Cuddly cuties sutiable for a Newborn

I had to share this with my readers! Our little Oscar has far too many soft toys, something which until recently he has actually taken very little interest in but this morning he carried into me his big traditional teddy bear which lives in his nursery and was cuddling it!

With a few friends pregnant and also due shortly my mind has been thinking about newborn gifts and soft cuddlies that are appropriate for a newborn.

A lot of teddies and toys have beaded eyes or parts which might be deemed a risk or choking hazard to a new born so it's always best and safe practice to go for those that specifically state they're appropriate for a new born. They usually have sewn on features and no loose parts and are filled with a safe filler.

That's when I came across this gorgeous range, a Danish design DonebyDeer

Each cuddly toy is designed as an adorable animal in a funky modern striped design.

This is Nozo the rhino in yellow and blue. The smaller rhino is in fact a musical toy which can be attached to the crib/cot to soothe baby to sleep.

There is also an Anteater, Zebra and Hippo in the range, this one features a soft textured horn.

Only downside is I can't find a stockist in the UK and freight charges are £8 ouch! So I suggest if you like the range to nip down to your local TK Maxx which is where I found them at a brilliant price.

The DonebyDeer Range starts at £14 for a cuddly and £18 for a musical cot feature see their Toy Range here.

At TK Maxx they're a fraction of the cost at only £3.99 each. Stylish cuddlies at a snippet of the price.

Be sure to have a rummage through their toy section though as TK Maxx seem to have a random stock list and no items are ever guaranteed in store.

Sharing your birth experiences

This summer Lottie's birth story was featured in the nct newsletter.

One of the volunteers was asking for home birth experiences and although we didn't have a home birth I did offer to share our experience of labouring at our local birth centre which was welcomed.

What was so refreshing about writing her birth story was having a written record of events to keep, I find as the time passes the whole experience and memory of birth can fade and become blurred so having things written down is a refreshing  reminder.

Also it's good to talk, sharing your birth story no matter what the experience, the good, the bad and the ugly is such a positive thing to do as it helps others get an insight into different birthing stories, understand and appreciate that each birth is different and there is no norm. Birth experiences are certainly as unique as each child that enters the world.

It's a great feeling to be able to share with other mums and families an appreciation of each birth story no matter what the content or happenings, not in a means to compare, to compete or even to associate with each of them but simply to appreciate and hear them is a wonderful thing to be able to do.

So I'm glad we shared our birth story.

I'm pleased we sought support from the neighbourhood midwives, the breech birth support groups and midwifery led acupuncture and moxibustion practices locally. And I'm even more pleased that these support services exist.

Having a breech baby to full term certainly made us think outside the box and re evaluate our options particularly with standard practice guidelines nationally and at our local hospital. 

On that note here is a quote from birth without fear which seems to sum things up perfectly.

Happy 3 months to our beautiful Lottie

This post is designated to our baby girl, who will be featuring more and more on the blog alongside our adventures with Oscar.

Lottie is now 3 months old (where has the time gone!) and each month we take a simple snap to track how she is changing as she grows.

We got given these cute little monthly stickers at my baby shower and they're a fun way to remember those monthly milestones.

So here with you today I share Lottie's 3 month photo.

She's just delightful!

Lottie is a very smiley baby and is proving to be very alert, she smiled and held her head up at the tender age of 2 weeks and hasn't stopped since. She now giggles, grabs and plays with toys and natters away to herself. She also loves a good trump in the morning!

I wanted to share her 3 month milestone with you as it's also a special one for us, we've reached 3 months of exclusive breast feeding something I am super proud of and now throughly enjoying with my baby girl :)

She's here!

Well I was expecting to be waddling around this Easter indulging in chocolate eggs and enjoying family time! And that's exactly what we were doing on Good Friday!

Hubby has been busy nesting and building a set of drawers and getting the swinging crib set up in our bedroom!

Auntie Krissi and Uncle David popped round in the afternoon for a walk to collect some materials for our latest craft project! An insect hotel for the garden (more on this topic later) 

And then we finished the day off with a yummy dominos pizza feast! 

At 11pm I started to get a few cramp type period pains but nothing substantial and I thought well perhaps its a sign things might be progressing with bump now officially overdue.

We went to bed as usual and I started to wake every 15 minutes with pains which were progressing more into contraction sensations, thinking it might be braxton hicks I continued to try and ignore them as best possible and return to getting some rest! Hubby got me a hot water bottle and we attempted to get some more shut eye.

However come early morning the contractions were getting very painful and far more regular, Hubby called the birth centre & they wanted me in to be checked. Namely because we have a fair drive to the New Forest and because of my history with a reasonably fast previous labour with Oscar.

We arrived at the birth centre in a record 22 minutes, I don't quite remember the drive to be honest! I occasionally would look up and get a rough bearing of where we were but its a bit of a blur! I remember hubby parking up as close to the entrance as he could and pointing out the deer whilst I was in the middle of a full blown contraction! Think I grabbed on to him with all my might for support! We waddled in and straight into a birthing room, I was so glad to be there and was offered gas and air straight away such a huge relief! 

Following assessment the midwife confirmed I was fully dilated and then whilst adjusting my position on the bed my waters went. She asked where I wished to labour and I stated my desire to use the birthing pool, unfortunately it only reached about 1/4 full and was cold so no time for a dip!

Bubba was coming! After 15-20 minutes of pushing baby made an entrance into the world safely and we discovered we'd had a little baby girl :)

A sister for Oscar and a beautiful daughter for my Husband and I. We'd always known what name we wanted for a baby girl so was easy to announce little Lottie's arrival.

We had a few middle names in mind but thought Florence was really pretty so Lottie Florence it was!

The midwifery team at NFBC were simply  amazing and have been with both my pregnancies and newborns. I was so pleased we managed to birth there with Lottie and we spent the next day in the Heather room getting to know Lottie, feeding her and settling in to being a family of four :) we already adore her!

I was so pleased to have a smooth labour especially after such a tough pregnancy. I really suffered when carrying Lottie with constant illness, infections and was on antibiotics for the majority of my 2nd and 3rd trimester. I pretty much had to live off Gaviscon (my saviour) due to terrible heartburn and Lottie was breech until 37 weeks so we had  accipunture with the midwives, additional scans and monitoring and then blood tests for both genestational diabetes and obstetric cholestatis when I reached full term. But she is here safely, so let the adventures continue, with our now 'two' little pickles! :) 

My first photograph:

Meeting Daddy & my big brother:

Back at home:

With my mummy (our first girly selfie)

Baby Shower Inspiration!

Well with only a week to go to my little gathering of friends and family to celebrate the forthcoming arrival of our latest addition in only a few weeks time, I thought I'd publish a post about inspiration and ideas for baby showers.

I must admit I am no guru and have only been to a couple of baby shower's myself but they really are a lovely chance to catch up with everyone for some games and nibbles and to spend some time together before new born arrives.

To entertain your guests there are lots of fun baby themed activities you can do. The internet is full of ideas. Here are a few we came up with:

Guess Baby's Birthday:

A modern take on the classic guess the date & weight of baby. Have your guests join in on the sweepstake in an interactive way, and get to keep a gorgeous momento.

Simply create a calendar on Mircosoft Word featuring dates 2 weeks either side of your due date, print this off and attach inside a fancy frame of your choice. Cut out a few blue and pink hearts and apply double sided tape on the reverse. People can then select a blue or pink heart to indicate the sex of the baby and write their names onto the heart. These can then be stuck onto the calendar on their date prediction.

Once finished it can be displayed proudly or hung in the nursery wall as a keepsake.

Left/ Right Game:

Such a simple concept but a brilliant ice breaker between family and friends and bound to create some giggles. Each guess is handed a small envelope and the following baby themed story read out by the host. Every time the word 'RIGHT' or 'LEFT' is read out guests must pass their envelope in that direction. At the end of the story guests can open their envelope to see if they have won a prize :)

Here is the story we used which I have converted into a PDF for my readers to print off x




What's in the diaper bag?

Grab your nappy changing bag and fill it with 10 items you think you would find in there. Then have your guests guess what's inside! The person who guesses the most correct answers wins a prize! Be sure to add in a few tie breakers in case of a draw.

Sperm and the egg:

A fun take on the sperm and the egg game. For this you will need some sperm bean bags and something to represent the 'egg'. I made the sperm beanies from felt and filled them with bird seed to weigh them down!  Split your guests into groups and have them throw their bean bag as close to the egg as possible. The winner of each team can step to the side and then a grand finale of sperm throwing can take place. The overall winner wins a goody bag! Guaranteed to cause lots of smiles and laughs!

Onsie decorating station:

Finally we had a onsie decorating station. Grab some cheap onsies from Primark, Asda or Tesco and have them laid out on a table. Add some Crayola fabric marker pens, some images for inspiration and let your guests creative juices flow designing their very own baby sleepsuit. The designs can simply be ironed over to make them permanent and safe to wash and your new addition will have lots of lovely home made outfits to enjoy :) a nice relaxed activity and fun to make.

Here are some lovely images my little sister put together for the day to inspire people with their designs.

And here are some of the finished designs from a very creative bunch of girlfriends :)

Prizes:

Some gorgeous pink bags filled with goodies for the prize winners! Included mini bottles of wine, chocolates and a face mask!

Favours:

I really didn't know what to get as favours for guests. So I reverted back to my crafts. I made each guest a little felt keyring to take home, including apples, pears, a carrot and some lemons! These come with a stern warning not to attach to a set of keys or anything your child might play with though as although I have secured the eyes as best possible these are beads and could be liable to falling off! Best to attach them to the garage door keys/ purse or something that little ones don't get hold of! Keep them out of reach as they're not a toy :)

Decorations:

We kept this easy and pain free and ordered some cheap pom poms from ebay! Only a fiver from China and arrived in time, simply pull them out into a ball shape and hang them from the string, colourful and effective. We also picked up some heart shaped paper bunting from The Range for 99p and some glitter butterflies.

Buffet:

Saving the most important to last! ;) what to eat! I was lucky enough that both family and friends helped prepare a buffet for my baby shower as food can be expesnive. This included some home made quiches, sandwiches, chocolate brownies and cake! I provided some tea, coffee and fizzy drinks and made some cheese and pineapple sticks.

You don't have to go overboard with food but it's nice to have some nibbles. We didn't buy a baby shower cake so to say but simply decorated some cupcakes with baby themed picks to keep in theme with the baby shower.

Bump painting:

We had the lovely Claire from Funky Faces arrive to paint bump, I believe this may be a fairly recent trend but having seen a friend's beautiful 'cake' design recently I couldn't resist having bump decorated. Be aware this doesn't come cheap as I was soon to find out! Most artists we contacted charged about £60 for a bump painting and a seating of about 1 hr to complete a  design. However these sometimes include additional bumps at the party being painted and some face painting if you'd like for your guests. Each artist seem to have their own packages! Claire managed to complete my bump design in just 30 minutes and is priced at a very reasonable £30, sometimes she has offers on her Facebook page and her January deal was £20 for a bump painting.

Claire painted a beautiful tree with our names on the branches and some blossom, she added a touch of glitter and I was so pleased with her design :)

Check out her page here for latest price range and offers.

 Funky Faces Face Painting 

Gifts:

I cannot thank my lovely friends and family for all their generosity, bump has recieved some beautiful gifts and mummy some useful pressies and treats too! I was overwhelmed with how kind you've all been and the home made gifts nearly bought me to emotional tears including a home made nappy cake and beautifully knitted cardigan! We feel so grateful x

Absolutely huge thank you to everyone that made it today and for making it so special had such a lovely afternoon with you all and can't wait for you all to meet bump in the not so distant future X X X

Feeling lucky!

This week on Facebook I was hugely lucky enough to be drawn as a winner to a competition for a newborn photo shoot.

Emily broadbank a local Hampshire photographer was running the competition in which mums to be we're asked to submit their due date to be in with a chance of winning this excellent and to me once in a life time opportunity.

I sadly never got the chance to have a newborn photo shoot with Oscar because of my broken knee cap. I found myself very isolated and quite self conscious becoming a mummy not able to carry my child in my arms, push him in his buggy or buckle him into his car seat. Still on crutches and with the help of my wheelchair I could get around but I simply wasn't prepared mentally or physically to become a mummy with a broken limb to deal with at the same time. Unfortunately I struggled to come to terms with my situation for a long time and shyed away from photographs, looking at my newborn son sadly brought the accident flooding back to me and the weeks of being unable to move, in pain, highly dosed up on medication, and then suddenly I had something screaming at me, so fragile and helpless and wanting me do everything for him when I couldn't even get myself showered and dressed without assistance.

Tackling the stairs was impossible and Oscar's brand new nursery which had been lovingly decorated and prepared weeks before was vacant with me and him grounded on the downstairs floor.

Whilst other mummies were happily chattering away about breast feeding, sleep patterns and percentiles I was mulling over range of motion exercises, endless physiotherapy just to move my leg one degree by another each day and attending endless hospital assessments, x rays and learning how to inject myself with clexane blood thinners appropriately. I started to feel very envious of other new mummies and desperate to talk to someone going through what I was but there was no one, my situation for me it seemed was unique. The medical professionals would just look at me and shake their heads, almost like they didn't know quite what to do with me.

It was hard. There were tears, lots of them. For months in fact.

And no I'm not writing this for people to feel sorry for me, or to 'go on' about my broken leg again. I'm writing this because it was my reality and my experience of becoming a mother. The term 'labour plan now suddenly seemed so laughable and very far from the real world.

So that's why we don't have many newborn photographs particularly not as a family because well I just didn't have the confidence.

Fortunately I have some amazing family & friends around me and I day by day got through things. No I didn't attend first time mummy groups, I didn't subscribe to baby classes and I wasn't out walking my baby boy in his pram with a big beam on my face because this wasn't a possibility for me but I did overcome things in time and now I look back and the photographs aren't there.

Looking back now I feel an amazingly strong bond with my son, I remember the days I wanted to give up and he kept me going, I see the little boy he has become and I am immensely proud.

I must note, I did eventually build up a network of  local mummy friends, I was enrolled on a baby massage course at the nearby sure start where I met the lovely Beckie & Claire who I still keep in touch with, I had contact via email with my antenatal nct group and when strong enough began joining them for meet ups and a friend of ours Gem introduced me to the Ruskateers a pretty cute trio of baby boys. Oscar also has a friend in Penny his little buddy- daughter of a work colleague and fiance due around a similar time  and Lisa & Elliot who visited us after my accident. We also have some lovely little friends in the neighbourhood in Leo & Alexa who Oscar adores and Aimee and Autumn who visited us for play dates and moral support. And I am grateful for all of them for keeping me going during my recovery.

But with all this in the back of my mind when I got an email notification saying I'd won a newborn photoshoot for bump I actually had a tear in my eye. This is the unknown for me and my little family!

A chance to capture our little latest addition in the comfort of our home and 5 digital images to keep forever.

I cannot thank Emily enough for giving us this chance.

And now I will have something very special to show Oscar when he is older. Photographs of the special moment he became a Brother <3

I will keep you posted on the blog of our chosen images and hope they will be as magical to my readers as they are to us.

Check out Emily's beautiful work here:

Emily Broadbank

Natasha & Oscar x

I've written a poem

With a distinct lack of crafts and blogging this weekend and an impromptu trip to the PAH I've been feeling reflective.

I always see those quotes that get circulated, re posted and shared online and I think each of us can relate to some of them at certain points in our life.

But at risk of trying to express my feelings through an existing quote we've probably all seen before I decided to actually jot down all those thoughts running through my mind.

And well I've attempted a poem!

This is for my baby boy Oscar X

Bump @ 30 weeks

With danger of this fast becoming a craft blog I thought I would post an update of our lovely little bundle which is baking in the oven right now! 

And I don't mean a Victoria sponge :P

I do feel like crafting has almost become a side effect of my pregnancy this time around, I am thoroughly enjoying my crafts and making  lots of custom gifts and pressies for people, in fact next week I have a post about a baby shower hamper I have put together and some recent needlework but for now let's take a look at how bump has changed!

So here he/she is:

@ 30 weeks.

I must be honest I am really struggling this time round with horrid heart burn, having great difficult trying to sleep and my immune system is at an all time low. I have suffered 4 infections now in the last 2 months and have been referred to a specialist at the hospital to try and get to the bottom of it all. 

Also baby is breech this time around which means his/ her feet are facing down and his/ her head is nestled under my rib cage, not favourable for a natural labour. In my naivety I assumed things

would be just like the were when I carried Oscar and well they're simply not!

This little one loves to swim around in my tummy not just kick and punch, it rotates like a rolly polly in there which is quite different to Oscar's movements. Obviously his/ her positioning is also very different. 

I have been very poorly this time round and stumbled across struggles as early as my 2nd trimester whereas with my 1st child I found the 2nd trimester a breeze! I was a lot more active with Oscar, swimming, taking part in aqua natal and anti natal classes. This time around with a toddler to occupy us bump has not quite had such un divided attention.

I only have 10 weeks to go now so am making it my aim to get down the pool and bob around a bit in the water just to take the weight of me and bump for a bit and enjoy some 'us' time! I've also heard handstands in the water can help with flipping the baby naturally.

I am sitting on my birthing ball during office hours now which I am hoping will help with relaxing my hips and improving my posture which is usually a terrible slumped position.

Despite all the pain, the niggles and the what seems endless courses of antibiotics recently I know I will dearly miss my bump when its gone! So... When I'm reading this back in a few months time with a newborn attached to my breast and a toddler tugging at my trouser leg I know I'll be filled with happiness at what was my beautiful baby bump :)