Sleepyhead Deluxe Review

The Sleepyhead Deluxe has rapidly become my favourite baby product.  Those first moments you have with your newborn are amazing, the moment the doctors pass him/her to you and you see what they look like, those precious first few days where you sit staring at the wonderful bundle you've just brought into the world.  For me it was different, Oscar's premature birth left me feeling cheated.  I had to be put to sleep for his delivery and when I woke up hours later, he was in Intensive Care.  A unit that had such strict visiting hours, meaning I wasn't able to see him until the next lunch time.  I lay there devastated, I had a baby, but felt as though I didn't, everyone around me had their baby and I didn't even know what mine looked like.

How To Overcome Fussy Eating: My Top Tips

From the day she was born Emelia has always eaten well.  She thrived when weaning and would eat pretty much anything I put in front of her.  I do however, think every child goes through a fussy eating stage.  Recently I've noticed her eating habits have changed, she has still eaten adequately but no where near as well as she has previously.  She began refusing some of her favourite foods which got me thinking, something must have triggered a sudden change, she would always ask for the same meal - pasta.  On reflection I realised the change coincided with me going in and out of hospital and subsequently spending a lot of time visiting Oscar in Intensive Care.  Her routine was all over the place and we really weren't spending much time as a family, let alone having meals together - which was something we always used to do at least once a day.  Something that is likely to be pretty controversial is allowing her to go to bed hungry (of course we don't and haven't ever let her starve), if I cook a meal and she doesn't eat in then I won't make her anything else and she won't be allowed her cup of milk before bed.  If I make something new, she tries a bit and doesn't like it we encourage her to eat other things on her plate, for example, she hasn't eaten chicken for a while, but she will eat the veg, if she refuses to eat anything then she goes without.  More often than not she will think about it for a while, and then eat it after all, but there have been a couple of occasions where she's gone to bed without.  Some won't agree with me I'm sure, but children learn so quickly and if we gave into her once it wouldn't take long for her to realise if she says she doesn't want/like what I've made she can have something else.

Aden + Anais Review & Giveaway

I am sure we can all agree how brilliant muslins are when you have a baby, between Emelia and Oscar they are probably our most used baby item!  I hadn't come across Aden + Anais, until my pregnancy with Oscar when searching online for packs of muslin I stumbled across them and immediately loved their designs.  I read a few reviews about them and how good the quality was so decided to order a pack to see for myself.  I had a terrible time trying to decide which ones to go for, but in the end chose the Jungle Jam set.

Introducing Potty Training: What We Did

Potty training was the one thing I dreaded.  I had no clue where to start or what to do.  We introduced the concept of the potty to Emelia fairly early on, I tried a few different techniques but in the end having a potty visible in the house seemed most effective, we had one downstairs and one upstairs. She seemed to understand what it was for but at one stage became a bit freaked out by it, at which point we just left it and didn't push it again.  It wasn't long before one day she started using it again herself.  She did so, consistently all day and has been dry ever since (minus the odd accident here and there!).  To be honest we have been very lucky with her, I strongly believe when they're ready they will pretty much potty train themselves, which is really what happened in our case.  Unfortunately Brett and I can't take much credit for how quickly she became potty trained.  However, I expect next time round won't happen so easily!

Create Your Own Fairy Garden

Emelia absolutely loves fairies and was so excited when we talked about creating her own fairy garden.  Fairy gardens are magical and brilliant for imaginative play.  Originally we planned to create it in our garden but as the weather is so unpredictable, we were worried it would get destroyed. After rethinking and scouting around to see what we could find, we decided to make a fairy garden perfect for indoor or outdoor use.  Emelia was even more excited when she realised she could transport the fairy garden wherever she wanted, especially the thought of taking it to bed without having to deconstruct it.  Once we collected the items we needed it was a relatively quick and easy thing to make, Emelia really enjoyed helping and putting the ornaments into place.  Making your own fairy garden means the design is purely down to your child's creativity and imagination.

Happy Days: Books, Baking and Bouncing

It's Saturday, which means it's time for another Happy Days Link Up.  Here are the things that have made me happy this week:

Preparing your Toddler for a Sibling: What We Did

Emelia was in the forefront of our minds when we found out we were expecting.  We spent a lot of time thinking about how we could prepare her for the change, my main concern was that she would feel pushed out, especially if I had to stay in hospital for a few days.  Brett and I wanted to make sure my pregnancy was a positive and exciting time, and while the first 5 months were spent relatively stress free (with the exception of moving abroad) and focused on building Emelia up to being big sister, the last couple leading up to Oscar's arrival have been testing, to say the least.

15 Things I Wish I Could Tell my 15 Year Old Self

I am sure we would all love to go back in time, even for a moment to give our teenage selves a bit of advice.
There are many things I would like to tell myself but I've narrowed it down to 15:

Dining with a Toddler: The 10 Commandments

If you've got a toddler I'm sure you'll be aware of The 10 Commandments.  These commandments are ESSENTIAL to the smooth running of mealtimes - disobey if you dare!  If you are still blessed with a speechless, non argumentative baby or you're in pregnancy bliss, congratulations, you've got a head start, some of us were not privy to these rules and we spent many a meal time suffering for it... consider this training - you're welcome. 

Happy Days: Cleaning, Clothes & Catching Up

This week has been full of emotional highs and lows, but today, the sun is shining and the weekend is approaching.   Thinking about writing this post has really helped to lift my mood, there has actually been a lot of good in this week, sometimes it's easy to forget the good and positive things and focus on the negative moments.

Oscar's One Month Update

When I started my blog my intention was to post weekly updates of Oscar's progress in NICU.  Needless to say, life happened and that plan did not.  

What's in my Changing Bag & Review: Jem+Bea Jemima

Here is my beautiful new changing bag, the Jem+Bea Jemima bag in black leather and I love it.  Having studied the entire Jem+Bea collection it’s safe to say I could fill my wardrobe with all of their bags. 

Nuby Natural Touch Digital Breast Pump Review

I’ve always kept an open mind when it comes to breast and bottle feeding, I breast fed Emelia for 6 weeks before having to move on to bottles due to my milk drying up. 

This time round I wanted to try and breast feed but thought if I couldn’t I would try expressing

Military Relationships: 10 Things to Consider

Many will say ‘you know what you’re signing up for’ when you marry someone who is in the Military.  I don’t think that statement could be further from the truth, the fact of the matter is, you may have an idea or fantasy about what life will be like, but until you are living it nothing can prepare you for the ups and the downs and the uncertainty that military life can bring.  For any of you reading this who are new to military life there are a few things I have learnt that  I’d like to share with you.

Preterm Labour & Delivery Story

I wasn't planning on writing this post until the weekend, but unable to sleep or relax I started making notes, which then turned into a full post.  So here it is, my labour story.

When life gives you lemons...

What a horrible day to be lying in hospital in isolation.
Actually everyday has been awful for that, but today especially, today,  16th January marks 2 years since we lost Lucas, something that almost destroyed our marriage but somehow also made it stronger.