Daphney's Christening

Hello Everyone!

I have had such a busy time since we last spoke.
Myself, Mum & John have been planning Daphney's Christening and we don't take planning parties lightly!

The christening was on Saturday 15th July at Tewkesbury Abbey which is near and dear to our hearts as we live in Tewkesbury and me and John got hitched there last February 2016. It was the most beautiful service I have ever been to and I was so happy but shocked at the number of people who attended the actual christening!

I ordered the invatations from Vista print, and we chose a baby pink colour, they looked so pretty (For all the companies I menchion I will try and find a link and pop it below *High 5*) The quality of the invites was high.

We had the after party at Tewkesbury Rugby club which was so easy to get to from the abbey and infact our house!

we had a homemade buffet after the service and my mother-in-kaw Jayne bought salads from the Cook Range in cheltenham which went down a storm (* Side note* if you are a new parent, sign up as you get 10% off your food for the first year your baby is born, and they even do baby/toddler ranges!!*) My mum made a lovely cooked salmon which went perfectly with the salads.

In the evening we also had a hogroast and sweet bar so there was a lot of food!!

As far as entertainment, we had 
Home-made coconut shy
Space hopper races
welly wanging *hehe try saying that with a few on board*
1 disco adult bounce castle
1 children's bounce castle
Disco
Time capsule to open when Daphney is 18!

I will do a separate post with photos and another of my outfit I wore.

What is you're favourite thing about a Christening?

Thank you for reading 
Elyssia x



List of suppliers we used.

Vistaprint invatations - http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/studio.aspx?template=2461311_AM2&ag=True&xnav=HSG_Design_Image&rd=1 

Cook Range - https://www.cookfood.net/

Bouncy Castle -/http://kingscastlehire.co.uk/

Baby Recipe – Strawberry & Banana Smoothie

🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓

Hey people!

I thought I would share a breakfast recipe which Daphney has been loving, smoothies are a great way for your little one to try different fruits.

This recipe can be adapted to suit your baby’s taste, you can also use frozen fruit to help with teething *High 5*

The recipe makes 1 portion – if using fresh fruit you can freeze these in ice-cube trays!

25g strawberries

25g banana

30ml your babies normal milk

1.       Wash your strawberries well and chop the fruit into small chunks

2.       Add your baby’s milk

3.       Blend in a smoothie maker or a normal blender works just fine

4.       Let your baby enjoy!

*Please note, if you’re using strawberries or raspberries please sieve them first to remove seeds and pips*

What’s your favourite smoothie recipe?

Thank you for reading

Elyssia x
🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓

Things No-One Tells You About Pregnancy!!!

Hello Lovely’s

I thought I would do a fun post about the things no-one will tell you about pregnancy, I gave birth to my daughter Daphney on 11/11/16 via Csection – To read my story there is a post below!

So here goes…

1. Every pregnancy is different!! You will have a different experience to another pregnant mums
2. *TMI* Constipation!! This is THE most annoying thing ever!
3. Hip/Pelvic pain also know as SPD (Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction) – towards the end of my pregnancy I struggled with this a lot and finally got signed off work at the end of 37 weeks, I ended up having physical therapy but in some cases woman end up with crutches or even wheelchairs!
4. Midwives don’t know everythinkg!!! I cant stress this enough, and yes most of the time they are right and you should listen to them but I used to hang on everything my midwife said. I was told Daphney would be small – She was 8lb 11oz, I was told she was engaging (late pregnancy) when Daphney was still breech and it was her bum engaged. I learnt to take everything she said with a pinch of salt! *AGAIN this is just my expericance*
5. Peeing, I normally sleep through the night but nope, not when I was pregnant, I would be up every couple of hours needing a wee
6. If your fuller figured like myself you might not show as quickly as other mums to be. I think I started showing about 24+ weeks
7. Hormones - I cried my eyes out over not having Thai curry for dinner...
8. Weird cravings – now this is something I was so excited by! I craved Limes, honesly I could eat a whole lime, but settled for REALLLLLY strong lime squash (I remember buying squash and having over a ¼ of the bottle per glass but I would add sliced limes to drinks and also I LOVED spicy foods, which is not me at all, I used to eat at Turtle Bay and order a curry packed with scotch bonnets! Needless to say I couldn’t eat it now
9. Teeth – where do I start on my teeth!!! My gums were constinatly bleeding, my teeth got so wobbly and just hurt. I had so many trips to the dreaded dentist and everthing was fine. I came to the conclution it was due to their being no Calcium in my pregnancy supplement and I don’t eat a lot of dairy so all the calcium I was taking in was going straight to Dapheny – easily solved by having a glass of milk a day!
10. Everyone will want to touch your growing tummy... this is something that really annoyed me... when I was fat you didn't want to touch my tummy, but when I was pregnant it was like I had a sign on my tummy which said "go on have a feel, don't ask me just do it!" URGH! And people would ask if Daphney was kicking, I would tell them the truth, if she was kicking if would be down near my vagina beause she was breech so you will have to feel very far down and that might make all parties uncomfortable!! 

·   

·   

Aldi's Mamia 100% Organic breakfast

Hello Lovely’s

I thought I would do a quick review of the Aldi’s own brand Mamia 100% organic baby food – specifically their Breakfast range.

The range is suitable for babies just starting on the weaning adventure, stage 1 from 6m+ like I said earlier is 100% organic and for only 59p for a 100g pouch is amazing!!

Aldi do a small range of baby food ranging from fruits to spag bowl.

So back to the review…

There is only 3 of the breakfast pouches and I’m happy to say Daphney has loved all of them –

Mango & Peach

Apple & Banana

Apple & Blueberry

All the breakfast pouches contain yogurt and rice with a super smooth consistency, which again is great for weaning.

There is no added sugar (all sugars are naturally occurring), No added water or thickeners, No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

The sugar content is something I have been wary of in baby food and although there is naturally occurring sugar most if not all are under 10g per 100g pouch.

Overall we would say these are a Aldi MUST HAVE and I would rate them 5/5 easily!!!

Have you tried them yet??

Thank you for reading

Elyssia x                                                                      

Birth of my beautiful baby girl

Hello Lovely people

This post is going to be about the birth of my daughter….if you are squeamish don’t look at the photos as there are some of the birth.

So starting from the beginning, my daughter was breech from 21 weeks, we got told we might have to have a C-section if she didn’t turn but the midwife was convinced that the baby would turn,needless to say she didn’t turn by herself so we were booked in for a ECV (External cephalic version) which is where they injected me with something to relax the uterus and try and manually turn the baby from the outside…it was so uncomfortable and failed so we were booked in for a C-section on Friday 11^th November.

We went in for a pre-surgery meeting about a week before my section was booked where I had bloods taken, questions answered and I got re-scanned to see if the baby had moved(she didn’t) they then gave me some tablets to take the night before the surgery and the morning of (I think their like anti-acid tablets) and I got told what I could and couldn't do in regards to eating/drinking and wearing.

The morning of the surgery we had to get to Gloucestershire woman's hospital by 6.45am and we were shown into our private room where a midwife came in and gave us a rough idea of what would happen thought out the day, I also got re-scanned as I got told I wasn’t aloud to have a C-section if the baby had turned but again she hadn’t which by this time I was glad as I had hyped myself up. 
I was so nervous as I have never had any type of surgery before.

We dressed in our surgery clothes and the anaesthetist came in and again explained what will happen and also inserted the canola into my hand, which I think looking back hurt more than anything! I cried - John took photos...It was great fun...

The midwife who came to see us earlier in the morning came to get us, me and John walked to the theatre, it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, id watched so many videos on what happens but I never expected it to look the way it did. Everything was so sterile and shiny, there was a bed in the middle of the room with massive lights above with all these woman looking excited at me.

I hoped onto the bed and the I had to hold my knees close to my chest whilst the anaesthetist gave me the local injection to numb the area, once that was in I had to hold my knees close to my chest for them to put the spinal tap into my back which took around 30 minutes every time they missed the gap in my spine it felt like small electric shocks which just felt a bit weird and uncomfortable. Finally they got it in and I was told to lie down on the bed.

Once that was done they started to put up a sheet so I couldn't see what was going on and I was hocked up to loads of machines and a blood pressure machine. 
The anaesthetist tested how much I could feel with an ice cube and I couldn't feel anything from the collar bone down, we were talking for a while to the anaesthetist who was stood to my right and John on my left.....I was getting a bit impatient and asked how long it would be till they started and to my surprise she said the baby was nearly out!!!
Moments later I we heard a swooshing sound and that was my waters being broken and sucked up, I was told I might feel a slight pulling sensation, I wouldn't have noticed if they hadn't told me!

Seconds later John was told to stand up and take photos as our baby girl was out... that is where things when wrong...

I could hear the nurses and surgeons talking and then all of a sudden "CODE BLUE" was being shouted across the room.I will never forget what happened next...The anaesthetist said "there is nothing to worry about your daughter just isn't breathing" she needed extra help and was placed on the breathing station with the little mask to help her breath. My heart stopped and then the room got very busy, around 7 Drs ran into our room then its all a bit of a blur after that, the same lady who told me she wasn't breathing was talking to me telling me what was happening but I wasn't listening, just praying my little baby would be ok. 

The Drs walked out and everything returned to being calm and our precious little girl was ok and breathing on her own. John walked over and cut the cord and she was placed on my chest whilst they finished the surgery.

The surgery in total lasted around an hour, she was out within 7 minutes and the rest was sewing me back together.

We named our little beauty Daphney Ann Stephens.

Daphney was born at 1.20pm on Friday 11th 2016 weighing 8oz 11lb

Long time no posts!

Hello Lovely people

Sorry its been a while since I posted anything, so much has happened but most excitingly I can now announce I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on Friday 11^th November 2016. Ill do a serperate blog post about the birth so look out for that.

But this is just a quick post to say im coming back! Ill be posting blogs every Wednesday and Sunday, ill be doing baby updates, hauls, reviews and anything eles I want to talk about really.

I hope you all had a great Christmas.

Thank you for reading

Mummy Stephens x

Wiley's Finest Prenatal DHA

Prenatal DHA Wild Alaskan Fish Oil - £22.49 60 capsules (From Wholefoods Market)

I have been using this prenatal oil pretty much since I found out I am pregnant, and I LOVE IT! It has amazing levels of DHA which is so important for your little ones heart, eye and brain function, it doesn’t leave me with fishy burps like other oils I have tried and the company has great ethics behind them! So let me tell you a bit about it.

Wiley’s is manufactured in the USA (eastern united states – to be more pacific!) and is a family run business which started over 20 years ago and It is tested for Mercury and is mercury free.

Wiley’s is sustainably soured and meets the MSC’s Global standards.

The MSC is the Marine Stewardship Council which helps to regulate to number of fish being caught. (Ill link their website below if you want to check out MSC)

So now for the supplement itself. This is a 2 capsule’s a day supplement which contains 1200mg concentration fish oil (Alaska Pollock) which provides the following.

780mg Omega-3 Fatty Acids

120mg EPA (cognitive function and a anti-inflammatory)

600mg DHA (Which is an amazing level of DHA, which helps babies brain, eye and heart function! Pretty cool hey!)

Pregnant woman and lactating woman should aim for a daily intake of 200mg of DHA in addition to the remaindered daily intake for omega-3 fatty acid in adults.

Wiley’s also do lots more great fish oils in their range so go check them out!

(This is not sponsored I just love the product)

Happy Ready

Much love

Mummy Stephens

https://www.msc.org/about-us/what-is-the-msc

http://wileysfinest.com/

About Me

Hello Everyone,

First let me tell you a bit of background information about me!

I’m trained in Beauty Therapy, Acting and Cooking. I've worked in Spa’s, restaurants as a chef and also as a waitress. I love socialising, holidays and shopping!

I’m Elyssia, 25 year old wife to my wonderful husband Mr. Stephens and soon to be mummy, which I am so excited about!!

This is a lifestyle blog where I can share my adventures of pregnancy, married life and everything else in between, my blog will feature shopping hauls, recipes and lots of other ramblings! I will be posting every Thursday’s and Sunday’s.

Enjoy your day

Mummy Stephens