12 September , 20152 December , 2015 - Sarah Leave a comment

Living Arrows 36/52 (2015)

Another week done. This week was my first on my own with both boys as Barry went back to work on Monday. Toby is still going to nursery in the afternoons but as Barry leaves for work at 6:30 am I’ve had to get both of them up, dressed and fed on my own and then had to try and occupy Toby while feeding Gabe for half the morning. Actually, it’s been much better than I expected. I’ve been able to put Gabe in the sling for a large part of the morning most days, and Toby has been really good getting his toys and playing by himself if I’m busy with Gabe. There has been rather more CBeebies than is probably healthy but for now I’m not too worried about that!

Yesterday Barry had the day off work (so I only actually had to do four days on my own) and we all went to Glasgow to see In The Night Garden Live. It was brilliant! Toby loved it, shouting and cheering when his favourite characters came on and clapping and dancing to all the songs. I think Barry and I enjoyed it as much as Toby did too. Gabe slept through most of it only waking up towards the end and I managed to feed him sat on the floor in the auditorium. I think I’m getting the hang of this breastfeeding business!

After the show we had paid the extra £15 to meet Iggle Piggle (expensive, but irresistible) – Toby was a bit shy but he did give Piggle (as he calls him) a cuddle and then we all had our picture taken together. So, although this is just an iPhone picture of the the photo we got I couldn’t not use it as this week’s Living Arrows picture…

7 September , 201527 July , 2017 - Sarah 4 Comments

Review: Tots Bots PeeNut

Regular readers among you will know I am a massive fan of cloth nappies. Toby has been wearing cloth since he was about seven weeks old and Gabe was just three days old when he wore his first reusable nappy! We have a few brands of nappies that we use regularly – after a bit of trial and error in the early days we found what worked for us and have pretty much stuck to it ever since. Tots Bots Bamboozles have been our go to night nappies since we started with cloth so when we were given the opportunity to try a brand new nappy system from Tots Bots (and before it was even available to the public!) I was eager to give it a try.

So what exactly have we been trying out? The new PeeNut from Tots Bots is a birth-to-potty, day-to-night nappy system. It is made up of a waterproof cover with pop-in inserts. The wraps and inserts will be available to buy separately or as a set (I will include some pricing info at the end of this post). The wraps come in two sizes; size 1 fits from 6-18lb and size 2 from 9-35lb. Both sizes have Velcro fastening and poppers on the front which allow you to adjust the rise to fit smaller babies.

The day-to-night inserts are a set of two bamboo boosters with poppers at one end. One insert is bigger than the other and this clever system allows you to use either of the inserts on their own or popper them together and use both, depending on the age of your baby and how heavy a wetter they are. The wraps have flaps at each end to keep the inserts in place and a wipe clean inside, so if the nappy is only wet you can change the inserts and reuse the cover – meaning less washing to be done!

With two boys in cloth nappies we were sent two size 1 covers, four size 2 covers and eight day-to-night insert sets to try, along with a pack of fleece liners and a roll of disposable liners. Although the size 1 cover is suitable from 6lb it is still too big for my very skinny-legged boy so we haven’t been able to try the PeeNut out with Gabe just yet.

We have been using the PeeNut nappy system with Toby for a couple of weeks now though and so far I’m very impressed. Toby weighs 30lb at the moment so is towards the top end of the range for the size 2 covers but they are a great fit and probably will be for a good while yet. For daytime we have been using both inserts together and they have easily lasted three or four hours with no leaks. The real test for us though was night time. Toby usually sleeps for about 13 hours so his nappy really needs to be able to cope with that. As I mentioned before our usual night time nappy is a Tots Bots Bamboozle using the included bamboo booster and a hemp booster, covered with a Tots Bots Stretchy Wrap or a Blueberry Coverall. By morning the nappy and boosters are usually soaked and we quite often have small leaks from around the legs. I was slightly skeptical then that the PeeNut would be able to cope overnight with Toby’s toddler wees. However, I was pleasantly surprised. I used both inserts, with the top one folded in half towards the front and our usual hemp booster underneath and we haven’t had any leaks at all! All the inserts have been soaked by morning but we haven’t even had a slight damp patch. Toby seems very comfortable too – the PeeNut is very slim fitting, even with an extra booster, so I would imagine it is more comfortable for Toby to sleep with than his normal bulky night time nappy.

Although the PeeNut system is designed so you can just change the inserts and reuse the cover, I have to admit I have changed the whole nappy every time. However, this is just personal preference and because we have plenty of nappies so I don’t really need to reuse the cover. If you are planning on doing so though I would recommend you have a new cover with the inserts already popped in ready to go and then give your used cover a wipe and leave it to air a bit before using it at the next nappy change. The PeeNut wraps and inserts have washed well with the rest of our nappies – the inserts can be tumble dried on low (and I have to admit most of our nappies have been going in the drier lately, a combination of Scottish summer weather and a newborn means there hasn’t been much chance to get them on the line!). I did dry some inserts on the airer inside to see how long they would take and they were dry in under 24 hours which is what I would expect from bamboo – it’s super absorbent but that does mean it takes a while to dry.

Overall I have been really impressed with the Tots Bots PeeNut nappy system. Most importantly we have been able to use it both day and night without any leaks, but it is also a great slim fit. Because you don’t need as many covers as you do inserts the PeeNut is also a really cost effective way of using cloth nappies.

The PeeNut nappy system has an RRP of £15.99 (plain) or £17.99 (print) for a wrap and day-to-night insert set. Wraps are available separately with and RRP of £10.99 (plain) or £12.99 (print). Extra inserts are £6.99. There is also a mini pack which includes 2 wraps and 4 sets of inserts (RRP £42.99) and a complete birth-to-potty kit which includes 8 wraps, 16 insert sets, a laundry bucket and mesh liner, a wet bag, Tots Bots Potion detergent and a roll of disposable liners (RRP £195.99)

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

6 September , 20152 July , 2016 - Sarah 3 Comments

Living Arrows 35/52 (2015)

It’s been another week of just making it through the days here. Toby is getting more used to Gabe every day and I’m pleased to say he hasn’t shown any signs of jealousy yet, despite so much of my time being taken up with the new baby. He’s still not entirely sure of him though, especially when he’s crying – newborn babies are loud!

We managed to get this snap of them together this week. Toby still really likes stroking his brother’s head and giving him kisses which is adorable…

4 September , 20152 December , 2015 - Sarah 6 Comments

Nobody said it was easy. . .

I’ve just spent another day sat on the sofa trapped underneath a feeding baby. When, after several hours, I finally seem to fill him up he sleeps, but wakes the minute I try to move him off my lap. And so I sit, playing endless games of Candy Crush or refreshing my Twitter feed for the hundredth time.

Barry has been doing a fantastic job of getting Toby up, dressed and fed, of playing with him, of deflecting his never ending requests for apple. I try and encourage Toby to sit with me for a cuddle, or get a book for us to read together, but it seems that while mummy is constantly hidden by a baby who never seems to move from her knee, Toby prefers to keep his distance. Sometimes he can be persuaded to give me a cuddle before he goes off to nursery for the afternoon but often a quick ‘bye’ from the doorway is all I get.

And so I sit some more, I sit while my husband brings me sandwiches, and biscuits, and cups of tea that I drink luke warm for fear of spilling them on the baby. He goes shopping, does laundry and spends what seems like hours of everyday keeping on top of the endless washing up.

In the early evening I usually manage to snatch 15 minutes to put Toby to bed, after Barry has done the hard part of getting him ready, and then he spends the time I’m with Toby trying to comfort a crying baby who won’t be comforted because daddy doesn’t have boobs to provide milk on tap.

After some more sitting, and eating my dinner from a plate precariously balanced on the edge of a feeding pillow, I spend the night trying to catch snatches of sleep in between moving a baby from one side to the other and sleeping without moving, constantly tense in case by letting my baby sleep next to me I some how end up hurting him. If we’re lucky Toby stays asleep, but if not I have to listen to him crying for me whilst his daddy does his best to calm him and get him back to sleep.

And then the morning comes and we start all over again.

Barry goes back to work on Monday and I have no idea how I am going to get myself and the two boys up, dressed and fed, entertain Toby all morning and then get him to nursery in the afternoon. I anticipate a lot of tears from all of us.

We didn’t come into this situation with our eyes shut. We knew having another baby, when Toby was only just two, would be difficult.

Nobody said it would be easy…I just didn’t realise it would be this hard.

1 September , 20154 August , 2017 - Sarah 5 Comments

Review: Bambino’s Tidy Table Tray

As Toby is still in nursery full time for the moment he eats most of his meals there at a toddler size table and chair. At home though we were still using his highchair for mealtimes and although he was still mostly happy to be in it there were starting to be more occasions when his two year old wilfulness made an appearance and he would make a fuss about going in the highchair. We were looking to move him onto a booster seat and sitting up at the table with us and so when we were given the chance to try the Bambino’s Tidy Table Tray it seemed like a good opportunity to make the transition.

The Bambino’s Tidy Table Tray (RRP £34.95) is a simple idea that helps toddlers and young children sit up at the table with the rest of the family, whilst containing their mess in an easily cleanable tray. It has a large clip which allows the tray to be attached to almost any table, and it’s strong enough that it can’t be removed by the average toddler. The Tidy Table Tray also has a removable inner tray with a couple of clever features; there’s a space for a cup and also pictures to show where the plate and cutlery should go. The green inner tray also has a lip at the front which helps stop too much food being dropped onto the floor. The Tidy Table Tray can also be used without the inner tray – with a channel round the edge to stop crayons or other things rolling away it’s ideal for arts and crafts.

When we first got the Tidy Table Tray we tried using it with Toby in his highchair up at the table but he wasn’t that keen on the idea. This is mostly just because Toby can be very fixed in his ways and is used to his highchair having the tray attached. However, as soon as we put a booster seat on one of our dining chairs he was happy to use the tray up at the table and it’s been great having him sat up at the table with us. Toby now has his own place at the table and he likes to make sure every knows it is ‘Dobby’s chair’! (We’re still working on getting his name right!)

The Tidy Table Tray is a great product and I’m sure we’ll be using it for a good while yet. It’s perfect for the transition from highchair to sitting at the table and allows you to clean up really easily after meals. Great for us as parents and after his initial wobbles, great for Toby too.

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

31 August , 201521 December , 2017 - Sarah 1 Comment

Me & Mine: A Family Portrait (August 2015)

August has really been a month of two halves. The first half of the month was spent very pregnant and waiting for our baby boy to arrive and the last two weeks have been a blur of never-ending feeding, endless loads of washing and very little sleep.

Toby seems to have grown up so much in the last month. He is talking much more than he was at the end of July – he’s now putting words together into short sentences, he tries to copy everything we say, and for the most part he can make himself understood. He’s coped really well with the arrival of his baby brother too. Mostly he isn’t that bothered by him and just ignores him but he does sometimes come and give him kisses or stroke his head. There doesn’t seem to be any jealousy yet at least, although he is still struggling with the fact that he can’t always have me come to him if he wakes up in the night which he has been doing more and more of this last week.

To be honest Toby has probably taken Gabriel’s arrival in his stride more than we have. We knew this wasn’t going to be easy but the last couple of weeks have been some of the hardest we’ve had as a family. Gabe is showing all the signs of suffering with silent reflux just like Toby did, and although we’ve been lucky in that he doesn’t seem to have it too badly and there hasn’t been too much crying, it is mainly manifesting itself as a constant need to feed and an absolute refusal to be put down. Being stuck on the sofa under a feeding or sleeping baby isn’t the worst thing in the world for now, but when Barry goes back to work next week and I have to look after both boys on my own it’s going to be a different story!

This month’s photo certainly represents the last couple of weeks of the month; I’m still wearing my pyjamas, Toby is covered in snot and shovelling apple into his mouth, and we all look knackered…but this is my family, I love all my boys and I wouldn’t change any of them.

30 August , 20155 January , 2020 - Sarah Leave a comment

Living Arrows 34/52 (2015)

Very very late again, but I think it’s excusable with a newborn in the house. It’s just an iPhone snap this week too but it’s the first time I’ve managed to get a proper picture of Toby and Gabe together. Toby has been great with his brother, even if his behaviour hasn’t always been fantastic the rest of the time time week. He’s very gentle with him and likes to stroke his head and give him kisses – very cute!

25 August , 20152 July , 2016 - Sarah 1 Comment

Gabriel is one week old

I can hardly believe it but Gabriel (or Gabe as we have taken to calling him) has been here a whole week. I know everyone says this but on the one hand it hardly seems a minute since he was born but on the other it feels like he’s been part of our family forever.

There have been lots of lovely moments this week, but it has been very hard at times too. A couple of weeks ago Barry and I were lying in bed and we were trying to remember how difficult we found the first few weeks with Toby. We were thinking if we tried to remember we would be more prepared and able to cope this time round. And I kind of think we are. It’s certainly not quite as much as a shock as having a baby for the first time and some things, like changing nappies, bathing and dressing are a lot easier this time round. But there are lots of things that are just as hard.The lack of sleep doesn’t get any easier, and this time we’ve got the worry that Toby will wake up in the night too and then we have him to deal with too. He’s only woken up on two nights since Gabe arrived but both times he was up for almost two hours. I was feeding Gabe so couldn’t go to him but when Barry went to him he was just sobbing ‘mummy, mummy, mummy’ over and over. I was trying to feed Gabe, which I had been doing pretty much constantly for the previous nine or ten hours. He was fussing and wouldn’t latch on, Toby was crying, I was crying… Listening to both my babies crying for me at the same time and not being able to help either of them was I think the single hardest thing I have ever done. Eventually we decided that Barry would give Gabe a little bit of formula so I could go to Toby and get him settled and back asleep. Not the ideal solution but it was the best we could do at the time.

Generally though Toby has been an absolute superstar with his new brother this week. He was a little shy around him the first few days and I think he was quite confused about how he got here, and that he didn’t go away. But he has been so gentle with him, giving him kisses and bringing him toys. It’s just adorable. His language has come on even more this week too. He’s being very helpful, taking cups back to the kitchen and putting things in the bin, all accompanied by his new phrase and the cutest thing I’ve heard – ‘I will do it’. This weekend, for the first time ever, Toby just fell asleep next to me on the sofa. He has only ever napped in his cot or in the car or buggy, and hasn’t been napping at all for the last month or so. Maybe he got the idea from his brother that a nap on mummy’s knee would be a good idea!

Anyway, this is supposed to be a post about Gabe, not Toby! On the whole Gabe seems to be a pretty contented, settled baby so far. He won’t sleep anywhere except lying on my breastfeeding pillow, either on someone’s knee or on the sofa. We’ve tried putting him like that in his crib (which I know is not a great solution either) but he just seems to wake up straight away. This means that since he was born either Barry or I have been awake the whole time, with the exception of a couple of hours when Gabe has managed to sleep in our bed and we have both slept too. I know that not wanting to be put down is all part and parcel of being a newborn and I’m trying not to get too stressed about it for now but I do hope we can find some way for us all to get some sleep at the same time before Barry has to go back to work in a few weeks.

I’m really pleased with how breastfeeding is going so far with Gabe. I didn’t have a great time of breastfeeding Toby (you can read about it here if you’re interested) so I was hoping we would have more success this time. I’ve still had difficulty getting him to latch, just like I did with Toby – I think it’s just a combination of small babies and my anatomy. I started using nipple shields on the first day this time though, which has helped enormously. Gabe can feed without too much trouble and I have avoided my nipples being shredded. I saw one of the NHS breastfeeding support workers last week and even she, after watching and trying help me get Gabe to latch just said ‘you know what, if it means that you carry on breastfeeding then just use the shields for now’. We also supplemented with formula a few times before my milk came in. Again, from experience with Toby I didn’t want Gabe to lose too much weight and I could tell he was struggling to be satisfied just from my colostrum and my milk didn’t come in properly until about day 5. So feeding itself is going well but we have been having epic cluster feeds every night which are quite hard to cope with. On Friday night I started feeding Gabe at about half four in the afternoon and I don’t think I had more than half an hour between feeds until 12 hours later! We’ve settled into a bit of a routine now in that I feed breastfeed as much as Gabe wants through the evening, usually manage a couple of hours sleep between about 9 and 11pm then feed again until about 2am. At this point Gabe has been getting really fussy and hard to latch on and I’ve reached my limit of being able to stay awake so we give him a little bit of formula and that seems to settle him enough to sleep until the morning. Hopefully as he gets a bit bigger we might be able to stop these top ups, or I am also going to trying to express a bit so we can give him expressed milk instead of formula. For now though I’m just happy that I am managing to breastfeed at all, and for the most part without any real problems.

I’m going to leave it there for now – it’s been a difficult first week at times but it’s also been amazing to see this little boy who I have been carrying for the last nine months and I’m very happy that our family is now a happy family of four. I’ll leave you with this picture of my boys in their matching nappies – I’m so pleased that we got Gabe in cloth nappies from the first week – and they’re so cute!

25 August , 201525 July , 2017 - Sarah 1 Comment

Review: Secret Saviours Anti Stretch Mark System

Everyone knows there are plenty of less glamorous sides to pregnancy and for a lot of women stretch marks are one of them! When I was pregnant with Toby I thought I had managed to escape them all together but then they appeared in the last three weeks or so! They were all under my bump so I didn’t really see them until after he was born and if I’m honest I was pretty upset by their appearance. They have faded a lot now and this time round I still hadn’t got any new ones by the time I was in my third trimester. I knew there was still time though so when Secret Saviours got in touch and asked if I’d like to try their Anti Stretch Mark System I was very happy to give it a go.

The Secret Saviours Anti Stretch Mark System is made up of a specially designed bump band, a day gel and a night cream. The bump band has small raised spots on the inside which stick to the skin with the help of the day gel and essentially hold you skin together to help stop stretch marks forming. You only need to wear the band during the day, at night apply the night cream to moisturise the skin. The bump bands come in pink or black and a variety of sizes. To find your size simply measure your bump around your tummy button. Secret Saviours recommend you use the Anti Stretch Mark system from weeks 12-14 of your pregnancy for maximum effectiveness so you will probably need two sizes of bump band to see you through your whole pregnancy (additional bands are £29.99).

So what did I think? I found the bump band very comfortable. As well as its function on helping to prevent stretch marks it is also an effective bump support. The only slight issue that I had is that because I have quite a narrow waist compared to my big bump I found the band had a tendency to roll up a bit at the back sometimes.

The day gel which is applied before putting the band on makes your skin slightly tacky so that the spots inside the band stick to your skin. Although it doesn’t sound very appealing (and when you take it off it leaves you looking temporarily like you’ve had a bath mat stuck to you) it is surprisingly comfortable. The night cream is a light moisturiser which soaks in quickly, unlike some other bump creams I’ve used in the past. Both the gel and cream smell lovely too.

The big question though…did it work? Well, no, not entirely. I did get some new stretch marks right at the end of my pregnancy. However, they are quite feint – they are perhaps slightly more obvious than it appears in this photo but still nowhere near as angry looking as the ones I got in my first pregnancy. Also, as I have already mentioned, Secret Saviours recommend you use the Anti Stretch Mark system throughout your whole pregnancy and I didn’t start wearing the bump band until around week 34. It may well be that I would have seen better results had I used the system for longer.

At £69.99 for the kit including the band, day gel and night cream I think this is perhaps quite an expensive way of avoiding stretch marks but unlike other lotions and potions on the market the Secret Saviours system has been clinically proven to help prevent stretch marks in 70% of women so if avoiding those tiger stripes is something you are really concerned about then it might be your best chance of doing so.

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

21 August , 20152 December , 2015 - Sarah 2 Comments

Living Arrows 33/52 (2015)

Although as I write this we are now a family of four and I have two ‘Living Arrows’ in my life this post is really about last week so I’m going to dedicate this post to Toby in his last week as an only child. These pictures were all taken last Sunday, when we got back from the beach I had the first sign that labour might not be too far away.

Toby is such a little boy now. He’s a little whirlwind sometimes and loves nothing more than a massive space to run around in. His still so unsure of so many things though, he doesn’t like things he isn’t sure of and can be very set in his ways and can get upset if anything is different.

When we first got to the beach I put him in some crocs that I’d got from Tesco but that he’d never worn before. First up he didn’t like wearing them without socks – when I come to think of it he’s never worn any shoes without socks before so I can see why he was confused. Then he didn’t like it that the sand went through the holes and got on his feet, even though he regularly comes home with sand in his shoes and socks from playing in the sandpit at nursery. Luckily we’d taken his wellies as well as the weather was a bit mixed so we put those on and he was much happier.

He still wasn’t that convinced about the beach though, although to be fair his dad and I don’t really like beaches either so I can’t blame him! I love this next picture of the two of them together though, I think they had found a shell and Barry was explaining what it was.

If Toby wasn’t sure to begin with he definitely didn’t like the sand after he picked up two handfuls and threw it into his own face! After that incident we decamped to the field behind the beach where he had a lot more fun running around like a loon and running towards a blackbird shouting ‘BIRD, BIRD’ and then being surprised when it flew away.

He may not be the youngest in the family any more but Toby will always be my baby, no matter how big he gets. I love that I have the last 85 weeks of Living Arrows photos of Toby, and from next week I’ll be adding Gabriel into this fabulous record of their lives too.

Toby Goes Bananas

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