9 March , 201520 December , 2015 - Sarah 3 Comments

Living Arrows 10/52 (2015)

It’s been a pretty good, if quiet, week again this week. Toby’s sleep hasn’t been too bad – apart from Tuesday night when we ended up bringing him in bed with us but he seemed to think it was time for a party at 3am! On Saturday night though he actually slept the entire night without us having to go into him. A good night usually still involves at least one wake up so to have none at all really is a treat.

I did have a bit of a meltdown at work on Thursday. I have a few classes where no matter what I do, and what tactics I try, behaviour is a real issue. After weeks and weeks of battling with one class I had finally had enough. It was at the end of a very busy two days, my colleague had been off meaning I had to sort out all the work for her classes as well as my own. I had a parents’ evening coming up that night so I knew I wasn’t going to get home to see Toby before he went to bed, and so, when 15 minutes into the lesson the kids were still shouting and interrupting and not listening to a single word I said, I walked out and called for support. I have been saying for weeks that I need help with this class so hopefully something will happen now. Having a pregnant teacher walking out of a class in tears isn’t really what the senior management team are aiming for!

That incident aside though it has been a pretty good week. Toby has been hilarious at times this week. He is learning more words every day – ‘oh dear’ is a new favourite as well as ‘gone’, usually when he has thrown something else behind the telly and he wants us to get it back! And then yesterday when he was throwing a ball around the living room he started staying ‘ready, steady, go’! It’s too cute!

Yesterday we took his SmarTrike to the big park in town. We bought the trike for Toby’s first birthday but unfortunately he’s not had much use out of it yet. Because all the pavements round our house slope down towards the pavement it makes it almost impossible to steer and stop it tipping over so we can only really use it if we take it somewhere flat in the car. The big park is perfect so hopefully we’ll take it up there a bit more as the weather gets better and he’ll get to use it a bit more. Toby also enjoyed a run around – I think having so much space was a bit of a novelty. My boy is definitely an adventurer though, it had no problems just running off and wasn’t bothered about where we were at all. Although I’m always saying how big he is (and he is!) I think he looks tiny off in the distance with the big trees in this picture.

He had lots of fun splashing in the puddles in his new wellies too!

4 March , 201520 December , 2015 - Sarah 3 Comments

Living Arrows 9/52 (2015)

It’s been another quiet week here – Toby has finally started sleeping a bit better on most nights so I’m starting to feel a bit more human. Work is still very busy and stressful though, I’m definitely counting down to the Easter holidays; only 4 weeks and a day to go as I type this!

This week’s Living Arrows picture was taken at the weekend. I was trying to take some product pictures for the blog (hence the blanket backdrop) but Toby had other ideas and decided he would just plonk himself in the middle and have a good suck on his thumb instead.

28 February , 201521 December , 2017 - Sarah 5 Comments

Me & Mine (January & February 2015)

Last January I started taking monthly photos of our family for the Me & Mine family portrait project which is hosted over on the fantastic Dear Beautiful blog. I took a picture every month in 2014 and had every intention of carrying on this year. However, I somehow just didn’t manage to get a photo in January, and although I’ve been a bit late with my Me & Mine posts before, when it got to the middle of February and I still hadn’t done it I thought it was probably pushing it a bit. And so, this month’s picture is just going to have to do for both months this year.

The first two months of the year seem to have flown past this year in a blur of busy days at work, sleepless nights from Toby (although fingers crossed things seem to be improving there), and trying to fit in some fun at the weekends. Toby is becoming more and more of a little boy every day. He is constantly on the move, walking and running all over the place. He had his first experience of soft play this month too and loved it so I’m sure we’ll be back there again soon. He’s still not really talking yet, even though he never shuts up! He’s got a few more words now but most of what he says is still just babble. I can’t wait until he starts talking properly – I bet he’ll really never be quiet then! He understands so much now though and answers yes and no to most questions too. We’ve started telling him about the baby in mummy’s tummy in the last few weeks but I don’t think he understands that yet. He’s got a good while to get used to the idea yet though.

We took this photograph last weekend when we were walking in some woods near our house. For once I was organised enough to take the tripod with us but I really do want to get a remote for the camera to make taking these pictures a bit easier. For the moment though the main challenge is just trying to get Toby to stay in the shot!

27 February , 201526 February , 2015 - Sarah Leave a comment

From poppy seed to pumpkin: 16 weeks pregnant

I realise I haven’t been doing an awful lot on the pregnancy update front since I made the announcement a few weeks ago. This is mostly because I don’t really have a lot to update!

I’m now 16 weeks pregnant and I remember from my last pregnancy that this bit between the 12 and 20 week scans felt like the longest two months ever. I’m now at the stage where I don’t really feel pregnant. Apart from the tiredness and occasional dry heave (!) I don’t really have any pregnancy symptoms and seeing as I’m not the thinnest of people when I’m not pregnant I don’t even have a discernible bump yet. I’m not feeling any movement yet either so generally I’m just feeling fat and tired rather than pregnant! I’ve not had any cravings, I’m doing my best to eat sensibly rather than my ‘I’m pregnant to I’ll eat whatever the hell I like’ attitude of my last pregnancy. I’m hoping that I won’t put on quite as much weight this time either.

I know I should probably just be making the most of this bit, it won’t be long before I’m noticing the physical effects of pregnancy much more. For now though I’m just plodding on, trying to get as much sleep as I can and trying not to worry that something might be wrong while I wait until it’s time for my next scan at the end of March. Hopefully we’ll be finding out the gender of the baby then and I’m sure it will all start feeling a lot more real.

Oh and finally for all you fruit and veg watchers out there, the baby is now the size of an avocado! I will start taking bump photos soon too – as soon as I get a spare minute during daylight hours…

23 February , 201520 December , 2015 - Sarah 6 Comments

Living Arrows 8/52 (2015)

Another week of hit and miss sleep, work and another cold for Toby! We did manage to get out for a walk in some woods near where we live at the weekend though. We’ve never been there before so weren’t sure what to expect. The paths looked like they would be OK for the buggy but in hindsight we needed something a bit more suited to rugged terrain. Still we walked a bit and then got Toby out of the buggy so he could explore on foot and he seemed to have fun walking in the mud and finding pine cones to pick up.

18 February , 201516 February , 2015 - Sarah Leave a comment

From poppy seed to pumpkin: 10 weeks pregnant

Monday 19th January

So, the weeks are moving on – I’m now 10 weeks pregnant and actually feeling much better. I’m still really tired, no matter how much sleep I get. Toby gave us a treat of sleeping through a couple of nights at the weekend but then was back to two wake ups last night – I swear he knows when we have work the next day! I’m feeling particularly exhausted today and it’s really busy at work at the moment too with exams, reports to write and a few members of staff who have left and not been replaced yet. It’s even harder when I can’t tell anyone why I’m so tired either. Apart from being knackered though, the nausea has subsided a lot which I am very grateful for. It carried on until 12 weeks with Toby so I’m glad it’s disappeared a bit earlier this time (and I’m trying not to worry that it might be a sign that something is wrong). I still feel a bit rubbish if I haven’t eaten for a while but on the whole it’s not too bad.

I’ve still not got my first scan appointment, and until I have that I won’t see the midwife. Hopefully it should come this week and I then I can make an appointment with the midwife. The community midwife I saw when I was pregnant with Toby has retired now so it will be someone new that I see. Although, by all accounts I’ll see even less of them with this being a second pregnancy than I did the first time round.

There’s not much else to report this week; for our weekly fruit/vegetable comparison the baby is now the size of a date. My trousers are getting a bit tighter but I still just look like I ate a bit too much Christmas cake than anything like pregnant!

17 February , 201520 November , 2020 - Sarah 3 Comments

Review: Grobag 3.5 tog

We’ve always used sleeping bags with Toby since he was about six weeks old and big enough to fit in one. He’s such a wriggly sleeper that there is no way he would keep a blanket on! We used a few different kinds of sleeping bags to start with but kept coming back to the Grobag. I think we’ve had them in pretty much every size and every tog rating there is! You can find some great sleeping bags for bigger kids in this post too – https://www.globosurfer.com/best-kids-sleeping-bags/

With the cold weather we’ve had over the last few months it’s been rather chilly in our house, especially overnight. We already had a couple of 2.5 tog Grobags and some 1 tog ones which we used for day time naps but at night even the 2.5 tog wasn’t quite warm enough for Toby. Luckily the Grobag also comes in a 3.5 tog version which is intended for room temperatures below 16°, and we were sent one to try out just in time as temperatures dropped.

As Toby is so tall he’s been using a 18-36 month Grobag for a while now but we also had the 0-6 month and 6-18 month versions before that. The Grobags have a couple of different closures but we have always used the ones with poppers at the shoulders and a zip on the side, and so far Toby hasn’t figured out how to get out of them!

There are loads of different designs and I love the Fly-a-Kite design that we received. Those owls are so cute! And Toby looks pretty content in it too (apologies for the lack of pictures of him actually in bed but bedtime is not always the most relaxing of times in our house, and so not the easiest time to take photos!).

I also really like that every Grobag includes a free room thermometer and has information on the packaging about which tog to choose and also what your baby should be wearing under their sleeping bag depending on the room temperature. All this information is also available on the website in the Grobag Guide.

We love our Grobags here at Toby Goes Bananas and the 3.5 tog is no exception. It’s fantastic for when the weather is cold as it means I don’t have to leave the heating on overnight and I’m sure it will also come in really useful if we ever actually manage to go camping again! If you are looking for a baby sleeping bag I would definitely recommend the whole Grobag range.

**Disclosure: I was sent a Grobag 3.5 tog in return for this review. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

16 February , 201520 December , 2015 - Sarah 5 Comments

Living Arrows 7/52 (2015)

Well, it’s only a couple of days since I posted our last Living Arrows post but I’m trying to get back on schedule! We’ve actually had a couple of nights of really good sleeping from Toby so for once I’m feeling slightly less like a zombie. I just hope it continues for many more nights to come!

Toby is finally starting to get a few more words now. He talks away to himself and to us all the time but doesn’t usually say anything intelligible. We have recently added to ‘shoe’ which he has been saying for quite a while now, with car, nanna (for banana) and now ‘at’ accompanied by a pat on the head so we know he’s talking about his hat. After having battles with him when he was younger trying to get him to keep a hat on he now loves them and will often wear his woolly hat around the house. I’m quite a hat lover too and so there’s usually at least a few hanging around the place. This weekend Toby found a new favourite in my trilby which I bought in LA, Venice Beach no less, from a man who claimed to have sold hundreds of hats to Beyonce! He’s still loving his ‘see-saw’ too, I’m really glad we bought it.

So, here’s hoping we’re actually on to something with this sleep thing and I can actually get back to blogging more regularly, and keep up with my blog reading and commenting too!

13 February , 20152 July , 2016 - Sarah 2 Comments

Living Arrows 6/52 (2015)

I’m super late with my Living Arrows post again this week. It’s really just been another week of work, broken sleep and not an awful lot else! Toby’s sleep seems to be getting worse at the moment rather than better and I actually had him at the Doctor’s a couple of weeks ago as I was thinking that it could be his reflux (which we though he had grown out of) which was disturbing his sleep. We’ve got him back on medication but so far it doesn’t seem to be making a huge amount of difference. I’m planning on writing a post all about the return of the reflux at some point and hopefully we’ll see some improvements soon.

Anyway, this week’s photo is Toby doing one of his favourite things – walking about with the washing basket on his head!

13 February , 201516 February , 2015 - Sarah Leave a comment

From poppy seed to pumpkin: 8 weeks pregnant

Monday 5th January

OK, so I skipped a few weeks in my updates. I made it through my second sober Christmas and New Year without any drama. We’ve told our parents and my brother and sister-in-law about the pregnancy now and they were all very happy. Today I went to the doctor to get my referral to the midwife service for my first scan, which should be towards the end of this month some time. I have to phone the midwife next week to arrange a booking in appointment, which they will come to my house for, if it’s the same as last time.

As far as pregnancy symptoms go, the nausea is here in full force now. Just like with Toby though, I haven’t been sick (yet!) but I’m feeling sick pretty much all the time though. Of course last time I didn’t have to deal with changing dirty nappies whilst feeling sick, nobody warns you about that with a second pregnancy do they? Grapes seem to be helping with the nausea for the moment, which I suppose is better than filling my face with biscuits, although there’s been a fair bit of that going on too! Other than feeling sick all the time I’m just exhausted. Even with very early nights and naps when I can I’m still permanently tired. I have no idea how I’m going to manage when I go back to work on Thursday. When I was pregnant last time I used to have a nap when I got in from work but now that’s the only time I get to see Toby so it’s just not feasible. I have to get up an hour and a half earlier than I did last time too. I think I’m just going to have a few weeks of going to bed straight after my tea and hope that the tiredness lessens a bit when I get into the second trimester.

Apparently the baby is the size of a raspberry now, and is starting to form fingers and toes! The last four weeks since we found out seem to have gone very quickly so I’m hoping the next four weeks do too.