Blossom hits the bottle!

So the time has come to introduce a bottle to Miss Blossom. She is exclusively breastfed but I cannot deny I was looking forward to giving the girls (Salutes the boobs) a well earned break. Plus I have a hen night to go to in May and a wedding in June so the bottle will need to be established by then so that I can have a jolly (ahem I mean a break!)

I am lucky enough to have been sent some bottles from BABYBORNFREE to review.

I have reviewed their toddler cups before HERE where I have commented on the use of BPA chemicals in infant cups and feel passionate about the Baby Born Free product. You can read more about BPA in this fantastic post written by MUMMYTIPS. It makes extremely interesting reading and I have certainly had my eyes opened to what goes into our infant feeder cups and bottles since researching the subject on the internet. They have banned the use of these chemicals in infant bottles and cups in Denmark, hopefully it will also happen here, but until then we need to make an informed decision as to what products we use.

So, I expressed the milk and being the control freak that I am decided that I wanted to give her her first bottle! Which is bonkers as it kind of defeated the whole aspect of me having a break but there you go. I wrapped myself in the Husbands dressing gown to hide my milk smell and got on with it. I have to say I wasn't sure how she would take to it as the bottles teats aren't particularly nipple like. But she took the bottle no problem!

Success. She took no exception to the teat and had no sign of gas afterwards, I was chuffed and she was full! Happy days!

I'll continue to use these bottles for Blossom, and Monty continues to use the cups. And I am happy in the knowledge that they are BPA free.

So to the hen night I shall go, leaving my Husband with a freezer full of my house white!

They are available from Boots,Mothercare and amazon.
Prices start at £12.99 for two 5oz bottles.

*I may have scarred Monty for life, he saw me expressing and eyes wide said :

"MUMMY! WHAT.ARE.YOU.DOOOOOOOING???"

hmmm.

What they don't tell you about breastfeeding

1. Around day four, you wake up and your boobs look like two bald heads, adult bald heads.

2.Cabbage leaves help engorgement. True. Cabbage leaves stink. Also true.

3.You're other half walks in on you expressing. Bang goes your sex life, he'll never see you in the same way again.

4.Before you get into your breastfeeding groove (and it still hurts) after every feed you are on a countdown to the next one...A COUNTDOWN TO PAIN!!

5.If anyone wakes baby before they are due a feed, so that you end up having to feed early, that person is quite honestly off your Christmas card list. In fact all they will be recieving is a dog turd. (Not the fake joke kind)

6. If that person is male and they make any kind of comment about your disgruntlement, they are met with :
"HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF EVERY THREE HOURS A SPARROW CHEWED ON YOUR TESTICLES???"

7.Anyone making the comment that baby needs a feed (with that annoying sorry smirky face) you are mentally counting the ways you could murder them ,bury them, hide the evidence and get away with it. Or something like that.

8.When you are feeding in the middle of the night and other half is sleeping like a baby next to you, you actually consider smothering him with a pillow. But realise that is a tad dramatic. So you turn the tellybox up loud instead. Hah.

9. Your let down reflex put quite simply is like a hose. If baby stops feeding and you don't realise, you will most probably spray their face, maybe the chair, and yourself a little bit. I did this once in a Mothercare feeding room> And a cafe> And a doctors waiting room.

10. When you are due to feed you boobs start to fill and then go rock hard, as if someone has sprayed freeze spray on them. A kind of boobie ice age?

11. You will wake up, panic you have pissed the bed, then think you have knocked a drink over yourself, then realise your boobs have just exploded. A breast milk crime scene has occurred and the duvet is wet as are you.


All of this is normal.

And it does get easier.

And when it does it is awesome.

And thats how Mo see's it!

All these little gems were uttered by Monty in the space of one day. I had to write them down for fear of forgetting them and these little Montyisms are far too precious to be forgotten.



"Quick Mummy Blossom crying, get your boobies"
(On hearing Blossom waking up from a nap)

"It's tidy up time in five minutes, if you wanna make a mess, do it now"
(Cheeky bugger)

"My hair looks brilliant Mummy"
(On catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror)

"It's too loudy"
(noisy I think he means!)

You need this

Since having Blossom I have used many newborn products, some of which have been fantastic.

In the next few months I'll be sharing the best stuff in my YOU NEED THIS posts.

This beautiful swaddling blanket comes from the fantastic website MANUKA BABY, founded by the brilliant Alaina Morris.

It is gorgeous. And it is the quality and detail that set it aside from your run of the mill swaddlers. I have a white one with a cute little rose on the front. Too flipping sweet!

They are made from organic New Zealand cotton and are not cheap but make a great luxury baby gift. If you are pregnant, I'd drop hints now!

Blossom is only loosely swaddled in the picture, but at bed time she finds being swaddled comforting and I find it helps to settle her, it's also great for preventing wake ups from the startling morro reflex present in new babies.

An artistic trip(up my bum)

I'm standing in the kitchen making breakfast whilst simultaneously trying to stop my contact lenses falling out from the not sleeping. I'm also silently asking myself if I am tired or if perhaps I have had a stroke as the left side of my face seems to have dropped somewhat.

Monty bouncily trundles into the kitchen jumping down the step and trips into me. He falls over,landing flat on his front on the floor.

If this was me I would have lay face down and screamed until someone showed me some sympathy. But I guess when you're two it's less far to fall? He springs up. I carry on buttering toast.

Then his little voice pipes up "LOOK MUMMY LOOK! IT BEHIND YOU"

So I turn, I look.

But he jumps behind me.

Again "Look Mummy Look!"

So I turn around again, but again he's moved behind me.

We repeat this what feels like twelve no, even 13 times (ok probably three times but I am shattered and prone to exaggerate)

Now I am an incredibly patient Mummy especially early in the morning. (Previous sentance big fuck off lie)but even I was getting annoyed. And then I realised. He was standing staring at me with a stub of mint green chalk clutched in his mitt.

He was referring to the massive chalk line he had drawn down my arse as he fell over.

Sigh.

It's rubbish when your boobs wet themselves. Really rubbish.

Last night was utter pants. Great big skiddy, paisley, y fronts pants.

I can't complain too much. No sod it. Yes I can.

Gorgeous husband was on a night shift, Mo sneaked into bed with me and I was too knackered to argue and to be quite honest was quite enjoying him snuggling in. Obviously it's a tad annoying when he starts to sleep star shaped and starts rolling over and slapping me round the face. That's rubbish. But the cudding is rather nice.

The night started OK with Blossom waking for her last feed of the day at around 11.30pm, this then usually means that she goes till 3ish then again till 7ish. All perfectly acceptable times.

Not so last night.

Every time I fed her, changed her nappy, settled her down, then tried to put her down and BAM she was wide awake. Seriously I am sure I heard her whisper "no chance Mummy!"

So in the end I think I slept 1am till 3am, then 6am till 8am.

At one point tears came. Not hers. Mine. Tears that anyone who has been up half the night with a 4week old baby will understand. The repetitive sleep deprivation has started to kick in and a toddler during the day means fat chance of a daytime nap for me.

But the sweetest thing happened as I started to cry.

This warm little body snuggled in beside me, wrapped his arm around me and with one hand , gently patted my arm. All the while he gently shhhhhd me and said "It okay Mummy."

My sweet little man. Being Mummy's little helper. Taking his role very seriously obviously.

When I woke up to Mr arriving home from his night shift, the duvet was wet, as was my top. Cheers boobs. Way to make a bad night, worse.

Friends

We spent Easter Sunday with very good friends of ours, eating occurred as did drinking wine, giggling but best of all an Easter egg hunt took place.

Monty and his gorgeous buddy N went searching for their chocolate prizes and it was quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen.



We have known N and his parents a few years, since I got chatting with N's Mummy S at a sing and sign class that I took Monty to. The rest is history.




But the loveliest thing is for now Monty and N seem to have a genuine friendship, not just based on the fact that myself and N's Mummy are great friends, but based on spaceships, dee daws, giggling and running in circles.




OK they have walloped each other a fair few times, and pulled each others hair, but underneath that they have started to genuinely interact. Gone is the parallel playing of babyhood, replaced by something honest and pure and wholesome in a way that probably only exists in two year old children.




I love to watch them and listen to them. I also love to eat cake and drink red wine with N's Mummy.

So happy days really!

My loves my sister my do

This is a relationship that took me by surprise. When I was pregnant I had no idea really what kind of reaction Monty would have towards his sister. I expected tantrums and jealousy.

We tried to prepare him as much as we could. We took him to scans. Told him it was going to be a little girl, his little sister and he would be a big brother. Countless sibling books were purchased and read at night before bedtime, the same books were packed in his nursery bag and read to him there. We encouraged him to do paintings for his sisters bedroom. He grasped the idea that his sister was in my tummy but took it literally to mean that everyone had a sister in their tummy.

And then Blossom arrived. As soon as he came into Mummy and Daddy's room that first morning, that first meeting, we held our breaths and hoped he would be happy to see the little Winston Churchill look alike in her moses basket.

Straight away he wanted to 'have a go' and 'my want to hold her.'

He adores her, he cuddles her constantly, often too tightly. He plants kisses on her face that leave dribbly remnants. And he puts his face so close to hers his hair tickles her.

The only difficulty we have had is he started to wet himself again, but this didn't last long and we didn't make an big deal about it.

I am so proud of him and the love he has for her.

Pickles nursery!

I know she has a name now, but we still refer to her bedroom as Pickle's room for some reason.

Those clothes hanging up are my baby clothes, twenty seven years old! Retro!

I mentioned in this post that as Montys room is so fab I was finding it hard to create a room for Blossom (who at that point was Pickle) that was equally as lovely. It is not completely done, I add things as I see and buy them but it is yummy!






The blind was a made especially by a fab company called Coppybridge Blinds. I am really pleased with it and I love the Cath Kidston Strawberry fabric. They are a brilliant company and put up with a lot of pregnant divvyness on my part.

My favourite detail is the bunting made for Blossom by the super talented Sharon Turner founder of scrummythings.co.uk She is so clever (AND she made bunting for Jamie Olivers daughter Petal's bedroom!)

I still need to find pretty curtains and put her name up on her door but I am sure when she snuggles down for the night in a few months in her stokke sleepi she'll just be pleased to be out of that sodding moses basket. If I'm honest, I'm dreading it. Why can't they just sleep in a little bed next to you forever?

Just coming up for air!

Hello! Hurrah! Alright!

It has been a while. It would seem that a second bambino adds some interesting to the mix.

I have spent the last four weeks since Blossom arrived with mostly no make up, funny looking hair ( I left it to dry naturally one day- gorgeous Husband calls it tropical when I do that, very curly you see) and bumping into walls quite often with either a breast pump attached to a tit, or other times a child. But with less wall bumping when a child is attached on account of sittingdownness.

Today I feel a sense of 'I can do this.'

And I can. Because I am these Babba's Mummy, and a good one at that, and it has taken me this long to realise it. As now I know it is not about perfect make up, tight tummy. housework and washing completion or any of that other 'stuff.'


It is just about Monty and Blossom, and a whole lot of breastfeeding, cuddles, food prep and pulling sesame street yfronts up and down and up and down.


Oh yes.