Bump Watch...Week 26 - Already feeling huge!
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
The Liebster Blog Award
The idea behind it is: It’s for people with ‘little’ blogs (less than 300 subscribers) to share blog love and spread the word.
The rules are:
1. Post displaying the award (tick!), linking back to the person who awarded you (tick!)
2. Give your own blog picks (see below) and let them know they’re awarded (tweet them/ comment on their blog about it)
3. Let the word spread and everyone will meet some new peeps
I choose to award the following wonderful mummy bloggers:
Super Amazing Mum - long lost friend of my husband who I met randomly through blogging!
The Wonderful World of Tillie - Just discovered this week and think will make a good read!
The McCaskie Clan - the similarities are uncanny - daughter called Isla and baby boy on the way this summer! Does fab reviews.
Real Housewife of Suffolk - another mummy blogger due a baby in July!
Labouring At Home – Part 1 of My Birth Story
I’m a week away from the 3rd Trimester and I’m really starting to think about labour and birth second time around. What with 'One Born Every Minute' being on TV at the moment and also a lot of my friends having had or on their way to having second babies it’s making me re-live the first experience in my head in a big way.
I’ve spoken about my first labour and birth experience before but never actually written about it. It’s really hard to make sense of it so long after the event and as is meant to happen my brain has chosen to make things seem easier than they actually were! So here goes....
It’s the early hours of Tuesday 14th July, and I start to get period style cramps, obviously I can’t keep this information to myself, I have to tell the OH who’s snoring next to me. I try to go back to sleep and do this on and off till about 6.30am when I get up as I cannot see how you can sleep being continually squeezed on the inside. They’re only about every 45 minutes or so but it can take me that long to relax and nod back off again, so I’m up and about. By late morning we’re on our way to the Maternal Assessment Unit (MAU) at the hospital because I think I’ve had a show (mucus plug has left the building!) and as its the first time I’m one of these women who needs to know what’s going on rather than staying at home, baking, relaxing and bouncing up and down on my birth ball.
We get to MAU and they hook me up to the monitor, big belt round my belly and yes I’m having contractions and scarily I can see the machine and every time the numbers on the display go up I think ‘uh, oh’. The midwife very hopefully says to us, ooh won’t be long now and sends us home as contractions are too far apart. Tuesday goes by with me and the other half at home watching films, me contracting intermittently and bouncing on my birthing ball, TENS machine hooked up to my back. The only relief I can say that the TENS gave was the distraction of playing around with the buttons/ turning the dial and swearing at it that it didn’t do more for the discomfort! I tried to sleep Tuesday night but it wasn’t happening, contractions about every half hour, needless to say I wasn’t very good at keeping my sleeplessness to myself....
Wednesday we had another day of films and box sets, think I managed to walk around the block but I was just so tired. We called the hospital but because contractions were not regular enough – sometimes every ten minutes, sometimes every 25 minutes, advice was to take some paracetamol or a nice warm bath. This only slowed them right down to about 40 minutes again at which point I’d get all upset and be in tears. We were regimentally writing down every contraction and timing them as well and it felt like it was going on forever! Wednesday night passed by and again I had little or no sleep, just couldn’t achieve it when I was doubled up in agony at least every 20 minutes!
Thursday, a new day. Contractions all day, another phone call to the hospital, more advice to have a warm bath and paracetamol – absolutely exhausted, as was OH. We were verging on delirium and I was starting to feel like I was under house arrest!! By the evening there was now some blood appearing and I decided that was enough to warrant me needing to get to the delivery suite, contractions were nearly always between 7 and 10 minutes and I made another tearful call to the hospital to say I just could not cope at home anymore with just the TENS machine, breathing and all the other things we were doing to alleviate the pain (it was more than discomfort by then!) and that I was now bleeding. So thankfully they finally said come in.
The drive to hospital while writhing around in the passenger seat wasn’t great and we weren’t exactly alert after having little sleep since Tuesday. On arrival at the hospital I was put in my own room and examined and joy of all joys I was told that I was 3 centimetres and I could stay. Just being there made me feel better and getting started on the Gas and Air felt like a step in the right direction! Unfortunately due to the blood loss I’d mentioned it meant that I had to be hooked up to the monitors and was immobile on the bed. This wasn’t how I’d wanted to give birth but I think on reflection considering how tired I was by then, not having slept for at least 48 hours at that point I don’t think I could have done the whole natural birth without drugs route.
And so I’ll leave part one there, part two is here
I ♥ Jellycat
I've loved Jellycat ever since my sister introduced me to their gorgeous soft toys - Isla has a Jellycat Bunny, so I felt that we needed to get something for baby boy and when I saw Bobbie the Dog in The White Company I had to get him. He's so soft and if I could keep him for myself I would. He's waiting in the wardrobe at the moment for his new playfriend to be born!
Just have to say that this isn't a sponsored post - I just had to share how lovely these soft toys are!
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Swim Baby Swim Toddler Swimming App - Review
'Wouldn't it be nice to have a swimming teacher in your pocket?'
When we were invited to trial Swim Baby Swim swimming lessons we were also given the chance to try the new swimming app that Anne Hawley has devised. We are trialing the toddler swimming app and we're using it alongside the lessons that Isla is taking.
The app has 6 detailed tutorials, that guide you step by step from bath time to babies first swim. There are lots of hints and tips and some lovely images of babies swimming and children having fun in the water. The 6 tutorials cover bath time, breath holding, holding on and letting go of the pool edge, rotating in/ under the water, jumping in and finally the first swim.
The bath is the first focus of the app as of course this is the place that babies really experience water on a regular basis. Hair washing is a great time to get baby used to the water and having water over their faces. Isla loves the water and so naturally loves bath time, she has to be really grumpy to not want to get in the bath. She has never complied when we've asked her to tip her head back when we've washed her hair but this turns to out to have worked in our favour now as it means that she is so used to having the water flooding down her face and it doesn't faze her. Since we have been having the lessons and started using the app she has also taken to trying to chuck a beaker of water over her own head, so her confidence is already increasing after only a couple of weeks!
Anne discourages the use of buoyancy aids in the pool and so there is another section on these and if you're already using them tips on how to get rid of them from your pool routine. As we've never used them, this isn't a problem for us, but most parents use them at some point or other so this is a very interesting topic.
Breath holding is at the very centre of Anne's teaching and so the 2nd tutorial explains how important this is and the techniques that can be used to get kids to do it. Includes showing your toddler how to blow bubbles in the water, that they should keep their eyes open under the water and getting them to imitate you putting your face in the water. So far Isla has had fun watching us blow bubbles in the water and has tried to imitate. We still have to try pop ups whereby you put your face in the water and then encourage your little one to do the same.
We're still working our way through the app and we're using it to supplement the lessons that Isla is still taking with Swim Baby Swim. She's at an age whereby she will sometimes do what we ask but mostly will try to do what she wants to do, so when we're in the pool and we're teaching her to hold on to the side or letting her work out how to climb out of the pool on her own it can result in her doing her own thing like climbing out and trying to run off! I think as she gets older and her understanding improves we'll be able to be a lot more disciplined when using this app.
All in all I think that this app helps to give parents confidence around their little ones in the pool and gives the little one a confidence in their own ability - especially if mummy and daddy are ready with a big round of applause for every achievement!
The Swim Baby Swim iPhone app costs £2.99 and can be downloaded from iTunes.
In order to trial this iPhone app we were given it to download of free of charge.
We're still working our way through the app and we're using it to supplement the lessons that Isla is still taking with Swim Baby Swim. She's at an age whereby she will sometimes do what we ask but mostly will try to do what she wants to do, so when we're in the pool and we're teaching her to hold on to the side or letting her work out how to climb out of the pool on her own it can result in her doing her own thing like climbing out and trying to run off! I think as she gets older and her understanding improves we'll be able to be a lot more disciplined when using this app.
All in all I think that this app helps to give parents confidence around their little ones in the pool and gives the little one a confidence in their own ability - especially if mummy and daddy are ready with a big round of applause for every achievement!
The Swim Baby Swim iPhone app costs £2.99 and can be downloaded from iTunes.
In order to trial this iPhone app we were given it to download of free of charge.
Friday, 25 March 2011
Galt Toys Review - Peepo Puppet!
We were recently sent a Lion Peepo Puppet by Galt Toys to try out. It's a really cute push-up puppet that you can play peepo with by pushing the soft pole up and down to reveal and hide the lion inside. He's really bright and colourful and the puppet contains a jingle bell and crinkle.
The day we got it in the post I waited until Isla had woken up from her afternoon nap to get it out and surprise her with something new. Sometimes she takes a little while to warm up from waking from a nap and so I thought this would help to get some smiles and it did. She was giggling away as we made the lion disappear and appear. She had a go at doing it herself as well and it was really good fun.
There were also puppets at Gymboree when we used to go to her weekly class there too. As we have another baby on the way I'm keen to keep up the tradition and I think that the Peepo Puppet will be brilliant as well for young babies and this time around Big Sister can also do some of the puppeteering for her baby brother! This puppet will really appeal to young babies as it's lovely and bright, jingles and makes crinkley noises. These toys help to encourage little ones to touch, explore, build and play.
The Galt Toys website is excellent because as well as having the entire range of their brilliant toys on there, it also has a great Activity Zone Page, giving ideas of creative and crafty things to do with the kids and it has games kids can play on the computer.
The Peepo Puppets come either as a Lion, Dog or Cow and they retail at £7.99
In order to review this toy we were sent a Peepo Puppet by Galt Toys.
I ♥ Cathy Thorne Cartoons!
I discovered these cartoons through the BabyCentre Pregnancy iPhone app. I love them, they are so funny and I'm finding I can identify with most of the mummy/ pregnancy ones! Check out all her cartoons at:
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