There are only a handful of life experiences that really stand out, that you know are life-changing. Most of what passes in life is just a stepping stone — it’s one small step. Being pregnant is not one of these things. This is a giant leap, an all-encompassing, transformative experience that is without comparison. Of course, it’s not easy — oh no, it is not easy. But despite the discomfort, the worries, the everything, there is space to enjoy the experience. This is a moment that’ll be over before you know it — make the most of it! Below, we take a look at some tried and tested ways to make being pregnant even more magical and fun.

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Accept the Attention

You’re going to receive plenty of attention when you’ve got a bun in the oven! If you’re one of those people who typically shy away from the attention of others, then this might be a little comfortable — but there’s something to be said for learning how to enjoy the well-wishes and interest of others. Of course, we’re not talking about the attention and compliments of strangers. If you don’t feel not comfortable with that, then don’t entertain it. But your friends and family? Let them make a fuss. It’s going to happen anyway, and you’ll be able to relax if you accept that fact! Plus, it’ll ease you into letting other people help you. You don’t need to feel guilty for accepting a cup of tea made by a family member.

You are being lavished with attention because you most likely require it. Moreover, while pregnant, everything may appear complicated, but your family and friends may be able to support you much better. A loved one is likely to do anything for you, whether that means taking you for regular check-ups, getting a high quality ultrasound appointment, taking you out for a ride, talking to you when you’re feeling down, or whatever it is that you require at that moment. That kind of attention and care can help you overcome the negative thoughts and anxiety that are common during pregnancy.

Talk It Through

This is a special period in not just your life, but also the life of other people around you. Especially your parents. They’ll be thrilled that they’re to have a grandchild, even more so because they’re not the ones with all the responsibility for making sure the child is well-fed, educated, and all-around a decent human being. Why not use your experience to connect with your parents on a level that you probably haven’t connected with them before? Take a stroll down memory lane with them, and talk about their pregnancy experiences. Were they scared? What were they in their lives? What do they wish they’d done differently? These types of conversations have multiple purposes. For starters, it’s always fun to get a glimpse into another side of your parents. Second, you’ll come to understand that they were just as clueless about becoming parents as you are, and they turned out OK!

Meet New Friends

You’re not the first person to have a child, and you won’t be the last. You’re not the only person who’s currently pregnant, either. There’s a whole world of other expectant mothers out there! Why not look into getting together with them, and enjoying the ride together? By being around, talking, and simply observing other mothers, you’ll be able to learn something about yourself. You’ll be able to do something that you otherwise couldn’t — you can see what you must look like from the outside. A pregnant woman is a sight to behold — seeing the joy, concern, and glow of others will be a small window into how others see you.

Throw a Party

Now, you don’t need an excuse to throw a party at any period. But when you do have an opportunity, make sure you’re making the most of it! A baby shower is a great way to celebrate your pregnancy, and also receive some much-needed baby related gifts from your friends and family. But of course, it’s not enough just to gather your loved ones, and hope the magic happens. It needs a little bit of planning! Make the space look the part — if you’re holding it in your house, make sure you’re decorating the room, for instance. You’ll also want to make it fun; take a read of 30 fun baby shower games so that everyone loosens up and has an enjoyable day. Since it’ll be an alcohol-free affair, you’ll want to put the emphasis on the food. Make sure you’re serving some delicious appetizers!

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Partner Connections

You have to focus most of your energy on yourself, but it’s important to remember that there is another player involved in this process too — your partner. They’ve got just as much invested in this as you have! And throughout all your time together, it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to go through anything quite as intense as having a child together. Make sure you’re setting some time aside to enjoy other’s company, and to appreciate the moment that you’re living in. Life’s going to be pretty busy after it’s all over. Spend some time as a couple talking about where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going.

Get Dressed Up

Everyone talks about the glow of a pregnant woman. It’s pretty darn radiant! So don’t just keep that energy all to yourself. Get yourself dressed up, and head out. No-one says a pregnant person has to stay curled up on the couch for nine months. Put on your best dress, and head out a restaurant. You’ll never feel so empowered.

And Get Dressed Down!

But of course, you’ll want to spend as much time as possible unwinding and relaxing. Enjoy the freedom you have to do nothing but eat what you please and binge watch television shows. Comfortable clothing, a couch, living the good life. You don’t get too many opportunities to live this way — enjoy it.

Know That It’s Temporary

Ultimately, you’ll want to keep in mind one important fact: that this is temporary. It’s not going to last forever. There’ll be a point, many years down the line, when you’re telling your son or daughter the story of their birth. By that time, all the worries and small problems you navigated along the way will have faded into the background. You’ll remember the good parts. So make sure you’re enjoying them not only when you’re looking back in the future, but when you’re actively living it. It’s intense, sure, but there’s a lot of magic in there!

If you started a blog hoping that you can turn it into a full time income, and it has finally taken off, it might be time to scale up your operations and take a step back, so you can start enjoying your life and the money you have earned, or take time focusing on your pregnancy. If you are still spending hours blogging and writing and cannot get away from the computer, there might be a better solution. You will be able to grow your business and let it run without you most of the time. Find out how below.

Make the Most Out of Your Time

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It is crucial that you manage your time efficiently, and know exactly how long it takes you to research a topic or write a post. There are plenty of great productivity tools you can utilize, such as the Pomodoro widget that will improve your focus and reward you with short or long breaks after completing a task or two. You don’t want to get distracted, as your productivity will suffer, and you will end up staying up late to finish your daily tasks.

Schedule Your Posts Ahead

In case you are not making the most out of the latest technology, you might be wasting your time and resources. Your brain takes around half an hour to switch from one task to another, so it might be a good idea to block schedule your time. Instead of writing a post at a time, you can do your entire week’s blogging and social media in just a few hours, so you can focus on other tasks for the rest of the week.

Market Research

You must keep an eye on the feedback and engagement on your blog. Creating a free survey will only take you a couple of minutes, and help you understand your readers better. Encourage them to comment and give you constructive criticism on your posts. That can help you learn about their preferences, values, and the problems they are facing, so you can address them in the future. It can work well with your SEO as well. If you are not well versed with content optimization and related strategies, you should consider getting help from a SEO Company. Optimizing a blog’s content and architecture is important for search engine visibility.

Add Affiliate Marketing

To increase your blogging income, you might also want to add affiliate marketing like jvzoo to your revenue stream. No matter if you sign up for a CPA network and pick and choose your own offers, or opt for automatic placements, maybe represent one company and create reviews, you can increase your income and work smarter instead of harder. Of course, the greater your audience is, the more chances you will have to make a sale.

Automate Your Social Media

Most bloggers are guilty of spending too much time on social media. If you are the person who gets easily distracted, you might want to limit your screen time and schedule your posts ahead. There are plenty of great tools out there that allow you to create posts and set up your own schedule, based on when your audience is online. After all, you don’t want to spend hours with boring admin tasks.

Outsource

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Once you are planning a family, it might be time to focus on the big picture and take a step back. Similar to how small business owners hire a hubspot agency to automate basic tasks and also attract potential customers to their business, you can outsource design, writing, and other tasks in your business, and enjoy the fruit of your hard work. You will, however, need to find a way to manage your freelancers’ productivity. You will be too busy reading up on parenting or learning how to time contractions, and find it hard to focus on your work at these exciting times.

Measure Engagement

To have more time to spend with your baby and family, you might want to automate some of the processes in your blogging business, such as creating and analyzing statistics. You can measure the engagement rate for each of your blog posts and social media content, so you can make adjustments and stop shooting in the dark. It is important to monitor your performance, track touch-points, and evaluate your metrics, rather than just focusing on the fan and follower acquisition, engagement, or pure sales metrics. If you lack time for all these, you could then outsource these tasks to a iTonic paid social media advertising type of digital firm, and they could do the job better for you. After all, you will have more important things to do and enjoyable tasks than crunching numbers and keeping your website going while you are preparing for the arrival of the new family member.

Expecting a baby is one of the most exciting times in your life. You should not get stressed over keeping your blog going, instead focus on simplifying your processes and making sure that you are working smarter and not harder. Make use of help from freelancers and the latest technology so you can take a step back and plan your family life instead of sitting in front of the computer all day.

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The relationship you have with your kids has the potential to be like no other. Spending a huge portion of your time with them, from the day they are born to being ready to leave home, and this builds a powerful bond. Of course, though, as they get older, the way that your relationship works will have to change. Expanding their knowledge, becoming more mature, and building their own lives won’t work so well if you continue to treat them as if they are small. So, to help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of the key considerations to make when you’re trying to figure out how you want to develop the right relationship with your adult children.

Over-Dependence

Throughout a child’s development, they will heavily rely on their parent’s to provide for many aspects of their life. Food, shelter, and safety are some of the most important parts of this, but the umbrella is very far-reaching, covering loads of different jobs. As they enter their teen years, the amount of work a parent does for their child should start to decline. If a person is unable to experience independence during the early stages of their life, it will be extremely difficult for them to adapt in the future, leaving them unable to look after themselves as they get older. Not only does this make their life difficult, but it could mean that you never get the chance to stop being a full-time parent.

It’s easy to see why so many people fall into this trap. Even when their kids are very young, a lot of parents will be too generous with their time and money. Of course, though, while they are your child and you want to give them a good life, spoiling them will only build a sense of entitlement, making it a challenge for them to function properly around others. It can often be hard to see when people are relying on one another too much, making this something which you have to watch out for. It can be hard for someone to hold down a normal job or relationship when they are dependent on their parents.

Weight Of Responsibility

Throughout history, most cultures have built traditions around looking after the elderly members of their communities. This job will usually fall to the children to handle, with jobs like shopping, banking, and general life-administration being far easier for a younger person to get to grips with. Along with this, though, a lot of families end up caring for each other’s personal medical needs. Even when someone is very sick, it is usually a bad idea to have their kids look after them, and this only becomes more important as you get older.

Most kids will be more than happy to provide care to their loved ones, but this doesn’t mean that they should be helping you like this. Personal care will often involve very intimate and embrassassing procedures. This means that providing care to parents is not only a learning challenge, but it can also be a very emotional one, often changing the way that the whole family looks at each other. It’s not worth going down this route to save a little bit of money, with care at assisted living facilities being a far better alternative. Saving yourself the stress of looking after someone like this is a always a good idea.

Of course, though, there is another side to this area, and it’s an issue which most people will want to avoid. People often pass away when they are receiving care. This doesn’t mean that the caregiver is doing something wrong, instead being a natural process which can often be unavoidable. If a child supports their parent in this way, only to have them die, it can easily make the kid feel as though they didn’t do enough. This is tragic and well worth avoiding, especially if your kids are still quite young.

Managing Money

There are a lot of things about adult life which schools simply don’t teach. Managing money is a big part of this, and loads of kids leave school without the knowledge they need to be successful in this area. The essential financial skills which every adult should have are surprisingly easy to learn. As long as your child is started off nice and early, they should find it easy to give themselves a head start in this field. A lot of parents make the mistake of giving their children too much money as they grow up. While it might be nice to give them a treat, it will harm their chances in the future if you don’t teach them early.

Being Friends

When a person is young, it will be very hard for them to relate to adults. Not only will they have limited knowledge of the world, but they will also be interested in very different things, with a lot of the elements of adult life appearing to be extremely dull. As time goes on, though, you will have the chance to change the way that this part of your relationship works, as the children start to develop their adult minds. At this stage, it will feel natural to have deep conversations with your kids, with the interests of both parties fall much more in-line with each other.

Ensuring that you’re able to build something like this will always take some time and effort. During their teenage years, it’s likely that your kids will work as hard as possible to be different to mum and dad, though this will start to change as they get a little bit older. Respect is a very important part of all this. No one likes to be treated like a baby, even by their parents, making it essential that you respect their opinions, views, and knowledge, despite the challenges which can come with this. When you show someone that you respect them, they will almost always return the favor.

Keeping In Touch

With a busy life underway, it will often be a challenge for a young person to keep on top of their family relationships. Thoughts of catching up and spending time together won’t often hit their mind, and this makes it hard for a lot of parents to keep up with their kids. To help out with this, it’s worth setting up some habits before they leave home. Going out for a meal every weekend is a great example of this approach, as this will make it hard for your children to forget or let too much time pass before showing their face.

Modern technology has improved the way that families can communicate with each other to a huge degree, with loads of people enjoying the benefits of email and instant messenger. As your children are still fairly young, these tools will be very normal for them, and they will probably be using them all the time. You may have to put some time into learning them, though. Thankfully, this shouldn’t be too tricky, as long as you’re happy to make a couple of mistakes before you get it right. Most young people won’t want to talk over the phone each day.

Keeping Them Afloat

While it is important to be careful with the support you give a young adult, it doesn’t make much sense to watch them sail towards oblivion without offering to help them out. The process of building a career is never an easy one. There will be times when they have nearly no money available, making it hard to cover things like rent and bills. It doesn’t take much to lend them  a little bit of cash until they are on their feet again. Of course, though, this should always be a loan, or you will lose out.

Along with helping them with money, you also have a big resource which they simply can’t access; experience. When they are making a bad decision, you should always be there to offer alternatives and explain why you think they should look elsewhere. There is a delicate balance here, though, and it’s crucial that you hit it correctly. If you are too authoritative, your kids will find it hard to take on board your suggestions, and may act against them. Along with this, though, not offering enough could see them going down the wrong path. It can be hard to know how hard you should be on them, especially when they are getting older.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to get started on the healthy relationship you will have with your kids once they have reached adulthood. A lot of parents struggle with this, often failing to see the distinction between adults and children, despite having gone through the process of growing up themselves. Of course, though, this doesn’t mean that you have to make the same mistakes. Instead, as long as you’re willing to put the time and effort into it, solving this should be a simple matter of taking the right steps.

Busy mammas have a lot to deal with, and sadly some things such as ear health can end up being shunted down the list in favor of more obvious issues and concerns. However, our families ears and hearing are a vital part of their overall health and well-being and should be cared for as such. A topic you can read more about in the post below.

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Do treat ear health as seriously as any other issue.

If your child fell down and broke their arm, you wouldn’t tell them to get up and stop moaning, would you? Of course not you would be straight to the energy room to get them assessed and treated so they can heal as quickly as possible.

Of course, this is precisely the same process that you need to adhere to when it comes to hearing and ear health. After all, loss of hearing is no joke, and as that is what some ear conditions can lead to it really pays to get any issue, however small it seems, to be checked out.

Luckily, there are ear health specialists know as audiologists that are experts in this field. To access one, you may wish first to attend your GP’s office, although it is also often possible to book an appointment directly with them. This being something that will allow you to get your ear health issue resolved as quickly as possible.  

Don’t use cue tips.

One of the biggest mistake that many people in the US make is that they clean their own and their family’s ears with cue tips! The problem with this being that sticking such a device in the ear can be incredibly dangerous. The reason being that it can easily travel too far down the ear canal impacting wax, and even in the worst-case scenario, bursting the eardrum.

Happily, there are now other ear cleaning options including alternative therapies such us Hopi candles, and even modern devices that prevent anything from penetrating too far and causing damage.

Do get educated about ear problems.

Next, if you want to take your family’s ear health seriously, then it’s crucial that you learn to look for possible issues and problems. In particular, older relatives with hearing loss may not realize that they are listening to the TV at a very high volume. While younger, pre-verbal children won’t turn around when you call them or make a loud noise.

It can even be useful to learn about things like tinnitus symptoms, which includes ringing in the ears, and then educate your family on this, so they know what to look out for. Then, if they do start to experience any problem with their hearing or ear health, it won’t go unnoticed, and you can be sure to deal with it as quickly as possible.

Don’t forget that tech is changing all the time.

Lastly, when it comes to ear health don’t forget that the technology, both in diagnosis and treatment is moving at an increasingly fast rate. What this means is that issues you may have thought undetectable, or incurable may no longer be so.

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Hearing aids are becoming increasingly small.

In fact, tech such as hearing aids are becoming increasingly sophisticated while shrinking in size, meaning that there really is no reason to suffer in silence when it comes to ear health.

When the word “attic” comes to mind, we normally associate the word with this large dark, dusty space filled with things that are old or broken. The place usually smells musty and old and sometimes, you can see spiders and rats crawling among the dusty boxes and tarpaulin covering certain items. It’s a place that you would normally explore during the day but would stay away from at night because it was too dark and scary to be in there when you were a kid. For many, those are the images that the word “attic” conjured up. However, that’s not the case today.

Today, many people across the globe are finding new and innovative ways to upgrade their attics. 90% of the time, you no longer come across these spaces that are dark, dusty and musty. Instead, you find yourself in a beautiful space that is being used in a plethora of ways to make it more beautiful and useful to homeowners. Can you upgrade your attic? Of course you can! As for where to start, here are 8 ways to upgrade your run-down attic.

A Nursery For the Baby

For those of you who have children or who are planning on having children, this would be a really good option for you. Babies need a big, clean space to play in and an attic is a right fit for the job. All you have to do is clean up the attic, check for any problems such as termites or seepage, paint it up and do the floors, move your baby’s stuff in and you’re done. When doing it up, make sure to make the nursery nice and bright with lots of natural light. This can help contribute to the wellbeing of the baby.

Guest Bedroom

You can never go wrong with a guest bedroom. Especially when someone decides to pay you an unexpected visit of sorts. The space of the attic can be used to fit a bed with a desk and chair to be used by your guests. A skylight will also ensure that the room receives natural light and adds to the ambiance of the room. Some fake plants and topiary trees will also brighten up the ambiance of the room and will make your guests feel right at home. They won’t even be able to tell if the place is an attic or not!

Hideout Room

Every kid needs a place to hide out and play. Though outdoor games are fun, it’s always good to play inside every once in a while. Turning the attic into a hideout room for your child would be extremely beneficial in this case. You can add some shelves and cupboards to store board games and video games and set up a video game console in the room. You can also consider getting an attic fan cover, in case yours don’t have any already. Because during winters, it’s going to be a blessing to keep the cold drafts at bay. Throw in a bed/couch and a couple of bean bags and the hideout room is open for use!

Your Own Office

If you work at home or are planning on working from home, don’t stress about using any other rooms in your house. With your attic, you have more than enough space for your desk (or why not treat yourself to one of the stunning antique desks available online?), chairs and other office materials. If you want to liven up the office space a little bit, you can throw in a few artificial trees and artificial floral arrangements to give your office space a beautiful aesthetic. Beats a cramped up cubicle any day!

Library

If you are an avid reader who lives their life through the pages of a book, this would sound like heaven on earth to you. Add lots of shelves with your favorite books and relax on your couch in the comfort of your attic-turned-library. Be sure to keep a skylight for ample reading light and add some artificial plants and trees to make the space more comfortable for you.

Greenhouse/Garden

If you are a fan of gardening, you can convert your attic into a little greenhouse or garden. By adding some skylights on the top of the roof, your plants will get enough sunlight to thrive and grow. Be sure to keep some windows for fresh air for the plants as well. To make your greenhouse a literal greenhouse, you could install some boxwood mats on the floor and a boxwood topiary on the walls for a beautiful forest effect. Not only will it add aesthetic appeal, but it will also cool down the room for the plants.

Study

Whether you’re a student or a working professional, a study room is a must for when you need your private time to work. The attic can provide ample space for all your materials and is cozy and quiet enough for you to work in. By adding some fake hydrangeas or an artificial bonsai tree or two, you can enjoy a peaceful and serene ambiance along with some beautiful looking plants for your work. Or even if you want to bring in an energetic atmosphere that motivates you to get the work done, brighter colors and wall posters with some never give up quotes or your favorite motivational quotes could be a great addition too!

Your Own Bedroom

Considering that good space for a bedroom is hard to find these days, it’s not a bad idea to use the attic as your bedroom. You would have ample space for your bed and wardrobe and it would be peaceful and perfect for you to use. If you want to make your bedroom look a little cool, you can install a boxwood topiary on the walls or put some boxwood mats on the floor to make the room look visually appealing. If you prefer minimalism, you can go for high-end artificial plants or faux trees to add some green to your attic.

These are just some of the ways in which you can upgrade your run-down attic into a beautiful space. The list does not end here though. There are many creative and useful ways to turn your dusty attic into a livable or workable area. As you do more research on some of the things you would like to do with your attic, you will slowly find what suits your interests and carry out those ideas.

Consider using some faux plants to add to the appeal of the decor. It is not necessary to use a lot of foliage but use just the right amount to showcase your style and uniqueness. Unlike real plants, these are easy to maintain and their resemblance to their real-life counterparts is uncanny. Continue to research and find out about what decor will suit your needs and taste and surely enough, you will end up with a beautiful space that can be likened to a piece of art.