Hello lovelies, as some of you already know I’ve been blogging for over a year. All my hard worked paid of and I started working with brands and get featured on other blogs, my DA also finally started growing.

When I first started my blog there weren’t many Somali Mummy Bloggers, which is what motivated me to start my blog back when it was called Simply a Mama ( I rebranded a few months ago to Mrs Jibril)

Growing up I was a shy kid and sometimes I even lacked self confidence so if you told me that I will be writing content on the internet for the whole world to read I wouldn’t have believed it.

Today I gathered all my courage and uploaded my YouTube first video and I intend to upload weekly videos on my channel because if I could share my experience with one mum then that is enough. I will try my best not to let numbers discourage me because I know not everyone is a YouTube sensation or have viral videos.

Why Youtube?

I noticed a huge gap in YouTube, there wasn’t many mummy YouTubers like me (African, Muslim, Hijabi, living in Australia, etc) I couldn’t find someone who resembles me which made me think?! Why don’t I start instead of waiting for someone else. It has been on my mind for months I even had starting a YouTube channel as one of my blogging goals back in January.

How you can help me?

Head over to my channel and watch my first YouTube video, which is tips for new mothers. It would mean the world to me if you could subscribe as well and like my video if you enjoyed watching it.

Feel free to share my video on different social media platforms

Who’s your favourite Mummy Youtuber?

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Hi Lovelies,

Moving can be hard especially with a baby, one thing that no one mentions when they talk about settling in a new country is immunisation.

*Personally, I’m pro-vaccine. I was vaccinated as a child and I intend to fully vaccinate all my children regardless where we live. If you choose not to vaccinate your little one then this post might not be for you.

My son (Baby E as most of you know him) was born in Melbourne back in 2015; he received his 2 months and 4 months vaccines in Melbourne at our local clinic. In Australia we have a book to keep all the baby’s developmental records including immunisation. I know every country is different and in Kenya it’s a card instead a book to keep track of the baby’s immunisation.

At 5 months I travelled with Baby E to Kenya and we spent a year there, a few weeks after settling in Kenya his 6 months vaccinations were due. We weren’t fully prepared what we had to do to get them done. First we visited his pediatrician who recommended Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital in Lavington, which was the closest children’s hospital to our house.

We booked an appointment. I wanted to follow the schedule on his Baby book. In Kenya there is a completely different immunisation schedule because of course it is designed to best protect the babies living Kenya.

At the Children’s Hospital we were told that they have the two shots but not the drop! This was the 3rd dose and there was no way he wasn’t going to get it. So Hubby and I went on a mission to physically go and look for the drop. We went to Dr. Chunge, Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi Women’s hospital with no luck then * Drum roll please * we finally found the drop at Nairobi Hospital. We purchased it and then we were told that no one is available to administer it.

The problem here is I needed a professional to administer it because there are very specific details that need to be filled in the book like the batch number and it needs to be signed/ stamped and dated. We had to go to Dr Claire Majisu Baby E’s pediatrician to administer it and she happily did so.

His 12 months vaccine were way smoother than these, his doctor had all of the shots available at her clinic. It’s important to note that these vaccines will cost you around $100 so don’t assume it will be free as it is in most countries.

When we moved back to Melbourne I took my baby’s book into our local city council and had his records updated on the system that his immunisation is up to date. A few weeks after our arrival it was time for his 18 months shots and he was a complete champ, he even earned a sticker. Now we have 2 years until the next run of vaccinations.

If you don’t document you child’s immunisation while traveling, you baby might end up getting a lot of vaccines at once when you return to your country.

If you’re traveling with you baby don’t forget the travel vaccinations for the baby and you will receive a yellow book to take with you. If your traveling to Kenya because you will be asked about those vaccinations at the airport.

 Have you traveled with a small baby before?

Was your baby ever vaccinated in another country?

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I was one of those mums who didn’t pack a dummy in my hospital bag as I went to have my baby because I thought I wouldn’t need it. As most first time mums I was wrong. Fast-forward 22 months later and my baby is a total sucker for his dummy and we haven’t weaned him off completely yet. I’m such a dummy for the dummy… Pun intended!

Some of you may remember that we lived in Kenya and I received criticism from many people because using a pacifier isn’t very common there.

Here are some of the questions and statements I heard while I was there and some I still get today even though we’re in Australia.

Does it really sooth him? Does it work? How does it work?

The main reason any mum would use a pacifier is to sooth their baby when he’s a little cranky or unsettled. Baby E isn’t an exception, I gave him his first dummy to sooth him.

 Doesn’t dummies disturb his sleep?

Small babies go through so many things, witching hours to sleep regression to teething which all interfere with the baby’s sleep. When the baby falls a sleep eventually the dummy falls out and he can’t even sense it if he is in deep sleep.

 Does it make him sleep?

Surprisingly when we give our baby his dummy if he’s tired he would sleep. Trust me if he’s not sleepy no dummy or any trick can make him fall asleep.

 He will never speak! He will end up with speech delay because of the dummy!

This is a very silly assumption and extremely inappropriate, there is no mother that tries to hinder her child’s development deliberately. Some children who never used a pacifier end up with speech delay.

Doesn’t the dummy mess up his teeth? He’ll have crooked teeth

I researched about it and asked various medical professionals; I was assured that dummies don’t ruin the baby’s teeth. This is my first child so I wouldn’t know until he grows up if he will get buck and crooked teeth or not after he looses his cute pearly milky teeth. I have one solution for this problem if it ever happens “braces”.

Whether your child sucks a dummy or their thumb, it eventually doesn’t matter as long as your baby happy and healthy.

We had a goal to ditch the pacifier by baby E’s 1^st birthday and we failed miserably. Are we ready to ditch it soon? Maybe..

Our goal is now to get wean him off by his 2^nd birthday in 2 months. Wish us luck.

Did you use a pacifier with your little ones?

How did you manage to wean them off?

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Hello Lovelies,

January this year I posted my 2017 Blogging Goals  and given that we’re in August I wanted to do a little update and see how blogging is going so far.

My achievement and accomplishment so far:

• Rebranding: I’m no longer “Simply a Mama” as of July 2017 I rebranded to “Mrs Jibril” this wasn’t on my goals list and so far I like the new name.
• Working with brands: I didn’t think I was recognised in the blogosphere to have the opportunity to work with brands; especially after my move from Kenya to Australia. I was lucky to have been approached by brands for collaborations. If you are a brand interested in collaborations you can reach me here.
• Consistency: I always post once a week and if I’m motivate you will be surprised with an extra post. I post every Saturday.
• Self-Hosting: I’m not tech savvy but I managed to successfully not only rebrand but also change and upgrade my wordpress.
• Collaborations and Guest Posts: Now I have a tab to show all the posts I featured in.
• Blog Readers and Followers: This has hugely increased and I definitely feel the love and support in the blogging community. I wish I had the exact figure of my blog followers back in January so I can compare.

The goals I still need to work on and I haven’t achieved yet:

• Social Media Followers: I wanted to increase my followers in my main social media platforms Instagram, Facebook Page and Twitter. I wanted around 1000-2000. I’m still far from my target but I’m not discouraged because I want genuine followers who enjoy my content.
• YouTube: I still haven’t started my channel even though I have video ideas. I need to stop procrastinating.
• Blog Series: I still haven’t figured a unique series idea.

I hope you enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them. If it’s your first time visiting my blog please make sure to follow me for weekly posts on all things Motherhood and Family related.

What do you think of my new blog name?

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Long distance is one of the hardest things a relationship/ marriage can go through, as some of you may know that I’m now in Melbourne, Australia while my husband is still in Nairobi, Kenya. It’s been close to 5 months, which I know, might not seem like such a long time but it feels like 50 years if you ask me.
But our relationship is still strong and it’s surviving the test of distance. I know a lot go through something similar so I wanted to share how we are making long distance work in our relationship.

Trust
This is a no brainer you must trust each other, I personally never doubted my husband’s faithfulness call me old fashioned. Even when people point out that “all men cheat” I honestly don’t believe it. We have a lot together that we won’t risk our relationship by being unfaithful. If you don’t trust him then marriage might not be the right step for you just yet and long distance is not going to work.

Communication
We talk/ video chat daily if we don’t I feel like my day isn’t complete. Baby E also chats with his dad daily because the last thing I want is to mess their strong bond by our move. Now that I’m working full time my husband will call my mom while I’m at work and he would talk to Baby E. it helps that my mum is also on Facebook.

Social Media
We’re so lucky to have all these little apps in our fingertips to communicate and chat without a large bill. could you imagine long distance relationship back in the 80’s?
Our favourite apps are Skype, Facebook messenger, we also use Whatsapp occasionally all these are free apps. I also tag him in posts and share funny videos he does the same as well.
Even though we live miles apart all our social media accounts make it very clear that we are in a committed relationship from posting photos of each other to our relationship status.
Some people might not feel comfortable posting photos of their partner or family on social media which is understandable but I honestly don’t have a problem with it.

Time difference
Time difference can be such a huge barrier in a long distance relationship because we’re not only living on different sides of the world but you’re also living in different time zones. My advice is adding your partner’s city on the world clock in your phone so you know the time instead of having to always calculate it in your head. Then be mindful of your other half’s schedule so that you don’t call in inappropriate times or in the middle of the night.
Sometimes it’s not about talking for hours on end but rather having a quick catch up daily when the time is suitable for both of you.

Talk about the future
Having a clear vision about your future together is important, it makes it a bit easier because you make plans about life together once long distance is no longer an issue.
we sometime talk about future holidays we would like to take and how our future will look like 5 or 10 years from now.

Remember it is worth waiting to be reunited with someone you love. Long distance is not a permanent situation.

Have you ever been in a long distance relationship?

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If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook this wouldn’t be a new announcement to you but I know some of my reader might not be up to date with the recent change.

Simplyamama.wordpress.com is now mrsjibril.com

Some of you may remember from My 2017 blogging goals That I wanted to have a domain name/self-host for a while now. I’m currently using a paid plan in WordPress. I’m not tech savvy and I didn’t want to risk loosing my old content.

Rebranding can be tricky and sometimes confusing but I want to assure everyone that the content of my blog will remain the same and Motherhood would be at the centre of it all. You should expect weekly posts as usual and I have a lot in store in these coming months so keep your eyes peeled.

Thank you to every single person who reads, likes and shares my posts. I really appreciate it.

I hope you like the new name? Let me know how you feel about this announcement and the change

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When I was pregnant one thing that I continuously thought about was my snapback body, it is no secret that I gained 25kilos during my pregnancy. I sometimes felt that I need to get back to my pre-baby weight fast seeing all the celebrities and public figures loose their baby weight in a blink of an eye. Almost 2 years later I still haven’t lost all the weight. I started going to the gym last year when I was at my heaviest but I haven’t joined another gym since our big move and now that I started working full time I feel like I don’t have that luxury of spending an hour or two at the gym. I was so excited when I came across a fitness app called Aaptiv.

The main focus of the app is that workouts should be fun and time efficient. What attracted me about this app that they don’t only offer the traditional workouts but it also has special workouts for mummies and mummies to be.

There are a variety of exercises for mummies-to-be through out their pregnancy right from the first trimester. If you are anything like me when I was pregnant with baby E I was worried about working out while pregnant. Aaptiv’s maternity workouts is by Kira Kohrherr who is a pre/postnatal certified personal trainer with over 15 years experience and if this doesn’t put your heart at ease she is also a first time mummy.If you’re a mummy already and your little one still uses a pram there are stroller workout that will help you tone your body.Aaptiv is user friendly and you have a number of personal trainers to choose from. you can simply click on each trainer to see a little intro about them.You can have the guidance of a personal trainer during your workout in the comfort of your own home. Next time you have a minute to spare download Aaptiv which is available for both iphone and Android.

What’s your best tips and tricks to staying fit as a mum?

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* Disclosure: This is a collaborative post with Aaptiv. I only share and review products I genuinely feel you will love.

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Hello lovelies and welcome back,

As a mother and a wife I often find myself looking for unique gift ideas all of the time for my loved ones because who doesn’t like to stand out by having the most thoughtful gift. I came across a little website called Uncommongoods that ticks all the boxes for me

• Great range of gifts
• Affordable – There is literally something to fit everyone’s budget
• Hand made
• Environmentally friendly and socially responsible company –None of their products contain leather, feather or fur.
• Giving back- you’re not only buying a unique gift but also $1 donation is given to a non for profit organisation of your choice.

Even Huffington Post thinks Uncommongoods are amazing. I picked a few of my favourite gifts from their website to share with you.

For Hubby

I know it is always a struggle finding a great gift for your better half; I usually plan a month in advance. I wish I came across this website last December (both hubby’s birthday and our wedding anniversary are in December). I found the perfect gift idea in less than 10minutes and it is extremely affordable.

Some of you may already know my husband wears glasses. The Eye Glasses Holder is such unique gift; I never came across something similar before.

There are so many gifts to choose from for your partner, dad or even brother. Head over to uncommongoods to see all the different and original gifts for men here

For Baby E

This is by far my favourite section because it has so many little gifts for newborns and babies, makes me almost want to have baby number 2 lol.

I picked out two things because who can decide on only one thing for their baby. My first pick for Baby E is the Mustachifier because I haven’t weaned him off the pacifier yet. I’ve seen photos of babies with it online and they look adorable.

My second pick is Milton the Mealtime Companion, if you are a mother of a fussy eater you will understand how picky little ones get when trying new foods. I love that this little toy helps babies during meal time but you can even use Milton to teach your babies about brushing their teeth.

There is a large selection of gifts for babies and newborns that are perfect to give a mummy to be  here

For Us

As new parents you know it is always hard to think of date night ideas, incase you missed it I have a post about  inexpensive date night ideas. The Date Night Bucket List takes away the thinking part of a date night. It is a bucket list with a variety of date night ideas. It’s also extremely affordable. You can check out other great gifts for couples here

What do you think of my picks? Share with me a recent gift you got your better half or child 

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*Disclaimer: this post is sponsored by UncommonGoods; all opinions are my own. I only share products that I think you will love.

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As you can tell by my pervious post I had a major change in my life recently, moving back to Australia with my son. This is the reason I wasn’t posting on my blog and barely posted on my other social media platforms. Moving can be very overwhelming! Moving houses can be stressful enough let alone moving to a different continent.

I wish I could share the reasons behind our decision to move but I want to keep my blog positive and move forward from whatever led to this. It wasn’t an easy decision because my husband isn’t able to join us straight away.

Luckily it wasn’t a huge change for me moving back, I have my family already here. They are a great support system for me, which I’m forever thankful for.

If you are moving abroad with a baby here are some things I did. You can have in mind to make settling easier for you and bub.

• Find the right nappy brand: if your toddler isn’t potty trained like baby E this is so important. Who thought it would be this hard finding the perfect nappy especially to wear overnight. I heard great reviews about Coles Comfy bots but they made changes to it and I was completely disappointed. Now we use Baby Love, which seems to be working for us so far.
• Buy lots of weather appropriate clothes for baby E because the weather is constantly changing in Melbourne. I need to make sure he’s always nice and warm in the cold and not too hot during the heat. There are plenty of affordable places to buy baby clothes you will be spoilt with options.
• Medicare: Unfortunately I misplaced our Medicare card (we share the same card) so I needed to get a replacement card; the process was quick and easy. All I had to do is call them and I had a new card within a few weeks.
• Update Baby E’s immunisation records: my son received both his 6 months and 12 months vaccinations in Kenya. I had it all recorded correctly in his green book*.On his records in Australia it only showed the vaccinations he received when he was here as a newborn. I went to our local city council with his baby book and got his vaccination records updated.* The Green Book (My Health and Development Record) is given to all parents in Victoria after the birth of their baby; it has all the important information and records. This includes MCH nurse visits and vaccinations records.
• Book an appointment with our local maternal and child health nurse (MCH) and take him for his 18 months check. Our GP doesn’t measure height or weight of the babies so I like taking him to these appointments to see where baby E is on the growth chart.
• Take Baby E to activities in our local library: this is something I wasn’t able to do in Kenya and it is a great opportunity for him to socialise with kids around his age group. You can find play groups and kids activities near you on your local council’s website.
• Adulting: I have been job hunting and trying to transition from a stay at home mum to working mum.

Everything seems to be falling into place and we settled well, the only thing missing is my husband who we terribly miss daily.

Have you moved with a baby before? What is your tip to mothers planning to make a big move soon?

You can read about our journey from Kenya to Australia and How I survived travelling with a toddler HERE

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Hey lovelies, look who’s back! As most of you already know by now baby E and I moved back to Australia. I traveled solo with him and the trip was over 20 hours long. I was terrified; we traveled the same distance before but when he was a baby (he wasn’t even crawling back then). This time around he is a toddler running around and wants to be independent, so all you mums understand why I was so terrified about the long journey.

As we settle in our new home I wanted to share my top tips and advice about traveling with a toddler to make it as easy and smooth as possible.

Don’t over pack: I know this is the hardest, I over packed and I wish I didn’t because we didn’t end up using most of the things I carried for him. I packed 3 outfits and we used all 3 by the end of the trip.

 What I packed

• The essentials- passports, tickets, money, my son’s birth certificate (we don’t share the same family name and I heard that for some reason that can create an issue at airports so I carried it just incase but I wasn’t even questioned about our different surnames once) and all-important documents that I didn’t want to risk putting in the luggage.
• Yellow fever cards- you will be asked upon arrival at the airport if you are arriving from Africa, my son got his yellow fever shot a month before we travelled if not more and I had mine from a few years back.
• Nappies
• Wipes
• 3 different outfits – onesies and a sweater worked best for us
• Dummies- we still use pacifiers so I carried more than enough incase he drops them I didn’t want to risk washing them so we ended up using all and losing a few.
• Warm socks
• Bibs
• Empty baby bottles
• Warm water
• Toddler formula – Baby E has been drinking fresh milk since he turned one however, a few weeks before our big trip I transitioned him to toddler formula because fresh milk will spoil during the trip if left not refrigerated and we were at the airports for hours. Once we arrived and settled he went back to fresh milk.
• Snacks – I packed a lot of snacks and he didn’t even eat it.
• Laptop
• Camera
• Moisturizer for both of us
• Lip balm
• Toys
• Phone
• ipad with lots of cartoons to keep bub entertained.
• Baby carrier – don’t take your buggy as a carry on luggage because it is usually heavy and being all alone it will be hectic trying to carry the buggy, baby and bag out of the plane because sometimes you will have to use stairs. There are strollers available at Dubai International airport that I used while in transit for a few hours.

Ask for extra blankets for your baby, I used two blankets for Baby E because it gets a little cold on the plane.

If your travelling alone with your baby best of luck, it looks scarier than it really is. Trust me I’m a living proof that a mummy can travel across the world with a toddler alone.

Have you ever traveled alone with you baby/ babies before?

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