Life in a rucksack

A bump in the road: my latest news and a change in pace ahead

6 months ago2 min read11 comments
Written by Abbi

I have always been the reflective sort. Often it is the little milestones or dates that occur and it makes me think flip, how did I get to this point?

A few weeks ago my Facebook account decided to remind me that it was 5 years ago that I left the beautiful country of New Zealand.

When I read that, and looked at my slightly tired but youthful 27 year old face,  I questioned where those 5 years had gone.

Then I took time to think about it.

I have lived in 7 different houses, in 5 different cities/towns.

Had 4 different jobs.

Bought a car.

Got married.

Travelled to a further 40 countries.

So in reality, that is a fair few things within a relatively short time span.

So whats next?

Well, possibly a slower pace of life than I am used to. 40 countries in 5 years is quite a lot, and the majority of them involved crazy long bus rides, overnight trains and a lot of fast paced journeys.

Now I will need to slow down.

Here is why
No, thats not a bowling ball up my shirt.

So I am currently almost 7 months pregnant.

I have hidden it for a long time, and only revealled it recently on my Instagram account, but I also hid it physically too. I have only started showing this little bump within the past month or so.

I still hope to continue writing on this blog and travelling. I have already taken the babe to 6 different countries, and I do hope that I will have a mini explorer on my hands by the end of the year.

We already have an overnight stay planned for the first 2 months of baby being here, as well as an epic road and ferry trip to get back to Northern Ireland at  Christmas.

Content therefore may focus more on family / baby travel and as well as the new challenges of parenthood.

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11 comments

How could I have ever not known you? 🥰 It’s almost 10 weeks since this little one rushed into our lives. The days before she even existed seem like a distant but happy memory. My days are now just filled with loving and caring for our little girl and it brings me such joy being her mother. She is no longer a helpless tiny baby and is starting to show us her personality. She knows what she wants and how to get it, whether that be a nappy change, more milk or just an extra long cuddle. Even when her little bottom lip turns downward and she looks at us with those big brown eyes, I can’t help but love her even more. I love watching her discover things and watch as her eyes widen when she sees or achieves something new. She will show us her beautiful smile daily and is almost starting to giggle. I am excited for the next 10 weeks and beyond; to see how she grows and develops and to show her more of our world ❤️
"Breast is best". It's what 'they' say. They say it in the antenatal classes, your midwife will advocate for it, and there is such a huge societal emphasis on its benefits. Breastfeeding looks easy (or so I thought before I had my baby), but it is far from it. Feeding has been one of the most difficult aspects of adjusting to life with a newborn. This photo was taken when my baby was just 2 days old. We struggled immensely with breastfeeding in the early days. It is something that it difficult for a lot of mums but not often talked about. For the past 8 weeks I have continued to breastfeed but I do so by exclusively expressing my milk and feeding my baby with a bottle. It has been an incredibly difficult thing to do, and I feel like I constantly have to justify myself to others and explain what I am doing or that the milk in the bottle is my milk and not formula. I have also carried around a lot of guilt regarding 'giving up' on directly breastfeeding and I continue to worry if I am producing enough or even the right type of milk to feed my baby. Exclusively expressing is no easy task. It means I am awake in the night when my baby is asleep, just to get enough milk for the next feed. I often feel like a I am in a cycle of constantly expressing, feeding and sterilising. However, my baby is thriving and been having my milk for the first two months of her life so far 💪🏻 🥛 I intend to feed her this way until I am unable to do so. I have written a blog on my experiences with breastfeeding. Expressing and feeding isn't something that is common in the UK and many people wouldn't choose to feed in this way, but it is an option and I am very much of the opinion that fed is best. #fedisbest #exclusivelypumping #bottlefeeding #EPing #honestparenting #breastfeeding #medelamums
The Cotswolds 🇬🇧 basically a collection of towns and villages in the south west of England, whereby when visiting you wander around and photograph other peoples houses 📸😂 Finally some travel content back on my grid. This past weekend @chrisjphotography spent 3 nights away and visited 5 different places! We also took our almost 8 week old baby with us which was lovely but certainly a different experience. Gone are the days of lazy lie ins in our hotel room and going to dainty little cafes. We now look for pram friendly places with good baby changing facilities and explore as much as we can in between feeding and nappy changes 👶🏼 🍼 I’ll be writing a blog post soon about travelling with a newborn. In the meantime I am off to do about 5 loads of washing and restock up on nappies!
Today we had our first little family outing to @batemansnt 🍂 Throughout my earlier maternity leave, we visited several @nationaltrust trust properties, with Bateman’s being a firm favourite. .. We visited Bateman’s just four days before our baby girl arrived. At that time we enjoyed the much sunnier weather and spent time talking about her arrival. What would she look like and how we would be as parents? We couldn’t have imagined how different things would look. Today we returned and again had a lovely long walk, which felt so easy with our @ergobabyuk carrier. It was so nice to have her close to me and be able to freely walk around. It is a bit of a mission getting out of the house these days, but having these days out as a family of three is just gold 💛 It’s like she’s been here all along 🥰 ➡️ swipe left for the last picture I had taken at this exact spot! .. 📸: @chrisjphotography
✨ F o u r t h T r i m e s t e r H o n e s t y ✨ Over these past few weeks I’ve tried to go about life as I did pre pregnancy. I knew life with a newborn would be challenging but still have felt that I would have had it all together 🤱🏻 We absolutely love our little girl. However this new normal has been a difficult transition. Lately I’ve felt like a shadow of my former self: I have been trying to keep up with how life was before she arrived and it has been exhausting. I need to remember that we have a 17 day old baby and we are all learning together. #worldmentalhealthday #maternalmentalhealth #honestparenting #fourthtrimester #newmum #letsbehonest #areyouok
My entire World is now lying right here 💕 I said that I wouldn’t be one of those people that constantly posts about their babies, but what do you know, I am! 👶🏼 Our babe is now 2 weeks old and we finally got her settled enough to have a photo session with daddy! I can see so much change in her already. She’s a total stunner - even when she’s screaming the house down! 📷: @chrisjphotography
“Why won’t you stop crying?” This is something I find myself saying to our little girl, particularly at 4am. She had been changed, clothed and fed and still I couldn’t settle her. I felt like a failure as a mum, not being able to meet her needs. I then needed to remind myself that she too has been on a big journey to get here. She’s come from a temperature controlled and safe environment where she was fed. Now she’s being touched, held and had a nappy put on her. There are new sights and sounds and it’s tough for a newborn. We are all learning together, and taking it one day at a time 💕 #newborn #myworld #igettoloveyou #honestparenting
✨S e p t e m b e r t w e n t y t h i r d✨ Last week our lives totally changed. Our little lady finally arrived to meet us 🥰 She is 6 pounds 6 oz of pure perfection and is our absolute world right now. This past week we have all been getting to know each other and we have been getting used to eating one handed and being nocturnal!
In a maximum of 10 days we will be meeting our little girlie and we couldn’t be more excited 👶🏼💕 She may not have arrived by her “due date” but she is not late. She will arrive in her own perfect timing 🥰 📸: @chrisjphotography
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