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

From poppy seed to pumpkin: 5 weeks pregnant

Monday 15th December

5 weeks pregnant and I’m definitely starting to feel it now. I can certainly feel something is going on, the only way I can describe it is like a feeling of filling up…oh, and if nothing else, the constant need to wee is a definite give away! I’m also feeling incredibly tired, which isn’t helped by the fact we are almost at the end of a very long term at school, and that Toby has been treating us to lots of sleepless nights lately too! I’m really hoping his sleep improves soon and I manage to catch up on some sleep of my own over the holidays. The other symptom which is starting to show its unwelcome presence is that I’m already getting that familiar queasy feeling. Fortunately when I was pregnant with Toby I didn’t suffer too badly with morning sickness – at least in that I was only actually sick a couple of times. But I felt sick constantly from about week 7 to week 12. I’m really hoping that if I have to have it at all this time, it disappears just as quickly…

Saturday 20th December

Hallelujah! Toby actually slept last night so I’m feeling a bit more human. I’m only really feeling sick if I leave it too long between eating. Although I’m really trying to keep my eating under control a bit this time and avoid putting on a stone in the first three months like I did last time! Fingers crossed I make it through Christmas without feeling too rough though. We’ve not told anyone yet – I think we waited until 8 weeks with Toby but I’m going to have to tell my mum in a day or two. We’re going to stay with them for Christmas and there’s no way I’d be able to not drink and keep the reason why secret! It still hasn’t really sunk in if I’m honest, the embryo is the size of a sesame seed and already has a heart, of sorts. That’s just crazy to think about but I don’t think it really feels real until the 12 week scan, and that still seems ages away – I haven’t even seen the doctor yet!

9 February , 201516 February , 2015 - Sarah 1 Comment

From poppy seed to pumpkin: 4 weeks pregnant

Now the news is out I’m going to share these posts I wrote over the last couple of months, from when I first found out I was pregnant again…

Friday 12th December 2014

We decided to start trying for another baby so that hopefully we would have about two years between Toby and the new baby. But we also had to wait until I had the contract for my new job to make sure I got all my maternity pay. When we were trying for Toby it only took two months and we were hoping the same would happen again but I am more than aware that things don’t always work out the way we hope. Anyway, this time the first month it didn’t happen for us. So month two and we try again…although there wasn’t an awful lot of ‘trying’ going on (sorry if that’s a bit too much information!) as Barry got pretty ill with a nasty cold and I wasn’t feeling brilliant either so I was fairly resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t get pregnant this month either. But then my period was late. That wasn’t entirely unusual though – until trying to get pregnant last time I had been on the pill since I was 16 and so had no idea what my ‘normal’ cycle was. But when it got to four days after the latest my period could feasibly be I decided to take a test. I was planning on waiting until the weekend, but this morning decided I could wait no longer. I was pretty convinced it was going to be negative though – I just wanted confirmation so maybe I could have a glass of wine this weekend! But when I went back into the bathroom after resolutely ignoring the test for the requisite three minutes…..there were two lines! Positive! We’re having another baby. I can’t quite believe it… and with the way Toby has been sleeping this week I think we must be completely mental to be doing this all over again. No wonder I’ve been so completely exhausted!

It is easier with two, right??

7 February , 20155 December , 2017 - Sarah 11 Comments

And then there were four

I know it’s been very quiet around these parts lately, and if you follow me on Twitter you might have noticed I’ve not been around there much either. I’ve written lots of times over the last few months about how I’m busy at work and with more teeth, and one cold after another Toby’s sleep has been all over the place. That on it’s own would be enough to make anyone tired but when you add the first few months of pregnancy into the equation it’s no wonder I’ve been knackered!

Yep, that’s right. We’re expecting baby number 2 in August this year! It was entirely (and perhaps foolishly) planned as I’ve always had it in my head I would like kids two years apart and nature thankfully decided to cooperate. I’m now 13 weeks pregnant and apart from a bit of nausea over Christmas I’ve actually been feeling remarkably well. I am just incredibly incredibly tired. Most nights after we’ve put Toby to bed, had our tea and maybe watched an hour of TV I’m ready for my bed. Hence the almost complete lack of blogging lately.

We had the first scan on Tuesday and everything is looking good so far. The baby was jumping and flipping all over the place. I even think I might have felt a few little movements already, although it’s hard to tell at this stage. I’m almost past the point of just looking like I’ve been eating too much cake and I’m starting to have an actual bump now. I think the maternity trousers might have to come out for work next week, and I bought a couple of pairs of new maternity jeans in London last weekend too.

So there we are – our big news! Despite the tiredness and the recurring ‘oh Jesus, what have we done??’ feeling that keeps sweeping over me, we really are very excited and can’t wait to become a family of four in the summer.

I’ve got a few posts that I have written over the last couple of months so I’ll be sharing those over the next week or so too, and then hopefully I’ll manage to keep up some sort of vaguely regular pregnancy updates too.

5 February , 201520 December , 2015 - Sarah 1 Comment

Living Arrows 5/52 (2015)

I’m so late with this week’s Living Arrows post that it’s almost time for next weeks! I’m not going to write much this week as I’m feeling like these posts are just turning into me having a moan every week. Suffice to say I’m still very busy at work, Toby’s sleep is still erratic at best and we’re all pretty knackered.

I did have a lovely weekend away in London last weekend though visiting my brother. Well, it was wonderful until I got to the airport to fly home on the Sunday only to find I had somehow managed to book my return flight for the day before and not notice! Luckily I managed to get on the right flight but I had to pay £145 for the privilege!

Anyway, when I got home Toby had lots of fun dragging and pushing my suitcase around the house, as you can see in this week’s picture.

30 January , 20152 August , 2017 - Sarah 82 Comments

Review & Giveaway: Wallcreate photo canvas

Considering how many photographs I seem to take every week we don’t actually have that many on display in our house. So when Wallcreate got in touch and asked if we’d like a photo canvas I was very happy to accept. We’ve got a big canvas of Toby that we got a while ago so I decided this time we would have one of our wedding pictures. Our wedding photos were taken by my very talented sister-in-law and we have a beautiful book of them all but only a few are on display.

The canvas we received is 30 x 40 cm which I think is a great size for the picture – I don’t think I’d want my head any bigger on the living room wall! The canvas is great quality and securely fastened to the frame. It also came with some hooks for hanging it on the wall. Our canvas has a white edge, I think I prefer a wrapped edge (when the picture is extended around the outside of the frame), and this is available, along with a few other wrapping options at no extra cost. Standard delivery is £3.97 and our canvas arrived very quickly and well packaged.

The size of canvas we received is currently on sale at £18.97 (50% off the RRP) which I think is a really good price. Wallcreate do canvases of all different shapes and sizes and you can either choose to upload your own photo on their website or email it to them. You can also send a physical photograph if you don’t have a digital copy and this can be made into a canvas too! Wallcreate also have a massive selection of canvas art if you would rather get a print than one of your own photos.

The lovely people at Wallcreate have given me the opportunity to give away one 30 x 40 cm canvas here on Toby Goes Bananas and all you need to do to enter is complete the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends midnight 22nd February 2015

UK residents aged 18 and over only

**Disclosure: I was sent a photo canvas in return for this review. All opinions are my own.

28 January , 20152 July , 2016 - Sarah 3 Comments

Toby is 18 months old

So Toby is 18 months old (well, more like 18 and a half due to my tardiness in finishing this post). From when I started this blog until Toby was one I wrote monthly updates but I haven’t written one since his 12 month update in July. Six months on and we are definitely the parents of a toddler and not a baby any more. So, what’s been happening in the last six months?

Toby is still really tall for his age. I’ve not actually been able to measure him for quite a while but we weighed him at Christmas, he weighs 28 lbs and I’ve just swapped all his clothes over to age 2-3 (although he’s been wearing some 2-3 sleepsuits for a while now). I’d like to keep him wearing poppered vests for the moment but I’m really struggling to find any big enough. I managed to get some plain white ones in age 2-3 from Tesco but if anyone has any ideas where I could get some coloured ones then please do share. He’s also got pretty big feet and is wearing a size 6 – he’s had them a while though and there’s still plenty of growing room in them so his feet can’t be growing too fast.

Our little toddler has been walking for about three months now. We did have a bit of a set back in November when he had some mystery injury to his leg or foot and wouldn’t but any weight on it for a couple of weeks, but whatever that was he now seems fully recovered. Now he can walk Toby loves running about in the house and hiding behind doors or trying to shut us out of rooms. He has been tall enough to reach the door handles for ages but a few weeks ago he worked out how to open the doors too so now nothing is safe from him.

We finally seem to be getting a respite from teething. Toby now has 16 teeth so only his back molars still to come. Even though the teething has stopped for the moment he is still suffering with every cough and cold that comes his way – one of the hazards of going to nursery full time I guess! Speaking of nursery, Toby has been going full time since August now and most of the time he really seems to like it. We’ve had plenty of mornings when he’s cried as I’ve dropped him off, but usually when he isn’t feeling well or hasn’t slept well and is still tired. I hate having to wake him up at 6:30 am and he doesn’t always get the best naps at nursery either so weekends are often spent catching up on sleep, for everyone!

Toby is very talkative and is often babbling away but we still don’t have many recognisable words. He says Dada a lot (and sadly Mum very rarely), and ‘what’s that?’ whilst pointing at things, or at least that’s what it sounds like. He does say see-saw quite clearly when he’s on his rocking horse, or even if I just rock him on my knee. He also says something resembling spider, and if you say spider to him he’ll point to the ceiling because that’s where all the spiders were in our house in the autumn. Oh. and ‘shoe’ is the other word that he definitely knows. We just need him to learn a few words that would actually be useful in helping him communicate now though! Although, he’s not saying much yet Toby definitely understands so much these days. It’s actually quite amazing to see. He can follow some instructions and knows where things belong. Every night he puts his dirty clothes in the laundry basket in his room (even if he does sometimes then take them all out again so he can put the basket on his head!). He shakes his head for no if we ask him questions, but doesn’t seem to have a way of saying yes yet though.

Part of Toby’s ongoing struggle to communicate is quite regular tantrums or crying when he doesn’t get his own way. It’s quite exhausting sometimes and I have to admit I’m a bit rubbish at just giving in for an easy life sometimes. He is usually relatively easily distracted though so most of the time it’s not too bad. And although he might not be able to communicate much he definitely knows what the phone is for, and loves picking it up and saying ‘hiya’. In fact it doesn’t have to be the phone, any vaguely phone shaped object will do.

Sleep, or rather lack of, is still an issue that we are doing our best to cope with. On the occasional night recently Toby has slept all night but usually he’s awake once or twice. He still has a bottle at bedtime and more often than not he will need another if he wakes up in the night. He does seem to be genuinely hungry rather than just seeking comfort from it, but I don’t know what we can do to try and get more food in him during the day. He already has two breakfasts, two snacks, lunch and dinner at nursery plus more food when he gets home! I know he shouldn’t really still need bottles at 18 months but with a full time job I really need as much sleep as I can get and when the options are 10 minutes in the night to give a bottle and then he goes straight back to sleep, or spend half an hour or more with him screaming before he calms down I’m afraid I’m going to go for the bottle every time. I just have to trust that one day he’ll eventually grow out of needing milk in the night and we can all get some proper sleep!

I realise that a lot of this sounds like a bit of a moan, and in all honesty I am finding things pretty hard at the moment. But then Toby gives me a big cuddle, or runs around the house like a loon, or makes us laugh in any number of ways and then I remember how much I love him and I wouldn’t change him for the world.

26 January , 201520 December , 2015 - Sarah 1 Comment

Living Arrows 4/52 (2015)

It’s been another quiet week for us – Toby is relatively illness free for once, just his usual snotty nose and a cough but he doesn’t seem too bothered by them. Sleep has been OK and he even slept through again last night. Perhaps we might even dare hope we’re heading towards some more consistent better sleeping. The trouble we have though is trying to fill up our seemingly bottomless baby! When he wakes up in the night he still wants milk and will guzzle a full bottle so it’s not just like he wants the comfort. During the day he eats everything he is given at nursery, and often has seconds. He has a snack pot of Cheerios before nursery too, as well as his breakfast when he gets there… and he still comes home hungry. We’ve given him porridge when he’s got home the last few days and it does seem to be helping, so we’ll keep that up and see how it goes. Other than that if anyone has any good ideas then please do share them!

And so, to this week’s Living Arrows picture. I wouldn’t normally use such a blurry photo but Barry’s pained expression as Toby bounced up and down on his tummy did make me laugh and I just wanted to share it. I love watching these two playing together – Toby might want mummy cuddles when he wakes up in the middle of the night but daddy is definitely more fun for playing with!

19 January , 201520 December , 2015 - Sarah 3 Comments

Living Arrows 3/52 (2015)

This week didn’t start too well with a post-nursery dash to the doctor on Monday as Toby had had a temperature for three days which had been getting as high as 40°C and wasn’t coming back down to normal even with Calpol and Nurofen. Thankfully the doctor reassured us it was just a cold and so we could stop worrying too much and concentrate on making our little boy feel a bit less sorry for himself. By the middle of the week he was feeling much better and we had a lovely weekend with a cheery boy who was back to his usual cheeky self. And he even slept through the night on Thursday for the first time in months and months!

Last week I decided to order Toby a rocking horse. We didn’t get him a ‘big’ present at Christmas and I had £70 of unclaimed cashback sitting in my Quidco account so we splashed out a bit! There is a little wooden rocking horse at nursery and Toby loves it, he goes on it every day and sits saying ‘see saw, see saw’. It’s so cute! And I’m so glad that when he saw his new rocking horse he loved it straight away and couldn’t wait to get on and start see-sawing. It does have the added bonus of keeping him in one place for more than 30 seconds which is more than we can say for any of his other toys.

And just look at his face….

P.S. I just wanted to add a big thank you to everyone who has been commenting on my Living Arrows posts this year. I’ve been so busy with work and Toby being ill that I’ve really not had time to do anything but the absolute minimum blogging-wise. I promise I’ll try and do better this week and get round to see some of your blogs too.

12 January , 201530 January , 2017 - Sarah 87 Comments

The New You Weight Loss Plan

It’s that time of year when lots of us are thinking about getting healthier and perhaps losing some weight in the new year. Maybe you just want to shed a few of those festive pounds that seem to creep on over the holidays or perhaps you’ve got a lot of weight to lose. Whichever of these it might be then a meal replacement diet could help you on your way. Now I know this kind of diet isn’t for everyone, and there are some that argue it’s just a quick fix and doesn’t help you improve your diet in the long run. However, there is no doubting that this kind of diet does work (and I speak from experience here). It can be beneficial to choose a meal replacement diet if you find it difficult to make healthy choices as all the decisions about what to eat are taken away from you.

There are lots of different meal replacement diets on the market, some, like Lighter Life where you have to attend weekly group meetings, or others like the Cambridge diet where you have a personal consultant. If you would prefer to buy your meal replacement products online then there are a few options available too; The New You Plan is one of these options.

The New You Plan is a very low calorie diet (VLCD) which offers soups, shakes, hot meals, bars and snacks. They also provide 24 hour online support to their customers, along with an active Facebook community. There are a few things to consider before starting a VLCD and you should always check with your doctor that it is safe for you to use this kind of diet. If you are unsure if this is the diet for you there are some FAQs here.

If you would like to try The New You Plan then you can win a one week ‘Get Started’ bundle by completing the Rafflecopter below. The bundle contains 30 products and is currently retailing at a sale price of £41.99. The winner will be contacted by a member of The New You Plan customer services team who will help you choose the right products for you.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends midnight Sunday 8th February.

UK entrants aged 18 or over only

**Disclosure: I have not been compensated in any way for running this giveaway.

12 January , 201520 December , 2015 - Sarah 10 Comments

Living Arrows 2/52 (2015)

So here we are, second week of the year, Toby has been back at nursery a week….and he’s ill again! I feel so sorry for him but I just don’t know what we can do about it. He’s got another cold but he seems to really suffer for the first couple of days of every cold, on Saturday night I was up with him for an hour and a half waiting for his temperature to come down from 40.2 °C! We’ve had a pretty miserable weekend really, he’s not really been eating either but I think he is getting hungry so we’ve been trying to find something he fancies eating – grapes are the only thing he’ll seem to eat however he’s feeling.

Anyway, fingers crossed he perks up a bit today. I feel bad sending him to nursery when he’s not feeling well but if I kept him off every time he had a cold he’d never be there, and I’d never get to work!

This week’s Living Arrows photo was taken yesterday when Toby was feeling particularly sorry for himself. He’s still wearing his sleepsuit even though it was the middle of the afternoon but he insisted on wearing his hat in the house too!