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Purifyne Cleanse review: an internal makeover for your body

Cold pressed, ready to drink fresh detox juice delivered straight to your door. Doesn’t that sound fantastic? There’s never been [...]

Abra-ca-Debora pancakes review: yum yum!

It’s Pancake Day, it’s Pancake Day it’s P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P Pancake Day! We LOVE pancake day in our house, so I thought [...]

By |February 9th, 2015|Baby, baking, Craft, Family life, Food, Health, Newborn, Parenting, Recipes, Reviews|4 Comments

Apple cakejacks: you MUST try this recipe!

I’ve been running out of things to feed BB. She’s hungry ALL the time. She’s even been waking up in the [...]

By |February 6th, 2015|baking, Family life, Food, Health, Parenting, Recipes|4 Comments

My bum is a depot for building my baby’s brain

Excellent news: curvier girls produce brainier children. I’m not joking. Scientists have this week said that the fat found in our bums helps to build our babies brains because fat cells in our derrieres are ‘routed’ directly towards them. Apparently these ‘fat banks’ are depots for building a baby’s brain via breast feeding, and women with larger stores of fat are likely to produce brainer children. And there was me turning my back on a rather lovely looking slice of blueberry frangipane in the coffee shop yesterday, which really did have my name on it. […]

Mother’s ruin: Misery Guts is back at work and mum has gone home

The babymoon is over. Misery Guts is back at work, my mum has gone home and BB, Little B and I are on our own, forging new routines and getting to grips with being three. It’s definitely a case of the blind leading the blind, and means only one thing: by 7 o’clock I need a drink. Sadly I can’t indulge as often as I’d like owing to the small issue of breast feeding, so I’ve decided that when I have one it’s going to be a good one. Pictured is this week’s tipple: a mother’s ruin gin cocktail after the nice people at Greenall’s sent me a bottle of their new wild berry blackberry and raspberry infused gin. Misery Guts didn’t need much prompting to whip up one of the signature serves: gin, vanilla syrup and lemon juice with blackberries and raspberries. It was absolutely delicious, although I only dared to have a few sips for fear of going to bed and waking up to find Little B on the floor/under the duvet/etc etc. […]

By |November 26th, 2014|Breast feeding, Family life, Food, Health, Parenting, Recipes|0 Comments

When the nurse brandished some shears I nearly passed out…

At 13 days old Little B’s tongue tie has finally been sorted out. I’m not normally squeamish, but when the nurse brandished a pair of shears scissors to make the snip at the base of his tongue I nearly passed out. And I’m not joking. Admittedly the room was hot – stiflingly hot as only ante natal units are – and I was already feeling a little light headed because it was way past lunchtime owing to the fact they were ‘running behind’. But even so, after reading somewhere that they take the baby away to cut the tongue tie, I didn’t expect to have to hold him down while they actually did it. […]

By |November 12th, 2014|Breast feeding, Family life, Food, Health, Parenting, Pregnancy, Weaning|2 Comments

I may have overplayed the ‘he won’t actually be able to do anything’ card

I think it’s fair to say BB has taken to being a big sister like a duck to water. After six weeks of broken nights and being generally unsettled in the run up to Little B’s arrival, almost a week in we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. She goes down at night without a fuss about ‘the baby in mummy’s tummy’, sleeps through the night and no longer wakes up grizzling. She loves kissing him, looking at him and lying next to him (pictured), and I may have overplayed the ‘he won’t actually be able to do anything yet’ card as she’s delighted when he simply grips her finger. […]

Pregnancy after multiple miscarriage: spoiling the sibling

Week: 39 Waist: 40 inches (no change) Feeling: In the mood to spoil I’ve spent my first week of maternity leave thoroughly spoiling BB, knowing it could be the last week it’s just the two of us at home. I’m probably setting us up for problems with the level of spoiling that’s gone on, and as predicted, it’s been a fairly busy week. We’ve been to the park, the library, baked, eaten the products of our baking and this afternoon we’ve got a hotly anticipated trip to the cinema. This morning, with BB safely stowed at pre-school, I also had a pre-labour pedicure so my feet are now officially ready for the delivery suite (when I had BB I had one foot firmly wedged on the midwife’s shoulder, so thought it best to safe than sorry). […]

Pregnancy after multiple miscarriage: it’s been a BAD WEEK

Week: 35 Waist: 40.5 (+0.5 inches) Feeling: Hormonal Highs are always followed by lows. This time last week I was feeling rather smug after the baby’s head engaged and instead of feeling even more uncomfortable and full of pressure I felt liberated because I could breathe freely and my heartburn subsided. I did a five mile run in which I felt like I was skipping and marvelled at how well I felt. Not anymore. This is probably the result of it having been a trying couple of weeks owing to Misery Guts spending two days in hospital with a severe migraine (again) and almost two weeks recovering at home (it’s a long story) and my tiredness from the whole ordeal finally catching up with me. It all started when we went to Ikea to collect a chest of drawers big enough to take BB’s and the new baby’s clothes. I’d never been to an Ikea before, and I never want to again. It brought out the worst in me, and next time I’ll happily pay the £39 charge to have an item delivered to my door. In fact I would pay more than that if it meant not having to drive for two hours, queue to get into the car park, battle my way through people wandering about in no particular direction in a windowless vacuum with lights that are too bright only to queue to collect the damned thing and then again to pay. […]

If someone had told me this is what lunchtimes would involve, I wouldn’t have believed them

She might have just turned 3, but BB is itching to start school. She asks me daily what colour her uniform will be (I don’t know because it depends which over-subscribed school we actually manage to get her into), who will collect her and pick her up (again I don’t know because it depends how far away said school is) and can she go to the school in Time For School on Cbeebies (at last a question I can actually answer – no.) Being an August baby by this time next year she will be in reception class, but until then I’ve got to come up with ways to satisfy her school curiosity or suffer death by questioning. So when aplaceforeverything.co.uk asked me to review LEGO’s latest lunch box set, launched to celebrate the release of the LEGO movie, I had an idea: we could start, like school, having ‘packed lunch’ at home (pictured). This is a brilliant idea, even if I do say so myself. I realise it’s a total waste of cling film, but the look on her face as she unwraps each item and says ‘wow’ is worth it (also pictured). […]

By |September 15th, 2014|Family life, Food, Money, Parenting, Reviews, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Pregnancy after multiple miscarriage: it’s no surprise my waist has expanded this week

Week: 32 Waist: 38.5 inches (+0.5 inches) Feeling: Crampy legged I’m pleased to be able to report my craving for chicken soup now appears to have passed. In fact I don’t think I’ll be eating any for a very long time. Instead I’m eating and drinking other things it would never occur to me to consume normally, like squash (the liquid kind). I’ve been ridiculously thirsty throughout the entire pregnancy, and lately I’ve really been fancying squash, which I haven’t drunk for years. So when the nice people at Vimto kindly sent me some samples of their new no added sugar Squeezy water enhancer they came at the perfect time. […]

Thanks to the garden we switched the telly off for TWO WEEKS

Living in a fourth floor flat means being able to run through a door into a garden isn’t an activity which features in BB’s usual routine. So when we decamped to my parents’ house in Dorset while they were sunning it in Spain for two weeks BB thought all her Christmases had come at once. She pram pushed (pictured), she scootered, she ran barefoot in the grass, she watered the plants and ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in the great outdoors, leaving CBeebies mercifully switched off for almost our entire trip, which has got to be a holiday in itself. With her 3rd birthday falling slap bang in the middle of our holiday and with the garden at our feet it was the perfect opportunity to throw a birthday barbecue and try out a set of garden games we were sent by Two Little Fleas, who are encouraging families to spend more quality time together by playing outdoors this summer. […]

I managed to pull off a recognisable Peppa Pig cake using Brio…

Apologies for the radio silence. We’re one week into our two week holiday in Dorset, and while I thought I’d [...]

By |August 18th, 2014|Craft, Family life, Food, Parenting, Recipes|0 Comments

Pregnancy after multiple miscarriage: hello third trimester

Week: 28 Waist: 37 inches (-0.5 inches…again!) Feeling: Coming down with a cold, worst luck The quest for decent maternity clothes continues. When I was expecting BB in 2011 there was a plethora of inspiring ranges to choose from, and I remember having to rein myself in to curb the spending. What’s changed? Last month I ordered four tops from H&M – nothing fancy, several vests and a ‘smart’ top – but the fabric was so thin it was virtually transparent so I sent them straight back again. Instead I’ve spent the last few weeks in a (non-maternity) maxi dress from Peacocks, which is just the ticket in this hot weather. Sadly this isn’t going to see me into autumn though, and it was while pondering this that I stumbled upon what actually appears to be a nice selection of affordable outfits to house my growing bump. And you’ll never guess where from: Asda. That’s right, you did read correctly. […]

Pregnancy after multiple miscarriage: my waist has got SMALLER

Week: 26 Waist: 37 inches (-1 inch) Feeling: Still chickeny Oddly, my waist measures a whole inch less than it [...]