Blossom Maternity Bra Review + Giveaway

I was recently contacted by Royce Lingerie about their brand new nursing bra - Blossom. I was so impressed by their promotional video {below} for it that I instantly agreed to reviewing it, in fact the Blossom bra is my blogs first ever product review and after a couple of weeks of wearing it I'm very happy to report that it really is a great first!

I'd never been a fan of wearing bras, I found them uncomfortable, sometimes itchy and painful on top of my scoliosis.. that was until I started wearing Blossom. The difference between standard 'normal' bras and Blossom is just phenomenal. Firstly, I am sitting here writing this with my Blossom bra on now and I am unbelievably comfortable even though my boobs are going through many uncomfortable and at times painful changes as I am only a week and a half postpartum. I put this comfortableness down to the incredibly soft material used and the amazing and completely innovative design of the bra. There is a hidden adjustable cord inside at the front that just makes this bra the best I've ever worn. It's clever design means that on pulling the very discreet cord inside you can easily convert it from a crop top style to a more traditional plunge style bra {as seen below}. 

This is by far the best feature of Blossom for me personally. 

Blossom is wirefree and is perfect for both during the day and for sleeping in. It has four tightness adjustments which can be adjusted as your body changes during and after pregnancy. It also offers easy to use one handed release nursing clips perfect for feeding baby and is available in sizes 32-40 C/D/DD, E/F/FF and G/GG/H. This great bra is available to purchase from Royce Lingerie here and is priced at he fantastic price of only £30.

I could honestly rave about this bra all day, it really is amazing but thanks to the lovely people at Royce Lingerie you don't need to just take my word for it.. Royce Lingerie have very kindly offered my readers the chance to win one of their fantastic Blossom bras to try for themselves. 

All you have to do to be in for a chance of winning is use the Rafflecopter form below. Good Luck everyone :)
Uk residents only. Competition will run from now until 8th May 2013 after which the winner will be announced.

39 Weeks: HOW close?!!

How far along?: 39 Weeks.. 3 Days!!! I can't believe how close it is now till your due date!!!!

Maternity clothes: Living in my pyjama bottoms and baggy tops!  

Stretch marks: I look a little like a tyre has run over my stomach, haha ;)

Sleep: Waking up nearly every hour to use the toilet.

Best moment this week: Turning 39 weeks was pretty exciting! 

Miss anything?: Being comfortable. 

Excuse my Pyjamas! ;)

Being In Love

I met my now Husband Adam at the age of 14, we we're at school and though we we're only children I knew that there was something special about him the first moment I saw him. Was it love at first sight? I don't know - I'd like to think so. All I know was there was just something. I was shy, not confident and never ever ever going to 'ask him out'.. One day my best friend at the time, to my surprise, did it for me.. thank god she did! 

Adam and I are now both 24 years old, it's been 10 and half years since then and we have both done a whole lot of growing in that time.. both physically and emotionally. Luckily, we have only ever grown closer and closer together. Do we row? Of course we do, I don't understand relationships where couples claim not to ever have had an argument, surely then one or both of you aren't speaking your mind? And from my experience, honestly is always the best policy. Adam and I are so similar and do absolutely everything together, we love, respect, admire, cherish and adore each other more than is possible to explain but it's totally impossible to agree on every little thing, and again from my own experience I feel that our relationship works so well because we get things out, we tell each other when somethings bugging us, we don't let the other be in a stinking mood and take it out on the other, we talk things through. 

The last 10 and half years of my life have been honestly AMAZING, there is no better feeling than sharing life with someone who you love and who loves you. Every single day I know how lucky I am to have him and my god every single day I am so thankful that I get to share my life with him. There isn't a day though that goes by where I don't worry about him, when you love someone so much all you want to do is protect them and know that they're safe all of the time. But this over-protecting worry that I feel only serves to make me more and more grateful for every single day that he returns home safe from work.

Not everybody has someone that they're in love with or that is in love with them but I believe that there is someone out there for everyone. If you are lucky enough to have someone you love, remember to tell them and show them every single day and in every single way that you can because being in love and being loved in return is honestly the best feeling in the whole world.

Other Ways To "Follow" Me:

With the fact that I am due to give birth so soon combined with the fact that being a Mummy is going to be all brand new to me, I don't know how much I am going to be around for the first couple of weeks with regards to blogging. I am by no means stopping my blog whatsoever, but understandably I will need to focus ALL of my attention on my little one, my Husband and myself to begin with..

{source}

 I will undoubtedly be taking a gazillion photographs of my little man as soon as he arrives and will most definitely be uploading these pics to Instagram {as I am quite the Insta-addict!}, so if you want to follow me on there you can find me under the username "Alexgladwin". :-) I'll probably be tweeting a fair bit too: {Alexgladwinx} and I'm now on Facebook.

On a side note, it appears that hellocotton will be coming to an end on April 11th, so if you do follow my blog through hellcotton at the moment then please consider following through GFC {Google friend connect} you can find the link for this in my side bar to the right hand side or alternatively please consider following me through Bloglovin. Thank you. <3

Just One Week To Go Until Due Date!

It's Monday, which means I turn another week pregnant and this week it's 39 weeks! Which seems crazy to me, I mean don't get me wrong I am SO ready for my baby to be born now, but it's just well I never really had imagined myself being 39 weeks pregnant, like, ever. 

That probably sounds really strange as I have had 39 weeks to realise that I would someday get to the finishing line of pregnancy, but it's come a lot quicker than I could ever have imagined and I'm kind of in that mind set between saying goodbye to being "pregnant Alex" and hello to becoming "Mummy Alex", and it's a BIG thing.

It's strange to think that so soon this baby I've felt grow and watched grow on Ultrasound scans from just a tiny little 'poppy seed' size to now a rather huge 'watermelon' size will be right here next to me and I grew him! How amazing!

My mind is full of such excitement right now and everyday I'm waking up ready to have him because although everyday is going past so quickly right now and I am truly trying to live for the moment and enjoy every second {which I believe I am achieving}, we are feeling quite a bit impatient, but hey who can blame us? We're first time parents-to-be, it's BRAND NEW to us and we are SUPER SUPER excited to start our new journey together as a 3! Please come soon little man!

xo
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What I'm Looking Forward To:

It seems quite unreal to me to be sitting here at 38 {nearly 39} weeks pregnant with you. I've been trying to imagine what it'll be like when I realise I am actually in labour, when I see you for the first time, when I hold you for the first time, when Daddy holds you for the first time, when we bring you home, when you meet the cats and the rest of your family..

There's just so much to look forward to and though I find it all very hard to imagine right now, what I do know is that all of these moments to come are going to be the best moments of my life - ever. They're going to be the biggest moments of my life and of your Dads. I suppose that's what makes it so hard to believe that all of this is just literally right around the corner for us now. 

I've been thinking about some of the things that I am most looking forward to doing with you and thought it was worthwhile noting all of these things down so that when we get to do them together I can look back and smile.. :)

I can't wait to:

• Teach you about animals, I hope you love them as much as your Dad and I do. 
• Hear your voice for the very first time, I wonder what your first word will be?
• Go to the zoo with you, I think this is something we'll do a lot together. 
• Read books with you. I read so much when I was little myself and it'll really take me back.
• Dress you everyday.. choosing your clothes everyday will be just too cute. 
• See you with your Dad. Oh wow, I think this is one of my favourite things that I can't wait for.
• See who you look like as you grow older. 
• Teach you kindness and politeness. 
• Blog about your growth and development and then look back at older posts like these when you were still in my stomach and be whooshed away with lovely memories. 
• See you smile for the first time. 
• Watch you interact with the cats. 
• Spend as many days as we possibly can together as a family. 

But mostly I can't wait to just 'be'. 

Be a family.. you, me, Daddy and the cats. 

xo
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38 Weeks: Getting Braxton Hicks!

How far along?: 38 Weeks.. 3 Days. Oh SO close now!

Maternity clothes: Nothing new - squeezing myself into my pre-pregnancy baggy clothes still!

Stretch marks: Yep... My stretch marks aren't that bad but noticeable yes. I use Palmers stretch mark lotion but to be honest I think if you're going to get them then you're going to get them! You can see some of them in the photos below, I think the ones on my sides look like zips haha. Also I'm confused about my belly button stretch marks because this started as a sort of bruising where I took my belly piercing out so I don't know how much of it is stretch mark. 

Sleep: Sleep's fine. Now I'm on Maternity Leave I'm sleeping in a lot longer in the mornings and I am definitely not as exhausted as I have been which feels fantastic! I wake up during the night a lot for the toilet but I'm use to it now. 

Best moment this week: Starting to feel Braxton Hicks, yes this is an odd 'best moment of the week' to have, but though it's rather painful at times it's nice to know that my body is gearing up for D-day. 

Miss anything?: Not having bruised ribs! ;)

Hello April!

Can you believe that it is April already?! It feels like it was just yesterday that I was saying, 'Can you believe that it's Christmas soon?!'.. And here we are - four months in to the year!

The sun is finally beginning to shine - even if it is still quite bitterly cold outside, Easter has come and gone, and most importantly for me this is the month that hopefully {please don't be late little one!!} I become someones Mum. I'm due on the 15th April and if he's like his Dad and he comes on his due date that's only 13 more days to go! If however he is like his Mum, he'll be very late and could come in May! {I really hope not}. I'm so ready for him now to be honest but I'm trying very hard to just be patient and wait. 

I'll just cuddle Charlie instead: 

Adam and I went out for a little walk yesterday to the feed the ducks, it didn't last very long as I constantly needed to go to the toilet and it was oh so very cold but it was really nice anyway. 

We're off to the hospital very shortly for our 38 week obstetrics appointment, so I'll blog about how that goes in my next weekly bump post, but for now I have a little bit of housework to catch up on {groan - does it ever end?!} so I'm off to get that done!

What are you looking forward to in April?

xo
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