Baby Wipes - Tried and Tested

Like Nappies - I guess every mum or dad will have their favourites in Baby Wipes too. We get loads of free samples etc, but it isn't until you actually have to wipe a sticky poo covered bum and back that your wipe preference comes into play.

For me from baby wipes you need these things...

• They need to be sensitive, there is no point wiping a bum with a floral fragranced perfume covered baby wipe, unless you want to see an angry red rash or irritation.
• They need to be useable, with one hand, i.e you don't want to pull for one wipe and extract a mile long strip of every wipe ever created and then have to try and separate them while holding a wriggling foot, while trying to save the bedding and clothes!
• They need to be moist, not wet! If they are too wet the offending poop just drops off the wipe onto said clothing, bedding or child....
• You don't want to push your finger through as your wiping your childs bum, or have the wipe tear into a million pieces as you try and pull one out of the tangle inside the packet (Huggies Wipes literally disintegrated on me).

More importantly though they need to be affordable! £10 for 10 packs of wipes is a lot of money... especially when you go through 2 boxes a month.

For me the winner is and always has been (since birth)

Johnson and Johnson Extra Sensitive Baby Wipes. They come in a box of 12 for £10 usually, but you can normally find them cheaper during baby events (This box of 12 is currently £6.50 in Asda's baby event.

My close second that I really really liked but I can't find anymore, where the Asda Extra Protection Baby Wipes. I loved these - they did two versions Extra Protection (with added barrier protection) and extra sensitive. The wipes were thick and durable and a lot better than the original little angels.

Avoid (unless they improve the quality)

• Pampers - pulls out every wipe in the packet when you try to dispense 1).
• Huggies - literally rip and fall apart in your hands).
• Waterwipes - I know this is a premium brand and you pay a lot more for them, but they literally drip with water ( I accidentally left one on the bed and it soaked through the duvet).

Bednest Side Sleeper Cot

When I brought my daughter home from hospital there was literally not one place other than me she would fall asleep. The first few nights we tried everything to get her into her Moses Basket or the Travel Cot we had bought, but nothing worked. I almost caved in and bought a Chicco Next to Me Crib, but as my bed is really high and we have a 30cm deep mattress it was a no go. It just wouldn’t fit. So back to the drawing board.

 

 

I spoke to a friend who had used a Bednest Side Sleeper with her daughter and said it was the only side sleeper she had found that was high enough to fit her bed, so we borrowed it.

My friend informed me of a change to the manufacturers guidance, in which the cot was never to be used with the side half down. It either had to be all the way up or all the way down, and when I researched why, it was because of an accidental death of a tiny little baby girl. It is such a sad story, but I guess it wasn’t anticipated that it could happen until it did, so the manufacturer changed their guidance. I would like to point out at this point, I do not agree with the way the manufacturer dealt with this horrific accident, but they have changed their literature and now issue kits to make it impossible for the side to be left halfway folded.

This being said, it was easy to assemble, the base pulls up and locks in place in one movement, then you strap it to the bed, ours was wrapped around the locks that hold the divan base together, and then the cot was placed on top of the base, done! It took less than 5 minutes to assemble.

The beauty was that my precious little lady was at the exact same height as me, no messing around to get out of bed to put her down to sleep, I could just lift her, which limited the amount she woke. During the night I could just reach over and touch her, see her breathing etc. It was perfect. It just devastated me that she had to come out of it because she is just too big now.

The website offers these cots to rent or buy, I would 100% use it again and would pay to rent or buy if I couldn’t use my friends again. It was perfect!

Also on the website there’s a lot of bits and pieces you can buy for it, sheets, replacement sides, replacement matresses. I bought a kit which came with fresh sides and a fresh mattress and two sheets for around £60. It was well worth the money and I have no regrets in using it.

Bednest to buy £299

Bednest to rent (as long as you need it) £89      
Check it out here...      

Joie i-Anchor Advance with Isofix Base

Can I just say how much I absolutely adore this car seat.

I originally wanted to buy the Joie Stages or the Graco Milestone, but unfortunately the seatbelts in my car were not long enough to wrap around the seat and plug in, so I had to buy a seat with an isofix base to fit to the anchor points in my car.

I spent a lot of time looking at reviews but the only seat that I liked the look of was the Joie I-Anchor advance. I paid £175 for it and it came with the base free (that was around £150 on its own). So it is definitely worth shopping around for the best deals. Don't forget Toys 'R Us do a price match too, it just needs to be in stock on the website you're quoting from.

To install the base, I just had to pull the supporting leg down, then push the two buttons on the side to release the anchor points, then once I had pushed the anchor points in and it was fastened in place all of the indicators turned green, to show it is secured correctly.

The seat reclines, but I intend to use it rear facing for as long as possible - (this seat does rear facing for up to 4 years) so in the rear facing position it doesn't recline, you use it on the furthest reclined setting anyway. On fitting it for the first time, I found it almost impossible to get my 4 month old seated, she literally didn't fit into the seat between the padding. However we removed some of the newborn inserts and extra padding and she sits comfortably now.

The straps are adjustable with just one hand, and it seems very comfortable for baby as she regularly falls sound asleep in it.

The Drawbacks:

•  It doesn't recline further in rear facing mode, sometimes babies head can lean forward which used to scare me a lot more than it does now. I find that making sure she isn't sat to high up when putting her in the seat works to address this, and making sure that the straps are the right height. 
• No handle - It is impossible to carry this car seat around with baby asleep in it. Our old Group 0 seat - whenever she fell asleep we could bring her into the house asleep and settle her. With this one, when she is asleep, we have to remove the baby and carry her in.

I find these two issues a small price to pay for piece of mind. I tend to stop and check my daughter if she slumps forward to much and re position her, but I am safe in the knowledge that she is secured in place with a 5 point harness and should we have an accident it has side impact protection and she is facing rearwards.

Breastfeeding weeks 1-6

So... My breastfeeding journey so far.

My little girl latched straight away on the hospital.  That first night in hospital was hard. She kept struggling to latch, so I kept calling the midwives and the assistants for help. It was tough but I got some really good advice.

My main concerns were that I would smother her and that she wasn't latching right.

The told me to look above her ear. If her full jaw was moving up to that bit between her ear and eye she had a good latch and was sucking properly. If her cheeks were hollow she wasn't. She also told me not to hold her head with my hand, but to support her, this allows her to bob her head and move as she feeds... Which leads me to my next point.

And that babies can breathe through the boob. When she said this I was quite confused as was my partner. But the way babies noses are shaped actually presses the boob away to breathe. This is where not holding the head comes in handy. Baby can move to get comfortable and breathe.

When we got home things went quite well feed wise. I worried about my supply and whether she was getting enough.

At about day 4/5 I started to feel very claustrophobic,  she wanted to be on me all the time and I felt extremely overwhelmed, this coupled with poor sleep (which I'll address in a different post) made us wonder what our options were.  We decided on the advice of my midwife to introduce a formula feed at bedtime.

By the end of the first week she'd lost only 20g and she has put on almost a pound a week since then until this week.

After my mini meltdown, and I call it that because there where tears and doubts but now I'm in awe. By week 3 I found breastfeeding a lot easier. My sister in law described it as night of a thousand knives, and she wasn't wrong. Weeks 1-3 every time she latched it was excruciating,  but I have persevered. With lanolin I have made my way through the hard part and now when she feeds I just feel an overwhelming love for her. So strong I could cry at times.

I still need that break in an evening so daddy does nighttime formula feed and I get a little sleep to prepare me for the night ahead.

My little girl

So my beautiful daughter came into this world on Tuesday 23rd August 2016 at 3:31pm. She cried within a minute and fed almost straight away. My heart was hers immediately. 

I'll start with how it all happened in this blog and then try and update you with things I've done or tried to make my way through the first few weeks.

So in the weeks before my due date the Dr's had concerns about my baby's size, she was measuring small. They basically decided to induce me the day after my due date, so I was admitted to hospital and given the option of a chemical induction (medication) or balloon induction (they insert the balloon part of a catheter into your uterus and inflate it, causing contractions and dilation to start.

I thought the balloon induction sounded more natural so I went for that. I honestly didn't expect it to be as painful as it was. Within two hours I had to have it taken out as I couldn't stand the pain any longer. By that point my midwife said that I was ready to go up to labour ward and have my waters broken. It was 7:30pm and they'd take me when they were ready.

By 8:30pm it was made clear it wouldn't happen that night. My contractions had started and were getting more intense. I ended up having pain relief and a pethidine injection during the night.  My boyfriend hated seeing me in so much pain.

It was the following morning at about 9:30am wheb they finally took me up there. I was basically crying out for an epidural at that point, and they finally listened. I was met by the anaesthetist in the room on my arrival and by 11 I was laughing and joking away.

It was about 2:30 I first remember feeling a strong contraction. The epidural had been topped up once already, but the midwives were switching over, and because my waters had been broken they didn't want to examine me again.

My baby was being monitored constantly during my labour to make sure she wasn't distressed.  It was about 3pm we lost the trace on the heartbeat because I shifted position.  The midwife decided to place a clip on her head but quickly noticed her head was there and I was fully dilated.

It was all go from that point on. I'd been saying for almost half an hour I felt the need to push, and it wasn't until she told me I did. One push, that's all it took. My daughters birth was so fast that the second midwife didn't even get chance to wash her hands and catch the baby. She flew out onto the bed and cried almost immediately. 

It literally blows my mind everytime and think back to it. My labour was so horrible, the birth was amazing and now she is here and it's 6 weeks later. I'm pretty sure I'd do it again. Though it is likely that I won't have anymore children x