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.

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.

Toby Goes Bananas

A family lifestyle blog

Author: Sarah