The fickle world of Instagram

So recently I’ve seen a lot posts from some of my favourite people to follow about how they are getting less likes and how it’s affecting their fondness for Instagram. I don’t have many followers on the gram, nor do I frequently get 100 + likes on my pictures. But I don’t post for those reasons. I think it’s very easy to get sucked into the hideous world of Instagram “success”.

People are pouring their creativity, their ambitions and their time into a platform which has a scientific but baffling algorithm. This means that sometimes you put out a post that you think is brilliant, yet it may receive less likes than yesterday’s. This can be demoralising and at times almost hurtful. 

How to road trip with a baby and not lose your mind

We recently traveled to Devon for a short break for my birthday. I was initially very daunted at the prospect of spending 4.5 hours in the back of a car with a cranky teething baby and so I looked closer to home for a trip. However we have always wanted to visit the West country and we found the most amazing secluded cottage so on a spur of the moment we booked it! I spent so much time researching how to ensure that it wasn't the journey from hell and so I thought it might be helpful to share what worked for us. We ended up having a fantastic time away and it has made me want to plan a trip back again immediately!

1. Download their favourite tv programmes. BBC iPlayer is amazing and you can download Teletubbies and in the night garden. However make sure you have a way to set up so the baby can see it as I hadn’t thought that far ahead and had to hold it upright for two hours straight 

2.Use a Thermos to put in the baby’s milk so it’s nice and warm and ready to pour into bottles. I did the same for her purée which worked really well. It meant that we didn’t have to stop to try and get it heated up 

3.Plan your route before hand. We had pre arranged pit stops for toilet breaks, nappy changes and maybe a sneaky McDonald’s. I was very mindful of the two hour rule, that babies shouldn't be in car seats for more than that. So when we stopped we made sure it was for 45 minutes to make sure she had a good break

4.We timed Eva’s nap with the beginning of our journey so she would sleep through quite a bit of it. Babies seem to sleep for so much longer in the car than at home! 

5.Use sun shades to keep the light off baby and this also helps to keep them asleep for longer

6.I bought a few new toys and introduced them throughout the journey to keep her stimulated as sitting down for so long is Eva’s idea of hell usually

7.Bring plenty of snacks. We bought a cool box and brought veggies and yogurt to keep her interest and also snacks are everything on a road trip 

8. Finally we stopped for a nappy change and we changed her into her pjs so that once we arrived we could just read her the bed time story and pop her into bed. 

Eva managed to sleep for about two hours of the whole journey both ways which was fantastic and meant that I got to eat my cookies and read a whole book! I'm going to do a blog post about the air bnb and places we visited. Do you have any great recommendations for Devon and Cornwall? I'm so keen to go back soon!

April Highlights

What a month, we've had monsoon rains and winds all the way through to summer heatwaves. April is a big month in this household as it's Luke's birthday. We used to go away every year for our birthdays as they are only two weeks apart but since I was pregnant last year and moving house we ended up just going out for dinner. So this year we wanted to have a family dinner party to celebrate. Eva turned 9 months on the 10th of April and so has officially been out longer than she was in. She's just such a joy to be around. Watching her personality come out and seeing how reserved she can be in social situations has been wonderful this month. She is yet to master the crawling but she is definitely getting there! I really enjoy these kinds of posts as its nice to reflect on what you have done in a month especially on days like today when you aren't even planning on getting out of your pjs. So here it is, my favourite things this month!