The Sealife Center, Bye Bye Swaddling and Chuggington!

It has been a very busy week! We have been making the most of the sunny weather and visiting the park, yes the parasol got used finally...What a pain they are everytime you cross the road having to recover the baby with shade from a new angle it made me wish Bugaboo did a sun canopy. I am however in love with the shocking pink colour of it and Tabitha is slopped in a vat of factor 50 so the odd ray of sun will not do any harm. You may have read the story of the mother in Brighton who sat her 5 month old in this recent sunshine and they suffered 20% burns it was shocking, most shocking though that the police and social services have not prosecuted the mother as its a clear case of child neglect.

Another milestone was made this week by Tabitha her first Chugginton journey to Brighton to visit friends and see the fishes at the Sealife center. I wasn't sure she'd enjoy either but she loved the train especially the announcements and excitedly waved her hands and feet about. At the center she made all the right noises 'aaaah, ooooh' when looking at the tanks of fish so i was glad we made the effort. I'd say the whole day was a success except for the return journey where she decided to fill her nappy in a very crowded carriage and stink the whole place out! I was very impressed that i can take her out now knowing she is happy carted about for 9 hours from place to place without any strops at all, perhaps she has a little gypsy blood in her after all!

The HUGE news is she is out of the swaddling finally! She stunned me with her adaptability in the end. We had an evening where she seemed unhappy going into the wrap so i just went with it and used the sleeping bag. She instantly rolled over onto her front and fell asleep. I turned her over onto her back but she did it again..so i had to have a little chat with myself and leave her that way.....On reflection now i'm happy about it, she looks very snug with her arms out beside her head and her bottom up in the air. She is 6 months old and very active and able to roll over and lift her head with ease. Laying on her front stops her feeling funny about her arms flapping about and so far she has cut out the 3am feed and just had a 5 minute wake up where i've patted her back and shes gone back off the sleep snoring like a little bear. I'm glad we used the swaddling it gave us a very easy start in parenthood and eventually Tabitha told us when she was ready to say goodbye to it. I think thats the main lesson here for me, i've been beating myself up for a few months about the transition but she is in control of her development stages and she'll do it when shes good and ready.

Love it, Hate it.

After I made comment on my facebook page about how scary i find ' The Numberjacks ' TV programme I discovered lots of other people find it pretty freaky too. I also have a huge problem with Disney Winnie the Pooh as all my friends know! I made it really clear when i was pregnant so that no-one would buy anything i would have to hide away for forever. Generally i hate all Disney i like the old style Winnie but that bright yellow freak is not coming in my house! If Tabitha ends up seeing him and liking him i don't know what i'll do!

I like Tabitha to watch Waybaloo or Timmy Time and shes a massive fan of Chuggington too. Toy wise i love classic wooden or weirdly modern stuff and so far shes too young to demand otherwise...i'm not holding my breath though!

So what TV programmes or Childrens characters do you hate/love and have you had to change your opinions when your child had other ideas?

Testing Mummy.

This week has been full of ups and downs. Tabitha has been testing all the daily routines to see if there is any give. I was genuinely worried when at the end of last week she became seriously distressed in the bath and ended up shouting at her Daddy to quickly get her out. The next two baths were awful she screamed and screamed. I started adapting the routine. Laying a towel over her bath chair incase the chair reminded her of the Ikea change unit ( that sounds very stupid now i've written it down! ). Daddy was home it being the weekend so one of us was on bubble blowing duty to distract her. They slowly got better and better. I braved just returning to the old routine in the end mostly because Daddy was back at work and i wasn't sure how i would wash her and blow bubbles! The result? Tabitha was fine back to her old self although I was sure she looked a bit smug about the parental hoop jumping.

She has since tried this with nappy change time and night feeds. So basically i'm very tired.

The last few nights i've started to give her dream feeds ( a night feed given while baby is still asleep ) before i go to bed in hope that would cut out the 3am feed. I was surprised at the way she guzzeled the feed while fast asleep and went back into the cot without stirring. So far it has only stopped the 3am feed one night but i'm going to stick to it, and keep my fingers crossed.

On a more positive note she has mastered the walker! When i say mastered i mean she can move it forward until she hits a wall or door and then stays there. She is so proud of herself, but not nearly as proud as i am of her.

B.B.B for a better nights sleep.

Bathtime, Bottle and Bedtime routines are so important for baby to get their rest and for you to keep your sanity, here is some tips on how i run our B.B.B routine.

When i first brought Tabitha home i was very squeamish about her belly button clip and was reluctant to bath her until it had fallen off so stuck to sponge washes for the first week. Once it was off we started our B.B.B routine everynight. It has helped so much in getting a good nights sleep out of her and given me and my partner our evenings in peace . I could not recommend more the J+J Bedtime range with Lavender, we use it all.

Our routine goes like this...6pm bath with bubbles, i use a plastic moulded seat inside our big bath, this gives me two free hands as i do bathtime on my own Monday to Friday. I don't keep her in there too long a five minutes play, hair wash, body wash then out. After the bath i take her into the nursery to dry off, talc and put on P.J's.

I think its vital to keep the ambience relaxed from this point onwards, low level lighting maybe soft music (think first date setting!). Even though i am usually on my own for bedtime (my partner isn't home from work) i am never tempted to take her out of the nursery while i get her bottle. Tabitha plays in her cot while i get the bottle ready. I think its nice to have somewhere to feed in the nursery. We did not splash out on a feeding chair, i have put the sofas footrest in there and covered it with a pretty blanket just for while she is still having night feeds. While feeding her the bottle i make very little eye contact with her. I don't engage in cooing or smiling either.

Now i'm not saying i feed her like a droid because i don't i stroke her head and cheeks and settle her but i am very aware not to stimulate her. We then swaddle and place in the cot, turn out the lights, give her a kiss and leave the room. Some nights she will cry a little and some she will gurgle to herself and quickly fall sleep.

Other nights she screams the house down! On these nights i wait a few minutes and return to the room stroke her face and hush her for a while then leave and repeat this until she is asleep it never takes more than three goes. I also use my monitor to hush her using the talk button this sometimes works but test out the volume with your partner before you use it, it may sound a bit more scary than comforting. My main tips are that however your baby goes to sleep ie. alone listening to music, in your arms, being rocked in a buggy ...that is how they will want to fall asleep when they wake during the night. So ideally you want them to settle themselves for the last dropping off to sleep part.

Every child will be different and like different things to settle them, but try and find a routine that works for you both. Make sure baby knows bedtime by all the key factors that surround it, low lights, music, fragrance, soft voices and quiet time in the nursery.

Oh and good luck!

ITS A BOY!

Congratulations to my friends Laura and Giles on the birth of ...

Rudi Jenson Curel Duke

Born 07.05.10 1pm weighing in at 8lb 7oz.

Bank Holiday Fun.

We brought Tabitha-Lo a walker this weekend and have had so much fun watching her playing in it. She loves the music and her little legs go crazy when she is banging the keys. I think her back has really straightened up even in the last few days and she is nearly holding herself up in a sitting position.

She is having a bit of a sensitive phase at the moment. When we had a family gathering the noise of people laughing made her cry. Today we went to Ikea and she screamed when i put her on their change mats. Babies do go through periods where they are unsure and nervous of people and change, i'd say thats where we are at with Tabitha right now. I'm hoping she'll return to her normal happy personality soon or i'll be worried she has inherited my social skills.

What is BPA?

What is BPA?

Are your babies bottles BPA Free?

When you see that a product is 'Free' of something you assume its something harmful or bad for you. My bottles are BPA Free so i wanted to know why....here is what i found.

Taken from Tommy Tippee website:

BPA is one of the 50 most-produced chemicals in the world. It is used in the manufacture of numerous household articles, from plastic water jugs to take-out containers, sports equipment, canned food liners and baby formula cans. This widespread use of polycarbonate feeding bottles is due to the exceptional combination of properties that the material gives, including safety, toughness, durability, lightweight, glass-like appearance and its suitability for all common household methods of sterilisation.

On Saturday March 14 2010, BBC News featured an item about BPA in baby feeding bottles. And in recent months many environmental groups have expressed concerns that the BPA contained in baby feeding bottles could ‘leach’ or leak out into a baby’s milk from the plastic when heated under certain conditions, or when bottles were cracked or scratched. This, they claimed, could result in health concerns for babies and children.

Bisphenol A has been intensively scrutinized for a long period of time and no credible scientific evidence has yet been found as to whether BPA is damaging to humans. The Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency are among many national and international bodies to publicly state that polycarbonate is safe to use.

Tommy Tippee with 50 years of experience, have decided that they should do whatever they could to minimise the confusion for parents in order to provide the total reassurance they have come to expect from them. The Closer to Nature range are BPA Free.

Teething.

Tabitha-Lo started teething at two months and cut her first two teeth within two days of each other at 4 months old. She has been very good about it all having a bit of Bonjela here and there and one day of calpol induced dosing through the pain. She didn't really take to the teething toys we offered her, however i have now discovered Bickiepegs. They are teething biscuits that are available from Boots. The biscuit does not break down contains no salt or sugar and going by Tabithas face when she is biting down on them do the job!

I have however vamped them up slightly by replacing the string that comes with them (the company advise you to tie them onto a button hole) with some pretty ribbon. Admittedly they look a bit like a dog biscuit but she keeps herself very quiet in the buggy biting away on them, dropping them and picking them back up again. Result.

Swaddling Update...

It has not been going well. My daughter does not like her arms. First night i was in and out of the nursery every hour settling her back down. This basically involved holding her arms down by her side as if she was swaddled until she went back to sleep. By 2 am i broke and swaddled her in a cot sheet, in my head this wasn't 'real' swaddling and didn't count. Last night i put her down to sleep swaddled in the cot sheet still going with my 'not real' swaddling angle. She still woke at midnight sobbing and requiring a feed to go back to sleep and at 5am i was awoken by screaming...5am!

I have been listening to friends advice and of course Grannies and today have come to a decision, the swaddling is back! She likes it and it makes her feel safe, she'll grow used to her arms as she gains more control over them.

Or as her father put it...She has won me over.