Guess Who's back....

Yup, that's correct, it's me! The Life of Mrs O is BACK!

If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram then you will know that Baby O finally arrived - 6 months ago! 

I literally 'popped'! This is how big I got to...

Look at my massive feet!

I wont bore you all with loads of info or photos but....

He was born on 30th January at 7:13am by an emergency C Section and weighed 6lbs 4oz

It was a week of my nightmares finished off with a real bump into motherhood but it was all worth it. I just remember waking up and asking Mr O about 4 times 'What have we had?' and then when I finally came around (as I was given a general due to implications of my epidural that didn't work) I remember Mr O tried to be funny and told me that we had called Baby O: Rupert Digby Jonty. To which I nearly cried! I said we can't call him that! I want an Albert! He told me that he had told all our friends and family that we had called him that. With that I told him that he had to call them all and tell them that it was a mistake - he then reassured me that he hadn't told everyone that at all! Family knew that we had a baby boy before me! 

Anyway, Baby O and I enjoyed getting used to each other, our middle of the night cuddles and our time at home. However, Baby O was losing weight after re-gaining his post-weight birth loss. I could just tell that something was wrong as he looked so grey compared to other babies. He was alert and all his developmental signs were fine but he just kept on being sick and was therefore looking really ill and loosing weight.

So, at 5 weeks he got re-admitted back into hospital. This to me was worse than being in hospital for a week when having him. I actually cried one day. On the maternity ward I couldn't fault the staff at all. Every member of staff from the cleaners right through to the consultants (minus one) was lovely and supportive. However, on the childrens' ward this was a different case. I had nurses telling me that he was hungry and that he needed this and needed that. I even had one nurse take Baby O off me at one point as she said he was hungry (he had only recently been fed) and fed him! How happy was I though when the paediatrician and the dietician came in and told me that the shortest amount of time that I could feed him was 2 1/2 hrs - that nurse then looked in shame! I will say though that there was however one nurse that was agency and she was like my guardian angel - she was amazing. She's the one I broke down to after having that nurse the day before and a night nurse that wasn't interested in either of us at all. 

Baby O was given a change of milk (now a prescribed high calorie, soft tummy milk) and put on medication - which I took him off a few weeks later as it was making him more sick. And my word! It was like he was a new baby that next morning that he was put on the new milk. He continued to put weight on and grow - very happy Mr & Mrs O!

We now could continue to grow and learn about each other and enjoy our time together. We have already in these short 6 months had such great fun :)

Trips around London...

The Salvation Army's congress...

Holidays

       

   

A Wedding

Fun walks and trips around parks and shops of course!

      

      

    

    

Parties...

Meals out....

We got him dedicated back to God... (Christened) 

    

   

   

Trips to Ikea

And each month he becomes a new 'month age' I have done this....

A quick update about myself...

Firstly, as said above, I had a C Section, but I also had an epidural. I have already decided that if there is a next time, I WILL NOT have another epidural. It didn't work and not only that, it's left me with no feeling down the sides of my legs :(

Secondly I took a detour from the world of Weight Watchers and went on the journey of a Slimming World Member. I lost over a stone doing it but my word it was tough! It's a really easy plan to follow and it's all about eating healthy but I just could not digest the amount of carbs that I was consuming. Being a lady who has PCOS (Polycystic Ovaries Syndrome) one of the side effects is that your body can't break down carbohydrates in the same way as other people can. I think that is also a reason why I just couldn't get any more weight shifted off. 

The food however, was amazing.... Which for some reason I can't get the photos up :(

Then finally, the classes now fall in a time that just doesn't work with Baby O. I will really miss the classes as the friends there that I have made were brilliant and really supportive and the leader, Heidi, was fantastic. She was really supportive and really spurred me on. 

So, whilst on holiday the other week I decided that I wanted to go back to my beloved Weight Watchers and back to the Life Of Mrs O. I decided that I would enjoy my holiday but still eat sensibly as much as I could, but as soon as I got back, that Monday morning I would sign back up for WW. 

Now, I will not say that these 6 months have been easy and a walk in the past. They have been very testing and at times I just have had to cry! Mr O has been my rock and although he didn't take paternity leave, he has been there for me at the end of the phone for me whenever I have needed to talk. I have also made some amazing friends these last months that have added to my friends and family network and they have also helped me realise that I'm not the only one going through it all.

One thing that is for sure is that God has blessed me in many ways but more so than ever with giving me the gift of Baby O. My baby that is a constant smiler and has shown and taught me so many things including how love can be so unconditional.

  

As I have been, should I say, 'busy' these last few months, that's why The Life of Mrs O has had to be put on hold. I did have plans to have this with a week by week account of how motherhood has gone, but I just literally not had any time! Hats off to those who can do that, plus be a mother, run a household, get dinner on the table as well as looking stunning all at once. At first, it was amazing if I managed to walk out the door with both having had a shower and make up on my face!!

Just so you know, The Life of Mrs O will now also have a few additional features - later to be released. But, it will be like old times too - about my journey through life, getting back to being a healthier human, crafts and of course some fab recipes :) 

So, we should now be a little up to date with life and let the fun of 'The Life of Mrs O' resume!

Sorry for the lots of writing - just a few months to catch up on (!), but back to normal on my next post....

So as always, With Love, Mrs O xxx

Yummy Weight Watchers Style Triffle

One of my lovely little finds last week was Ambrosia's Low fat Devon Custard (125g pots) AND guess what I decided to make with them.... Triffle....

SO easy to make and sooooo yummy.... Look!   AND only 3pp :)



So what did I do?.....

I just made up some 0pp Jelly (I use Hartley's jelly crystals) into 4 of these small-ish bowls.
Once they were set I put the custard on top - one pot per bowl - then let them set while Mr O & I made and ate dinner.
When we were ready to eat them I topped with Anchor Light Squirty Cream and grated some Tesco Value chocolate (1 square) over the two of them. If you grate it on the smallest grater setting it will spread more and you feel like you get more.

As you can see, I did make a bit of a mess with the chocolate!!

Mr O loved it and as you will see from my foodie posts, he has loved all my 'ww' meals and ideas.

Have any of you tried this?... What did you think? Let me know....


Love, Mrs O x

Appledore - so what happened?

Here are some of the highlights of our lovely holiday....

I spent some lovely quality time with family, especially Mr O

As you may well know, we recently became an Aunty and Uncle again so we were so happy to be able to spend a whole week with our niece and nephew and being able to gain some lovely memories as well as getting to know some other family members better.

We fell in love with a shop/cafe called Johns. - I will be doing a post on it soon - so keep your eyes peeled!

We ate lots of Hockings Icecream

This is like the most yummiest and scrummiest ice cream EVER. Mrs O the 1st and I ate a few sneaky icecreams, but enjoyed them as we ate them!

We spent hours upon hours crabbing. 

Mr O was obsessed with crabbing. As soon as we got there on the first day, before he did anything else he went straight to the Quay and went crabbing. We spent many hours crabbing. Lots of fun. 

Mr O & I took our nephew to do some pottery / painting. 

On researching on places to go before we went away, I found this brilliant place called the Hubba Cafe. All items were 50p and it was run by adults with learning difficulties. Alongside that was the place to do pottery. The whole place was lovely and had my favourite shabby chic feel to it.

Have a look HERE at their advert - I can't find a website for them. :(

We went shopping - of course! 

We went to the Atlantic Village which is a big shopping outlet centre. We didn't buy much as I did set myself the challenge to only buy local products whilst we were away (minus the trip to Asda & Sainsburys - we know how to roll!!)

Collected lots of shells

I decided to help me with a new project for the September crafting month I decided to collect lots of shells from the beach in the week.

I came accross lots of shell crafts and I think I have decided to do something like the following:

We fed the seagulls

At the end of the day after crabbing we had the fun of throwing the fish heads and meat to the seagulls and watching them fight for the food. At the end of meals we would throw the scraps out off the balcony and watch the seagulls dive in and catch them.

We wandered down the little quaint streets of Appledore

We visited Tapley Manor

I will do a better blog on this - coming soon - but it had lovely gardens all full of history.
Check out my Irish white legs!
There was also this lovely little shell hut where it was decorated all with shells - don't worry, I won't try to re-create it! But look at the cute little heart shining through.

Did some exercise with Felicity 

During our time in Appledore, Mr O & I spent some quality time with our niece and nephew as I said above. One day we took Felicity out for a walk but with her wrapped around my neck in a sling. It was hard work in the end as you don't realise how heavy they are!!

Made a scrummy apple and pear crumble

We all took it in turns to cook meals. Tuesday night was our turn. Mr O took charge of the main meal and then I took charge of dessert. I decided to make a simple pear and apple crumble with a cinamon topping. As we had very limited kitchen essentials we had to improvise. A saucepan became a mixing bowl and instead of using scales I just had to guess the quantities.

We went to an art exhibition - more to come....

Saw lots of boats

As we were right on the quay, we saw lots of boats, including this RNLI boat. I will do a post and accompanying video for this in due course.

And lastly, we got stuck behind lots of caravans!

Check out my videos on youtube with kinda daily vlogs from the holiday.
Click HERE to see Day 1 video

Did any of you go on holiday? If so, where did you go?

Love, Mrs O x