Your Baby Week By Week: Book Review

I’m acutely aware that reading is a luxury that most new mums are unlikely to be afforded, however, I highly recommend this book to any new mum or mum-to-be.

I didn’t come across this until Franky was about 10 weeks old and I WISH I’d found it sooner!

Your Baby Week By Week does exactly what it says!

The book basically takes you through the first 6 months of your babys life, week by week and lets you know what to expect at each point.

Each week is broken down into super useful topics;

A General overview

Sleep

Crying

Feeding

Nappies

Washing

Development & Playing

When to see a Doctor

What’s Happening to Mum

Planning Ahead

I could really have done with this book in the first few weeks, when you have no idea what your doing and more than anything, are just looking for a bit of reassurance and guidance.

Its brilliant for helping to explain your babys behaviour and patterns, reassuring you that you’re doing just fine and that your baby is as ‘normal’ as any baby is!

It’s easy to read and follow and each chapter/week follows the same format.

I got my book from Amazon for £9.09 and I’m finding its worth its weight in gold.

The Shnuggle Moses Basket

One of the most important and necessary item’s you’ll need to buy for your baby is a Moses basket.

Most Moses baskets are generally made of wicker or palm leaves and it’s easy to think that just any basket will do as they’re ‘all the same’.

Well my friends, that’s just not the case.

Yes the traditional Moses baskets have been around for forever and to be fair, have stood the test of time, but it’s worth knowing that sometimes, they’re just not all that great.

They can creak and make noises when baby moves, they can sometimes feel a bit flimsy, the hood rarely ever stays up and they are a nightmare to clean. No, make that nigh on impossible to clean!

Then there’s the Shnuggle Moses basket.

This beautiful basket is made from a strong but flexible, hypoallergenic and easy to clean material that is far safer for your baby and has a ventilated base to ensure a constant flow of fresh air.

It's practically silent when your baby moves around and has a great locking system which means that the hood actually stays up, helping your baby to stay asleep. (Which lets face it, is REALLY important!) It’s also 10% bigger than other baskets which means baby can fit in it for longer.

Made with 100% pure cotton fabrics and available in a range of different colours, it's a warm, cosy and stylish place for your baby to sleep.

It’s a really beautiful looking basket with a base available in 6 shades; Ivory Cream, Pure White, Pebble Grey, Sage Green, Sky Blue and Blossom Pink.

Each basket alone costs £75 or you can opt to buy a basket with a folding stand for £95 or a rocking stand (which I have) for £100.

There is also the option to buy a the basket as part of a really handy starter pack, where you’ll get the basket, stand of your choice and also get 2 fitted sheets and a cellular blanket for £101 or £106, which is actually really reasonable!

I had the Shnuggle starter pack in Sky Blue and with the rocking stand, which by the way has been a god send and I highly recommend!

I place his Shnuggle and stand on our laminate wood flooring and can just gently tap the base of the stand with my foot to make it rock gently, helping Franky off to sleep!

The  Shnuggle rocking stand

While I know that aesthetics are not what you should base a purchase as important as your baby’s first bed on, but the Shnuggle is a really gorgeous basket which I get complimented on all the time.

 Its sleek shape and pretty colours make it an attractive addition to a room rather than a necessary eye sore.

Franky, age approx 1 week enjoying his Shnuggle!

For me, it ticks every box.

It’s a safe, sturdy, hypoallergenic and easy to clean basket with 100% pure cotton fabrics to keep him warm and safe.

The ventilated base allows me to rest easy knowing that he is surrounded by a constant flow of air so he doesn’t overheat.

The hood actually stays up and in place when I decide to use it to shield him from the sun in the day, saving me from constantly having to pull it back in place!

The basket is 10% bigger than other baskets so I’ll get more use out of it.

The helpful sets that Shnuggle offer allow you to purchase everything you’ll need for your baby’s first bed, for a great price, all at once.

It is available in 6 gorgeous colours.

It is a really chic, gorgeous basket unlike the majority of those on the market!

It gets Franky aged approx 8 weeks seal of approval!

So, if you hadn’t yet gathered, It’s safe to say that I’m really thrilled with my Shnuggle.

You can get your Shnuggle from their website now.

Ewan The Dream Sheep: Review

When Franky was about a week old, during the peak of the sleepless nights and restlessness, I found myself googling like a mad woman in the middle of the night, ideas and products that could help settle him so I could get a few precious zzzz's!

After scouring the Internet and twitter, I came across Ewan the dream sheep.

Rave reviews claimed that this little purple faced sheep could really help settle my baby. I was sold (and desperate!)

Ewan arrived and took his place in our lives 24 hours later and I've never looked back. 

"But how does it work and what does he do?" I hear you ask. Well...

Ewan isn't just a cute cuddly toy. Oh no. He emits soothing sounds at a low base frequency and a calming pink warm glow, which when combined, help settle babies and toddlers into a peaceful sleep.

He has a button in each of his legs that when pressed, turns on the pink light in his chest and emits one of 4 different sounds.

One leg plays a heartbeat and womb noise, another the sound of a vacuum cleaner, another one sounds like rain and the fourth is a harp, each combined with the gentle womb sequence.

You can chose to have the sounds on either loud or quiet ( I always have him on loud as it seems to have better results), and the pink light is emitted with each track.

I placed Ewan in Frankys Moses basket at bed time and selected the womb and heartbeat track. I watched as his eyes stared at the gentle pink glow coming from Ewan's chest and he lay gentle listening to the music.

Within just a few minutes I watched his eyes become heavy until he fell soundly asleep!

I was gob smacked- every night before I had had to rock him to sleep in my arms and hold him until he was in a deep sleep before putting him in his Moses basket. This time, he went off by himself and quickly!

I use Ewan every single night without fail now to help settle him into a peaceful sleep and his current favourite track is the harp- which sends me to sleep nicely too!

The only slight negative is that each track only plays for 20 minutes at a time before going off.

Sometimes Franky isn't quite asleep by this point and its a race to scramble out of bed and grab Ewan's leg quickly to start him up again before Franky notices!

That said, it's a tiny inconvenience compared to the benefits Ewan offers and I wouldn't be without him!

I would recommend Ewan to any new mum, or mum-to-be and would definitely classify him as a product you "need" when buying for baby! 

Ewan the dream sleep costs £29.99 and is available from the Sweet Dreamers website. 

Baby B Has Arrived! My Birth Story

As most of you who follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram will know, I gave birth to my baby on January 10th at 21:58, a whole 3 weeks early!

Hence the sudden and lengthy absence from my blog!

On Friday 10th Jan I woke at 7am to drive my hubby to the station to go to work. I reluctantly lugged my heavy body of bed and made my way to the bathroom. At that exact moment I felt something warm running down my legs. “Oh fab, I’ve peed myself” I thought.

I got to the bathroom and realised it definitely wasn’t pee and was fairly sure my waters had just broken. In a mild state of panic and confusion i rang our hospital and told them what had happened, not truly believing it could be my waters as I was only 36 weeks and 6 days pregnant and 3 weeks away from his due date of Feb 1st.

The hospital told me to come in to get checked, but told me they’d likely send me home. I came downstairs to see Mr B packing our hospital bags in the car. “Don’t bother” I told him, “we aren’t having a baby today, its too early, we’ll be coming home again soon.”

Famous last words.

By the time we were en route I was having tightening pains every 4-6 minutes. They weren’t particularly painful, just uncomfortable.

We were taken to the assessment ward and i was stuck on a monitor which showed that I was having fairly regular contractions.

I was asked to get off the bed so they could examine me to see if my waters had in fact gone, at which point the second i took my bottoms off, I was standing in a lovely warm puddle, which pretty much confirmed that my waters had gone!

I was warned that because Baby  B was now clearly going to be early, that he may require some extra help once born, to breathe and feed etc. This put the fear in me, especially as he was only 1 day away from being considered ‘term’.

“Will I still be able to have a water birth?” I asked. I was told No, because he was considered premature, if only by a day. I was pretty gutted to be honest. 

Being monitored

Not much happened between then (about 8am) and 2pm when I first got examined. I went for a coffee in the cafe downstairs with Mr B and my mum and dad who were now here, then when Mr B went home to get the car seat (which we hadn’t even had a chance to get out of the box yet, let alone fit in the car and to sort out our dog Dexter) I walked around the ward with my mum, pausing between contractions to brace myself.

The contractions were getting stronger, more regular and more painful! 

They were reluctant to examine me due to the risk of infection as my waters had gone, but they told me I was 3cm.

Things from here are fairly hazy. My contractions ramped up a gear and pretty soon I was kneeling beside my bed on pillows sucking on the gas and air, which gave me some relief.

Mr B was still awol sorting out stuff and I remember getting very impatient and kept asking my mum to find out where he was and started shouting that I wanted him here.

After what felt like forever, I heard he was back. By this point I was unable to open my eyes- I felt like it helped me cope better through the pain to keep my eyes closed. I was still on my knees on the floor bent over the bed and was still in the assessment unit as no beds on the labour ward had been free yet.

The monitor showed i was having regular contractions

Eventually I remember being helped into a wheelchair and taken to a private room, where somehow I was undressed, put into a gown and put on a bed.

This is where it got so much worse. I was on all fours, hugging the head of the bed, sucking on gas and air with every ounce of energy I had.

It wasn’t enough and I was screaming for an epidural. I was examined again at around 5pm I think and was about 5cm dilated.

I was given a shot of morphine, which in my opinion did very little, and on all fours, with my eyes closed, screaming i begged for an epidural to anyone that would listen.

“He’s just in theatre”, “ you’re next on the list”, “he’ll be here soon” I was repeatedly told. I didn’t think i could go on.

I then remember being told by Mr B, my mum and widwives to get up and try to go to the toilet to empty my bladder. There was some discussion that as I hadn’t been for a wee in hours my bladder could be full and preventing the baby from moving lower.

I shouted at them that i could barely see, let alone get off the bed and walk anywhere. My contractions were on top of one another and I wasn’t getting a break, and had no idea how id make it to the loo.

That said, I did, so sat on the loo while a midwife sat next to me holding my gas and air. It was whilst sat there that I became aware that the sounds i were making had become more guttural, and i thought I felt like I was pushing.

I told the midwives that I thought I needed to push and they rushed me back to the bed.

I remembered being told that it is dangerous to push unless you are fully dilated, and as I hadn’t been examined for ages and didn’t know if I was ready to push yet, was reluctant to do so, but my body was doing what it wanted regardless.

Shortly after this at around 8pm i think I finally had my epidural. I didn’t feel anything, I was in so much pain that I was entirely unable to feel the needle going in.

I remember laying back after it had all been put in, still able to feel the contractions and screaming that it hadn’t worked! The anaesthetist then told me that it can take 20 mins to work, and of course, it eventually did. 

It was at this point i was examined again, only to be told I was 10cm dilated and had they known, wouldn’t have given me an epidural as i was almost at the end of my labour and ready to push.

I didn’t care, It had been 12 hours since my contractions started and i was shattered. The midwife gave me an hour to rest and to give time for the babys heads to come lower.

I was then being asked if i wanted to give pushing a go. I couldn’t feel a thing! I was pushing how i thought i should push, and from the midwifes comments, knew i was doing something right.

After about 15 mins I was asked if i wanted to feel the mop of hair on my babys head, which was crowning.

"Yes, my baby has hair!" I remember thinking.

Next thing I knew she’d said ‘babys head is out’, then with another push my baby was here.

He was put on my chest, all warm,wriggly and wet. I lifted his leg and saw that he was a boy, looked at my hubby and said “we have a son!”

A beautiful, healthy son who didn’t need any help breathing or feeding and for 3 weeks early, weighed a healthy 6lb 7oz.

I had him on my chest while the midwife did her best to repair some damage that little mr caused on his way out, but thankfully due to the epidural couldn’t feel anything.

I couldn’t stop staring at him. My son, Finally here. I say ‘finally here’, I hadn’t had to wait for him at all and recall shouting at my mum through contractions “But mum, I haven’t even got to this chapter in my birthing book!”.

Those 15 hours of labour, as exciting, scary and painful as they were, brought me the most wonderful gift.  

A beautiful, healthy son who we love more than anything in this world. 

So world, please say hello to my son,  Franky Michael Frederick Berryman. Born on Friday January 10th 2014 at 21:58 weighing 6lb 7oz.

Bump Pic! 31 Weeks Pregnant

31 weeks pregnant and I had my Baby Shower! 

(I’ll tell you all about this in a separate post and keep this weekly update as an update or it’ll be super long!)

What I will tell you is one of the lovely gifts I received at my Baby Shower was a pregnancy/birthing ball.

Its  basically an exercise ball and I'm in love! Sitting, standing or laying for any period of time, in any position has started to become really uncomfortable, but I can bounce away on my birthing ball for hours and Its so comfy.

My ball came with a leaflet recommending other ways you can use it and various positions that are comfortable to sit and get yourself into while pregnant, as well as positions which are best to help get baby into an optimum position for birth, and as Baby B is transverse, I've been doing these every evening!

With every week that goes by work is becoming more and more of a chore and around 3pm every day I am finding myself in need of a nap, as I sit at my desk feeling like a zombie that could drop off at any point!

I took Friday off work for this very reason, I’m so tired and run down and truly couldn't face another days worth of commuting this week. On the plus side, only 10 working days left before maternity leave!

Baby B moves constantly now and has the hiccups ALL THE TIME! Its cute, but can get really annoying when you’re trying to lay quietly and can just feel these re-occuring pulses in your tummy, which are getting pretty strong now!

Mama Mio Tummy Rub Stretch Mark Butter

One of my biggest beauty concerns since becoming pregnant, is the emergence of stretch marks.

While considered by some as being and inevitable side effect of pregnancy, they are still something that I’d like to do my best to avoid!

Don’t get me wrong, I am already home to several slithery, silvery lines across my hips, due to weight gain and loss, but If possible I’d like to get away without having them strewn across my tummy, as although they fade with time, they never go.

 Prevention is always better than cure, so with that In mind I started my war against the stretch marks from about week 12, and my weapon of choice? Mama Mio’s Tummy Rub Stretch Mark Butter.

This cream is a decadently rich, non greasy, creamy butter that melts into your skin leaving it feeling incredibly soft and nourished while it’s fresh, slightly citrusy fragrance envelops your senses!

I have been using this twice a day religiously all over my bump and hips and its texture combined with its relaxing and fresh fragrance has on more than one occasion, seen me utter the sound  ‘aaaah’!

The butter helps to strengthen and retain your skins elasticity with the help of Omega 3,6,and 9, and as yet I haven’t seen a single mark emerge!

My one criticism is that it is only available in 120ml tubes- I slather this stuff all over me and would love a big juicy pot of it rather than a relatively small tube.

Mama Mio’s Tummy Rub Stretch Mark Butter costs £23 for 120ml and I think it’s worth its weight in gold!

Elemis Skin Nourishing Bath Milk

One of the things I look forward to most of an evening, especially now we are coming into winter, is a lovely, warm soak in my bath.

There is no better way of leaving the stresses of the day behind than by sinking into the tub and feeling the warm water soothe your aching limbs and tired mind.

Aaah. 

There is nothing better in my opinion.

Except wait, there is actually one thing better than that, and that’s a bath with Elemis’Skin Nourishing Milk.

This award winning product has a rich milk protein base of nourishing vitamins, amino acids and minerals with natural plant collagens that help to feed and nourish the skin while keeping it soft and supple.

Unlike some bubble baths that can be drying on your skin, this milk is extremely gentle and is suitable for sensitive and dry skin, so for me is perfect!

Did I mention it smells amazing? Think really soft, delicate baby powder. Mnnnnnn

This milk is the perfect treat for mums-to-be, soothing tight, itchy skin while you bathe and can even be used neat on dry patches and your bump!

Now, it costs £42 for a lovely big 400ml bottle, which may sound a lot, but it really is so worth the investment, especially if like me, bath time is something you cherish! 

You can get your Elemis Skin Nourishing Milk at Time to Spa, Here.

The 12 Week Scan: I Saw My Baby!

I saw my baby again! My amazing little baby that no longer looks like a jelly bean but an actual, teenie tiny little person!

Waiting nervously and excitedly for the sonographer to collect us from the waiting room, I survey the other women waiting to be scanned, all with varying bump sizes, but all with the same excited smiles on their faces.

Walking into the little room I lay down on the chair and look up at the screen in front of me.

Argh I’m going to see my baby again!

A blob of cold gel is put onto my belly, bloated from drinking so much water before the scan and the cold scanning instrument is pushed onto my tummy. (You are asked to drink about a pint and a half at least 20 mins before being scanned)

‘’I’m just going to take a look and then I’ll turn the screen on for you,’’ she says.

That as the longest 15 seconds of my life!

What if they don’t find anything? What is Baby B isn’t ok?

I’m nervous.

After what feels like a lifetime the screen flickers to life and I see our baby.

Our baby is beautiful and bouncing around inside me like I’m some sort of trampoline! He/she has their leg extended in the air the entire time, much to my amusement, and I watch in awe as the sonographer does all the checks she needs to do.

I’m shown my babys heartbeat and told that the nuchal translucency (the collection of fluid behind the babys head which can be an indicator of downs syndrome) is small in measurement (which is good), that all looks as it should and I’m actually 12+4 days pregnant rather than 12+1.

Baby B at 12 weeks 4 days

My due date is now February 1^st!

I'm then asked to have some routine blood tests done, Including one to determine the chances of my baby having downs syndrome.

On the way out we book our 16 week appointment with the Midwife and the 20 week scan with the sonographer. It feels like so far away! How am I going to wait another 8 weeks to see my baby again!

Gah this pregnancy malarkey is testing, especially for a super impatient person!