My Wedding Day

Our second wedding anniversary is this weekend and we are attending the wedding of some of our best friends in a couple of days, so I thought I'd relive my excitement leading up to our big day in the form of a wedding-themed post!

We got married at a venue called The Green House Hotel in Bournemouth, right by the beach. It has been voted in the past as the best wedding venue in Southern England. We fell in love with it as soon as we saw it.

These photos are not from my own wedding but are just to show you the venue :)

We hadn't even known it existed - we actually first noticed it on our way out of an appointment at another local hotel and thought we'd have a quick peek inside.

Most venues have a strict policy for booking an appointment to view and discuss wedding packages but when we popped in unannounced, the staff were so excited to show us around there and then. Their enthusiasm about the venue and the ethos was infectious and we loved everything they stood for.

Having met Steve working for a solar energy company, it was just perfect that the hotel was "green" (hence the name), and is recognised as one of the top "eco hotels" in the world.

From the minute we booked out wedding here, we were thrilled with the service we received. We had a dedicated wedding planner called Sarah and she was fabulous,

My dress was by Essense of Australia. It was the second dress I tried on out of 19, and my Mother-In-Law suggested it. I wasn't convinced when I saw it on the hanger - I was sure I wanted a fitted mermaid style dress and this didn't match up to the image I had in my head, but trying on wedding dresses was exciting and fun so I agreed to give it a go.

As soon as I saw it in the mirror, I felt like a Disney princess. I completely fell in love. I also loved most of the other dresses I tried on, though! But when I noticed that from then on, I kept coming back to "the second one" and comparing them all to it, I realised it was the one.

A few weeks later, I ordered the dress and a single tiered, cathedral length veil with scattered diamontes to wear with it. I chose the lace-up back over the button-up back, and chose to wear it with straps rather than strapless. I had planned to remove the straps for the evening reception but throughout the day I received so many compliments on the dress and the straps, that I decided to keep them on. My shoes were from Debenhams, and were quite plain as the rest of the outfit was not!

The bridesmaids and I had our hair done for the day by a local hair stylist called Tandee. She was fantastic. The bridesmaids had their hair curled and wore it loose, with a plait either side of their heads pulled around and pinned at the back. My hair was curled and pinned back into an updo with a French plait along one side.

Our makeup was done by a local makeup artist called Ruby. She was lovely and so talented. We all felt beautiful.

We hired suits for Steve, the Best Man and the ushers from Posh Togs and were really happy with the service. They did a brilliant job of matching up the colours perfectly so that the cravats and pocket squares matched the bridesmaids dresses. The men wore black suits with tails and ivory patterned waistcoats.

Our wedding flowers were breathtaking.We used Concept Flowers, based in Christchurch, and I couldn't believe how beautiful they were when Lauren delivered them to the venue on the morning of the wedding. I chose a waterfall bouquet of white oriental lilies, white roses and some other gorgeous white flowers with some greenery, and the bridesmaids had white rose posies. They were truly stunning and smelt amazing! We all received so many compliments and were really reasonable cost-wise, too.

Our centrepieces were quite different. I ordered glass goldfish bowls online and round mirrors to sit underneath them. I ordered "water pearls" in the same blue as the bridesmaid dresses. These are little beads that expand to little squidgy balls when soaked in water, and they look really effective. I placed a white pillar candle in the centre of each bowl, poured in the water pearls and scattered silver diamontes onto the mirrors. The centrepieces were unique and I loved them. They were also relatively cheap to make. I made flags using various patterned blue paper and wooden sticks, and bought wooden numbers from The Range and stuck them onto the flags to create table numbers. These were placed into the goldfish bowls.

Our place settings doubled up as favours. I ordered tiny blue buckets (available here) and some blue sugar coated heart shaped chocolates. I made smaller flags using lolly sticks, also from The Range, and the same patterned blue paper that I used for the table numbers. I wrote each name using a Calligraphy pen. I put the mini flags into the little buckets. The place settings matched the centrepieces.

The wedding breakfast was absolutely amazing! We had a mushroom amuse-bouche, followed by a pea and white truffle soup to start. The main course was roast beef, and the dessert was a sticky toffee pudding. A few of us (including myself) were vegetarian so we had a courgette, citrus and walnut pasta dish for a main course.

Between the wedding breakfast and the evening reception, we had (more) champagne and petit fours in the garden. I didn't eat any myself, I was full from my yummy meal and didn't have much of an appetite all day. They looked lovely though! There was a selection of mini shortbread, mini eton mess and mini chocolate brownies with strawberries, all served up on slates.

For the evening buffet, we went for something a bit unusual - bacon and egg baps with chips! There was the option for a normal buffet, fish and chip newspaper cones, or bacon baps. We thought about our friends and family and decided this would be the best and the most fun to suit our guests following the wedding breakfast.

Our wedding cake was also quite unique. We had four tiers, but instead of cake, we had wheels of different cheeses, topped with fruit. Alongside the cake, we placed baskets of various crackers, chutneys and pickles. There was no cake left at all by the end of the evening, so I assume it was popular!

Our "first dance" was to "I Luv U" by The Ordinary Boys - again, this is probably an unusual choice but we felt it was perfect for us. Although, we ended up having a "second first dance" when "Lean On Me" by Bill Withers played, as our guests all gathered around and watched us dance again. This was much more emotional as the song has a lot of meaning to us following what had been a really tough year.

Our photos were shot by Milton Boyne, who I knew before I met Steve. He's an amazing photographer and so lovely! He also videoed the day for us, and watching it back still makes me so incredibly happy and emotional. He captured the day so well and I will be forever grateful for that. (He also filmed all of the speeches, which were unbelievably funny and brilliant! There wasn't a dry eye in the house, the boys did so well).

I hope you enjoyed reading about our wedding day and having a look through some of my favourite photos!

Love, Gina Xx

DIY Sensory Bottle Tutorial

I thought I'd write a tutorial on one of the simplest and most loved baby toys we have in the house - sensory bottles.

They never seem to get old. For months now, Bird has got super excited about them and sits playing with them for ages, completely fascinated.

Sensory bottles are so easy to make and can be really cheap, too.

Three sensory bottles I've made for Bird

What you'll need:

- Some bottles - I bought a 6 pack of mini bottles of Pepsi from our local 99p shop (particularly good for smaller babies as they are not too big and heavy for them to hold and shake)

- Fillings - you can use water, glue, food colouring, rice, pasta, baby oil, washing up liquid, beads, tin foil, glitter, buttons, sand, seashells etc

- Strong glue to keep the lid on

Method:

I emptied and thoroughly washed the bottles, scrubbing off the sticky stuff left over from the labels. I then decided what I wanted to put in each one. In the first bottle is clear glue from G&Ts with some "konad" I had lying around - this is commonly used for nail art and is available on Ebay. The second bottle contains baby oil, water, blue food dye and blue glitter. The last bottle contains coloured washing up liquid and some beads of different colours and sizes. I used plastic beads because wooden ones floated!

Once I decided what to put into each bottle, I carefully poured the contents in, put some strong glue into the threads of the lid, and quickly screwed the lids on tightly whilst the glue was still wet.

I would recommend leaving the glue to dry for a day or so, to ensure the lid is strongly attached to the bottle and can't be removed.

I then washed the outside of the bottles thoroughly with warm water to remove any washing up liquid or glue that may have spilled in the "filling up" process.

This is the most important step: be sure to meticulously tidy up the work area so that no beads, buttons or any other potentially dangerous items are left around for children or babies to find and no non-edible substances are left behind.

You really can put almost anything into these bottles. Even water on its own would be perfectly fine. I chose liquids with a thicker consistency so that the beads and konad would move more slowly up and down the bottles. You also don't need to use any liquid at all - the point of sensory bottles is to explore different sensations. Dry rice or pasta would work well due to the rattly sound it would make when shaken. As long as they're visually stimulating or make interesting sounds, and are made safely, hopefully your baby will be more than happy with them! :)

Again, it's so important that your bottles are sealed as tightly as possible and that work areas and thoroughly cleaned and tidied.

I would love to know if you try these yourselves and to know what you put in yours. Let me know on Instagram (GinaShergold1) and I may borrow some of your ideas when I make some new ones!

Thanks so much,

Love, Gina Xx

My Nursing Chair - Upcycle Project

I always knew I wanted to have a nursing chair and stool for our baby but they can be expensive. We didn't know how much, if at all, it would be used.

So Steve and I compromised, and he agreed that if I could find a cheap one, we would go for it.

I looked all over the Internet and eventually found a second hand one on Gumtree about 3 miles away from our house. We contacted the current owner and agreed to buy it from him.

To our disappointment, when we arrived the chair and stool were much grubbier than they looked in the photos. They were beige but covered in stains.

I was confident we'd be able to revamp them somehow, so we gave him £50 and took them home.

I scrubbed and scrubbed at the fabric for what felt like hours, and although they improved, they didn't look great.

Time to call in the expert!

As I mentioned in Bird's Nursery Tour, my granny can turn her hand to pretty much anything sewing related and although upholstery wasn't her forte, I knew she was my best bet at breathing a bit of life into them!

She took me to a beautiful little fabric shop in Lymington and it took forever to decide which fabric I wanted. Steve wasn't with me, and the one that had gotten my attention was a bit "out there" but I kept coming back to it, so that's the one I chose. It was quite a dark grey with pretty white elephants. This matched the colour theme of the grey starry curtains my granny was making, as well as the jungle theme on our feature wall.

She took them away and worked her magic... Here is the finished product.

 

Granny used some spare fabric from the curtains to add onto the pockets, so the chair matched the curtains.

This is definitely one of my favourite products and I still use it now at almost 11 months. If you have the space and funds for a nursing chair, I would absolutely recommend going for it. The label on this particular chair says Dutailer.

The pockets in the arms are perfect for keeping a couple of spare breastpads, a muslin square, your mobile and a bottle of water for yourself.

The chair and stool both have a gliding mechanism, so you can gently rock baby (or yourself) to sleep.

I don't really use the chair during the night anymore as I feed Bird in bed if she wakes, but it's perfect for daytime cuddles, storytime and to put my feet up once I've put her to bed. Even when we don't use it for baby purposes anymore, I'm definitely going to be keeping it!

I hope you enjoyed reading this, I'm really sorry I can't advise more on the actual upcycling process but it's always worth checking local companies or asking family or friends to help if you have a project like this - some of them may have talents you don't know about :)

Love, Gina Xx

Review - My Travel System

We looked at so many different pushchairs and travel systems when I was pregnant and quickly came to the conclusion that we'd like a Cosatto Giggle.

Their designs are bright, colourful and really distinctive.

The design we finally chose after much deliberation (and bearing in mind we didn't know our baby's gender so wanted to get something gender neutral) is called Sunny.

The travel system came with a carry cot, pushchair seat, car seat, rain cover, matching changing bag and the chassis.

One of the features that drew us to this particular brand is that the chassis is lightweight and easy to maneuver. I'd tested a few different pushchairs but found most of them quite hard to steer. The Cosatto supposedly had one of the lightest frames and having only three wheels meant it was easier to steer.

The pushchair seat can be used world facing or parent facing. We've always kept it parent facing as we like to see Bird and she likes to see us too.

It can also be put into three different positions with the recline feature. This is perfect for when she's wide awake and wanting to see the world around her, and for when she's tired and ready for a sleep.

The foot muff is reversible so there are a few different ways it can be displayed. It can also be removed to leave just the liner in the back, or that can be fully removed too so that baby doesn't get too hot when the sun decides to make an appearance.

The frame is also really easy to collapse and hardly takes up any space at all. It can be collapsed with the pushchair seat in tact if world facing, but if parent facing the seat needs to be removed. I don't find removing the carry cot, car seat or pushchair seat from the frame difficult.

You can easily alter the handlebar so it's easier to push depending on your height.

We really love this travel system and have no regrets whatsoever about buying it. We receive regular compliments and Bird has always been very happy, cosy and comfortable.

10/10 from us! :)

Love, Gina Xx

Bird's Nursery - The Tour

I painted Bird's nursery when I was pregnant - I just could not wait to decorate! The whole house needed a revamp but I was desperate to get our baby's room done. We went for neutral colours as we didn't find out the gender.

We no longer live in this house, but I thought I'd share some photos of what I did with the room and talk about what's in it.

Before I got my hands on it, the walls were bright white and the built-in wardrobes were that orangey coloured pine. The curtains were faded, slightly discoloured floral things with an old net curtain.

We wanted the room to be bright and fun, so we chose a soft green colour for three walls and a bright yellow for the feature wall between the built-in wardrobes.

To brighten it up and make it more fun, I ordered a wall decal from Amazon (click here) for £4.44. I absolutely love it! I was slightly worried that the textured wallpaper would mean the stickers wouldn't stick very well, but they were fine and the wallpaper actually added some nice texture, particularly into the tree and the elephant.

The button rug was £35 from Ikea (click here) and one of the reasons I love it so much is that it covered up most of the hideous carpet!

The cotbed and changing table also came with a wardrobe, but as there were already two fitted wardrobes in the room (and the changing table doubles up as a chest of drawers), we used that in another room. This range is from Mamas and Papas and is called Rialto (click here). The quality is fantastic.

The white ottoman is an upcycled piece. It used to be an orangey pine one. My dad and I painted it white, and then my absolute saint of a granny who is amazing with all sorts of sewing/crafty things made a cushion to go on top. She used a piece of foam and covered it with a fabric I chose (grey with white elephants), and then used velcro to fix it on top.

I am obsessed with my nursing chair and stool! I bought these second hand on Gumtree for £50. They were a beige colour and quite grubby. Again, Granny came to the rescue and managed to upholster it using the same fabric I'd chosen for the ottoman. I still use it every day (I'm sitting in it now) and it's one of the best things I've bought. LOVE.

Granny also made the nursery curtains, although I don't have a photo of them. They're beautiful - pale grey with dark grey stars. They tie in beautifully with the nursing chair and ottoman, even though the fabric is different. She used blackout lining and let me choose the fabric, and then surprised me by bringing them round one day and hanging them. I've got them folded and stored away safely as I plan to use them wherever we end up moving to.

Another surprise from my lovely Granny was to make bunting, which wasn't easy considering she didn't know if we were having a girl or a boy, but she did a fantastic job and I can't wait to hang it properly in Bird's room once we move.

I don't have a good photo of it and it's now away in storage, but on the wall I hung a grey and yellow canvas which said "I've got sunshine on a cloudy day" from Next Home. It brought the room together nicely with the grey to match the curtains and nursing chair and the yellow to match the feature wall.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

Love, Gina Xx

Our Breastfeeding Journey

*Before I start this post, I want to make the point that I am not trying to "shame" anyone who didn't/couldn't breastfeed, I'm simply sharing my journey with it. How others feed their children is none of my business and the last thing I want to do is upset anybody - this is purely a blog to document my journey as a new mother and feeding my baby is a very big part of that! :)*

As I mentioned in my labour and birth post, breastfeeding didn't get off to the best start for Birdy and I, but I'm really proud to say that at 10.5 months we're still going strong.

After a long and fairly traumatic labour, she was jaundiced and weak, and was therefore unable to latch.

Determined to give it my best shot, I called lactation consultants out to my house every day. I hand-expressed and syringe fed in the beginning. This wasn't easy - hand expressing can be hard work and time consuming. I was lucky in that I was able to express quite a lot, although I know of some ladies who really struggle.

It also wasn't as simple as squirting the syringe into her mouth. In order to teach her how to latch and suck properly, one of us needed to put the tip of our little finger to the roof of her mouth squeeze in a tiny bit, and then wait for her to start sucking before giving her the rest.

It was exhausting.

On one occasion, we were nearly re-admitted to hospital because Bird had lost around 12% of her birth weight. The midwife who'd come to see us spoke to a doctor at the hospital who advised she needed 33ml every 2 hours.

I decided to set an alarm so that I never went for more than 2 hours without feeding her. Because she was still so weak, I needed to take her clothes off, blow her face and tickle her feet to wake her up.

Below are some screenshots from my phone. I used to make notes of every feed, the amount she'd taken and the time, for my own records and so I could discuss them with the midwives and lactation consultants.

Steve would watch me crying whilst I tried my hardest to help her latch and every night he would offer to go the shop and buy some formula, but I stubborn and determined by this point to breastfeed.

By this time, my milk had come in and the amount wasn't a problem, but before she was able to latch and feed on demand, I was expressing constantly to make sure my supply didn't disappear.

In doing this, I unknowingly caused major oversupply. This may sound great, but it didn't feel it! I was engorged all the time because I'd let me body think that it needed to make loads of milk all day and night, so if we went out and I didn't express for two hours or so, I would be stinging and in pain.

Bird was still struggling to latch and it was heartbreaking. I decided to invest in the Medela Calma bottle (£15.99 in Mothercare - http://www.mothercare.com/Medela-Calma-Breastmilk-Bottle---150ml/322906,default,pd.html), which supposedly simulates the feeling of breastfeeding, meaning the feeding technique is similar.

On the evening of day 5, I cried my eyes out as I watched Steve give Bird her first ever bottle of my expressed milk. I was so upset because I was convinced this would be the end of our journey and that she'd never learn to latch if we gave her bottles. I really was devastated.

Steve then passed her to me when he went to brush his teeth, and I decided to try again to breastfeed her myself.

I couldn't believe it when she latched straight on! I was so happy, I cried.

From there, apart from blocked milk ducts (OUCH) and the occasional bleeding boob due to my poor girl's struggle with latching, we were plain sailing and I was over the moon.

Birdy was exclusively breastfed up until 6 months, when we continued to breastfeed alongside solids in the style of "Baby-Led Weaning."

Looking back, our struggle didn't actually last long at all but at the time it felt never ending.

We are now dealing with a slightly dodgy latch due to 6 teeth sprouting out of nowhere in the past 4 weeks, but I can deal with that and am confident it will improve again.

There is so much media attention focussed on the "breast vs bottle debate" at the moment with lots of bottle feeding mums feeling attacked and judged, which I find upsetting. I actually feel this way myself as a breastfeeding mum, believe it or not. I find myself not openly talking about breastfeeding unless I'm asked, and even then, keeping relatively closed about the topic for fear of offending anyone.I worry that people will think I'm bragging and I'm really not!

I've been told in the past how lucky I am to breastfeed. If I'm completely honest, this bothers me a little bit as I don't personally feel that luck came into it very much. I struggled immensely. Although I'm very grateful that I was physically able to breastfeed, I also feel that it is a result of determination (or extreme stubbornness) and calling in a LOT of help (sometimes three times a day) from local breastfeeding support workers.

I'm really proud of how far my Birdy has come, and all the sleepless nights (which are still a regular occurrence at almost 11 months old!) are so worth it.

I really love our breastfeeding relationship and hope it doesn't end any time soon.

Love, Gina Xx

From Hospital To Home

The first few hours after the birth are a bit fuzzy to me.

Initially, I didn't care that the labour and birth hadn't happened according to my plan. Steve and I were both just so head over heels in love with this new tiny little person.

She weighed 6lbs 15oz and she was perfect. When she was awake, her eyes were big and open and almost black. She was perfect.

Steve called my dad first, then his own parents. I sent a text and photo out to the girls, whilst Steve did the same to the boys.

I was soon put on a ward with other ladies and their new babies, but I'd been sick throughout labour and afterwards, so they found me a private room.

A few hours later, I asked a midwife for some help with breastfeeding. I had no idea what I was doing but I knew I wanted to try it.

The midwife told me she was too busy, and to just "stick her on and see what happens." I was totally clueless about positioning, how to hold her, what a good latch, or even just a latch, looked or felt like.

I was given a little cup and a syringe, and told to hand express and syringe feed, so that's what I did, all night. I was very lucky to be able to hand express 15-20ml of colostrum at a time, I know some ladies find it hard to even get 1ml, so I'm really grateful.

Because of the meconium in my waters, Bird and I had to stay in hospital for 24 hours post-birth for monitoring.

Throughout the night, her temperature dropped several times and she had to be wrapped in lots of thick blankets and put under the lights on the resuscitation table.

She was jaundiced as she was struggling to feed from me through exhaustion from a long labour.

When the 24 hours were over, I asked to be transferred back to the MLU. I wasnt ready to go home and wanted more help with breastfeeding but I didn't want to stay where I was, where they were too busy to help me and made me feel guilty for inconveniencing them when I asked.

They said this was fine, so we strapped Bird into her car seat and set off. We stopped at Steve's parent's house on the way so they could meet her, and then my dad visited at the MLU.

It's such a beautiful place. We were allowed to put two beds together in our lovely room so Steve could stay with us for the night, and there was a nice big private bathroom for me.

The midwives there were incredible, so patient and friendly. Although Bird still didn't manage to latch that night, I continued with hand expressing and syringe feeding and I felt so relaxed, content and confident that we'd get there eventually.

On Sunday morning we went home. We stopped at Asda on the way for some food shopping and to buy some girly clothes in "tiny baby" size, as all of the newborn things I'd packed swamped my teeny tiny Bird!

When we walked in the door at home, we put our little bundle into her bouncy chair. It was completely silent and we watched for her for a few minutes before I burst into the happiest tears. I just couldn't believe our miracle girl was finally here, and we were home. I couldn't believe we'd done it.

Love, Gina Xx