Getting all poetic over babies first autumn/winter...

Is anyone else excited about autumn coming?! There was the slightest chill in the air this morning and it made me all nostalgic for the colder, coming seasons.

I love autumn and winter! Both seasons just fill me with wonder and excitement... Here come the cliches...

Leaves turning different warm colours and falling, bonfire nights at local parks, warm stews and soups, hearty pies and desserts, Halloween and pumpkins, Christmas, snow and so much more!

I know summer isn't even over yet, but September is coming and with it the promise of all the perks of autumn and winter.

I feel that these seasons are when Britain really comes into its own and offers its best! Forget 30C summer days, give me cold fresh winter day with a Sunday roast any day.

I can't wait to fire up this bad boy again and get the Christmas scented Yankee candles out!

Don't even get me started on the Christmas markets! In December I am happiest with a bratwurst in a bun and mulled wine while viewing handmade gifts in German style markets!

And now I am a Mum it comes with even more excitement; autumnal strolls in the park with the pram, babies first Christmas and I plan on taking Archie to bonfire night (but I will be buying him a pair of baby noise cancelling headphones)... I truly can't wait to share all these experiences with him!

These seasons, this year, are also going to coincide with Archie weaning... I can't wait to make pumpkin soup for him and homemade focaccia bread over Halloween! That sounds way more middle class than I am, I just find focaccia bread is harder to ruin! :)

And once it gets to Christmas Archie will be old enough to sit in a highchair and try some form of Christmas dinner.

So while I will enjoy that last days of summer I am also anxiously awaiting the day the first autumn leaf falls!

DUI (Driving Under the Influence... of Milk!)

I know I am still new to motherhood so there are a lot of things I am still learning. One thing I have still not quite got a handle on is our pram. In particular driving it.

In fact, my really bad "pram driving" has become a joke amongst my family. Sadly, their joking has some fact behind it. I can hardly claim to be good at controlling the pram when in 24 hours I managed to run over a stranger's foot in the street, crash into a bin, bashed into a pavement several times and almost took out a shop display. I am worried I will accidentally drag out a shop display soon and get arrested for unintentionally stealing.

Yes, I am no good at steering my pram. I am so bad that I apologise to people in the street and explain I am new to motherhood and controlling the pram.

It doesn't help that the pavements where I live have so many potholes, pavement works and uneven surfaces that it is like a rally car/off road experience for my baby.

Yet another obstacle!

In addition to this, you also have other people to swerve around and other prams to negotiate. Which pram has right of way on a pavement? Someone really needs to create a "Pramway Code"... and I definitely need driving lessons.

I just hope I get better soon, if only for the sake of the feet in my local neighbourhood.

Does anyone else have this problem? It would be reassuring to know other parents struggle too.

5 Pregnancy and New Mummy Life Hacks (and advice)

I am by no means an expert at anything to do with pregnancy or being a Mum, but I have discovered a few things over the past 12 months. From trying to get pregnant to pregnancy, birth and eventually being a new Mum.

There is a few Mummy life hacks that I wanted to share. These are just basics, I plan on writing a blog for advice on each stage (conception, pregnancy and new mummy life) at a later stage.

Most of these are about what I did to save money on the costs involved with pregnancy and babies.

One: Pregnancy Vitamin Tablets
Firstly, I found that pregnancy vitamin tablets can be expensive (especially if you get unnecessarily drawn into brands). However, I found that Boots own brand pregnancy supplements did the job (it contains the important things like Folic Acid, Vitamin D and more), I had a healthy 8lb 15oz baby boy (and fingers crossed he will stay that way). I have two hints for the Boots vitamins (link to the ones I used here). The first one is that they have 2 options, a 90 tablet option at £9.84, or a 30 tablet option at £3.49. However, Boots always seem to have an offer on their vitamins, of 3 for the price of 2. So it is cheaper to buy 3 boxes of the 30 tablets, saving you £2.86 for 90 tablets!

In addition to this, I read that you can use pregnancy tablets after you give birth in place of expensive, branded breastfeeding vitamin tablets. I would always advise checking labels on tablets though and checking with your Doctor.


Two: Maternity Pads
Needing maternity pads after giving birth is inevitable and most women will need a decent supply of them! Mothercare do large packs of 30 which are usually £4.99, but they are currently on offer at £3.33 (link here).

Even at the regular price I felt they were inexpensive - but I found that they were also very handy for periods postpartum. Sorry to be going into detail but after pregnancy you may find that your periods are a lot heavier, and the heavy duty maternity pads were ideal for this (as well as being cheaper than many sanitary pads!).


Three: Baby Wipes
I know there probably isn't much sense in it, but I prefer the Pampers sensitive wipes over other wipes. They are just thicker, wetter and seem to be softer than many others. However, Pampers is generally one of the most expensive brands for nappies and wipes. So as a compromise I buy the Pampers sensitive wipes either in bulk or using a deal (Tesco currently have packs of 56 wipes for 2 for £2.00) and also buy cheaper supermarket own brand wipes (such as Tesco Everyday Value Fragrance Free Baby Wipes - 72 Wipes for 46p). I then use the cheap wipes for those really dirty nappies that seem to use 30 wipes to finally get your baby's bottom clean again, and only use the sensitive Pampers wipes to finish off and for nappies that are just wet. I find doing this keeps the cost down a little bit while also meaning I can use the wipes I prefer, most of the time.


Four: Breast Pads
I have two tips about breast pads, first of all I bought reusable ones and regret this. They were bulky in my bra and made my boobs look weird shapes and they would get lost in the wash (because they were so small). I would not advise buying them.

Secondly, you don’t need anywhere near as many disposable breast pads as you may think. I got given boxes and boxes of unused pads from female friends (recently given birth) who had bought loads of them and never used them. I barely used any of them myself!

Your milk (that leaks enough to need pads) comes in a few days after giving birth, and within a day or two I found that your milk is meeting the demands of your baby. So you stop leaking. This may be different for every woman but I believe it may be better to just buy 1 box of breast pads before giving birth, and then buying more in the unlikely event of needing more.


Five: Baby Bodycare
I have been given and bought so many baby moisturisers, soaps, shampoo and more. I just don't have enough bathroom space for it all and my baby barely uses any of them. We only use 3 items: sudocrem (for any nappy rashes), Johnson’s shampoo and Johnson’s baby soap with honey (you can buy a pack of 4 for £1.00 in many shops).

Basically my top tip here is not to go overboard on all the bodycare products for babies. Buy a couple of items to start with. Often soaps are bad for a newborn's skin as babies only have a thin layer of skin and soaps dry it out quickly. Some people even advise only using water to clean your baby for the first couple of months.

Chicco Lullago Travel Cot Review

As I mentioned when I reviewed the Cocoonababy (click here to see this review) I did get drawn into buying a few baby items I either didn't need or could potentially buy cheaper versions of. I blame the pregnancy hormones!

One item was the Chicco Lullago Travel Cot. I decided at 8 months pregnant that I wanted a cot for downstairs so my baby was always sleeping with me in the room, until he was 6 months old (as is advised). Instead of always placing him in his cot upstairs. Realistically I could have just bought a Moses basket to last the first few months and then started placing my son in his nursery. This would have been cheaper than buying the Chicco Lullago Travel Cot which is around £100.

However, pregnancy hormones took over and I bought it anyway. I am glad I did buy it. It has been invaluable! Sorry to be a broken record, but my C section really limited my movement after birth and having the Chicco Lullago downstairs was so useful. I couldn't really master stairs when I came home from hospital, especially not while carrying a baby. So having my baby sleeping downstairs meant I was free to put him down to sleep without moving around too much.

It also fits his Cocoonababy in it, which a Moses basket wouldn't.

It is really easy to assemble and disassemble. It becomes much smaller and has a handy bag with handles to carry it around. It has been really useful to take with us when visiting (and staying with) relatives to show off our new little bundle. It doesn't take up too much space in the car, and you need all the space you can save because taking a baby somewhere overnight requires a lot of stuff!

We can also use it longer than a Moses basket. The instructions say it can be used until the baby is kneeling and/or standing. I would guess this would be around 6 months.

The negatives are that it is more expensive (than a Moses basket) and I haven't been able to find fitted sheets for it, which I would have preferred.

However, I would still buy this item in hindsight and not just because the blue one matches my living room colour scheme (yes, that was a factor in my decision making process before I have birth!)

This is not a sponsored post.

Aptamil Ready to Feed Bottles: Offer at Tesco

I am a big believer in sharing a bargain when I come across one. Even more so now that I am a Mummy, with all the extra costs that come with having a baby. We Mums need to stick together and share any bargains we come across!

In the spirit of this I wanted to share a current deal for formula milk. If you formula feed you may have come across the handy ready made formula bottles. I find these invaluable when going out. You can just pop the formula into a sterilised bottle and feed your baby. They are quick and easy to use!

Anyway, formula feed rarely has promotions on. From what I have read this is due to legislation where formula companies and suppliers can not actively promote formula because the government want women to breastfeed, believing of course that "breast is best" (and therefore prevent anyone promoting formula). This can make formula feeding expensive.

However I recently found a deal in my local Tesco on Ecclesall Road for the Ready to feed Aptamil bottles. They are usually around 80p a bottle but Tesco currently has 2 for £1.10 on Aptamil Hungry Baby and Follow On Milk bottles.

Although this offer isn't on the First Milk which you can give a baby from birth (I assume because of the legislation) you can feed a baby (from birth) the Hungry Baby milk that Aptamil makes (of course, always read the label thoroughly). So I bought a large batch of the Hungry Baby milk as my baby is 2 months old and on formula.

I hope this helps formula feeding Mums!

Job Title: Mum

I used to work in recruitment and one of the most memorable CVs I ever received was from a full time Mum trying to get back into work.

Having been doing that a while this lady understandably didn't have much on her CV for recent employment.

However she had decided to put down motherhood as her current full time job, and even described in detail all that this role entailed.

As an example, it went something like this:

Current Employment:
Full Time Parent
2009 - Present
Job Role Includes: Childminder, Chauffeur, Conflict Resolution and Peace Negotiator, Chef, Cleaner, Financial Administrator, Entertainer, Head of Purchasing, PA (intensive diary management) and Waste Management.

I thought this was in ingenious way of selling yourself, while also being amusing. If you can make nappy changing (aka waste management) sound good then you are very inventive.

I think this person could have really embellished more though, including the skills she had developed in the role of Mummy, such as:

Works well under pressure: because if you can stay calm when you have to arrive somewhere in 5 minutes but your baby needs a nappy change (during which he poos and wees on you) then you can handle most pressure situations!

Experienced in dealing with difficult customers: is there any client more demanding than a baby?!

Skilled at sales and negotiation: you really have to sell that £5 toy to your child when he is clutching onto the £80 toy he spotted in the shop (and you can see a tantrum brewing). Not to mention trying to sell broccoli mush as a delicious meal to a weaning baby!

Able to think outside the box: all parents have to have an inventive and active imagination to help keep their babies entertained. This isnt a box, it is a time machine!

Diary management: no one truly understands efficient time management until you have to fit 5 children's birthday parties into one weekend! Keeping your child's thriving social life active can take up your whole calendar!

And when asked in an interview why you are leaving your current job you can honestly reply that you are looking for a new challenge, ideally one where you aren't going to be puked on as much!

Fancie a good breakfast?

I am very sad and I have what I call baby dates with my son. On days where I have nothing planned but feel the need to get out the house I will often go and find a local cafe, have a nice breakfast or lunch and do a bit of window shopping.


 

One place that is the perfect place for such an occasion is Fancie, on Ecclesall Road Sheffield. This cafe/restaurant encompasses the cafe style culture of Ecclesall Road (if you live in Sheffield you will know what I mean), it has a stylish, relaxed setting offering everything from breakfast, afternoon teas, cakes, lunch and dinner. It also offers a variety of cupcakes which is what it first became well known for in Sheffield.
 

It's cupcakes are a deliciously extravagant treat, however it is their pancakes that offer a whole other world of sweet heaven. You can have them with berries and cream or maple syrup and bacon. They are made with almond flavouring as well, which really adds a whole other level of fluffy yumminess.

   

Having recently discovered these pancakes I am now marking Fancie down as a must for breakfast dates and wanted to let you know about it too. Especially as their full English breakfast also impressed me. 

If you are ever in the area and looking for somewhere to have breakfast I really recommend Fancie.
 

Link to their website:
http://fancie.co.uk/

This blog post isn't sponsored.

Welcome to the Blog...

I am currently 8 months pregnant and I love blogging, so I decided to start blogging about my pregnancy and parenting experience (as a first time Mum to be).

I have found pregnancy to be a real mixture. One minute you feel on top of the world, you adore this new life growing inside you, and the next minute you are a ball or raging hormones (likely to go on a chocolate rampage before shouting at the next person you encounter).

Navigating this life changing event can be a minefield... and I am sure I am not the only one who thinks this?

I really wanted to share my experiences, a few home truths that often don't get mentioned and fun bits from my life as I become a Mama. Mostly because I do like a good rant, love writing and hopefully someone will find the blog useful.

Thank you for popping by, I hope you like the blog and please leave comments.

Mama Lucy x