When I look back at the past eleven months, I’m still in disbelief that I currently have AJ. I went into trying to conceive knowing that there was a chance that we were going to have to work extremely hard in order to get a baby. I had known for eighteen months since I was diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), that it would play with my fertility and I may not fall pregnant easily. I had no doubt that T’s side of things was all ok, ADF would have told him if there were any issues with all of that, so any doubts that I had regarding us falling pregnant all had to do with my own body’s ability to conceive.

If you look back in the archives of the blog you will see a few posts where I talked about the things that I was going in order to boost my chances of conceiving. I went to my doctor three months before we started and got a full check-up to make sure everything was ok, I started taking prenatal vitamins, I started to track my ovulation, I started eating better and lost weight as it can impact your fertility as well. I did everything I could in the lead up to us actively starting to try for a baby to increase our chances.

EVERY DAY ITEMS FOR LEARNING UNO CARDS

Most people in their lives have played UNO. It’s a very easy card game and I often have a pack of card in my bag when I’m babysitting, out places with the kids or when I know it’s going to be a rainy day. It’s honestly been a great way to pass the time. UNO is also a great resource that you can use every day to help your kids learn from a young age.

Don’t believe me?

Well here are five ways that you can use the cards to help your child learn.  

What is Motherhood?

I recently wrote an Instagram post that seemed to resonate with some people regarding what motherhood is. It all started with a post by The Southernish Mama; she was writing about what motherhood was to her and then asked the question about what it was to others. The question hit me because recently it was something that I had been thinking about a lot.

A few weeks ago, one of my bosses messaged me to check in and see how everything was going as AJ’s arrival had come earlier than we had all expected. We were chatting back and forth on how I was going and how her and her boys were going when she asked me if things felt any different. It was a hard question to answer as while I felt like it was different it was hard to put into words what it was that was different. Then AJ was admitted to hospital for abnormal breathing and suddenly I realised why being a mother was so different to being a nanny.

You see for over a decade, I was in a job that I loved. Sure, it had its down points but overall, I loved being a nanny. I loved getting out and doing things with the kids like going to the zoo or playing in the park or just going down to the local café for a milkshake after school. I loved helping them get out into the world and discover new things about it and themselves. I loved helping their parents raise these amazing little humans during happy times and supporting them through challenging times. I created bonds with so many of the families that I work with that I still keep in contact with them over Facebook so we can keep up to date with our lives and let me just tell you it is shocking when you see your first nanny kid start high school!

Fostering Reading in Children

I, like many other people, am a fan of Harry Potter. I will forever say that the book series is what got me back into reading at the age of 13 after I had hit a slump after reading all of Roald Dahl's books and finding nothing else that I was particularly interested in. I started with book four, had no idea what was going on to begin with, but found the story so enthralling that I continued to read until I was hooked.

My Aunt thankfully had all the books that were out at the time and I was able to borrow them to read the entire series. That year I think I read all four books four times, in between reading books for school and reading other books I found in the High School library. Mum saw my love for the series and bought a set for my birthday that year, which were all re-read again by Easter. I luckily didn’t have long to wait until book five came out and I saved all my money to be able to buy it before talking my mother into getting up early so I could get to the shop the moment it opened to get my hands on a copy.

BABY ORGANISATION Nappy Change Stations

Being organised when preparing for a baby is something that ensures that you’re as prepared as possible when your new addition arrives home. While being organised once you are home is just as important as it can make times like the witching hours a lot easier when you know exactly where everything is as you go down the list to things that maybe causing your baby to cry.

Even with a decade of child care under my belt, I can at times be extremely unorganised. You can ask T and he will gladly tell you that out of the two of us he is the one that ensures that everything goes back in its place a lot more than I do. That’s not to say I don’t do those things, he’s just the one that ensures that it is done promptly and not three days later. Hearing that, you would probably be surprised to hear that I am actually a planner. When something big is about to happen, I make sure that I am on top of it as much as possible in the lead up to the event. T is also a planner as well, so between the two of us we can usually get things done promptly.

5 Great YouTube Channels for Your Kids

YouTube has become one of the big entertainment centres for people, especially as it allows everyday people to be creative in a way that TV didn’t allow before it. Despite this, there have been a lot of channels and videos pretending to be for children when they’re actually not, making it hard for parents to be sure what is safe for their child to watch.

One of the things I try to make sure that I’m on top of is the current trends in regards to what kids are interested in or not. It makes it a lot easier to make sure that they are viewing things that are appropriate for their age and that they are protected from the dangers of everything being online these days. YouTube is thankfully one of those places that are very easy for me to keep an eye on because it’s just a matter of hearing about a channel or video and sitting down to look through it myself before letting the parents I work for know what is going on.

Believe it or not, that is actually how I found Tik Tok but that is a story for another day.

Since I’m on YouTube a bit for professional and personal reasons, I wanted to share five of my favourite channels that are aimed at children. Some of them focus on developing skills while others are just or fun or to learn something interesting.

Apps for Baby

These days you can get apps for just about anything for your iPhone or Android. On my phone, I have apps for things that range from social media to comic books as my phone is one of the few things that I have on me at all times.

When it comes to caring for children, it makes sense that there are apps that you as a parent or as a child care educator may have on your phone to make it easier to keep track of things or to have reminders easily on hand. With a few of the families that I have worked for, I had access to a tablet that worked as a communication book between me and the parents so they could keep as informed as possible regarding what was happening with their children.

As a new Mum, I had a number of apps in mind that I was planning on downloading to keep on my own phone. Some of them are simple tracking apps while others hold a more educational focus, but they all allow me to ensure that I have the information that I need on hand should I ever need it and there have been times when having it on hand has helped me a lot.

AJ's One Month Update

Time has amazingly flown. It feels as though I have just blinked and suddenly AJ is a month old.

I would like to say that it has been all smooth sailing but it hasn’t. Even with over a decades worth of child care experience, I’ve found myself challenged like never before with this tiny human and while I knew that having my own was not going to be the same, I’ve found myself in this funny middle ground where I know what I’m doing but at the same time everything is new.

This is why I wanted to document this new journey. I wanted to be able to share what life is like and show the journey that we go through as this year is going to be a big one and that’s not just because AJ was due. We’ve got a number of big changes happening in the next couple of months alone.

So buckle in as this is a long one!

A Wet Valentines Day

My first Valentine’s Day as a Mum started off very interestingly. 

If I’m completely honest, I totally forgot that Valentine’s Day was coming up. Since AJ’s birth, my days have all kind of blurred together and I’ve only looked at a calendar when I needed to know a date for some paperwork. So I didn’t know that it was Valentine’s Day until I came downstairs at 8am to feed AJ and was scrolling through Facebook. I didn’t feel bad that I forgot. T and I don’t really do Valentine’s Day. I’m not one for flowers, I prefer to get a plant than cut flowers, and neither of us really feel like going out and doing things.

As I scrolled through Facebook, my sleep-deprived brain forgot about the day before and the vomit filled day we had had. For the past week or so I had been noticing symptoms from AJ that made me suspect that she had a mild form of reflux. Not bad enough to disrupt her sleep but enough that if we didn’t do certain things during her feed it would result in her bringing up part of it. However, if we broke up her bottle and burped her multiple times during it, then kept her upright for 20-30 minutes afterward the vomiting wouldn’t occur. We may have to contend with some spit up but she would look a portion of her meal. 

Goals for 2020

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I'm not a fan of the term "resolution". When I hear people talk about their resolutions, it always seems like something that you can either succeed at doing or fail miserably at.

There is no middle ground.

It's why I prefer to use the term goals.

Goals are something that you can work towards and even if you don't meet that specific goal, the steps that you have taken along the way make it seem like all the work that you have put in was worth it and that you haven't failed.

It's why on the last day of December I stop and write down 5 goals that I would like to work towards over the course of the year. Some of them are always very obvious things, but a couple of them are usually bigger things that I need to put effort into in order to make them come true.

This year's goals are no different and I wanted to share them here to help hold myself accountable in a positive way.