Working mums

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Pregnancy isn’t really one of the most stylish times in your life. It’s hard to feel sexy when you’re so big and sweaty and full of indigestion isn’t it?

Still, just because you might not be your usual svelte self, doesn’t mean you have to live for nine months in leggings and smocks. There are loads of fantastic maternity wear options nowadays, that mean you can stay looking blooming, even on a budget. One of our favourites is Everday Maternity, who have been kind enough today to provide us with some top maternity wear tips. Do check out their website!

Maternity bras – Make sure you choose a maternity bra that supports you well. The correct fit and fabric will improve your posture, comfort, and confidence. Comfort is always key so go for the softest fabrics. Look for a stretch and recover microfibre to ensure you have the best fit and choose styles with drop down cups so that you can use them for breastfeeding too.

Maternity tops – Don’t be afraid of fitted styles when you’re pregnant. Oversized garments make you look larger than you are and can leave you feeling more frumpy than fabulous. A viscose or a jersey material tends to be more flattering over the bump and gives a much smoother silhouette. Wearing your maternity tops and tunics with over-the-bump trousers or leggings will give you a slim line silhouette.

Maternity trousers – When choosing your maternity trousers, go for your normal size. Maternity wear is cut to include your bump. Make sure you sit down in them and check there’s no digging in or gaping and that there’s plenty of room in the front to grow. Check your waistband to make sure you’ve got maximum comfort. When you choose your waistband, there are lots of options depending on your preference including; under, mid or over-the-bump.

Maternity dresses – On choosing your maternity dresses, always consider you pre-pregnancy shape, and apply the same rules. For example, with maxi dresses, the length is really great for elongating your body, and an empire line is always very flattering, as it sits at your lowest point. Look for straps that are thick enough to cover your maternity bra or has a detail that will draw attention away from the strap.

Maternity work wear – When choosing your maternity shirt, consider the length of the shirt at the front and make sure it’s cut longer, this way it works perfectly with under or over the bump trousers. Choose styles that you will be comfortable in all day and make sure that they are easy to wash and easy to iron. Comfortable knitwear is also fantastic for work because again, knitted garments can be interchangeable between your day and your evening wear. Remember you’ll be wearing your work wear eight hours a day, so make sure you’re happy with your selection.

Do you have a favourite item of maternity wear, something that got you through nine months of feeling frumpy? We’d love to hear from you!

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Enough of toilet training, we’re going to spoil the mummies again today with a gorgeous baby proof necklace from Mama Jewels.

We all know that feeling of not being able to wear jewellery for fear of it being grabbed by tiny hands don’t we? Or maybe you’ve had your little one snap necklaces right off in a shower of tiny beads?

This Mama Jewels necklace is designed to be baby proof, and gorgeous too, so you don’t have to compromise of style even though you’ve got a little one in tow. It’s totally safe for your baby to tug and chew, and makes a great breastfeeding necklace or teething toy.

If you don’t have a baby anymore, we think it’s pretty lovely regardless!

To win one today, leave a comment telling us about your favourite piece of jewellery. Read the full rules here.

How’s the Christmas shopping going? If you’re stuck for what to buy for a difficult child (or adult!), how about one of our colour changing bath mats? They’re great fun for all the family, and make a brilliant gift for those people who seem to have everything! This week only you can get 15% off your bath mat with the code STOCKING15.

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Well, what do you know, we’ve been nominated for an award!

Get us!

Not just any award either, we’ve been nominated for a MAD Blog Award, in the category of Best MAD Small Business Blog. And no, it doesn’t mean we’re unhinged in anyway – MAD actually stands for Mums and Dads, and this new category is a recognition of the fact that there are so many parents out there running fantastic business… and blogging about it!

We’d really love it if you could take the time to nominate us:

MAD Blog Awards 2011

Nominations are open all month and the top five from each category will then go through to the voting stage.

If you’re looking for bloggers to nominate in the other categories, you might like to know that our very own Marketing Manager, Jo, actually moonlights as Slummy Single Mummy - she’s really rather good, so do check her out…

Thanks!

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Blog Carnival - BlueWhen we first offered to host the Business Plus Baby blog carnival back before Christmas, we didn’t really know what to expect. We certainly weren’t prepared for the fantastic response from amazing business mummies everywhere, on such a wide range of interesting topics.

So after a fascinating afternoon spent sorting our way through all the entries, we are very pleased to be able to share them all with you today. So, grab a cuppa, but your feet up, and dive in. It is Friday after all, you deserve it…

If you’ve ever worried about going back to work after maternity leave, and how you’ll cope with the change from milk stained pjs to high heels, Notes to Self, Plus Two gives a brilliant account of her return to work, taking us through Day One, Week One and Week Two - we are very impressed she had time to blog at all!

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Our guest post today is from Holly, blogger at It’s A Mummy’s Life, mother of two girls under three years old and proud owner of one full time job.  She can mostly be seen drinking coffee and trying to keep her eyes open enough to fool her boss that she’s listening to him.  In her ‘spare’ time she plays Princesses and Fairies with her girls.

As a new mother we all have such high expectations, hopes and dreams for our baby and most probably a fairly fixed idea of how we will adapt as mothers.

Some women take to motherhood like babies to explosive nappies, but some are less sure of what to do and search desperately for the ‘how to’ book before realising the baby didn’t come with instructions.  That was me in case you’re wondering.

So here are a few things I wish I’d known then that might have helped make my early months as a mum less stressful.

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If you’ve ever wondered what it was like being the classic ‘mumpreneur’, have a read of Polly’s week – how does she find the time?!

I just wonder how many people in the world can claim to have as varied a job as us working mums?  For example, this week…

Sunday – packed up 3 children, one husband and a weeks worth of wet and dirty laundry for a 12 hour drive via ferry back to the UK from a week in France for half term (lovely) – loads of stress and shouting and children crying as you can imagine.  Pray that the french cops don’t stop us as we hurtle north with only one headlight…arrive home 11pm.

Monday – Inset day – no school run.  Preschool still on (ARRGH) – mad dash to get ready and go. Office – go through 185 of the 380 emails received during previous week – before noon. Then lunch for five children and another mum to help tape/man-handle 35 enormous boxes in my middle room ready for collection so we can walk between the kitchen and the living room for the first time since the baby show three weeks ago.

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“I hate to say it, but he’s sleeping really well…” – Lesson number one – don’t say it! Today Helen reminds us all of some golden parenting rules…

What an idiot I am.  I said OUT LOUD that my baby was sleeping really well.  You would think I would have learned now that I am on baby number three, that babies have supersonic hearing and a total understanding of the English language, from birth.  And that they are the world regulators when it comes to anyone – especially their parents – being smug in any way, shape or form.

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Sounds a bit scary doesn’t it? But fear not! Being a Mum Ultrapreneur doesn’t mean you have to dress permanently in an uncomfortably tight pinstripe suit, nor does it mean farming your kids out to a nanny 14 hours a day while you attend Very Important Networking Lunches.

Being a Mum Ultrapreneur just means you are a businesswoman who happens also to be a parent, and that somehow you manage to combine the two without having a nervous breakdown. And if that sounds like an impossible task, then this new book from Susan Odev and Mark Weeks could be just what you need.

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Having a third baby whilst deeply, obsessively involved in running your own business.  It was always going to be interesting.  I feel bad using the same word as I would to describe my lovely newborn, but Cuddledry is unavoidably also ‘my baby’, nurtured from embryonic to newborn, toddlerdom, and now perhaps emerging into the pre-school phase.  I couldn’t know how I would feel about it all once my real baby arrived.  Would I lose interest in work and want to focus entirely on motherhood?  Would I be able to juggle both?  Or would I be itching to work and frustrated at not being able to?  I have to confess I feared I would be the last of those three options.

But I am delighted to find myself, four weeks into his little life, totally infatuated with him just as I was with my first baby.  I stare at him and delight at tiny changes in his expression, and marvel at how he seems to GROW dramatically overnight.  My six year old daughter keeps saying, ‘Mummy I just can’t belieeeeeve he’s ours!’ and I feel just the same.

And so far (she says nervously) I have also been able to keep an eye on work, and do a little when he sleeps and the bigger ones are at school.  The obsession certainly remains, but I find now it keeps me sane.  I have realised that work is something that keeps me being ME, as well as mummy, and I enjoy and value that.  So the hours I can do, the emails I send, gives me a sense of being in some vague sort of control of my life (albeit the truth is clearly that a very small person is in fact entirely in charge).  My control freakery is fulfilled and I feel a great sense of satisfaction that I am able to contribute to the running of the business.

Whilst I have nothing but admiration for my friends who are full time mums, for me personally I can see now my work makes me a better mummy.  I can relax into parenting and go properly goo goo gaa gaa over my baby, accepting the unpredictability of it all, because I can pour my fussy organised side into my work where it actually has some value.

So stuff the daft ‘working mum guilt’ thing.  Running a business, or working in whatever role you are in, can in my view make you a better parent.  It lets you have some sense of order in your life, so that family time can be the lovely chaos it should be.  My older kids can happily smear play doh all over the place and our new baby can be erratic as he likes, cos mummy has sent a few emails and she feels nicely smug and self satisfied as a result.