Welcome to the World Noah!

Here's our not so little boy! Born last Wednesday at 5.22pm weighing in at 9lb 14oz. He was 12 days over due as he was so comfy in my tummy! I'll be giving the low down on the birth story soon, but lets just say that unlike with Isla's there will not be 3 parts to it as it was all super speedy!

I ♥ Bottle Green Cordials!

When you're pregnant it can get a bit tiresome drinking the same old soft drinks every day! Alternating Orange squash and Apple and Blackcurrant gets a bit boring after a while, so when I was sent a Bottle Green and Blossom Cottage Cordial to try, I think my taste buds thought they'd gone on holiday!  

I tried the Bottle Green Strawberry and Elderflower and Blossom Cottage Pear and Elderflower. Both were delicious - think I favoured the Strawberry one more because it just feels so summery. I liked it with loads of ice and still water but the suggestion is that you could drink it with sparkling water to make it more buzzy or even if drinking it in winter it could be used as warming hot drink. Other suggestions that will become more interesting to me once Baby Boy is born is to mix with a with rum, making a yummy summer cocktail!

They are both free from artificial flavours, colours or sweeteners and are made from natural ingredients mixed with spring water.

Both drinks are available from all big supermarkets. Also if you 'Like' the Bottlegreen Drinks Facebook page, they will donate 25p to the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer Campaign.

I was sent both drinks to try and review and my opinions are my own.

Lollibop Live!

As well as waiting for Baby Boy to arrive, we're all really looking forward to going to Lollibop in August, I can't wait for Isla to have a really fun day! This 3 day event is the UK’s only festival where all the entertainment is for children. Lollibop has created an action packed programme that will delight all pint sized festival goers and there are some things geared towards adults too.

One of the areas that I think will be really fun is the Lollibop Live Main Stage where RastaMouse will be in Da House!

There are still early bird tickets available from Ticketmaster, the promo code to quote when booking is LOLLIBLOG
Don't delay get your tickets today, it's going to be one fun weekend!

Mamas & Papas Giveaway!

This year I've been so lucky to have the support of Mamas & Papas to help me look good during my pregnancy as they generously gave me some of their maternity clothes to try and review. I really did feel good and further to that they sponsored me to go to CyberMummy. I loved Mamas and Papas before this, particularly for clothes for Isla and decor for her nursery.

I'm now lucky enough to be able to offer you the chance to win a gorgeous summery tunic from Mamas and Papas maternity range. Here it is:

It's a size 14 and it really does look fab on (I was given one to wear to CyberMummy) and is so lightweight and cool for summer. It currently retails at £36.

All you have to do to win this gorgeous tunic is comment below on what is your favourite thing about being pregnant!

For a second optional entry please follow @iheartmuthahood and @mamasandpapas on Twitter and Tweet the URL of this Giveaway including @iheartmuthahood

Please leave separate comments below for each entry.

Please also leave a way of contacting you (twitter ID, email). This competition is open to UK residents only.

This giveaway will end on July 15th. Good luck!

Bump Watch...Week 40 & Waiting

As I'm hoping this is going to be my last week of Bump Watch I'm being brave. I wouldn't normally post a picture of me so scantily dressed but it was a hot day, I was getting splashed by the toddler in the paddling pool and I look at this picture and see it for what it is, me with my 2 children! I'm not massively confident about my body but I love how it has housed Baby Boy for 9 months and I'm proud to show it. So here I am (my one regret: I wish I'd fake tanned!):

The due date has come and gone and we're waiting for baby boy to make an appearance. It's strange waiting because I didn't have to last time, things started happening 3 days before my due date with Isla so this is all new to me. Because I had a few plans in the run up to BB's due date I fully expected him to put in an early appearance thus scuppering my attendance at CyberMummy, but I needn't have worried it seems and he's still hibernating inside my tummy. Making his presence felt with big shunts and wriggles.

So what have I been doing? Well, it's been nice to spend some 'extra' time with Isla. These were days that I hadn't expected to spend with her as a family of 3 and it's been great and the nice weather has helped as we haven't been cooped up. She's also carried on with her normal routine of nursery and also spending time with her grandparents, so I've had some time to rest and also potter around the house, preparing things (that were already prepared!) and thinking about the future. I'm enjoying the day times but the night times are a bit long. Most nights I'm up for the loo at least 3 times, my hips ache on both sides from sleeping on my side with this heavy weight and I generally don't sleep past about 5.30am (Isla usually doesn't rise till at least 6.30).

What happens next? I'm booked in for a 'sweep' on Saturday morning, something I'm not particularly looking forward to, given all the intervention I ended up having last time. I was told I could phone midweek to see if there was a cancellation and I could have the sweep early - mmmm, let me think....NO THANKS. Although part of me thinks maybe I should? 

It feels a bit like life is on hold but at the same time like it's situation normal. Here's hoping that he decides to come soon, we want to meet you!

Delicious & Quick Cod Recipe Courtesy of Youngs Seafood

Back in April I went to a fantastic Cooking and Tasting Event with Youngs Seafood and I've been meaning to post this recipe ever since as it was so delicious and also so quick to make. We got given lots of fish to take home and so I decided to make the Cod recipe for my Other Half and he loved it. Here's the recipe:

Roast Cod with Cider Braised leeks, peas & pancetta

Roasted cod fillets with leeks, peas in a creamy cider sauce

Serves 4

4 fillets/ portions 100g to 120 g each with skin off

50g of diced pancetta

1 leek cut into rings

100g of frozen peas

Olive oil

25g of butter

150ml of medium dry cider

3 tbsp of crème fraiche

1tbsp of chopped parsley

Sea salt & ground black pepper

Method

Preheat oven gas mark 6  / 200c

In a medium size frying or roasting pan fry the pancetta, add leek, peas, stir, add cider place fish on top, season.

Cook in middle of oven for 10 minutes, remove, add crème fraiche stir carefully replace in oven cook for a further 10 minutes, remove from oven add parsley stir carefully. Serve.

Click fish recipes for more of Youngs delicious meals!

CyberMummy 2011 - My Take on the Conference!

So I made it! In the run up to CyberMummy 2011 I was in fear that I wouldn't make it there as by the 25th June I would only be 6 days off my due date but as is true for most of my male friends, boys are never early, so I needn't have worried. So I strutted my heavily pregnant stuff around the conference and had a thoroughly enjoyable day!

As you know I was sponsored to go to CyberMummy by Mamas and Papas with whom I've been doing a few reviews on the blog of their wonderful range of maternity clothing. They generously paid for my ticket to the conference and supplied me with a fabulous new outfit to wear on the day - I really did feel good that morning!

There were 3 other bloggers sponsored by Mamas & Papas and we were all part of a competition that they were running on the day whereby bloggers could take their picture with us and then tweet it to Mamas & Papas with the hastag #lovelife and be in with a chance to win £250 worth of store vouchers! The lovely Maria from Mixed up Mummy won this after having her picture taken with me!

How my day started
Myself and 3 other mummy bloggers (ChocOrangeCityMum, Superamazingmum, Mummymummymum) were lucky enough to be able to drive to the conference in one of the Hyundai sponsored cars. We had a Hyundai IX20 which made it a nice comfortable drive up to town, there was also a hamper included in the boot for us to use on the way up with some goodies (thank you!). We chatted all the way there about this and that and also about our expectations for the conference.



Here's a pic of us all before we set off to the conference (with my bemused daughter, who was busy eating her toast when we dragged her outside!)

We arrived a little late but luckily the speakers were running a bit behind, so we didn't miss Sarah Brown give her keynote speech. I was really taken by her, she seemed like such an approachable lady and a great mum. She said that people always commented that it was nice that she was so ordinary, she liked to think that they actually meant 'normal' rather than ordinary! She opened by telling us that she had come to the conference carrying a ginormous box containing a Robot birthday cake for her sons birthday the following day, after the conference she was off to the train with the huge box on her way back to Scotland. She told us how she ensured her children could lead private lives while her husbands role was so public. She now has a huge twitter following and is very proactive in using her online influence to help all kinds of causes.

After the speech, we had a break and it was time to go and look at all the different sponsors and brands that were there on the day. I made my way to the Crocs stand because I'd promised them a short vox pops piece. They had also organised some pedicures of which I had one at lunchtime and was given a fab free pair of Crocs flip flops - these were my salvation for the rest of the day - nice cushioning for my poor weighed down feet!

I chatted with the lovely people at Leapfrog, they were promoting all the fun, educational toys that they have on offer. They marvelled at my determination to make the conference at 39 weeks pregnant!

Boots gave out a fabulous goody bag and to my happiness it included a gorgeous Champneys Bubble Bath - I didn't hesitate to try this out on the Sunday night when I was still wiped out from spending Saturday on my feet!

Johnson & Johnson were also represented, giving out information about their latest campaign 'Wipe Out Waste' - see previous blog post on this - we can all help the environment by sending our wipes packets to be upcycled and transformed in to new products!

Those were a few of my highlights in terms of the sponsors.

Adjoining CyberMummy Central was The Recharge Room sponsored by P&G - This was a lounge created to allow us all a bit of chill out time from everything that was going on. It was brilliant, they had the Caroline Barnes, the Max Factor Make Up Artist on hand to give quick make overs and give make up tips, two top stylists on hand to revive our hair, a Smoothie bar so we could replenish our bodies with some energy, 2 masseurs to take away the strain on our shoulders from carrying all the goody bags (hahahaha!) and finally a team of experts from Pampers. All in all, it felt like all bases were covered, I for one had a great make over, a delicious smoothie and chatted to plenty of people in there.

I also took part in the photo shoot organised by Tara from Sticky Fingers and Jay from Mocha Beanie Mummy . They organised a collaboration with SnapFish to produce a CyberMummy calendar in which I will feature as a Mum-to-Be - I can confirm I did have the biggest bump there!

The Workshops
I'm not going to go into too much detail here, I will link to the bloggers who live blogged the sessions I attended. 

I was late to the 'Marketing Your Blog' workshop but the speakers were very good and the session can be followed here at WitWitWoo

Worth a mention is the presentation that Erica Douglas made in the 'Working with Brands' workshop - she was very inspiring and was also a key influence for me when setting up my blog as I followed her Mummy Blogger e-course. Session blogged by WitWitWoo

I also caught some of the 'How to be a Blogger Activist' session, it was really interesting to see how wide a reach blogging can have in terms of raising awareness of charity campaigns. Session blogged by Jamandclottedcream

I missed the afternoon session because by that time I was dead on my feet and took the time to get into the Recharge Room and give the bump a rest!

Crowd Sourced Keynote
At the end it was the turn of the bloggers to read out some selected posts. Most were enjoyable but I have to say my favourite one from More than Just a Mother was entitled "how does one dispose of a vibrator?" - really had me giggling, go on - read it!!

Other Highlights of my Day:
Meeting other mum bloggers I hadn't met in person, can't possibly mention them all but amongst them are @chocorange @helloitsgemma @iamubermummy

Saying hi to those I had met before, again I can't name them all: @superamazingmum @_MummyManda_ @northernmum1 @iamwitwitwoo

The day had to come to an end and so I said my goodbyes and on my way out to my awaiting carriage I picked up my Cybermummy Goodie bag - it was filled with fab things, including a cool Leapfrog Toy that Isla already loves and some bits and pieces that will be very useful for Baby Boy. I had a really good day and I'd do it again. I was however really happy to get back to my Other Half and find out how his day had gone with our gorgeous girl!

The conference has been covered by national newspapers, if you want to read their take on the Cyber Mummy phenomenon then read on here:

The Independent
The Guardian