Follow along as I share my experiences and lessons learned as I navigate motherhood, marriage and homemaking. I love doing things as naturally, simply and quickly as possible. Watch as I share what does (and doesn’t) work for our expanding family.
Welcome to Hennys Home! In October 2021 my boyfriend proposed and on Christmas Eve we got married at the church across the road. Less than a month after our wedding we found out that we were expecting. Just a few weeks before my due date we moved house. Relocating from our terrace house in the city, to the Northumberland countryside. As we unpacked the last box I went into labour (a week overdue) and our daughter was born at home (without using the NHS). Yes, I had a home birth. We’re now expecting again, and will be parenting two-under-two!
First things first, if you like what I share, and want to follow along as I evaluate the highs and lows of motherhood and homemaking, then subscribe to our newsletter here. I’ll be sharing what does and doesn’t work for our family. From sleep schedules, recipes and baby products, as well as my insights into motherhood and homemaking as my experience grows.
Our Story
My husband Simon and I started dating in 2019, and I relocated ‘up North’ just before the first of the many lock-downs hit the UK in 2020. Later that year we bought our first home together in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It was a fixer-upper and we spent the next year knee-deep in DIY.
Not long after we started dating I knew that Simon was someone special and thankfully he thought the same. In October 2021 he asked me to marry him, and after a short engagement we got married at the Church across the road on Christmas Eve. We had a very small ceremony and went for an afternoon-tea for two in our wedding attire straight after tying-the-knot.
We started trying for a baby not long after our engagement, and less than a month after our wedding we found out that we were expecting!
Our beautiful terrace house in the city, which we had just finished refurbishing suddenly seemed wrong for our expanding family. While it was beautiful, with three bedrooms, we wanted to get out of the city and find a home with a big garden, lots of space, and more suited for the next chapter of our family.
So before we knew it we were packing boxes, and moving house, by which point I was about eight months pregnant. We quickly got settled in and unpacked, and waited (not so patiently on my part) for our baby to be born.
What else do you need to know?
I’m currently thirty-three years old. Simon and I got married in December 2021. Felicity is our first child and at the time of writing/editing is two years old, our second daughter has just turned one… and I’m expecting again! I’m an only child, and have always longed for a big family. Becoming a mum has been my biggest wish since I was a little girl. The last few years have been the best of my entire life – I feel very lucky. Does that mean I have found motherhood easy? Absolutely not! I have had the biggest highs and some deep lows along the way; but the highs have far outweighed the lows. I’m now expecting our second child – so there’s your answer. The lows are definitely outweighed by the highs!
The Highs of Motherhood so far
Home Birth
Becoming a mum has been an epic journey. Having Felicity at home, with just my husband and two private midwives was the most amazing experience. Was birth painful, scary, and hard? Definitely. It was also one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life, and something I am truly proud of. My experience of birth and a home birth was 100% positive, you can read more about it here.
Watching my husband become a Dad
Watching my husband become a dad was the thing I was most excited about whilst I was pregnant, and the real-life experience has not disappointed. Simon and Felicity’s relationship is so special, and the older she gets, the better it gets. Simon has taken fatherhood in his stride and has even coped with all the food splatters and baby paraphernalia that has overrun our home.
All the love…
Every mum out there will say the same thing – no one can prepare you for the love you feel for your baby. I can confirm it’s true. It’s not like falling in love or like the love you have for your family, it’s a totally different feeling. For me at least, even in my lowest, most uneasy moments, the love I have for our daughter has not wavered. It’s as if the task of caring for the screaming, (sometimes smelly) little lump in your arms is totally detached from the love you feel for them. It is an amazing feeling.
I look at my daughter with total awe. Every day she changes, advances, and amazes me. It’s incredible. I find myself wishing time will rewind and fast-forward at the same time. One minute you can’t wait to see them achieve the next milestone; take their first step, or try a new food, or smile for the first time, or laugh in a new way. The next minute you want to go back to when they felt small in your arms and stayed snuggled up like a little frog on your chest. It’s truly wild and so rewarding.
The Lows of Motherhood so far
Baby’s sleep and bedtime!
Sleep (or more specifically bedtime) has to date been the biggest challenge. From day one, our daughter has been a great night-time sleeper. We’ve been very lucky in that regard. To be honest the first six weeks were so much easier than I thought they were going to be. She slept well and I had no problem waking three to four times a night to feed her. She went straight back to sleep after a fifteen-minute nibble and that was that. We co-slept after her first waking (more on that later) and it was fine.
Then she got a bit older and woke less at night…BUT… daytime naps were non-existent unless my nipple was left permanently in her mouth. Her lack of naps made her cranky and overtired. As she got older the transfer from boob to crib at bedtime soon became a daily battle. She became too big to co-sleep like we had when she was a newborn. Suddenly sleep was a major issue.
Honestly, the lack of a daytime break (even ten minutes to go to the loo), her tantrums from tiredness, and the evening struggle to get her into her crib, soon got to me. By the time she was three months old I was done. Had Felicity come with a returns policy, she would have been sent back to where she had come from. (I think Simon felt the same way about me!)
Deciding to sleep train
Once our daughter was five months old we had had enough and decided to hire a sleep consultant. Let me tell you it was worth every single penny! I had read a lot of books about baby sleep before we hired a professional, and I knew enough to sleep train our daughter on my own. But what I needed was someone else to tell me that what I knew to be true was right, that my daughter would still love me, and that I was doing the right thing for our family and situation. I would 100% recommend sleep training.
The results from sleep training were amazing. I was so impressed (and relieved) that I continued with my research and decided that I wanted to help other families to transform their baby’s sleep too. So when the time is right, I hope to embark on the training. Sleep training was totally transformative for our family.
Working from home with a baby
I’m self-employed. I have my own business, I’m a professional and have clients and families who depend on my services. The work-baby balance has been so much harder than I thought it would be, and I knew it would be hard.
I had organised my work so that I could have three months ‘maternity leave’. Being a one-woman-band (so to speak), this proved hard, but it has been much harder trying to get back into my pre-baby work routine since the end of my maternity leave. In fact, it’s not been possible. I’m sure that there are many women out there who absolutely smash the work-baby balance, but I haven’t. The main issue is that I don’t have the same passion for my business since having Felicity.
Work has become a time-thief, stealing precious minutes from my day, time which could otherwise be spent with my daughter. So much so that I am trying to sell-up and become a full-time mum, with a blog and a few baby-related business ventures in the pipeline. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who has supported and even encouraged this decision. And I can’t bloody wait, but for now, I’m still limping along, doing my best to juggle my various roles: mother, wife, professional.
That’s a wrap for now…
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Thinking about having a home birth in the UK? Worried about NHS maternity services? Then read about our experience choosing to have a private home birth, without the NHS here.
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