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About crummymummy1

I'm a wife, mama of four, freelance journalist, author & blogger. Not necessarily in that order!

Mountain Buggy Protect review: it’s amazing what you can hold between your teeth

Maxi Cosi better watch its back. Mountain Buggy has entered the travel system market with a new group 0+ baby car seat from birth to 13kg (pictured). And boy, is it light. In case I haven’t harped on about it enough, we live in a fourth floor flat, which is one thing when you’ve got an independent three year old who can walk, but quite another when you’ve got said independent three year old AND a baby. Which is asleep in the car seat. And shopping. And wellington boots the independent three year old discarded in the hallway downstairs…you get the picture. It’s amazing what you can hold between your teeth. […]

By |February 18th, 2015|Baby, Family life, Money, Newborn, Parenting, Reviews|0 Comments

Dream job interview: my out-of-date noughties outfit was fine

These things are never as bad as you think they’re going to be, are they? Leaving Little B with Granny and going into central London and back again really wasn’t that bad, even though I did miss him terribly and it felt like we’d been apart an age. My stinking cold managed to contain itself for an hour or so, my out-of-date noughties outfit was fine (according to Gok flared trousers are actually back in), my boobs didn’t leak and instead of being the grilling I thought it would be the interview was more like a nice chat. And it’s fine just to work weekends. I start next Sunday. […]

By |February 13th, 2015|Baby, Breast feeding, Family life, Health, Newborn, Parenting, Work life|2 Comments

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

Getting to the job interview has required military-style planning & industrial-scale milk pumping

I’ve got an interview for my dream job. It’s writing features on a freelance basis for a national newspaper (which [...]

Thrupenny Bits nursing cushion – hands free breast feeding!

I used to think nursing pillows were one of those things they try and sell you but you don’t really [...]

Aldi and chinos aren’t words you’d expect to find in the same sentence

Aldi and chinos aren’t words you’d expect to find in the same sentence. Misery Guts and chinos aren’t either, more’s the pity. He’s more of a Levis man, but somehow the artfully dishevelled look on the mannequin in the shop translates to simply dishevelled owing to the fact he doesn’t iron anything. (One could argue this is partly my fault, as I avoid it at all costs. Frankly, life’s too short). So when Aldi asked us to review their new Men’s Classics range, which went into stores on January 22, I thought why not? […]

By |January 28th, 2015|Beauty, Family life, Fashion, Money, Parenting, Reviews|0 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. […]

If my blog were a concert at the Sydney Opera House it would have sold out 5 times

I don’t know where on earth the time has gone, but this week I have been blogging for two years. Two whole years! It all started in January 2013 as I prepared to stop breast feeding 17 month old BB, and now, two years on, I’m breast feeding again. According to the nice people at WordPress, in 2014 Confessions of a Crummy Mummy was viewed 14,000 times by people in 102 different countries. Apparently, if it were a concert at the Sydney Opera House, it would take five sold out performances for that many people to see it. Which I think is pretty amazing. […]

By |January 21st, 2015|Breast feeding, Family life, Newborn, News, Parenting|4 Comments

I’ve been giving our baby drops of something I don’t EXACTLY know what is from a bottle I bought on the internet…

After weeks of nightmare evenings and nights with Little B wreathing around in discomfort I’ve started to give him something to help with the griping pain. I had hoped the phase would pass without third party help, but I couldn’t stand it any longer. I visited Boots but came away empty handed when I read the ingredients in the likes of Infacol and Gripe Water – there are more E numbers than you can shake a stick at. Rather than giving him something to treat the symptoms (mega wind, gas, tummy as tight as a drum) I want to get to the root of the problem, so am starting with a probiotic to try and balance out whatever’s going on in his tummy. I opted for BioGaia drops after a reader kindly recommended them, although rather than paying the full £14.99 I bought them from eBay for under £10 instead. […]

By |January 16th, 2015|Baby, Breast feeding, Family life, Health, Money, Newborn, Parenting, Reviews|2 Comments

How to make eye drops out of breast milk

It’s been almost two years since I first blogged about breast milk eye drops, and I’m at it again. Last [...]

By |January 13th, 2015|Baby, Beauty, Breast feeding, Family life, Health, Newborn, Parenting|8 Comments

I should have been more assertive and insisted on breast feeding

Little B’s gorgeous, podgy legs are now sporting a pair of plasters thanks to the administration of his 8 week jabs (pictured). It was an ordeal, in more ways than one. As if getting us all up, breakfasted, dressed and out of the door by 9.15am wasn’t bad enough, it was raining cats and dogs and we had no option but to go on foot. In order to get to the surgery in the fastest possible time and avoid unnecessary drenching, there was nothing for it but to put BB in the pushchair with the rain cover (I was hoping her pushchair days were over) and Little B in the papoose, under the cover of my coat. We couldn’t have got any wetter. The rain was so torrential (and too windy to attempt balancing an umbrella on my head/shoulders while pushing) it soaked through my coat and onto Little B within minutes, and we arrived literally dripping. […]

By |January 9th, 2015|Breast feeding, Family life, Health, Parenting, Pregnancy|2 Comments

The best Christmas present in the world ever: a 30 year old dolls house

After a two-week Christmas and new year break (bet you didn’t even notice) we’re back. And while we might be [...]

By |January 7th, 2015|Craft, Family life, Parenting, Pregnancy|4 Comments

Bedside cribs: a ‘safe’ co-sleeping solution?

At just six weeks old Little B has outgrown the moses basket. Not that he slept in it much anyway, preferring to sleep in our bed spread-eagled between us. But while this would send him into a deep, peaceful sleep, it of course meant I slept terribly, worried one of us would roll onto him, accidently pull the duvet over him or that he would shimmy himself against one of the pillows in his sleep. The health visitor advised putting him on my side of the bed rather than between us because as his mum I naturally sleep more lightly, but that’s hardly a long-term solution for the next few months when he’s too small to go into a cot in his own bedroom. So, after a bit of research, I think I’ve come up with the answer: a bedside crib (pictured). There are lots on the market, some as much as a couple of hundred pounds, but we went for the cheapest, Chicco’s Next2Me (£149.99), given he will have outgrown it by six months old. Even Misery Guts, who was predictably sceptical about buying yet more paraphernalia, admits it’s a nifty bit of kit. (You can hire other brands through the NCT, but the waiting list was until the middle of January, so not much help). […]

Running after pregnancy: I’m pounding the pavements again

It’s the moment I’ve been waiting for: at long last I can pound the pavements again. After hanging up my trainers at 36 weeks pregnant I then had four weeks ‘off’ after Little B’s birth and went for my first run exactly four weeks later. Without a bump I felt like I was flying. My running bible throughout pregnancy has been Runner’s World Guide to Running & Pregnancy by Chris Lundgren, one of only a handful of books I’ve been able to find on the subject. She advises waiting until you’ve stopped bleeding and then adding another week before attempting your first post-partum run, and then if you have any fresh blood afterwards wait another week before going out again. I followed this advice with both BB and Little B, and it seems a sensible approach to me. I was careful to stick to my pregnancy pace – you’re actually more at risk of injury in the months immediately after giving birth than you are during pregnancy – and not to take too big strides owing to my recent date with the needle and thread, but wow. As it did after BB was born, it felt brilliant. […]