Friday 28 September 2012

Surprise post

Well just had the postman knock on my door and he handed me a package, I was beginning to think baby brain had really taken over because I was sure I hadn't ordered anything, obviously I forgot.

I opened the package and to my surprise I had been picked by Tesco mums choice to test and review a pack of nappies :) And I think all you parents will know nappies always come in handy, just a shame it wasn't cloth nappies.

xxxx

Thursday 20 September 2012

Snip Snip

Well today was the day my baby making days came to an end. This morning Daddy Hazelden had his vasectomy done.

Now I have mixed emotions about this as it is kind of a head versus heart thing. I know in my head this was the sensible thing to do because to have any more children would be some what selfish as there would be lack of space and money. The problem is in my heart I would quite happily carry on having children, if money and space weren't an issue I would of liked at least 2 more.

I'm just wondering whether this broody feeling ever goes away, I really hope it does, it almost feels like I'm in mourning at the moment, which I know to most of you must seem really sad but even when Layla is having a really bad day and screaming the house down I still feel broody, I'm jealous of other people who are pregnant, I must be insane.

All this from the girl who at young age told her mummy she didn't really want kids and if she did have any she could keep them until they were potty trained. How times change.

xxxx

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Tummy time

As I write this Layla is on her playmat enjoying a little tummy time but it got me thinking does everyone do this with their babies, is it a necessary thing??

I'm not really sure to be honest, it is just something I have done with all of my children and I couldn't really tell you why I've done it either, maybe half because of what I've read in books/ on the internet whilst pregnant. I just see so many people commenting about it, how if you don't do it it can delay certain skills that you child will develop etc. It just seems like another one of these things that us mums get pressured into doing and if we don't do it we are considered bad mothers. What about those poor babies that really hate to be on their tummies??

So do you do tummy time with your babies?? If you haven't do you think it has affected the way they have developed?? Genuinely interested. All of mine have been very early doing everything, little miss independents but I don't know whether this is because of anything I have done or whether this is just the way they are made.



xxxx

Wednesday 12 September 2012

First day at school

The time has come to wave another child off into the big wide world. Why do they have to grow up so quick??!!

Now I was more worried about Freya starting than I ever was about Elise purely because she hasn't got the same confidence as her sister. Elise will talk to anyone and everyone and make friends instantly,
where as Freya is more reserved, she seems to stand back and assess everything and wait for people to come to her. It's amazing how different our children can be even when they are brought up the same!!!

Well I needn't of worried, she was so excited last night, wanted to put her uniform on before eating her breakfast this morning and when we got to the school she couldn't wait to get rid of me. The teacher said to all of the parents that we could stay for a little while to get them settled in but Freya said "I think you can go now mum".

Here is my big middle child looking all grown up  :


And just for memories sake, here is her big sister Elise on her first day of school 2 years ago, how time flies.



xxxx


Monday 10 September 2012

Growth Spurts

Well we have just reached the 6 week point with our little bundle of joy and I have to say she has been in a pretty bad mood all weekend. Lots of crying, not wanting to be put down and when not crying she has been sleeping and drinking lots of milk.

I put all this behaviour down to a growth spurt because I went through the list of what could be wrong, change bum, feed, cuddle etc and still she was upset. And as all mothers would agree it is the worst thing seeing your child upset and not being able to do anything about it!!!

These growth spurts have a lot to answer for I must say. Ggggrrrr

xxxx

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Time to test some nappies

As you may remember a while ago the lovely people at Baba+Boo sent me a couple of re-usable nappies and a pack of re-usable wipes to test and if you don't remember here is the link to that article to refresh your memory http://mamamummymum.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/nappies-nappies-everywhere.html

Well Layla is nearly 6 weeks old, I have been using cloth nappies on her since she was 3 weeks old but I have been using my newborn and small size nappies.
Yesterday I decided it was time to try out the birth to potty nappies as they say you should be able to use them from 7/8lb upwards. I had previously washed the nappies and the inserts which you are told to do to build up absorbancy with nappies.

So I began by adjusted the nappy and the microfibre insert down to their smallest size placed the insert in the nappy, then I put a fleece liner inside ready to catch any stinkies that she might decide to do lol. I then proceeded to put the nappy on Layla. It was very easy to put on and the hip snaps are good to have as it meant I could get it tighter round her legs as well as her waist. Now Layla has quite skinny legs and waist so we ended up with a bit of a gap, I think we could have done with one more row of hip snaps to get a snug fit. However Layla seemed very happy in it as you can see by this picture.


The nappy lasted almost 2 hours before we got a bit of leaking from the legs but like I said previously Layla does still seem a little bit small for this nappy so when correctly fitted I think it would have last for atleast 3 hours. And remember you can always have more than one insert in the nappy to increase absorbancy.

When she needed changing I used one of the wipes that Baba+Boo provided me with. These wipes are double sided so one was definitely enough. All I did was spray it with water and wiped, nice and simple and no horrible chemicals on her bum!!! Then both nappy and wipe were put in a wet bag ready for washing, easy don't you think.

I am going to try out the nappy again in a couple of weeks once Layla has filled out a bit more.

xxxx

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Pushchair testing

Well if any of you know me you will know that I am addicted to pushchairs, whether it be pushing them or just reading up on the latest releases.

Now have any of you heard of Pushchair Trader??? If you haven't let me explain. This is an amazing site run by some amazing people that offers you the chance to read reviews on the latest pushchairs, sell your own pushchairs on there for free and they run loads of competitions which include some exclusive prizes!!!!

Now the lovely people at Puschair Trader also run a VIP scheme. This means that you pay £10 for the whole year, yes you read right, that is less than 20p week. Your VIP status earns you automatic entry into every competition they run, that means you never miss out. It also gives you access to £100's worth of brilliant discount codes and if that wasn't enough it also gives you the opportunity to apply to test pushchairs and this is exactly what I did.

I was lucky enough to be picked as one of four people to test the Mutsy Evo for 12 months, these reviews are put on Pushchair Traders living with section their site http://www.pushchairtrader.co.uk/en/living-with/



I've only had it a couple of weeks but myself and the kids are really enjoying being part of the Pushchair Trader team :)

At the moment they are asking for testers for stunning cosatto giggle.

Has any of this got you interested in becoming a VIP?? Why not take a look for yourself            http://bit.ly/HDVZuc

Monday 3 September 2012

Layla's Birth Story

I realise it has been a long time since I wrote anything on here but if you hadn't guessed it already I had a baby :)

I was expecting to be well over due as all my other baby's have kept me waiting but this one obviously knew we were dying to meet her.

It all started at midnight on the 28th July, I was officially 4 days overdue. I think I jinxed myself as Daddy Hazelden had just been saying 2 hours previously that we would go to my cousins wedding reception the next day seen as I hadn't given birth yet and didn't expect to any time soon as at my last midwife appointment I had been told that the head still wasn't engaged.

Well as I said at midnight the tightenings started, in the beginning they weren't regular so even though I knew they were contractions rather than braxton hicks I wasn't sure whether this was going to turn into established labour or not.
Over the next 5 hours I kept getting contractions on and off, I was timing them on a app on my phone, some were 3 minutes apart, some were 5 but some were 10. When they started to get to 10 minutes apart I started to get disheartened thinking it wasn't going to happen so I decided to try and get some sleep. Typically the minute I laid down the contractions started again.

By 9am I decided to ring my local birthing centre who told me because my contractions still weren't consistently regular I couldn't be in established labour so to stay at home and wait a few more hours, I was told that the contractions needed to be constantly 5 minutes or less apart before going in, they would ring me back at lunch time and check on me.

We decided to go for a walk to try and get things moving more but again the contractions were coming and going, irregular as far as the midwives were concerned. Now TMI Daddy Hazelden and I then decided to have sex to see if that would do something and it obviously did because my plug came out!!!!

Lunch time came and went and I never got a phone call back so by 1pm I decided to ring the birthing centre again seen as my plug had gone and I was still having contractions but again they told me because the contractions weren't consistently regular I was to wait at home, no offer to come and check me or anything. At this point I was becoming very stressed out because the contractions were very painful.

I spent all afternoon getting in and out of the bath with all my other children asking if I was alright not nice seeing me in pain. Unfortunately my contractions carried on being irregular so I was trying to sit tight so to speak.

At 7pm I decided to ring my mum who was at my cousins wedding.  I was in tears because I didn't know what to do, it was hurting to walk around, hurting to sit but still my contractions weren't regular, I was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen, I thought maybe she couldn't get her head engaged. Now my auntie is a trained midwife so my mum told her what I was feeling and her exact words were "if they won't see you up at the birthing centre then ring an ambulance because when it's your 4th child you won't get regular contractions, you need to get to a hospital now!!"
So at 7.30pm we rung the birthing centre and told them we were coming up now as I just couldn't cope with the pain anymore. The girls were then dropped off at nannies and we made our way up to the hospital.

When we arrived the midwife said she would check me quickly as we actually wanted to have the birth at a hospital 30 minutes away so she wanted to get us on our way. Upon examining me she said, you won't be going anywhere, the head is well down and your between 7 and 8cm dilated and your waters are bulging. I was in utter shock because every other time I've been in labour I've needed my waters breaking as I haven't managed to get past 3cm. I was also gutted because it meant yet again I would miss out on my water birth because for some reason the pools at the birthing centre weren't in use :( This meant me going through the rest of labour without pain relief as gas and air makes me physically sick.

I spent the next 3 hours pacing the corridors and trying my best to breath as everyone kept telling me, at this point the contractions were too regular I wasn't getting a break inbetween each one, I thought surely this must be it now. Daddy Hazelden was amazing rubbing my back and letting me squeeze his hands until they were white.
The midwife re examined me and I was still only 9cm and my waters still hadn't gone, so they decided to break my waters, this was at 10.30pm.

At 11pm they checked me again and they said there was still a tiny bit of cervix in the way by this point I was exhausted as I had been awake since 6am the previous day and I hadn't eaten anything all day because every time I contracted I felt sick. And at this point in labour I was actually sick, bless Daddy Hazelden holding the bed pan for me and holding my hair back. I was just so hot and bothered.

At 11.20pm I couldn't take the pain any more. The midwife was just about to leave the room to check another lady when I began to push, it was the only thing I could do to get rid of the pain and at 11.25pm little baby Layla came in to the world with her hand on her face, this was why it had taken so long, little monkey but as soon as she came out all panic started.

Now this part left myself and Daddy Hazelden very upset as it was very poorly handled as I shall now explain:

I started bleeding heavily so Layla was passed to her daddy and everyone crowded round me, one midwife was shouting phone 999 the other was trying to inject me to get my placenta to come out but instead of waiting for the injection to work they just tugged it out of me, at the same time they were putting needles in my hands and trying to attach me to drips, both midwives had shaking hands, didn't seem to know what they were doing, they couldn't get the needles in, they couldn't get the drip to work, it was all just one big mess as I now had blood pouring out of my hand as well. In all this time nothing was explained to us and to be fair I thought it was a lot of panic over nothing as I was sat there feeling fine and having a conversation with the midwives as they were panicking away!! As it turned out the next day one of the needles hadn't even been put in a vein it was just shoved in my arm leaving my arm and wrist heavily bruised.

At the same time they were telling Daddy Hazelden to get Layla dressed and in her car seat as he needed to take her up to the hospital, they hadn't even checked her over there could be anything wrong with her. They refused to let me take her in the ambulance with me, I hadn't even cuddled her yet. He ended up going to get mum to drive up with him so that she could keep an eye on Layla while he drove as anything could happen in that half hour journey.

By the time I got to the other hosiptal they bleeding had slowed a lot even without the clotting drip that they still hadn't got working. When the doctor came to examine me he ended up having to manually clean me out as they had left bits of placenta and membrane behind because of their rushing around.

The midwife who was at my birth had come in the ambulance with me, said she would personally come out and explain to us what had happened but we never saw her again, no explaination, just nothing.

And all of this had a knock on effect because I ended up having to take antibiotics to prevent infection, I was on 11 tablets a day, this is in turn made my milk taste funny so Layla wouldn't take my milk, so upsetting and disappointing.

At the end of the day I am just grateful that Layla was alright but I think If that had been my 1st child it would have put me off for life. If that had been a young mum they would have been scared to death, I think I'm lucky that I kept a level head throughout, poor Daddy Hazelden really thought he had lost me, he was expecting to get the hospital and find me attached to blood transfusions etc. It turns out I lost over a litre of blood. Now it is a good job that I took my aunties advice and got to the hospital because it could have been a lot worse.

I think my advice to anyone expecting is to trust in your own body, you know when your in labour, I really wish I had trusted my own instincts.

To end this on a bright note here is a picture of my wonderful girls