15 June , 201614 June , 2016 - Sarah 5 Comments

Toby and Gabe in June

This is going to be a very short post this month. If I’m really honest, with the chicken pox and everything else we’ve been dealing with in the month since my last Siblings project post there hasn’t been a huge amount of sibling love going on in our house. It’s been more about sibling competition for mummy’s attention and I think a bit of jealousy creeping in from Toby because I’ve had to spend so much time looking after poorly Gabe.

I haven’t even got any proper (well, posed) photos of Toby and Gabe together this month but I didn’t want to miss a post, and I thought this was a chance to record what my boys’ sibling relationship is really like at the moment.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been some moments of affection. Like in this picture when Toby was trying to help Gabe get out from under the chair (I think!) even though he was perfectly capable of doing it by himself.

Toby is quite tolerant of Gabe for the most part – even when he insists on grabbing Toby’s hair….still! I’m really hoping he’s going to grow out of this grabby phase soon.

And Gabe just wants to be wherever Toby is, doing whatever he’s doing, which of course isn’t always possible at the moment. Yesterday, Toby even resorted to shutting himself in Gabe’s playpen so he could get away from him. Actually, maybe I should try that one more often….

14 June , 201625 September , 2018 - Sarah 5 Comments

Review: Rockin’ Baby Pouch

I first started babywearing when Toby was tiny and his reflux was so bad that he hated being put down. I had a stretchy wrap and would often carry him around the house when he was struggling to settle. When he got too big for the wrap we got a buckle, or soft-structured, carrier and used it a lot on days out and walks when the buggy wasn’t practical. When Gabe was born I used the stretchy wrap again but I found it quite a faff to put on, particularly if I was trying to wrangle Toby at the same time. I used the buckle carrier with Gabe, and still do use it a lot, but I wanted something I could get him into really quickly and easily – particularly for those times I was just popping in the shop, or needed to carry him but have my hands free for Toby too….

Enter the Rockin’ Baby Pouch! You may remember the boys had some clothes from Rockin’ Baby a while ago, well we were also sent a Rockin’ Baby Pouch to try at the same time. The pouch is a sling type carrier, it is suitable from birth to 18 kg and there are four different carrying positions. The sling is adjustable using a series of zips on the back which are then hidden by a protective cover. The edge which goes under your baby’s legs is padded to be more comfortable for them.

The sling is also reversible – ours has a lovely blue and white floral pattern on one side and the other side is plain black. It is handmade in the USA from 100% cotton. And here’s the best bit – for every sling they sell Rockin’ Baby will donate one to a mother in Kenya or Haiti, and educate her on the importance it holds in her baby’s life.

So how did we find the pouch? I have to admit on the first use I found it a bit tricky to get the fit right. Because you have to adjust the pouch to the right size using the zips before you put it on, if it’s not right once you put the baby in you have to take him out again, change the zips, put the baby back in…and repeat until you get it right. I had to have a couple of goes before I got the right combination of zips and Gabe was getting a bit fed up with me by the end!

However, you only really need to do this once, unless someone else is going to be using the sling. And even then, as long as you remember which zip setting you used it’s quick to change it again. So once you’ve got the right setting it’s quick to pop the Rockin’ Baby pouch over your shoulder and chuck the baby in. [I promise no babies were actually chucked anywhere for the purposes of this review].

I found the Rockin’ Baby pouch reasonably comfortable for short periods and the lack of adjustment means it’s great for those times when you’re just popping into a shop and don’t want to faff about with the buggy, or for me, when I’m dropping Toby off at nursery and having both hands free makes it a lot easier. I’ve also used the pouch at home when Gabe has been in a particularly clingy mood and I’ve needed to get Toby’s lunch ready or something.

However, the same features which make it great for short periods and quick up and downs, also meant that I didn’t find the Rockin’ Baby pouch particularly comfortable when wearing it for extended periods and I don’t think Gabe does either. I did use it when we visited a local farm and Gabe was in the pouch for about half an hour but I think that would be about our limit.

I think most people who babywear regularly have different slings for different jobs though anyway – for a long day out I would always go for my buckle carrier, but for those times when you just need your hands free for fifteen minutes then a pouch or ring sling is a great option.

And it’s so easy to use that even Daddy managed it!

**Disclosure: I was sent the featured products in return for this review. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

13 June , 2016 - Sarah 4 Comments

Living Arrows 24/52 (2016)

I think you people are going to start thinking I’m making things up but Gabe was ill again this week! This time it was a stomach bug (I think) – he had a bit of a temperature so I was giving him some Nurofen after his tea, he choked on it and threw up all over himself. The night was OK and I thought that was the end of it but the next day he was sick five more times! He was very sleepy and snuggly all day too which isn’t really like him either. Anyway, by bedtime he wouldn’t go to sleep without a bottle so we risked it. He kept it down, and the ones overnight and by the next day he seemed fully recovered. So I don’t now what it was but at least it was over quickly and he’s actually been pretty cheery since then.

Barry was away this weekend, visiting friends down in Manchester so I had both boys by myself overnight for the first time. It actually didn’t go to badly apart from that by Sunday afternoon I was going a bit insane after being constantly climbed on and sat on for pretty much 48 hours solid!

On Saturday we went out to a cafe for a bit of a break (and so I could get Gabe to have a car nap). This cafe has a little play area with some toys and colouring things. There were a few other kids playing too and for once Toby didn’t do too badly with sharing – there’s this big dragon toy which is basically the only thing most of the kids want to play with but Toby did well to let another little boy have a turn without too much of a fuss. I may have distracted him with chocolate cake, but whatever works right?

Gabe was reasonably well behaved too – although I did have to take him out of the highchair after a few minutes has he was rivalling Houdini with his bid to escape! He enjoyed playing with this bead toy for a bit though. He is actually starting to play with toys now and so it’s getting a bit easier to distract him, for a few minutes at least…

10 June , 201618 January , 2017 - Sarah Leave a comment

Novotel Super Heroes Day

This weekend we were invited to Novotel Edinburgh Park for their Super Heroes Day. In addition to the Super Heroes activities on offer we were also given a chance to have lunch in the hotel lounge, and try out the swimming pool too.

Novotel Edinburgh Park is in a really convenient location if you are visiting Edinburgh but don’t want to stay in the city centre. It is right on the ring road, and next to a train station and tram stop so there are plenty of options for getting into the city or to the airport. There’s also lots of free parking at the hotel so you don’t have to worry about driving into the city centre and finding somewhere to park.

When we arrived at the Novotel we were shown to a quiet area of the bar where we could have lunch. A staff member brought us a high chair for Gabe and Toby enjoyed sitting up on the bench seats.

For lunch I ordered a chicken Caesar salad and Barry had a barbecue pulled chicken sandwich.

For Toby we ordered from the kids’ menu which was a very reasonable £4.95 for three courses and a drink.

He had a melon and fruit stack as a starter, and then chicken fingers and chips. I’d taken food with us for Gabe but he did have a bit of Toby’s melon and then chicken too.

My Caesar salad was very tasty, and very big! There must have been two full chicken breasts in there!

Barry enjoyed his pulled chicken sandwich too, which he had with a side of chips.

Toby enjoyed his lunch too, although he did struggle a little bit with full size plates and cutlery.

Seeing as Toby’s meal came with a dessert we thought we might as well join him, well he wouldn’t want to eat dessert all by himself! Toby and I both had a chocolate brownie, his came with vanilla ice cream and mine with salted caramel ice cream.

Barry had treacle tart with clotted cream. All our desserts were delicious, in fact my only slight complaint is that they took rather a long time to arrive.

Our whole lunch was lovely and the staff were very attentive and they were the same with everyone from what I saw so I don’t think we were getting any special treatment. I didn’t see any other children in the bar area while we were eating but there was plenty of space and nobody seemed to mind the boys exploring a bit while we were waiting for the desserts.

After lunch Toby and I took advantage of the hotel’s leisure facilities and went for a swim whilst Barry took Gabe for a push in the buggy so he could have a nap. Downstairs from the reception there is a small gym and a swimming pool.

The pool was lovely and warm and we had it almost to ourselves. Toby has been swimming a few times recently and he’s really starting to enjoy it – I must get him booked in for lessons after we move.

We didn’t have too long for swimming as we were booked in for the Novotel Super Heroes Day at 3 pm. This was a free event with activities aimed at children aged 5-11 so although Toby was a bit young he was able to join in with most things with a bit of help! When we arrived Toby was given an activity booklet with stickers to collect from each of the five areas; Cookery Conquerors, Eco Warriors, Healthy Heroes, Chill Out Champions and Craft Captains. There were members of staff dressed in capes and masks in each area to help with the different activities.

I think Toby’s favourites were probably choosing the right foods to help different parts of the body in the Healthy Heroes area and sorting rubbish for recycling in the Eco Warriors game.

And Gabe enjoyed the Chill Out Champions area with daddy…

Once he had collected all his stickers Toby posed with one of the Novotel Super Heroes – he decided he was going to be a bit shy about it though…

When it was time to leave Toby got a goody bag and a balloon to take with him. He had a fun afternoon of swimming and activities and was pretty tired on the drive home.

The Novotel Super Heroes Day takes place at 33 Novotel hotels throughout the UK and although most of the events have already taken place this year I would definitely keep a look out for next year’s Super Heroes Day if you have a Novotel near you. From what we saw of the hotel it definitely seemed to be very family friendly and I’d certainly consider booking a Novotel if I was looking for somewhere for a family break.

And I’ll just leave you with this – my favourite photo from the day…

**We were provided with lunch and access to the leisure facilities at Novotel Edinburgh Park free of charge in exchange for this review. As always, all opinions are my own.

6 June , 2016 - Sarah 3 Comments

Living Arrows 23/52 (2016)

It’s been a fairly quiet week for us by all accounts. Gabe is mostly recovered from his chicken pox (although his sleep is still all over the place) and Toby has been, well, a toddler.

Gabe is really a pro-crawler now, he is literally getting everywhere and into everything. This week he has also started pulling himself up on the furniture. He’s pretty confident with kneeling up but has also managed to pull himself onto his feet a few times too. I’m really hoping that as he can move more and be more independent he will start being a bit more content to explore by himself and entertain himself. At the moment if you are holding him he is desperate to get down and sometimes even almost dives out of your arms, but if you put him down he starts crying again after a few minutes. And quite frankly it’s driving me bonkers!

Toby has been spending a lot of time outside, both at home and at nursery, in this lovely sunshine we’ve been having. Mostly he’s been loving it but it seems to be totally exhausting for him so we’ve had a few tired meltdowns this last week too. Generally though he’s still just his usual cheery self…

3 June , 201626 March , 2021 - Sarah 4 Comments

The car seat dilemma // Is it the end of extended rear-facing for Toby?

I am a big believer in keeping your children rear-facing in the car for as long as possible. The statistics are hard to argue with – research has shown that it’s five times safer to remain rear-facing. In Scandinavia children must stay rear-facing until they are 25 kg (around four or five years old) and they are very unlikely to die or be seriously injured in a car accident.

In the UK it used to be very common to turn a child to a forward-facing car seat as soon as the law allowed, that is when they reached 9 kg. Thankfully, as more people become aware of the benefits of rear-facing seats, attitudes, and the law, are changing. The new iSize re gulations say that a child must stay rear-facing until they are 15 months old. The different stage seats are then based on height not weight. At the moment iSize is running alongside the current regulations so existing car seats can still be used but eventually all car seats will have to comply to the new regulations, which also include more rigorous safety testing.

Most infant carriers (Group 0+ car seats under the old regulations) can be used until your child weighs 13 kg. For a lot of children this is somewhere between one and 18 months. However, if you have a very tall child, as we do, then they may well grow out of their infant carrier by height way before they reach the weight limit. In an infant carrier your child is too tall when their head starts to come above the shell of the seat. This happened when Toby was about 8 months old and I think weighed about 8.5 kg. He wasn’t heavy enough for a Group 1 forward-facing seat and even if he had been we still would have kept him rear-facing.

After a lot of research we decided to buy Britax Dualfix, which I reviewed here. Even though it was only two years ago there weren’t a lot of extended rear-facing options. The swivel feature of the Dualfix really appealed to me, and I was incredibly grateful for it when I was heavily pregnant and having to wrestle an uncooperative toddler into his car seat.

The Dualfix can be used until your child weighs 18 kg which for the average child is around age four. However, as I have since found out, it has quite a short shell (something it has in common with some of the other swivel seats) so at a month off 3 years old, even though Toby only weighs just over 15 kg his has almost outgrown the Dualfix. In this kind of seat it is OK for the child’s head to be above the shell as long as the straps are at or just above the shoulders. Toby is now 102 cm tall and with the headrest at its highest Toby’s shoulders are right up under it. If he grows another cm or two he’s not going to fit in this seat any more. Just to be clear though – this is nothing to do with Toby’s legs being too long or it being uncomfortable. He has never once complained about facing backwards, or not having enough space, it’s simply that the length of his body means the harness won’t fit safely soon. You can see in this picture that he is still perfectly happy in his rear-facing seat.

Gabe is also getting close to having outgrown his infant carrier too so we’ll need to move him into the Dualfix soon.

So here is the car seat dilemma – what do we do with Toby? I am a firm believer in extended rear-facing and there are seats available which can remain rear facing up to 25 kg and have a much bigger shell. If we got one of those seats Toby would be able to stay rear facing until he was maybe 5 or 6 if he continues to grow at the rate he is now. But having already paid £300 for the Dualfix we would need to spend a similar amount again on another rear facing seat, and then when he outgrows that buy another seat for him to use until he is big enough not to need a car seat at all (which at the moment is when a child is 12 years old or 135cm tall, whichever comes first). We might be able to use the new rear facing seat for Gabe, but there’s a chance he would grow out of the Dualfix before Toby grows out of the second rear facing seat and then what do we do? Buy another seat for Gabe? I’m all for being as safe as possible but at between £200-300 per seat we could be looking at a very expensive few years.

The ideal option for me would be a seat which can be used rear facing until 18 or 25 kg but which has a tall shell, and can then be turned round and used either with the harness or as a high backed booster with the adult seat belt. I have found a couple of seats which fit the bill – the Joie Every Stage and the Klippan Triofix. The main problem with the Klippan seat is that there is nowhere nearby that stocks them so I would have to buy online and hope Toby fits in the seat OK.

The Joie Every Stage is more of a possibility but there are couple of things I don’t like about it – firstly it is secured with the seat belt and the way it is routed round the car seat means you either have the put the child over or under it to get them in the seat (Plus, our car seems to have short seat belts so I don’t know if it would even fit. The second niggle is that it has to be in the most reclined position when rear facing and I don’t think Toby would like lying back after being more upright for so long. There is a local shop that stocks the Joie seat so I suppose we could always go and try it and see what we think.

I would love to know if anyone has any experience of either of these seats, and what you think of them.

The other alternative is to buy a group 2/3 forward facing seat for Toby, put Gabe in the Dualfix until he grows out of it then get a similar forward facing seat for him too. Although I know the statistics about extended rear facing being the safest option, unfortunately there comes a point where we have to look at the financial implications too.

I think I have found a seat though that will be a good compromise. The Britax Advansafix II SICT is a forward facing seat suitable from 9-36 kg. Up until your child reaches 25 kg it is fixed in the car with both isofix and the car seat belt and the child is secured using a five point harness. Isofix on its own can only be used to 18 kg so most seats switch to using the car seat belt to secure the child after that but because the Advansafix uses both the child can be harnessed for longer. I think the longer I can keep Toby in a harness the better as the car seat belt would give him too much freedom to move around and get up to mischief! I also like the fact that after 25 kg when the seat is in its high backed booster mode it is still held in the car by the isofix so you don’t need to fasten the car seat belt when the child isn’t in the car. This seat also has additional side impact protection which can be moved depending on which side of the car the seat is on, and it has fancy guides which make sure the seat belt is positioned correctly when it is being used.

As you can probably tell I’m actually pretty sold on the idea of this seat already but I would love to know if any of you have used it, or indeed if you have any other solutions to my car seat dilemma that I haven’t thought of yet….and that won’t cost me the earth!

31 May , 201621 December , 2017 - Sarah 1 Comment

Me & Mine // A Family Portrait (May 2016)

It’s a bit late in the day but I am at least managing to publish this month’s Me & Mine post on the last day of the month. It’s been another month of ups and downs for us. There has been even more illness with Barry and the boys all having a stomach bug, and then Toby and Gabe have both had chicken pox too. There have been quite a lot of tears (a lot of them from me!) and not a lot of sleep. But amongst all the illness we also had a lovely holiday at Center Parcs, and sold our house!

That last one is a very exciting bit of news – after 13 years in Scotland, 5 of them living in this house with Barry, we are moving back to the north west of England to live nearer both sets of parents. It’s all very exciting, but also very stressful. Although we’ve sold our house and our buyers want to move in at the end of the first week of July we haven’t bought anywhere yet! It looks like we might be moving in with my mum and dad for a few weeks this summer! Fingers crossed it will all work out one way or another.

Anyway, this month’s photos were taken during our holiday at Center Parcs. We got a few funny looks from people walking past as we balanced the camera on a bin and Barry dashed back to get in the shot before the timer went off. I do like this month’s picture though – we’re even all looking at the camera!

And I just wanted to include this one too – because although we’re not all looking at the camera on this one I love our happy faces…

31 May , 201631 May , 2016 - Sarah 5 Comments

Living Arrows 22/52 (2016)

If you read Gabe’s nine month update you’ll know he had got the chicken pox last week but only had a few spots. I was hoping it was going to be a mild case but by Friday he was covered and we had a couple of really bad days, and nights with him where Barry did lots of pushing him round the houses in the buggy and nobody got very much sleep.

Thankfully his spots seem to be all crusted over now and although he looks a mess he’s feeling much better. Last night he even managed to sleep from 6:30pm to 7am and only woke up once for milk at midnight then went straight back to sleep. Fingers crossed his scabs heal quickly and don’t cause him too much trouble…

And Toby is still just being Toby. He’s been really good when we’ve had to spend all our time looking after Gabe and hasn’t really complained at all.

His hair had been getting really long again the last few weeks and had got to the point where he could hardly see! I usually cut it while he’s stood in the bath but he’s always distracted by toys and getting him to stand still is a nightmare…leading to some very wonky haircuts! I decided I would try and actually cut it properly this time, I even got a hairdressing cape and some of those clips that hairdressers use to keep some sections out of the way.

Toby was really good and just sat still watching the Octonauts on my Kindle while I did it. I actually cut quite a lot off the back this time because it was getting a bit ridiculous (and always full of knots). The front still isn’t quite even but overall I’m pretty pleased with my efforts this time. And I might be biased but I reckon Toby looks awesome with his new haircut!

27 May , 2016 - Sarah 2 Comments

Gabriel is nine months old

I’m a bit late with this month’s update – Gabe was actually nine months old last week while we were on holiday at Center Parcs but with that, house viewings and the chicken pox I’m only just getting round to writing this.

Well in last month’s update I said I hoped there would be less illness this month but unfortunately that hasn’t really been the case. On top of his habitual cold Gabe has also had a stomach bug which he caught off Toby but whereas Toby was just sick a couple of times then back to normal after a couple of days, Gabe had really nasty nappies for almost two weeks. Almost as soon as he got over that Toby got the chicken pox and then it was inevitable Gabe would get it too. His first spot appeared on Monday and today he’s still only got about 10 so I’m really hoping that is it and he is going to escape with only a mild dose of the pox. On top of all that he is still suffering with his reflux, particularly it seems at bedtimes, and our paediatrician appointment which was scheduled for 17th June (already about three months after we were referred by the GP) has now been moved to 15th July!

On a happier note Gabe hasn’t had any more teeth this month, although I did think he nasty nappies were due to teething for a while. Weaning has been a bit all over the place, along with Gabe’s appetite this month. He’s still being spoon fed most of his meals but he is getting much better and chewing lumpier food, and at picking different foods up and eating them himself. Rice cakes and yoghurt have been firm favourites this month along with lots of different pouch meals (we’ve mostly been using the HiPP Organic 7+ month ones). We’ve also changed Gabe’s formula to HiPP Organic this month. I’d heard that a lot of reflux babies find it gentler on their tummies, and I was also hoping the prebiotics in it would help get his insides back to normal after the stomach bug. I don’t know if it has actually made any difference but he isn’t any worse so we’re going to stick with it for the moment.

With all the illness, and the disruption of a holiday sleep is still rather illusive. We’re having lots of night waking still but whereas I used to be able to settle him with his dummy and a rub on the back or a cuddle now he nearly always needs milk to get back to sleep. I’m pretty sure this is because of his reflux rather than hunger as Toby used to be exactly the same. It never made any difference how much he ate during the day he would still need milk if he woke in the night. At least for now Gabe does usually go back to sleep quickly after he’s had his milk so I don’t have to be awake for too long in the night. We’ve been doing quite a bit of co-sleeping this month too – mostly when he wakes for the second time at about 4 am and isn’t that keen on going back to sleep. Usually if I bring him in bed with me at that point we manage another hour or two of sleep.

The big development this month has been that Gabe has started crawling! He started off just commando crawling but in the last few days he’s pretty much crawling up on his hands knees. Which means nothing is safe any more and we’ve had to break out the playpen again. Gabe isn’t a huge fan for any length of time but at least it gives me somewhere safe to put him for a few minutes while I go to the loo or something!

I haven’t had Gabe weighed for ages now but using the probably very inaccurate method of weighing myself then both of us together he weighs 19lb 3oz. He’s still wearing 9-12 month clothes but I think we’re going to have to move into the next size soon, at least for sleepsuits as he is so long, especially with a massive night time cloth bum too!

I think that’s all for this month, I just really, really, really hope Gabe makes it to 10 months without getting ill again!

26 May , 20162 July , 2016 - Sarah 6 Comments

My Wild Ones // Mini Trekkers at Center Parcs

Last week we were on holiday at Center Parcs in the Lake District. As I’m sure most of you are aware there are tons of different activities to do…and most of them cost extra! You do get quite a lot of emails before you go urging you to book things in advance but seeing as we didn’t know what we would feel like doing, or what the weather would be like we didn’t really book anything before got to Center Parcs.

It was a good job we didn’t as it happened as Toby’s chicken pox weren’t fully scabbed over until our second day there so we couldn’t really do anything when we first arrived. We did go for a walk around to get our bearings and saw the Mini Trekkers course.

It’s a baby version of the high ropes course where the kids get to wear a harness and cross different bridges to collect the pieces of a jigsaw. We asked Toby if he’d like to have a go and when he said yes we booked it for later on our second day.

This was a great activity for Toby, and it was lovely to watch him overcoming his fears.

He was a bit nervous at first but soon got into the idea.

By the end he only really needed my help to step from the platform onto the walk ways and then he was quite happy holding onto the ropes and walking along by himself.

It helped that he had to collect the jigsaw pieces on some of the platforms and he was so pleased with himself when he finished the squirrel picture at the end of the Mini Trekkers course.

And even more pleased when he was given a squirrel toy to keep as well.

Toby Goes Bananas

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