trimester, then I'd try to focus on the first scan because I found that it changed my outlook on my pregnancy. 

What helped you through your first trimester?

Feel free to leave a comment :) 

Helen x