Out and About: Miller & Carter Crewe

When Miller and Carter, Crewe got in touched and asked if I wanted to visit I jumped at the chance. Most Crewe residents will be familiar with the site on Crewe / Nantwich  Road and will have fond memories of the Deep Sea Den, college lunch time pints, breakfast and lunches as well as the beautiful architecture of the building itself. I decided to take my Mum, Luke and Fred along to see what Miller and Carter had done with the place and it's safe to say that we were pretty impressed.

This post is in collaboration with Miller and Carter and our meal was complimentary 

I live in Stroke-Limbo

I've suffered a brain injury and I have brain damage. That's something that I still can't get over saying; for me, brain damage and brain injuries were caused by things, things like accidents and traumas, actual traumas, the kind that hurt, that you feel and that are worse than the aftermath but that's not the case with Strokes. Strokes are sly, they sneak up on you, get you and within minutes of causing often pain-fee havoc, they leave you traumatised and injured. The real damage that Strokes cause happens afterwards, when your life is completely changed, your body doesn't work and you have no control over your emotions but somehow, (if you can of course) you have to muddle through and find a way of coping. 

Freddie's one year review

Freddie had his 12 month assessment with the Health Visitor this week so I thought it was a good time to have a go at one of these review posts. I haven't done them before because in all honesty I've not been that fussed about his development; not in the sense that I'm not bothered that or how he develops but more that it's not been something that we've been getting stressed or concerned about (obviously if there were any red flags we'd act accordingly) but there hasn't been much to write home about - he's just been getting along nicely. Rather than harp on about centile lines and milestones I'm going be scoring Freddie out of ten on certain aspects of his being and then giving him an overall annual score because that is the kind of arsehole Mum I am.

I had a Stroke

I had a stroke and got carted off to Stoke. Not a sentence I thought I'd be writing at 28 years old but here we are, exactly a week since it happened and I'm just about getting used to being a 'stroke survivor' and being in recovery. I mentioned to the girls in the group chat how it's incredible how much my life can change in a week; last week I was getting back into the swing of things with work, taking Freddie to Rhyme Time at the library and my Mum for lunch and now I'm needing escorting everywhere, talking out of the side of my mouth with no idea when I'll be able to work again.

Starting Work and Nursery

Going back to work was never an issue for me, that was when I was going back to my job of five years for two days a week. Things got a little more complicated when we decided to move half way up the country , get new jobs and start full-time. Finding a childminder for Freddie was never an issue as a family friend own a setting that three other family kids have gone to without any issues and My Mum has been kind enough to have Freddie on her two days off each week allowing us to work full-time and reducing childcare costs. I thought it’d be a breeze and go swimmingly but it’s been a hard process and something that we’re all still adjusting to.

Freddie's first cold was terrifying

Poorly babies are absolutely terrifying, Freddie only had a cold and the week it lasted was the most stressful time of my life. I have learnt that I am terrible in an emergency when it comes to my child and that I am one of those panicky worried parents who always thinks the worst. On the Monday Freddie woke in the night which is most unusual for him because he is a sleep angel sent from the Gods of sleep. He was making this horrific wheezing sound and wouldn’t wake up. I knew it was bad when Luke shouted “ISSY CALL 999” at this point I burst into tears and felt like I was going to faint – a crap response, I know. It turns out that the sound of Luke shouting woke Freddie up who then coughed, giggled at his Dad and then thought it was a great time to have a play and say “a cat” over and over. Four hours later, one exhausted little family managed to get some sleep.

Post-partum hair loss

 Post-partum hair loss wasn’t something that played on my mind after having Freddie. I think that after all complications with the stuff down there I didn’t have the time or energy to focus on something else. It also wasn’t something that I was too aware of; I’d noticed Alice speaking about it on twitter but hadn’t looked into it much. When I was pregnant my skin and hair went on a major hormonal induced glow up and I lived for it. Pregnancy and birth aren’t the only causes for hair loss, find more information on hair loss in women here.

This post is in collaboration with Harley Street Hair Clinic

My (short lived) Coil Fitting Experience

You can bet your arse that if there’s a 1/1000 chance of something happening that it will happen to me. Contraception was a big concern after having Freddie – The Depo injection is what caused my infertility so I was incredibly wary of hormonal contraception as we want more children at some point. At eight weeks post-partum I was put on the mini-pill by a GP to try and stem the bleeding a  bit, it had been going on a while and after haemorrhaging during the birth it was affecting my iron levels resulting in me needing to take iron tablets which was making me have those gargantuan iron tablet shits that are absolutely terrifying when your faj is torn to shreds. Anyway, the mini-pill didn’t work and during another faj check up with another GP, I mentioned this and she scoffed and told me that I needed to be on the combined pill to stop the bleeding and get my cycle on track. She put me on Yasmin, a pill that I remembered being on years ago but couldn’t recollect any specific issues; this time I did, I went mental and you can read about it here. 

NYK1 Tanforce | Honest Review

We all know I love a fake tan, I mean, I really really love a natural tan but that doesn’t happen very often. I’m also a shameless tanner, that means that I don’t apply it with care, if I haven’t got patchy hands then I’ve not, not done it properly and I’m not too fussed about pre-tan prep. Luke is a bit different; he likes to get everything right and take…absolutely…ages…to…do…anything. So when Babushka PR got in touch and offered to send us the NYK1 Secrets tan to try out, I nominated Luke as tribute.

You don't need to Mummy Shame

Urgh, I hate the term 'Mummy Shaming' but knobhead Mums doesn't have the same, twee ring to it so we'll have to make do. It bugs me when things like this are given an exclusive term because it means that not only are there enough people around doing it, but it also kind of makes it acceptable and when you put mummy in front of anything it makes it sound much less serious. 

Hey 2019

It's been a Luke Warm minute since I last posted on here. If I'm honest, I've struggled with content and haven't posted anything that I haven't deemed *worthy*. Anoushka got me thinking a lot about blogging in her recent post and it's made me a little more motivated to switch things up a little for 2019; we're in very similar positions, I doubt blogging would ever be a career for me and it's not something I'm aiming for, I've been distracted by people who do want this and have created an entire "brand" and almost (via not posting as often as I've maybe wanted to) lost my blog's integrity.