Morrck or Sungglebundl

Which one is for you?

This is my question.  Since becoming pregnant again, I have found that over the last three years more and more baby products have been launched. Amongst them, are these two baby blankets.  Both are very similar but also very different. To me they both seem amazing and have intrigued me.  However, they both seem to have flaws and this makes it very hard for me to make my mind up on which one I should go for. 

Firstly, the Morrck was what I came across first and instantly fell in love with. Mainly because it’s a snuggly soft blanket that’s used instead of putting coats and excessive blankets over babies in the car seat, prams, etc.  Having a winter baby last time, I had Albert wrapped up constantly whilst out.  Thankfully, he was a snuggly baby and loved being warm, much like he is now!

Back to the Morrck. It has won many awards.  It can be used not only in the car seat for newborns, but in buggies and prams too – as a type of cosy toes to keep warm in all weather conditions. This is handy because you can very quickly unfold the blanket when in and out of shops, etc, rather than having to undo coats or zips on big foot muffs or cosy toes. The main reason I really like the Morrck is that it has holes for straps in car seats and prams, so it’s extra safe.  There are lots of great testimonials on their website, www.morrck.co.uk.

Secondly, the Snugglebundl is something that popped up on my newsfeed on Facebook, and I immediately loved the concept of being able to transfer my baby from car seat to pram with ease and safety.  I have discovered with reading up on on this product that there are many things to love about it.  They say it’s easy to transfer a sleeping baby with this product due to its unique design, and it’s very helpful if you find it difficult to bend over and pick your baby up with a bad back, or if you’ve had a C-section and still recovering.  It’s also great to use to discreetly breastfeed your baby whilst out and about, which is something that I’m really hoping works for us this time around.

This product has been officially tested and certified for babies up to 30kgs (66lbs)! Not that I think anyone would use it past the age of nine months, but it’s nice to know it can withstand a decent weight. It has also been safety tested to meet with European safety directories and has been “road tested” by over 4,000 babies.  Their testimonials prove that this is a product worth having. Snugglebundl state that it’s good for babies with reflux and colic as they like to be rocked, and it’s easier to lay them still in the blanket.  I can’t personally comment on this, as Albert had very mild colic and he was fine with having Infacol before each feed.

There are also many reviews and a long list of awards they have also won on their website www.snugglebundl.co.uk

The thing that concerns me about the Snugglebundl is that due to the ease of moving your baby in and out of car seats and prams, it doesn’t have the same holes for the straps in car seats.  It is unable to then wrap your baby up nice and warm whilst out and about like the Morrck does. 

However, I have watched both videos on how to use these products and they seem to be perfectly safe – both have sold thousands and are going strong. 

You can watch the videos here:

Morrck – 3 point harness – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvJucXeYYz4

– 5 point harness – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbhQ51R51Tk

Snugglebundl – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9crnF31I198

I love products that are made in the UK, and both these products have had a lot of thought and love put in to them to help families. I love all things made here in ‘Ole Blighty’, and I’m a strong believer of supporting our own UK brands; start up businesses; and mums who come up with great ideas of helping to provide for their families. 

I would love to hear your personal views on which product is the best, unfortunately I cannot have both.

Victoria x

Pregnancy Number Two

This pregnancy has not been as plain sailing as my last.  Albert’s pregnancy really was a walk in the park, until it was time for him to arrive and then he was 9 days late! Read about Albert’s birth story here.

At my (first) 12 week scan, we decided to take my mum along, as she didn’t join us on any of the previous scans for Albert and thought she might like it.  She loved it, but the sonographer complained that the baby was too small and I must have my dates wrong, I was a bit miffed as I knew I hadn’t, but she still put me back to 10 weeks!! So we had to wait a further 3 weeks for my scan as they were so busy.

Thankfully, everything at the scan went well, and we were free to tell the rest of the world, well, social media haha.

Then at the routine 16 week midwife appointment at the surgery, where she takes yet more blood etc and then checks the baby’s heartbeat, she took about 15 minutes and still couldn’t locate it.  She was freaking me out, whilst trying to be positive, but I could see she was concerned at the same time.  She called the day assessment unit at the hospital and told them I was on my way to be checked and possibly scanned to locate the heartbeat.  Thankfully I wasn’t on my own and my husband was with me, as was Albert.  I cried the whole way, I just couldn’t stop thinking the worst, who wouldn’t?  But when we got there, they were all so kind and comforting, yet it still took a midwife and a doctor 45 minutes to locate the heartbeat, they did need to use a special scanner where you could see and hear the heartbeat.  It was so lovely being able to get a sneaky peak at little babybee2 again.

My 20 week scan went well, but again there we found out I had an anterior placenta, which explains why we couldn’t find the baby’s heartbeat and the lack of early fetal movement in second pregnancies. But due to this, she did have some trouble locating all chambers of the heart, bladder and liver and I had to be booked in for yet another scan!

We didn’t find out the sex – much to everyone’s disappointment. The second 20 week scan went well too and little babybee 2 waved at me, it was amazing.  I was actually on my own for this scan, there had been so many, I just had to get in and out quickly. I was really happy when the baby waved at me, it was like a little private bonding moment for just the two of us.

Due to Albert having shoulder dystocia at birth. I was put under minor consultant care, and she discussed with me that sometimes second babies can be bigger than the first. As Albert was 9 days late, she doesn’t particularly want me to go late again.  So at 39 weeks I have a growth scan and another appointment with her to discuss induction – If baby hasn’t already arrived by then.  I am really hoping babybee 2 arrives before this, 38/39 weeks would be perfect!

So, now I’m 32 weeks and things are going well.  Crippled with tiredness and heartburn/acid that makes me want to vomit and kill myself, but otherwise ok.  Second time round is definitely harder, I have to take care of a 3 year old at the same time, although I am lucky that he’s able to play by himself with his trains. He watches telly cuddled up next to me and we play puzzles and games on the table as I struggle to be on the floor.  Pre-School two and a half times a week helps me to get things done or just sit and relax in peace – before baby arrives that is!

As much as I am ready for this baby to arrive, I am loving how much baby moves and wriggles. I will miss it, just like I did when Albert was a few months old.  Who knows, we may have a 3rd.

Here’s hoping the home stretch goes fast with no hitches!

Victoria

Pre – School

Tuesday was the first full day of Pre – School for Albert.  I was excited for him as he has been desperate to go back to school most of the Easter half term.

We set off, myself on foot and Albert on his balance bike and we had a lovely walk/ride through the local park.  Albert loves it so much as he’s surrounded by all the older children and he’s in awe of the “big boys” on big bikes, often going very fast so I struggle to keep up!

We finally made it to school, and as we approached the little hut in the grounds of the infant school (that I really hope he gets in to), he was saying hello and good morning to the teachers and children and showing them his lunch box, seemingly very excited to be staying for lunch for the first time.

After hanging his coat and helmet on his peg, we put his book bag, lunch box and drink in to the relevant boxes and I settled him down with an activity whilst talking quickly with his key worker about his lunch – I have rules that he has to eat certain things before eating crisps and then a sweet thing like yoghurt raisins or custard etc.  His eating has got a lot better, but we are struggling to expand his variety of different foods.

Anyway, after I had finished talking, I said goodbye and to have a good day and I would see him later. 

I then waddled home – desperate for the loo, as with all the walking the baby bounces on my bladder! Then it was time to get the shopping done whilst I was on my own and sort out a few things, have a sit down and then it was time to collect Albert before I knew it. 

I decided to drive halfway, and park at the park.  I thought that he might be quite tired after a full day, and I was right.  His teachers came out and said that he was great, but got tired in the last half an hour.  Still, I managed to keep him awake until dinner time, then Daddy came home and did bath and bed after a little puzzle and play, whilst I sorted our dinner. 

He must have had a great day as he was asking to go back after we had been at gymnastics on Wednesday. 

Victoria

Safari Park Antics

My husband Richard had been planning a piss up with his friend Andrew to Aberdeen for a beer festival event.  Thus leaving myself and Albert alone for the weekend. 

Andrew’s wife Lindsey asked if we would like to join her, their son Alasdair and a few of their friends to Woburn Safari Park, so we snapped them up on the offer and we headed off bright and early up to Bedfordshire. 

On arriving at Woburn we saw lots of animals roaming in the fields. We parked up to meet the others and have a quick toilet break and stretch our legs.  Then we all climbed back in to the cars and headed towards the start of the safari route.

We saw Rhinos and Zebras before we came to the Lion, Tiger and Bear enclosure.  We were queueing between the big gates to gain entrance, and Albert decided that it was a good idea to open the door!! I freaked out, and reached round and managed to slam it shut and Lindsey promptly clicked the child lock button.  That was an exciting start to the afternoon. The boys really liked the Lions but mostly kept pointing out the ranger vans “TIGER RUCKS” as Albert called them.

We then headed to the monkey section, this seemed to entertain the boys most, and also myself and Lindsey!! we saw a couple of monkeys on another car and as we cruised past them I snapped a photo.

This got the monkey’s attention and then jumped on to our car!! The boys thought this was highly amusing.  They then slid down the windscreen and jumped off the bonnet.  There was a Land Rover with a ladder on it and the monkey’s were instantly drawn to it and swarmed the car, and had a little scrap over who was going to sit on the roof! This was fun to watch too! We also saw some cheeky monkey’s rip off the rubber door trims to a car and try and take the ariel off too! We creeped past without notice and got away lightly.  On our exit another little monkey was taunting the ranger and jumped on the car, over the roof and  was jumping and bashing his feet on the rear view window, he jumped off when the ranger got closer, we all found this amusing.

    

On our way toward the picnic area we went past the rhinos again and one walked right in front of the car in front (friends of Lindsey’s) and it got very very close. 

We had a lovely lunch and Albert had run around the trees and watching the train take people on rides.

We left about 3pm and the boys had a long nap in the car on the way home, which meant a later bed time for my little dude. 

It was a great day, definitely a trip to repeat again.

Victoria

3 Years Later…

Well, It’s been a while since I last posted here and quite a lot has happened in that time.

Albert is now THREE years old (Where has the time gone?!).  We have had an extension on our house, and I am also expecting baby number 2.

I might do a post on the stresses of building work, but I’m not sure I want to re live it, it wasn’t the most pleasant of months!

I will talk about Albert though, he has grown in to such a cheeky, smart, kind and loving little boy and we could not be prouder of him.  September 2015 he started pre-school for 2 mornings a week and he has thrived from it.  His speech has improved and in the first half term (October) he was potty trained!! but only now at 6 months later has he finally (I hope it sticks!!) mastered pooping on the potty – for some reason he does not like sitting on the toilet, even with a nice child friendly seat!! I have also been only giving him a few sachets of movicol to “help” him on the pooping way a few times a month, so I think that’s a bonus too.

So, I am also currently 31 weeks pregnant and I’m due in June. We found out back in September, much to our surprise, as I had been out celebrating my sisters birthday in London and having a fair amount of what Albert calls “mummy juice” (wine, haha).  It wasn’t like we were preventing anything to happen, but we were back and forth from our house to my parents house (we had to stay there a while whilst the house was being done) as our house was being finished – we had moved back, then had to move out again 2 weeks later for the new flooring – lots of that stress I mentioned! So it was a bit of an exciting surprise, considering it took a fair amount of months to get Albert.

We are all very excited to meet babybee 2 in roughly 8-9 weeks.  I am really hoping this baby arrives on time if not a bit early.

Victoria

Mini Break

Back in June myself and Bertie went away for a couple of days with a very good friend Caroline and her daughter.  We are members of Tumble Tots and they were having a big Tumble Tot birthday celebration At Alton Towers.  There’s also a new part to Alton Towers called CBeebies Land.  The children were very excited about this, especially Caroline’s daughter as she’s a little older and has watched more CBeebies than the dude, at the time he was mostly in to Disney Channel.

Sunday morning I left early to collect Caroline and her girly, we were all super excited to get on the road, not before long and the children were falling asleep after a little sing along to the Frozen soundtrack.  We stopped a few times and I took a few wrong turns and we ended up arriving a few hours later than we would have liked. 

Once checked in, we headed straight to the park on the train that took us right to the entrance.  Our first stop was CBeebies Land, and we went on one of the CBeebies Bugs for a tree top tour, they absolutely loved it. After we got off the ride, we started seeing people wondering around with Tumble Tot bags, so we went in search for the building where the Tumble Tot party was being held.  However when we got there it was completely EMPTY, we asked for some help and know body knew anything about the event.  We decided to go back to the hotel and check again in the morning in time for the morning show.

We were staying in the Splash Landings hotel and as the children love swimming so much we decided to have a quick swim and play after dinner.  The children absolutely loved the pool, the slide mostly, We should have spent that whole day there, it was so much fun, I wish we could have taken a camera in too!!

They went to bed after a nice warm bubble bath and woke up bright and early for breakfast.  We got into the park nice and early, so I thought I would take the opportunity to go on a fast ride myself and we trecked all the way over to Oblivion, it was great, I loved it. 

We headed back towards the building for Tumble Tots but again it was completely empty, again we asked for help, again he had know idea what we were talking about.  He called over to the main office and they confirmed that the shows should be where we were but nothing was there.  We decided to go in to CBeebies Land again and went on the Postman Pat Van ride, again they loved it – they both got to sit in the front and “drive”. 

Through out the day we went on various rides, had a picnic lunch on the grass in the sunshine.  We kept checking in at the Tumble Tot building at the right times on the leaflet I was given back in our class In Henley – on – Thames but nothing. Yet we saw lots of people with Tumble Tot bags.  I am quite disappointed that we missed out when the reason we booked to go away was solely because of the Tumble Tot event. Luckily the children didn’t really miss anything as we kept them busy with other things in the Park.

It was getting quite late and we were all feeling quite tired so we headed back to the car, changed the children into their pj’s and prepared their milkies and last snacks. Not before long they were both asleep.

Sleeping or not sleeping

I touched on the subject of sleep in my last post from a year ago, I can’t remember exactly what happened back then, but i’ll recap as far as I can.

He did eventually drop his 2 naps a day, and then went to morning naps for about 2-3 hours then we would have the afternoon to play.  I found this lovely and annoying for a few reasons.  Bertie woke up increasingly early between 5 and 6am most days. Back then he couldn’t get past 9am without crashing and wanting to nap.  But that then didn’t leave a lot of things to do in the afternoon as most baby and toddler groups were in the morning.  This has now changed and he has a nap around 11am/12pm depending if we are out.

Looking back I think it was quite a difficult time, I was struggling, and I hate to admit it, but I was.  I couldn’t for the life of me get him to sleep in his bed at nap times, and gone had the time of him falling asleep in my arms with his milk on the sofa – I think it happened rarely.  It was his 1 year review that the Health Visitor advised I change his routine at bedtime to help with his daytime nap as I was strapping him in his pram and rocking him with soft music playing.  As much as I wanted to change his routine I didn’t take her advice of totally changing everything, I think we just tweaked a few things. 

I was talking to a friend one night when she was explaining to me that it takes around 3 days to change a routine and for it to stick.  She explained to me what she did with her own daughter, and thought it was great. However I still didn’t change anything. Until one night when things got really bad, Bertie just wouldn’t settle. We would normally spend up to 45 minutes putting him to bed as we would give him his milk and rock him to sleep whilst playing music and singing to him softly. It was that night I decided the next day we would change the way we do things.

We bath him as usual, he loves bath time, always splashing and playing.  Then we get dried and into pyjamas and then we turn off the lights, leaving the hall light on and the door open enough to read him a bedtime story.  Currently he still sits on one of our laps then once he’s finished his milk we put him to bed and say good night and tell him we love him. 

The first night he cried for 17 minutes, I remember this because it was heartbreaking sitting on the stairs outside his room listening, it wasn’t a hurtful cry, but a frustrated cry otherwise of course one of us would have gone to see him.  The next night it was less and the 3rd night was barely non-existent.  Now, 8 months down the road, he mostly is a dream at bedtimes and nap times, of course we have bad days/nights – what parent doesn’t?

Twice now he has point blank refused a nap in the day, this worries me as I know he isn’t quite ready to drop the nap yet, and neither am I!

Back to the Beginning

In a previous post about my little Mr Farty Pants, I touched on the subject that he has always struggled to poop.  This got increasingly worse as time went on and at around 9 months old, things changed for the worse.

He wouldn’t poop for days on end and when he did try to go he would stand bolt upright and tense his whole little body and scream in agony.  I tried everything to help him: leg exercises; trying to sit him with his knees up on my lap; feed him apricots, prunes, raisins; and after a few weeks of these the effects started wear off.

I got increasingly worried and took him the GP to yet again be told that it was normal, but to help ease the pain, he give him lactulose.  Again, this only worked for a short time. He was then prescribed a powder medicine called Movicol, and I was to give him half a sachet every morning.  This did help again for a while. 

It wasn’t until just after he turned 1 years old that I finally got referred to a paediatrician and he advised that we increase the Movicol to 2 sachets every morning and this would be messy, but we needed to clear him out.  We then went back after a month or two, can’t quite remember, and the Doctor said that constipation in children was quite common and only 1 in so many children have it severely.  He gave us a treatment plan on how to wean Bertie off the Movicol. 

Within a week of being off of Movicol he went back to square one, it’s like we had done nothing to help at all.  I put him back on one sachet a day until his next appointment in a few weeks time. 

The Doctor said that he could feel a “series of boulders” in his tummy, which were “quite hard”. He told me to up his Movicol again to 3 sachets a day for a few days and then back down 2 a day.  He again told me that it was common for children to be constipated, but this time I said but what if my baby is that one that is different?.  The Doctor said there wasn’t a lot that cold be done till he was 2 years old, so we are booked in for some blood tests in January before our next appointment.  He is 2 in early February so it’s close enough. 

So, for the foreseeable future, he has to have 2 sachets every morning.  We have also been assigned a community Nurse to help out with a few things before our appointment in January as he likes to refuse food a lot too. 

On a happy note, in spite of this ‘little issue’ he seems to be growing well and following his centile for height and weight. 

Catching Up

It’s been a little over a year since I have last written anything.  Bertie has grown in to a very independent 20 month old. He’s grown so much it’s hard to believe how tiny he was and how big he is now.

I have wanted to sit and write about our adventures and goings on, but every morning when I would say ‘today is the day when I will sit down with the laptop’ I always managed to find that something got in my way, usually housework, baking, or quite frankly taking a nap myself.  I dread the day when Bertie stops his lunchtime nap!

I have also been struggling on how to express what has been going on with us over the last year, how to get every thing out with out rambling on.  So I decided to read back on what I have posted to see how much has really changed.  Some things have changed a lot and some not so much, more on that later.

I have decided to also write about cakes and baking as it has become a big part of my life the last few months. 

Transitions – Baby to Toddler

As you may have noticed I haven’t blogged in a good few months, this is due to a few things, and mainly it’s because I simply have had no “free” time. Once Bertie has gone to sleep I am usually cooking dinner, then spending the rest of the evening with my husband, Rich before I fall asleep, then it all starts again at 6:30am.

When Bertie was born he was very fond of the sleep, he slept 90% of the day and through the night only waking around 3am for a feed, and then swiftly went back to sleep. Give or take the odd sleepless night. This routine lasted till he was roughly 4 months, then he dropped his night feed. I thought this was amazing, I got quite a bit of sleep, and I was managing to do the things I enjoyed whilst he slept in the day. Slowly he began being awake more (in the day), this was great, we played and had loads of fun, and he had roughly 3 couple of hour naps as well as sleeping through the night.

Now, as he is coming up to 8 months old, I have noticed that the last few weeks Bertie has started to only sleep for roughly 30-60 minutes in the morning and afternoon. This is becoming increasingly annoying, as he’s grumpy and whingy, but just won’t go back to sleep. I’ve even resorted to doing his bedtime routine (minus the bath etc) and that didn’t even work. I am at a loss to daytime naps. I know it’s hard sometimes as we do go out a lot and sometimes that can affect his sleep patterns in the day. I probably shouldn’t moan as he is very good at bedtime and through the night.

When he reached 5 months, Bertie decided this was time that he started doing things on his own. He sat up all by himself, I remember exactly when he did this, we were by the river in Henley at the Regatta, we were with some of my NCT friends and their babies and were sitting on a blanket, I was holding Bertie up, as we were talking I decided to let go and see if could do it, and low and behold he did! I was so amazed, I whipped out my camera and took a few pictures.

I have found that since around the age of 4 and half/5 months that Bertie has started transitioning into a wonderful little boy. He seems so advanced for a baby with no older siblings. He got up on to all fours and started rocking at 5 and half months and crawled at 6 and half months and within a week, he was pulling himself up on the sofa, T.V unit and anything else he can grab. He walks really well whilst holding to someones hands. Started clapping a few weeks ago. He is much more confident now and crawls everywhere so fast, I think he has started or at least trying to “coast” along the sofa. I even put up the first stair gate the other day at the top of the stairs.

It seems he likes a lot of things that are “out of bounds” such as wires, mainly the phone charger, but he is happy with any wire he can find. Laptops, phones, remote controls, the virgin box/surround sound box, paper, the list is endless. I do hope this is just a phase and he will grow out of it soon.

I can’t believe how much he has grown and I am so proud of him and the wonderful little boy he is becoming.