The Highlights
1. Miss K. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the biggest highlight was the birth of my sweet baby girl. When I found out that I was pregnant earlier last year, I was so happy! That happiness continued throughout my pregnancy to when I held her in my arms for the first time. She’s brought my husband and I so much joy, and we love her so, so much!
2. Blogging. This year I got back into blogging and I wrote a total of 33 blog posts. This is a massive jump from 2017 and I hope to increase this number in 2019. I’m still not sure where I want to take this blog but I do know that I love writing and putting together content, so I’ll see where it takes me!
3. Mental health. I wanted to improve my mental health and outlook on life by actively removing and reducing things that have a negative impact on me. I’ve been able to quit, unsubscribe, reduce, and say no to things and time spent on negative things and people. As a result, I’m glad to say that I had more ups than downs.
The Lowlights
1. Pregnancy terrorists. This term was actually coined by my obgyn who told me to ignore any negative advice or comments regarding my pregnancy. Fortunately these were far few and in between, however I was surprised that these comments came from people close to me rather than strangers.
2. Instagram. After Miss K was born, I spent less time on Instagram and lacked the motivation to post daily. While I love the platform, I just simply don’t have the time to maintain my account and interact with everyone like I used too. Nothing like having a baby to make you rethink your priorities!
3. Physical health. I started the year strong by joining the gym but ended up letting my contract expire shortly after I fell pregnant. I had morning sickness during my first trimester and felt too tired to exercise for the rest of my pregnancy. Coupled with the move, it was all too much and was eventually told to rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. Now that I’ve almost fully recovered from the birth, I’m keen to get back into the swing of things.
Lessons Learnt
Time is precious. I always knew that my priorities would shift and time would be more precious once Miss K was born but I really had no idea until she arrived. Miss K is now 9 weeks old and my days are broken up in “sleep cycles”. Now that she’s on a semi regular routine it’s a lot easier to get things done but gone are the days where I could spend an hour reading, watching movies or playing games! The challenge this year will be finding the right balance between work and play.
Staying positive takes a lot of work. It’s also a lot more than just removing and reducing things that have a negative impact. If I want to maintain my mental health and improve my outlook on life, it’s going to take active action on my part. I also need to chill and stop worrying about things that are outside of my control.
Family is everything. Now that we have Miss K in our lives, it’s really brought home that we’re our own little family. I look forward to spending time together as a family and creating our own traditions.
How was your year? What are you looking forward to in 2019?
Marie xo