Meal Plan Monday: 25th July 2016

Linking up with Dee's 'Meal Plan Monday'

This is what the week looks like food-wise...

Monday - Some kind of pasta with chorizo and whatever is left in the fridge that we can throw in.

Tuesday - Lily's half birthday is today and my parents are coming round with celebratory pizza!

Wednesday - We're off out to a local vintage vehicle afternoon and evening and Andrew's taking the afternoon off work so we'll either take some sandwiches out for the evening or get some chips.

Thursday - My lovely friend M is cooking us dinner at her house so what we're having is a dairy-free surprise!

Friday - A fairly healthy Leek and Potato Fish Pie.

Saturday - The day we're planning on starting baby led weaning - although I'm well aware she won't actually eat anything for a while (the phrase "food before 1 is just for fun" has been drummed into me). We're going to follow the ideas in Gill Rapley's books and start with sharing our lunch and dinner with Lily. Lunch is going to be sweet potato wedges with some grilled chicken and either broccoli or green beans - healthy for us and healthy for the baby! Dinner is going to be homemade fish fingers, new potatoes and veg.

Sunday - For breakfast, toast with tomato and we might try some dairy-free cheese or sausage as well. Lunch is going to be on the go (so probably some fruit slices) as we're off out having some fancy photos taken. Dinner will be a roast dinner; we haven't decided what meat yet but whatever it is, it'll involve lots of vegetables on the side.

Anyone planning on eating anything nice this week?

 

This Little Big Life: Secondhand Sales, Steam Rallies and Relaxation

This Little Big Life is a weekly link-up started by Sarah and Louise - all about capturing the little moments which make up a big life from the previous weekend.


Saturday was all about buying too much from an NCT Nearly New Sale, watching Nanny and Grampy play an 1896 fairground organ and having fun in the sun at a steam rally in Somerset.

Sunday was all about sorting out our new purchases and relaxing after the day before!

Pop over to Sarah's blog and Louise's blog to see what they got up to...

Things I Found Brilliant in Pregnancy

I probably should have written this last year when I was nearly at the end of being pregnant (rather than 6 months after she was born...) but hey, the advice can be relevant at any time really :-)

The First Trimester

• High waist 'granny' pants - let's start with a good one; almost right from the moment we found out, it was really uncomfortable wearing low fitting underwear or even anything tight across my middle (I lived in leggings). Big pants in big sizes were my saviour.
• Sea sickness bands for morning sickness - luckily I only had one week of being properly sick but I did have several weeks afterwards of feeling nauseous. Wearing these bands on my wrists (complete with a variety of long sleeved cardigans) seemed to help; it might have just been a trick of the mind but hey, if it works...
• Pregnancy+ app - I know there's loads of apps for tracking your pregnancy but I found this one the best. There's lots to it: the obligatory fruit size calculator plus a variety of information and check lists. It has a contraction timer too which we used in the early stages of labour.
• What To Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff - the book that's almost a cliché (and there's even been a film made of it) but it is actually surprisingly useful as pretty much anything and everything you can think of will probably be somewhere within its pages.
• Sleep - Oh my, the tiredness in the early days is like nothing I'd ever experienced. Even doing night feeds with a newborn, nope, still not as tiring as the first few weeks of pregnancy. My only advice is just try and grab as many winks as you can!

The Second Trimester

• Asda maternity range - They had a fab range of maternity dresses and tops (like the stripy one below) and all not too expensive; the only thing is you have to keep reminding yourself not to buy hundreds as you won't be wearing them forever!

• New Look maternity range - Same as above, I pretty much lived in dresses and leggings for the majority of my pregnancy.

• Seam-free leggings - Fairly obvious but yep, if you buy leggings, go seam-free so it's all neat and tidy over your bump.
• Cross-body handbags - When you've waited so long to actually be pregnant, all you want is a bump and for people to notice it. During those 'is she pregnant or just a bit chubby?' weeks, wearing a bag with a long strap across your body helps to emphasise that yup, it is baby and not just too many cream cakes.
• Dreamgenii pillow (and extra pillows) - Sooo comfortable! Kick the other half onto the sofa or a spare room and fill the bed with as many cushions and pillows as you need.

• Pregnancy yoga - I started doing yoga when I was 22 weeks (although I could have started at 12) and the best bit about it was meeting lots of other ladies in the same boat and sharing advice, woes and gossip. It was very relaxing as well and the teacher I had always supplied tea and cake too.
• The Baby Show - I convinced Andrew to have a mini break in London when I was about 27 weeks, he said it wouldn't be worth it but it absolutely was. Quite apart from the amount of free things we ended up with (about 3 bags worth), you also had the chance to try out pretty much every pushchair brand imaginable, all under one roof. I'd already put together a spreadsheet (obvs) of what we were looking for and compared online prices and we'd narrowed it down to a shortlist, all of which we looked at on the day. We then managed to get the one that was our joint favourite at a 50% discount (£810 down to £405, and about £170 cheaper than the lowest price online) with all accessories included - so definitely worth the trip to London!

• NCT Nearly New Sales - An excellent way to pick up lots and lots of things really cheap and lots of branches offer early entry to pregnant women so you can get your pick of the bargains.

 

The Third Trimester

• New look jogging bottoms - These. Are. So. Comfortable. Both when I had a huge bump and in the days after having given birth.
• Birth Skills: Proven pain-management techniques for labour and birth by Juju Sundin - I reckon this book was the best of all the pregnancy books I read, practical advice about breathing and imagery without being too hippyish.
• A grabber - One of those picky-uppy things (something like this), perfect for when you can't bend over any more.
• NCT course - One of the best decisions we took was to do the NCT antenatal course rather than the NHS one. I think we were lucky though as our teacher was very open-minded to talking about everything (rather than the cliché of a "natural" birth) and everyone in our group got on well; we all still keep in regular contact and see each other on average once a week. I have heard stories the courses can be a bit iffy depending on where you are though. 

• TENS machine - we hired one for about £25 for 4 weeks and it was very useful during early labour; a bit of a strange sensation but okay once you were used to it. It also kept you distracted by fiddling around with the buttons and controls!
• Pregnancy ball - oh so incredibly comfortable in the last couple of months (even if you do feel a bit of a weirdo sat on it) but strangely, not great at all during labour.

• Stocking up the freezer - I spent the last few months of pregnancy cooking double the amount for dinner and putting the extra portions in the freezer. My lovely friend M also very kindly made us several portions too. That meant we had a good few weeks of dinners stored for after Lily was born. If you can make a load, do!

• Pregnancy massage - I was rather lucky and ended up with two, one from my work colleagues as a leaving present and one from Andrew just well, because. I did them at 36 weeks and 38 weeks and they were absolutely lovely, really relaxing. The one from Andrew was at the Thermae Bath Spa and we added on a swim in the spa afterwards - which I'd definitely recommend! We went two days before Christmas and even amongst all the hustle and bustle of the festive season, floating in the warm water I just felt as if "yep, I'm ready for this now, bring it on".

 

 Have I missed anything? What were (or are!) your 'must have' pregnancy things?

 

Meal Plan Monday: 18th July 2016

Linking up with Dee's 'Meal Plan Monday'

This is what the week looks like food-wise...


Monday - The remainder of the Fisherman's Pie from Sunday.

Tuesday - Me and Lily are having a picnic at a local lido with a couple of NCT friends in the afternoon so dinner will be whatever is left over!

Wednesday - A cheesy ham and potato grill; a fairly simple recipe involving new potatoes and peas mixed in a cheesy cream sauce topped with ham and mozzarella (and all made with dairy free cheese!).

Thursday - Andrew's mum's birthday is today so we're having a family get-together at a Toby Carvery. Even though we're not trying Lily on solid food until next week, we're hoping that she'll sit nicely in a high chair!

Friday - A recipe for making a meatball sub, taken from a book called 'The Takeaway Secret' which explains how to make all your favourite fast food recipes at home.

Saturday - We're off away for the day and night, taking Andrew's lorry to a local family fun day and then going on ourselves to see Carters Steam Fair in West Wycombe. Breakfast needs to be quick and easy so we'll probably have some bacon sandwiches and then for dinner, we'll find somewhere out and about.

Sunday - Not too far away from where we're staying is a Toby Carvery (I know, I know, twice in one week but I'm still breastfeeding and need the extra calories, that's my excuse, ha) and they do a fairly legendary all-you-can-eat breakfast. After having had that in the morning, I can't imagine we'll need much for dinner so it'll probably just be some crumpets or toast!


Anyone planning on eating anything nice this week?

 

Railways and Trains in the West Midlands

One completely long-overdue blog post...

This has actually sat half-written in my drafts folder since the end of April last year, when we had a holiday after Easter back in 2015 that seemed to revolve around trains. It wasn't particularly planned like that but we knew we wanted to do the Severn Valley Railway and everything else just seemed to crop up along the way.

If you're a railway enthusiast (or know one) here's a rundown of what we did - anoraks and notepads not included...


Visited Oswestry and stumbled across the Cambrian Railways Museum
We stayed in a Travelodge on the A5 near Oswestry and headed into the town for breakfast. It's on the Welsh border and is quite a nice little market town with lots of old architecture and a railway line that's trying to be restored as a heritage line. Next to the old station building (which contained a WW1 exhibition) is a museum, a pretty ordinary-looking building from the outside but inside, crammed full of all sorts of railway memorabilia, signs, maps, posters and signals. Admission to the museum is free, although donations are appreciated. In the town centre as well, we spotted an excellent mural of an engine.

Travelled on the Severn Valley Railway
All the years we've been holidaying in Anglesey, we've always driven under the Severn Valley Railway line at Bridgnorth saying "we'll do that one day". It's a sixteen mile heritage line which runs between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth, stopping along the way at Bewdley, Arley, Highley and Hampton Loade. We bought an all day 'Freedom of the Line' ticket (which is cheaper if you buy online before your visit) and planned our journeys so we could see as much as possible. All the stations are beautifully restored and the route itself is very pretty with lots of photo opportunities!

Stopped off at The Engine House (about halfway along the Severn Valley Railway line)
The Engine House is the Severn Valley Railway's visitor and education centre, home to its reserve engines, artefacts and archive. It's free entry with the 'Freedom of the Line' ticket but if you've just got a standard ticket, there's a small charge. The only downside to it was that there was so much stuff, it was a bit difficult to take photos! I did rather like this news article though...

Had a cuppa in Kidderminster Railway Museum
One end of the Severn Valley Railway is in Kidderminster and tucked away on the platform is this little gem of a museum complete with tea and tuck shop. It's filled to the brim with historical objects, railway memorabilia and there's quite a bit of it you can play with as well! Definitely worth a visit if you're doing the line.

So there we are, only 15 months late with my post!