Nappies - Tried and Tested

So the ultimate mum problem. Nappies.

Which ones leak, which ones have caused nappy rash, which ones are more comfortable or easy to put on... here are my thoughts.

Working in Healthcare I was given absolutely loads of nappies for when my Daughter was born. We must have had around 50 of the Pampers Premium Protection Size 1 Nappies - easily. They were fab. No one told me that the little yellow stripe turned blue when baby had done a wee! So I had no idea what it meant, or how the midwife instinctively knew my baby needed changing, I literally looked at her as though she were the devil.

Pampers Premium Protection.

I really like these nappies - they are soft and easy to put on (if baby doesn't wiggle too much). They have a yellow stripe through the nappy which changes blue when baby needs changing. I would say in the early days we did have a few leaks in these, but this was more than likely down to being first time parents and not putting them on properly.

Pampers Baby Dry

These are also a favourite of mine, they don't have the wetness indicator like the Premium Protection do, but they do hold a lot more wetness. I had a few freebies from Pampers and fell in love with them based on that. I tend to buy Giga Packs (Asda are selling 112 nappies for £10 at the moment) so fabulous value and they will last the month I hope :) We have had a few nappies that have broken, the tabs have pulled off or the Velcro hasn't been sticky. But all in all these are my main go to nappy.

Pampers Baby Dry - Active Fit Nappy Pants

I bought these as my daughter is pretty close to crawling, the first day she wore one, she did a huge poo, it went all up her back and once id torn the nappy to take it off it gave little protection so she ended up having to have a change of clothes and her blanket needed changing too. They seem to be okay, but are a little awkward to get on, and they seem very tight fitting. My daughter developed nappy rash for the first time in 8 months, it could have been this or the Asda Nappies that did it, though she is also teething at the moment. We haven't used any more of these and the rash hasn't returned.

Asda Little Angels

I bought some of these nappies on sale as Asda was changing the packaging, we have used less than 20 nappies and I am throwing them away as I believe that it is these nappies that caused her nappy rash. She hadn't had nappy rash since being born and the day after we started using these nappies it came up, we persisted thinking it was teething and it got worse, to the point we had to start using medicated cream and as soon as we changed back to pampers it went away. They also don't seem to hold as much, they are rather tough to touch in comparison. Ironically my best friend swears by them and uses them with no issues for her daughter. I wouldn't use Little Angels again though.

Aldi Mamia

These were our go to nappies to begin with, like the premium protection pampers they have a wetness indicator line on them, they always seemed to fit well and we didn't have any faulty nappies. We did seem to have more explosions/leaks with these, but it could have been coincidence. I would 100% use these again.

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...      

Graco Contour Electra Travel Cot - Posie

Graco Contour Electra Travel Cot – Posie      £79.99 (£99.99 full price)

 

I bought this travel cot from Toys r Us about a month before my daughter came along. I liked how girly it was and how small it folded, yet it seemed quite big and sturdy, so she would have plenty of room to grow.

I put it together myself at 35 weeks pregnant with SPD… so that tells you how easy it was. Though I found the instructions very poor I have to admit. Most of it was google and guess work. For the Travel Cot itself, the sides wouldn’t lock into place until the bottom of the cot was flat and in place, it took me about 30 mins to figure this out and I got increasingly frustrated, eventually watching a you tube video to help.

Then to set up the changing table; You basically just get pictures of what it “should” look like and you follow the pictures through, but the pictures are awful and it was difficult for me to follow. The changing table I originally put together upside down, so I was putting my daughter on the bottom of it. I eventually realised and went to correct my mistake and I couldn’t get the bars out which resulted in me ripping the fabric. Once it was on the correct way, I could no longer use the changing table as the rip caused my daughter to roll, the tension wasn’t there to hold her in the correct position.

We didn’t use the travel cot to begin with as my daughter wouldn’t settle in it so she slept in a side cot. I ended up going to Smyths and buying a proper Graco Travel Cot Mattress (£16.99) as I figured that after sleeping on a proper mattress in the side sleeper, she wouldn’t settle in the Travel Cot because the mattress supplied was very thin and plasticy. We now use it permanently as she sleeps well at the moment. I can’t find the bar for the activity bar. God knows what I have done with it, but it’s gone! We are currently still using the bassinet part which hold the baby half way up the cot rather than her being in the bottom, however we are literally weeks away from crawling so I am going to have to take the bassinet out sooner rather than later, this will cause problems with laying baby down to sleep as she will be much lower, and I will have to bend much further, so I have to admit I am not looking forward to it.

Overall this is a good Travel Cot. It has enough room for her to move around, but is secure. It has a console which plays music/vibrates and has a nightlight which we love, and it folds down easily for storage or travel. The only downsides are that the supplied mattress wasn’t very comfortable, so we ended up having to buy a more permanent solution. Also the instructions were terrible, which resulted in me breaking part of the cot.

The only reason I didn’t return it to get a replacement Changing Table was that they had stopped supplying this particular colour and wouldn’t give me a replacement part for it. So the changing part was never used.

I would definitely buy it again. I love it, its very pretty, however I would know this time around more about fixing it together.

 

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.

Graco Modes Pram in Extreme Black.

I decided on the pram I wanted prior to finding out whether I would be having a girl or a boy. I wanted something dark, but I really fell in love with the print on this, it just gave it an edge over the plain black coloured prams.

We bought the Graco Modes Pram with the travel system and pram adapter to fit the car seat onto the pram base too for ease of use. The total cost of this was £279.99, with an extra £29.99 for the car seat base, that allowed you to just click and connect the car seat into place.

We brought my daughter home in the Graco Modes Car Seat, and she was very comfortable in it. The newborn insert gave her enough support so that she wasn't flopping around. It literally clicks into the car seat base, though you could use it with a seatbelt wrapped around it also. We got an adapter that clicked onto the frame of the pram and allowed you to just click the car seat onto it, in the first few months this was all we used. I very rarely used the actual pram part to begin with.

I found both the pram and the car seat a bit difficult to adjust to begin with as they didn't have very clear instructions or tutorials for how to change the straps. But once I had figured it out its been fine.

It is very easy to use as the pram just clicks onto the frame of the pram and by pulling the lever at the back of the hood upwards, you can recline the pram.

Overall it is a very good pram, easy to push, easy to assemble and comfortable for baby as it lays flat or sits upright. There is also a large basket at the bottom for shopping and plenty of leg room for baby. The frame is also freestanding so when not in use it can be stood upright to save space.

The drawbacks, I have a large hatchback car, and I can fit this in the boot, but only this pram; nothing else. It takes up a huge amount of room.

The first 9 months

My little lady is going to be 9 months old soon, she will officially been outside for longer than she was inside!! This is a scary thought.

The first 9 months have been hard. There have been times when I have wanted to punch my other half in the face! There have been times I have wanted to lock myself away from the world. But we are still moving forward and our beautiful little girl is not so little anymore. She is weaning, has two teeth, she's had her first cold and I have now returned to work full time...

We have a whole bundle of items to review that we have adored. So I am just going to start working through them one by one and adding my reviews.

Is there anything you would like me to review? Is there anything you'd like me to discuss, how have I done certain things or managed to overcome obstacles.....

3 months post partum

So, my lovely little princess was 3 months old on Tuesday, she'll be 3 months and 1 week tomorrow.

She's absolutely amazing! She has the cutest smile, has learnt to suck her thumb and has even started sleeping through! 

I'm totally in awe of her awesomeness, she tries to communicate and grabs things now! I'm still breastfeeding! Exclusively at the moment, no formula feeds whatsoever and she's still gaining weight. 

We bought her a new car seat the other day, one that does rear facing for 4 years (I'll review it once I've had a little more experience with it. I literally have to keep this girl safe!!! She is my world now!