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I’m pregnant! Thank you so much for all of your love and support already. This is a little BFF update on everything that has been going on and the plans for A Branch of Holly.

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Well, the cat is out of the bag… I can finally tell you that I am pregnant with our second baby!

I wanted to share this to talk a little bit about what’s been going on over the last few months, what’s been helping me the most during this time, and what you can expect from A Branch of Holly as we head into this new season.

This BFF-style behind-the-scenes update is where I’m filling you in on the past, present, and future!

A pregnancy Q&A

I thought it would be fun to kind of just fill you in on what the past few months have looked like and do a little pregnancy Q&A because I have been holding this in for just over two months and it has been so hard.

Honestly, every time I show up on Instagram Stories, which hasn't been as much as usual because my symptoms have been so much worse with this pregnancy I just had a feeling that you could tell. It's been so hard to hide at this time, especially because I'm usually such an open book with you. It's been a very exhausting, weird and uncertain few months.

First, I want to say that I do find it hard to talk about this because I know so many people out there who struggle with infertility and I don't want to be insensitive at all. If that is your journey, I know that my heart goes out to you.

I know I’m just sharing my experience, but I have gathered the most common questions that I've been getting from people and I’ll answer them now.

Q) How am I feeling? How have I been feeling both mentally and physically?

A)

This is so lovely and it's such a thoughtful question.

I found out I was pregnant around the middle of January and it's been a rollercoaster.

I am so incredibly grateful and excited to be a mum again and to welcome another baby into our family, and for Jacob to be a big brother, that is just going to be so amazing to see.

I always knew that I wanted two children so I feel incredibly blessed that this is going to be my reality. Although there was never a time when I thought, ‘Okay, I'm ready. Let's go.’. I probably felt even less ready this time than I did with Jacob, because two kids are a lot. In a way, I was feeling my best and my mindset, my best in my body, my business was in a really good place. But I did not think it would be happening in 2023. Let's just say that.

I had a feeling that I was pregnant, I was so bloated and so uncomfortable but I was just I just wasn't convinced that that was it. I don't think I was even fully convinced until we had our first scan and saw the baby right there on the screen.

So physically, honestly, the first trimester has been a beast for me. It has been so much worse compared to how I felt when I was pregnant with Jacob (When I've spoken to mums of two that I know or healthcare professionals they've all said that's completely normal because you have to keep going for baby number one).

I would say what has been worse has been the tiredness. It's wiped me out. I've been in my pyjamas as soon as I finished work at 4 pm I've been going to bed at 8 pm. No matter how much sleep I got the fatigue was just another level.

Of course, all of this has affected me physically but it has really affected me mentally as well. My mindset has not been in the best place I honestly don't know what I would have done without my mindset coach. I told her at the very start as soon as I found out and I just feel like I've mentally I've really lost my mojo on my way over the past few months. I was not in a good place there for a little bit. So I'm very glad to be coming out of the other side of that.

Q) When am I due?

A)

So I am due on October 1st!

So this Christmas, we will have another baby, which is madness to think about but it's also going to be so, so lovely.

Some people think I have everything figured out and planned out, because I’m a big planner, but I haven't. I have learned from last time that I have to have margin and flexibility. I'm so grateful that I can embrace that again.

Q) Are we planning on finding out the gender?

A)

No, we don't want to know the gender. My husband wants to know way more than I do, but from where I stand we didn't know with Jacob, all our newborn stuff is neutral and it does not make any difference to me.

We know regardless of what happens, this is going to be our last one. And as long as the baby is healthy and happy that is the most important thing.

Q) Do we have names picked out?

A)

Yes and no. We are set for if it's a girl but if it's a boy, we are struggling. Nothing is standing out to us at the moment, hopefully, it will over the next few months.

We're not going to tell anyone the names so you will just have to wait until October to find out.

Q) What are my plans for maternity leave? What’s changing for the business?

A)

Now that I'm feeling better, thankfully, I'm still planning to show up for my community in all the ways that I have been but I will be scaling back towards the end of the year.

I've already had conversations with all of my private clients and mastermind clients about our plans moving forward, which I feel good about and they feel good about. So all of that is in motion but what it does mean is that there will only be one round of the mastermind this year, which is the one that is currently running. I was planning to do another round from July until December but that isn't going to happen now for obvious reasons.

My plan so far is:

Finish work at the end of August. With Jacob, I worked right up until two weeks before he was due but this time, I want to have some quality time with just him before the baby comes. I’ll then be off until the end of the year and then phase back in 2024. I'm not sure what that looks like, yet.

As far as the podcast goes, the last time, I took maternity leave the podcast took a break, and didn't record any episodes. This time, I want to keep the podcast going.

I plan to map out what episodes I want to go out from September onwards, and then record them basically from now and spread them out from now until August. So I'm not doing it all at once because plus a lot of episodes, but I'm ticking the box each month as I go. I'm talking to my team to figure out a good process and a good workflow for that. Thank goodness I have them.

Between now and the end of August as far as the business goes I do have a few things up my sleeve. I've been doing some deep work in the business and things in the business are changing. A lot of the work I've been doing recently has been around vision values, business model, structure, capacity, customer journey, product suite financial planning, and a lot of what I teach my clients really and I've been visiting it in detail.

Basically what's happening is that my business model is completely changing, hence the retirement of the Busy to Boss Academy.

So far, I have mapped out what my new office suite/ business model is looking like.

I would love to have a low-cost membership along the vibe of being the boss of your life, which would have quarterly themes and quarterly challenges.
I'm planning to bring out a productivity course as well as a content course. Also a programme around launching.
My signature offer is going to be a 12-month mastermind-style collective strategic planning programme. That's the one that I'm most excited about that is hopefully going to come in 2024.

My focus over the next few months is going to be the productivity offer, which I also cannot wait for because I feel like there are a lot of mini productivity courses out there, but not one big overarching one, which is what I want this to be. I also think that this offer will support the paper products that I want to launch in 2024/2025 #SpoilerAlert

It's going to be a big five months ahead but I've started planning, I know what's happening, my energies back, and my mindset is in a better place; so I can crack on.

As for Instagram, I'll still be showing up there. While I'm off, I won't be doing many posts or reels or things like that, I won't be planning my content. I'll just be posting as I feel like it, but I will pop in on stories, obviously and let you know how things are going. Plus I like documenting journeys, and I love consuming that content as well. I am not turning into a pregnancy or motherhood account but this is a big part of my life and what I teach and preach is putting your life before your business and running a business that supports your life.

my enough lists

I was speaking to my amazing mindset coach Chloe when I was going through this and she asked me what I felt I need to prioritise right now.

I had a massive journaling session and I came up with some ‘enough lists’. So for these different areas in my life, what does enough look like?

So I want to share these with you because I feel like this would have been so helpful for me to hear at this time.

It doesn't have to be pregnancy, whether you're going through a tough time something's happened in your family, maybe you've had a loss, or you suffer from a chronic illness, or you're going through a tough season with a child or a partner, whatever it is, there are so many different things that we're all going through, I found this exercise really helpful.

I wrote these down for six different areas of my life, I wrote them for physical health, mental health, family, home friendships, and work.

For each of these, I wrote down ‘In this season, ‘enough’ for my physical/mental/family/friendships/work health looks like _____’ and fill in the blank.

I plan to use these ‘enough lists’ to guide me throughout the rest of my first trimester. See how I feel in the second trimester, and then tweak them and take it from there if need to.

Physical health - In this current season of life, ‘enough’ for my physical health looks like one workout a week minimum, walking or stretching daily, and bed by 9pm.
Mental health - In this season of life ‘enough’ for my mental health looks like my bi-weekly calls with Chloe, my mindset coach. Journaling five days a week, that's very important to me and speaking affirmations
Family - In this season of life ‘enough’ for my family looks like quality family time every week, a memory outing once a month and quality time with Jacob daily.
Home - In this season of life ‘enough’ for my home looks like keeping on top of my weekly routine, making sure I'm doing my set jobs on my set days and our weekly online shop. No big spring cleans are happening yet, it's just very much about doing what I need to do to keep the home running, and doing little bits every single day so that I don't have to spend the whole weekend cleaning.
Friendships - In this season ‘enough’ for my friendships looks like seeing a friend or loved one once a month and speaking to a friend daily. So again, I'm not putting pressure on myself, it's just it is what it is and we just will take it from there.
Work - In this season of life ‘enough’ for work looks like operating in maintenance mode, posting five times a week on Instagram, posting two podcasts a week and serving my clients.
At the top, I put operating in maintenance mode because now is not the time for big launches or new offers or filling my calendar. It's just about what I need to do to keep things running in the most effective and simple and easy way possible and that's what this looks like.

So those are my ‘enough’ lists, I have them on my whiteboard and they've been really helpful for when I'm feeling low, comparing myself or feeling like I'm not doing enough in one way, shape, or form. I can look at these lists and just know this is what it looks like right now. This is what enough looks like right now. It will not always be this way but this is how it is right now and that is fine.