It’s Friday, and that means a new episode of #coolmumclub, meet the members…the only guest series guaranteeing a number one linked post spot on the #coolmumclub Linky. Today we give a massive *High Five* to Abi, the Mum behind ‘Something about Baby‘ blog. She’s the #coolmumclub resident member of TOWIE (okay, maybe not!) so I’m waving across the Thames to you Abi from neighbouring Kent!

This series is perfect for new bloggers to introduce themselves to the rest of the blogging world, so show her some love guys! One day she is going to be a hugely successful novelist…follow your dreams Abi! 

x MMT 

A little about me

I am absolutely delighted to be taking part in the Cool Mum Club: Meet the Members series. My name is Abi, and I am the face behind the blog, Something About Baby. I am an Essex girl, (not quite) born and bred! I have lived in a few places around Essex, but I currently reside in a lovely little town, with my wonderful husband Craig and our amazing baby Alfie.

Craig and I have been together for ten years this year, and married four. Alfie came along 9 months ago, and our lives haven’t been the same since! Before I had Alfie, I worked as a Legal PA in London, and I plan to go back once my maternity leave has finished (I have 3 months left, so trying not to think about it too much!) I’ve always lived a quiet kind of life – I’ve always loved reading (my siblings used to joke I’d be a librarian when I was older!) and eventually grew to love writing when I started secondary school and had to create stories for my English classes. I have dreamed of being a writer or working in publishing for years, but have been unable to make the transition, mainly due to time, money and opportunities. I’m known for my love of tea (literally addicted, I’ve tried many time to give it up or make the switch to green tea, but I just can’t do it). More recently I have been reaching for wine over tea…not quite sure why that is?!

Since becoming a mum

Since I’ve become a mum, I’ve definitely changed. I feel like I’m more laid back, yet have less patience to put up with people’s bullshit. I’m not easily offended, as I really don’t care what people think about me, but if you do or say something I don’t agree with, I will tell you! I’ve come to realise that my baby and my husband really are the most important things in the world to me, and I’ve come to learn that a mother’s love really is very fierce!

I’ve learned lots of new skills as a mother – for example, surviving on 4 hours or less sleep, taking a shower in less than 3 minutes and making a sandwich with a baby balanced on your hip. I’ve become passionate about things that never crossed my mind before, like breastfeeding, baby-wearing, co-sleeping and extended rear-facing car seats. I’ve had full blown conversations with complete strangers about everything from my interesting labour (induced, 3 days of contractions, emergency c-section, 10lb baby), to the contents of Alfie’s nappy (big wee’er, breastmilk poops, solid poop, spinach poop, basically all kind of poop!), to my views on cloth nappies (we use them, I love them, husband hates them, they are CUTE!).

Why did I start a blog?

As I said before, I’ve always love to write, although it has always been fiction. I wrote a novel when I was 21. It’s not been published, or even read by that many people as I’m quite shy about it, but I believe it’s pretty good, and one day I will get it out there (I hope!). But I found I couldn’t find the time to write as much as I wanted to, and I was also finding that a lot of stuff was happening whilst pregnant that I wanted to document, but I didn’t know how. I’m very much a hoarder of memories. I have 10 years of love letters, soppy cards, silly notes and thousands of photo of my relationship with Craig, so why wouldn’t I want to do the same for my baby? I briefly started a blog about 6 months before I got pregnant, but I wasn’t dedicated enough, or really have a focus for it. So when I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to remember every single little detail, and considered the idea of starting a blog. Of course, I got caught up in the excitement of telling friends and family the news, and then I got bad morning (all day) sickness, then I was preparing for my maternity leave and STILL hadn’t started the blog!

Before I knew it, I was 41 weeks pregnant and had been on maternity leave for 4 weeks and was super bored because the baby hadn’t arrived. I had done all the things I wanted to before the baby came – made curtains and bunting for the nursery, washed and sorted all the baby clothes, finally packed my hospital bag and had a wax and pedicure in preparation for the birth (you still got to look good!) This is when I thought it would be a good time to start a blog – 7 days overdue with my first baby, with no idea how I was going to take to motherhood!

I was very OCD about how I was going to write my blog. I wanted to document my pregnancy journey, in order, and so didn’t “announce” the birth of Alfie until he was 6 months old! It was so strange trying to write about a baby that was already here, as if he wasn’t, especially as we didn’t know the sex of the baby until he was born! The worst thing was probably writing about my expectations for a calm, relaxed, drug free water birth, when in fact I knew I’d had an unsettled induced labour resulting in an emergency caesarean.

I didn’t intend to share my blog with anyone I knew at first – I had a twitter account, and tentatively started following people and writing tweets. Then one day a fellow blogger shared a blog post of mine, and tagged my personal Facebook in it, which revealed me to the world (thanks Mrs Lighty!) Honestly, it’s the best thing that could have happened, as I don’t think I would have plucked up the courage otherwise. I now share everything on my personal page, and often have friends and family comment on things I have written on my blog (although I do find that a little bit uncomfortable at times!)

What now?

For now, I am enjoying documenting my time as a first time mum. I blog when I want to, about whatever I want to. I love that there are people out there reading my blog! I love to see my stats increasing, but I don’t get too hung up over it. I love interacting with readers on social media – I recently shared a photo on my Facebook page that reached over 24,000 people. To me, that’s insane! It was a one-off, but it has shown me what *could* happen if I am prepared to put in the time and effort. One day, I would love to be able to make an income from my blog – that’s the dream. But for today, I’m just happy writing for myself, with no pressure. I love linking up with other blogs, and enjoy reading about their adventures and successes. I love getting to know fellow bloggers, and learning from them. One day I hope to be able to teach a fellow blogger things I have learnt.

I will continue to write about all things bump and babies, and continue to share my blog with the world. Who knows where it will take me? But for now, I’m just going to enjoy it!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed getting to know me and Something About Baby!

Check Abi out on Twitter:@AboutBabyBlog