Why I hate baby poop

Pooping face

Yep, this is a bit of a random post - and you might be thinking, yeah it's a pretty obvious one, I mean who the hell would like poop?  But the answer might not be as obvious as you think...

Yeah I don't like the smell of it, having to clean up a poopy nappy 3/4 times a day.  And I really don't like when it gets under my nails or on my hands, worse if it gets on Squidge's feet or hands - yeah, that's a favourite of his, it's like his heels and hands have poop magnets in them.

But the reason I hate baby poop so much, is because of how it interferes with everything.  It'll happen at the worst times - perhaps after spending an hour trying to get him to sleep, then 20 mins into the nap he poop's and is wide awake waiting for his nappy to be changed.  Or in the middle of a feed, yeah thanks for that, I'll just put everything down, unstrap him, take him upstairs, strip him off to sort out his nappy - then by the time we get back downstairs, he doesn't want anymore food.  Or it's because the second that nappy is off, he's rolling over with his bum in the air making it impossible to clean.

So that's why I don't like baby poop - it's not for all those normal reasons, those reasons I can actually put up with, he's my son after all, but the way it breaks up routine and especially naps - that's why I really hate it.

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I want for you

I want for you to be eternally happy,

I want for you to always feel loved,

I want for you to be all that you can,

And I want for you to be proud of who you are.

I want for you to not feel pain,

I want for you to be wise,

I want for you to have endless fun,

And I want for you to be brave.

I want for you to be healthy,

I want for you to strong,

I want for you to find a passion,

And I want for you to always feel safe.

I want for you to find love,

I want for you to settle down,

I want for you to become a daddy,

And I want for you to never know loss.

But more than anything I want for you,

I want you to be you.

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The Weaning Diaries #1

Squidge in his Babymoov light wood high chair

When Squidge was 17 weeks old, we very slowly and tentatively started weaning him.  It's not a decision we took lightly, but we felt he was ready.  He was bored and frustrated with his bottles, leaving lots, and really interested in what we were eating (not to the degree he is now!).  We only fed him baby rice for the first 3 weeks, and it was literally just a couple spoonfuls a day.  Then, when he was 5 months old he was being weighed at the HV and she said to progress his weaning onto flavours, purees etc, so off we went :)

He's fed a mixture of food I've cooked, and pouches/jars - either Ella's Kitchen or HiPP Organic - I'm quite choosy over the pouches I buy for him and I make sure they're one fruit-based ones, so that they're low in sugar (I always check).  I made the mistake of buying him a vegetable pouch from Ella's Kitchen - and under neath it said 'with Apple' - but on checking, it was over 50% apple, so very sweet and high in sugar.

Mummy's homemade puree - cauliflour, potato, cod and garlic with a little cow's milk

Obviously I prefer him to eat food I've cooked as I know exactly what's gone into it, and he really likes it (yay), but it's not always possible.  If we've had a suitable meal in the evening (not something spicy etc) then I'll put a little pot of it to one side, and blend it up for him to have for lunch the next day - he really loves the quorn biryani I cook and my cauliflower puree with cows milk :)  It's so cute seeing him try something for the first time, and seeing whether he likes it or not - if he doesn't like it, he immediately gags, pushes it out with his tongue and blows raspberries - if he likes it, he pretty much swallows it, and immediately opens his mouth for the next mouthful. The Babymoov silicone collapsable pots (£13.99) are amazing - the collapse really well, and the lids click on really easily - perfect for travelling, but personally we use them for all sorts, including as a bowl for our own breakfast (overnight oats) :)

We also give him finger food to hold and explore, like cucumber, carrot, celery, spring onions, cooked broccoli spears, wholemeal toast, pineapple etc.

Lunch steaming away in the Nutribaby

If I do cook him food, I steam it for him (I have the Babymoov Nutribaby), it's pretty easy to use and also has a blender attached so you can puree the food you've just steamed - or you could use the steamer to warm up a jar :)  It has two tiers so you could put meat or fish on one, and veg on the other, you just need to dice things up so they're pretty small and don't take too long to cook.  A typical meal that I cook for him takes about 20 mins :)

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*I am an ambassador for Babymoov - my opinions are 100% honest and my own

The Baby Show

I’m sat here on the train, on my way home from not only my first time in Birmingham, but my first Baby Show.  Before going, I really had no idea what to expect.  I’d decided to leave Squidge at home with his daddy as I didn’t fancy being a single mummy for the day, and I didn’t think daddy would want to come along too J  Plus, it gave them some nice baby/daddy time which they don’t often get.

What I didn’t expect was to feel really quite lonely there.  Don’t get me wrong, the show was fab with loads to see (more on that in a bit), but almost everyone there was either pregnant, or had their baby with them either in a pushchair or sling.  And there I was, with my baby and hubby at home, 2 hours away.  This is why I’m now heading home, 2 hrs earlier than planned – I’d covered the show quicker than expected and didn’t want to sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting for my train.

So – the show itself! There were SO many different brands there, ones I wanted to see, ones I hadn’t heard of and of course, big names like Maxi Cosi, Mothercare, Stokke etc.  While wandering around, I actually avoided a lot of the bigger brands, and sought out some of the smaller ones I hadn’t heard of.

One great product I found was the Fill n Squeeze.  I very nearly bought one, but without anyone to help carry stuff, and having my laptop in my backpack, I didn’t want to carry anything unnecessary.  What I loved about this (I still might buy it!) is that you make up a wholesome meal as usual, put it in the little tub with the plunger, and squeeze it straight into an empty pouch!  That way you don’t have to faff about with Tupperware etc.  They also have an attachment where you fit a spoon straight to the pouch and the food squeezes straight onto the spoon.  Each pouch is reusable and washable and can be reused up to about 50 times.

Another interesting brand was called Zippy, they made bibs.  But not just any bibs – they were the dribble bib style, which you can also use if bottle feeding, but they’re ultra absorbant, and even when soaking wet on top, the underneath remains dry.  Again, I was very close to buying some of these, but Squidge has SO many bibs, I didn’t feel I needed to pick up any more. 

I didn’t find much in the way of freebies, MAM and another brand were there giving out free baby bottles (but level 1 teets, no good for us).  I must admit, I did expect to see a massive Tommee Tippee stand, and unless I missed them completely I don’t think they had any stand other than one to promote milk drinking (not really featuring any of their products).  Cow & Gate were also there giving away little pouches of puree’d broccoli – at Squidge’s stage, we’d add this to other food he’s having, and not give it alone as he’s all about flavour!

One other stand that was great to see, albeit a very basic stand, was Water Wipes.  I’ve seen loads of people talking about these, and since discovering the Huggies ‘Pure’ wipes we’ve been using contain Phenoxyethanol (a faux paraben) I’ve been on the lookout for new wipes free from such preservatives.  While there, I bought a single pack of their wipes, and a pack of their makeup remover wipes to try (didn’t even know they did these!?).  If they’re good (the water wipes) I may well buy a box on Amazon – if I had hubby and baby with pram with me, I’d have bought a box J

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled on about The Baby Show enough now – a big thank you to the lovely people over at Aldi Mamia for sponsoring me to go – they also had a great stand with a big Mamia tree of nappies and products to be won :)

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Creating my Perfect Porridge

A couple weeks ago, the lovely people over at Flahavan's sent me a bit of a porridge survival kit to create my #PerfectPorridge with.  If you follow me on Instagram you might well have seen lots of pictures of my porridge in the morning.

For years porridge has been my go-to favourite breakfast, it's healthy and filling.  But it wasn't until Flahavan's sent me their parcel that I tried 'jumbo' oats, or chia seeds, or goji berries and an assortment of other tasty treats to adorn your porridge with.

Over the next couple of weeks I will share a couple of recipes with you on how I make my #PerfectPorridge - I'll give you a hint - both recipes will be super-duper easy :)

Excuse the blurry picture, but here's a picture of the lovely kit that Flahavan's sent to me - I adore the bowl and spoon! I don't mind admitting, even if I haven't had porridge and I've had cereal, it's been out of that bowl since (it's an M&S Truro bowl)

Here's some of my creations so far - the top two were overnight oats which is why they look so milky - I'd never tried overnight oats with milk before, and now I know why! Much better with yoghurt. The top left one has goji berries, chia seeds and fresh blueberries.  Top right is goji berries, coconut flakes, and cocoa nibs. Bottom left is goji berries, chia seeds, coconut flakes and a big teaspoon of seedless raspberry jam, and bottom right is just the raspberry jam (with the porridge ofc!).

To make these, I used:

40g Flahavan's Jumbo Porridge Oats
250ml milk

I tend to let it very gently simmer on a very low heat, giving it only the occasional stir.  Then I add in the toppings at the end, depending on what mood I'm in, depends on what I'll add.  I'm loving it with fresh fruit - I did buy some pineberries the other day, they would have been amazing in this!

How do you make your perfect porridge?

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*Post contains PR samples

Baby Products at Aldi

Back before I had Squidge, I stocked up on lots of different things, baby wipes, nappies, muslins etc, and one of the ways we did this was during Aldi baby events. Back then of course, Squidge wasn't born, so we hadn't ventured into the realms of weaning and as we don't do our weekly shop at Aldi, I wasn't aware of the baby food they sell.

The things we always go out of our way to go to Aldi and get are their non-bio washing powder for his clothes (I love how this smells, to me, it smells of Squidge), the Mamia nappy bags (they're THE best smelling bags!) and I really do like the Mamia baby wipes too as they have a clickable lid/flap on them to stop them from drying out.

You can imagine how excited I was when the lovely people over at Aldi sent over this lovely care package for the little man :)  

One of the first things the little man has tried are the apple mini rice cakes - he quite likes these and ate pretty much a whole one, only dropping a little bit on the floor :)  I don't want him to have many, just because they're a little sweet, but they do compare well to the same Organix product :)  He's also had some of the banana & apple puree as a dessert after his lunch/dinner which he really likes, and I added some of the 'baby juice' drink to a beaker of water just to add a pop of flavour, he seemed to prefer it to plain water :)

I'm going to hold off using the bathing products for now, as due to his dry skin I've been using Oilatum and Dentinox shampoo, but when his skin has had a good recovery period, I'll give them a whirl :)

Every mummy is different, I'm one of these mummies that are quite strict with how much sugar I give him - we've managed to get him to love savoury food and prefer it to sweet and as a result, if he ever does have anything sweet, he's bouncing off the walls after!

What have you tried from the Mamia range at Aldi?

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The Mummy Diaries | Body Strangeness

I thought I'd start up a new blog series where instead about talking about Squidge, I'd share some mummy related things.  Well, there's a few things been going on recently with me, and I thought I'd share them with you to see if I'm just being strange or if we're all the same :)

Hello period?

So, if you breastfeed, you don't get a period, pretty normal and that I knew.  But I didn't breastfeed, I expressed for the first 2 months until my supply dried up.  Then, in January I had my first period since having Squidge, pretty much bang on when I would have been due (beginning of the month). It wasn't too horrific, but oh boy was February's period horrendous and punctual.  Then 3rd March came and went, as did the 3rd April and the 3rd May, still with no sign of mother nature making an appearance.

I had chatted to the Dr about it, she said I should do a pregnancy test, but I knew I wasn't so I didn't bother.  I asked how normal this is to miss so many periods, she said not to worry unless I skip 4/6 of them, then to go back.  Well, on Sunday evening, mother nature arrived, and I couldn't be more relieved.  The only setback is that I have low iron, so I have tablets I need to take to help reduce my blood loss on my heavy days - so far these don't seem to have made a difference as my period is still very heavy, but whatever, I'm happy it's here :)

Food disgust...

You know when you're pregnant and certain foods repulse you? Well I had loads of weird things when I was pregnant, like brushing my teeth would make me wretch, and just the idea of certain foods would make me feel really sick.  Not long after having Squidge, they all fell by the wayside and I slowly returned to normal.  All apart from one meal - just the thought of eating it again makes me feel physically sick, and it's a meal I really used to like.  We didn't eat lots of it when I was pregnant (maybe once every other week for a couple months) and it wasn't a craving - but the 'yuck' idea of it hasn't left me.

BabyMummy brain

That forgetful baby brain you get when you're pregnant, you know the one where you become really ditsy? Well, that hasn't really gone either... still quite forgetful - I swear these things that happen to your body when your'e pregnant leave a really lasting effect!

What weird pregnancy things did you have linger beyond birth?

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7 Month baby update

Today Squidge is 7 months old - officially more than half a year! It's so crazy how quickly they grow and develop! I feel like for the most of the month I don't have much to say about his development, but in that last week or few days before his month birthday, he progresses loads!

CLOTHING

He's still in size 6-9 months clothing, and after a weigh in with the HV yesterday, he's now 17lb 4oz, sitting just under the 50th percentile.  While the clothes are fitting him quite well, I am struggling to get some of his tops over his head, lol. But yeah, in most of them he still has quite a bit of growing to do before being in the next size up.  Most days he's wearing short sleeved vests and tops too - so nice to see his arms and his super soft skin :)  I've also bought a few pieces from the Jools Oliver Little Bird collection in Mothercare (pictured above) - it's a gorgeous retro-70's-esque collection of baby & kids clothes, all very nice quality and not too expensive.  I love that outfit he's in above :)

TEETHING

Well, isn't teething a barrel of laughs! Still no teeth, but we do have some progress. So his front bottom row of gums now has several white dots, and the gum right in the middle has dipped (i.e. in between where a couple of teeth are going to pop up). Also, his top gums on the right have gone all white and changed shape to be very flat, like the underside of molars.  We've had some day's of utter hell where he's needed Calpol, Dentinox, Ashton & Parsons, the whole shebang. 

SLEEP

I really need to touch wood before I write this.  I think we've turned a corner.  When we put him to bed at night, he's generally going to sleep with no help from us at all.  We put him down when he's wide awake, after a bit of time rolling around in his cot or looking around the room, he rolls onto his side and falls asleep.  His day naps are better too, he's not sleeping on me at all.  I put him down in his cot for about 3 naps a day (sometimes 4) each lasting about 30-60 mins - he usually settles himself to sleep, sometimes he needs a cuddle from his mummy :)

As for night waking - he still wakes at night, but he seems to be doing better.  Whereas before he was waking like, 5-15 times a night, now it's more like 1-2 (not including him waking lots from about 5:30am).  He often wakes up when we go to bed which is about 11:30, we'll pop his dummy back in, move him back down the cot and he's fine.  Then he often wakes some time between about 3-4am too - again same thing dummy & move.

FEEDING & WEANING

I'm actually writing a big weaning post which will hopefully be live towards the end of the week, but until then - it's going well :) He's dropped a milk feed and replaced it with food and he's loving lots of flavour, he's not a fan of the simple flavours.  I actually blogged about our routine recently which covers when he's feeding, what and how much he's having etc :)  I love that picture of him in his Babymoov high chair, feeding himself some water :) Firs time he's done that, my clever little boy :)

PROGRESS MILESTONES

I feel like he's coming on leaps and bounds at the moment.  He spent a few days in his Galt toys blow-up donut ring thing around the time he was learning to sit up and it really helped him nail it. Now he sits up by himself really well.  I've retired his Fisher Price Rainforest play gym as he wasn't able to roll around on the floor, instead I bought a large 1m x 2m play mat from Taf toys (this one) so he has some room to move around.  We have wooden floors, so no padding for his head!

He spent a few days rolling all over the place, but then learned to sit up, now he sits there surrounded by cushions to break his fall and surrounded by toys :) 

He's right on the verge of crawling too.  He can push himself right up and be on his knees.  Yesterday he even brought his one knee forwards for the first time, if he just puts those two motions together, he'll be off!  He can sort of commando crawl, he manages to crawl his way up in the cot every night, several times over by pushing himself up on his face :P

OTHER BITS

• He still loves standing
• He's starting to get stranger danger and randomly does scared cries at people
• He's still in Size 3+ nappies (Pampers ActiveFit)
• Giraffe's are his favourite toys
• He goes to bed about 6:30 each night
• He's got my slightly wonky eyes and ears :)

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