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We will egg hunt... No matter what the weather! #Easter  Linking up to #mysundayphoto with www.onedad3girls.com
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Little I has virtually chewed my right nipple off. In an attempt to save my nipple I tried expressed milk in a bottle. She refused it. So I had to feed her from my nipple again. Enough said...  Linking up to #WotW with www.thereadingresidence.com My Bestie went for her 20wk scan this week and I was honoured to get my own impromptu, exclusive (me, her and Little I) gender reveal party! After I paced up and down the house all morning, barely able to contain my excitement, she arrived on my doorstep with a Patisserie Valerie box (yum!)  I couldn't wait to rip open the box and find out what colour the cakes inside were. I've had a gut feeling the baby is a girl since the beginning but after thinking both my girls were boys for the majority of my pregnancies I don't trust my radar. I lifted the lid I saw...  PINK CUPCAKES!!!!!!! It's a girl! Well, we are pretty sure it's a girl but the sonographer was slightly hesitant due to baby's position so final confirmation will come in two weeks time when she goes back for the spine measurement (baby wasn't playing ball for that). That didn't stop Bestie immediately driving to Debenhams and buying the cutest Baby Baker dress you have ever seen! Bestie currently has a boy, Little B, so it is fantastic she now gets to experience bringing up both sexes. Little I and the new baby girl will be seven months apart so I hope they become best friends like their mums and their siblings.  My Bestie Congratulations Bestie! Xx Linking up to #PoCoLo with www.vevivos.com Recovering from a C section takes time and one of the most important things in the first few weeks is protecting your scar from bumps and knocks. Knowing I was having an elective C section this time meant I could arm myself with products to help my recovery. The Theraline Caesarean support belt is multipurpose. Firstly, and most helpful, the padded front protects your scar from minor bumps. There is a soft pillow and solid plastic guard you can place inside to give further protection which is particularly helpful if you have toddlers running about! There are also additional inserts (a cherry stone pillow and a gel pack) which can provide a heating or cooking effect to ease pain and inflammation and also help with uterus contraction pain. 
The tension of the belt acts as light pressure against the scar providing light support. I found this helpful to ease the feeling that my stitches were going to burst everytime I bent over or coughed. I mainly wore the belt for this reason, particularly when a passenger in a car journey where I was being bounced and jiggled about. The fit it very good because it stays in place but allows for movement so you never feel it is too tight. It is also quite discreet and reasonably slimline so can be hidden under a top if you want. The belt is actually quite versatile and after my fall down the stairs 10 days post op it was the perfect shape to turn around and use to apply the cold gel pack to my lower back! It got a lot of use this way and I'll be keeping hold of it for any lower back niggles in the future. Overall this is a reasonably priced, nice to have product which can help give you a little extra support over your scar. I was lucky to have lots of help over the first month but had I been alone more with the toddler I would have worn it a lot more to give me piece of mind. I found the gel pack more useful than the cherry stone pillow but I'm not a fab of heat over my stomach which could explain that. 
The Theraline Caesarean support belt £20
This belt was sent to me for review purposes but all opinions are my own.
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Linking up to #triedtested with @lollinski www.goingonanadventure.co.uk/ and @FamilyFever www.myfamilyfever.co.uk
We are looking forward to a busy Easter weekend visiting family. Little E was bought an Easter palm stamping kit last year and I managed to find it to make some Easter cards to take visiting. The set has four different stamps: an egg, a rabbit, a lamb and a chick. The stamps have a clever elastic hand loop on the back so the stamp fits across your palm. This made it easy for Little E to use without us getting too messy. We used pastel blue and cream cards and pink, purple, blue and white paint.  The results were pretty good and we got a variety of different cards. The egg stamp was the most effective, looking slightly abstract when layered up. The lamb and chick weren't very good but the bunny worked well. Happy Easter!   Linking up to #minicreations with kidglloves.com #savouringtheseason at clarinascontemplations.blogspot.co.uk Colic alert this week! What a grumpy baby... Most evenings we have had 3hours of constant crying from 7pm until 10pm. Exhausting! I'm not entirely sure if she has a cold as her nose seems quite bunged up or if she has allergies like Husband. She has sneezed at least 10 times a day since birth so it is an ongoing issue which has recently escalated. 
Grumpy baby alert!
We've been out and about lots. Excitedly we visited my work for the first time and had a indoor picnic whilst she was passed around for cuddles. She slept through the whole visit which made it very relaxing for me. She had her first cinema trip and again (luckily) slept through the whole of thing. Clearly Rio 2 wasn't that captivating. We've been out shopping and to the park with our new Chicco Urban pram and she sleeps beautifully in it. We also practised some alfresco breastfeeding at Priory Farm whilst watching, helplessly as Little E was a naughty monkey on the playship (that's another story...) She is filling out her 0-3mth babygrows now and we've started dressing her in little outfits during the daytime. The weather has perked up so she has made good use of her cute French bonnet inherited from her big sister who's head was never small enough for it. 
Rocking the bonnet
Sleep has been a tale of two halves - front end of the week she was sleeping 5hr shifts through the night after wearing herself out from all that colicky early evening crying. This was much to my joy (lot less joy from my engorged boobs) but the last few nights she has been struggling to sleep as her little nose is so stuffed up. I took her to sleep on my shoulder but as soon as I lay her down she begins to sound like a little piglet in a trough... So I am rather bleary eyes writing this after being awake from 3am. Playing is becoming fun now. Lots more time on the play gym and she is a big fan of the bird toy dangling from get swing chair and stares at it mesmerised! We tried tummy time this week which resulted in wailing and general unhappiness so we'll give that a miss for another week. 
Little I at 8 weeks
Linking up to #sharewithme with www.letstalkmommy.com and #brilliantblogposts with www.honestmum.com Little E loved wooden peg puzzles when she was little but is currently in the limbo land where they have become too simple but the more advanced jigsaws are still too tricky. We had a breakthrough at the weekend when she plonked herself down and had a go at her Minnie Mouse jigsaw on her own. It all seemed a bit too quiet so I investigated and was surprised to see that she was actually managing to put the correct pieces together forming Minnie's face. She started to struggle a little so I gave her a little help and we finished the puzzle together. She immediately broke it up and started it again, recognising pieces which slotted together and beginning to form the picture. It won't be long before she is completing these in her own!  Linking up to #letkidsbekids linky at www.letkidsbekids.co.uk I'm ready for my close up...  Linking up to #mysundayphoto with @onedad3girls I'll let you into a little secret. I love to bake. It all started at art college where I was head of the degree show fundraising team. We had to raise over £10,000 to fund our final show and I knew a sure fire way to get some money from poor art students was to hold bake sales each week. We kept the pricing simple and student friendly (6 items for £1) and each week students from my year group donated their bakes to sell. I always baked something and went from a complete novice to a rather good baker - my lemon drizzle cake being voted the most consistently requested cake. Over the school year the bake sales became exceptionally popular and made in excess of £1000 towards our fundraising goal. Fast forward more years than I'd like and I have become somewhat of a go to baker in my circle of friends and family. I make everything from five tier wedding cakes to cake pops to brownies. But one of my favourite bakes are cupcakes. Since Little I was born I've not had the time to bake except the treats I have made with Little E but Husband hosted a poker night and requested some treats. He consulted with the boys and they voted for blueberry/raspberry cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream. Not exactly what I was expecting them to request! 
I had to make them super fast between baby feeds and winding and toddler tantrums but they came out rather well considering. I decided to go for rugged piping with excessive amounts of buttercream to make 'man cakes'. It did feel great baking for adult consumption without toddler fingerprints in the icing! Here's the recipe for the white chocolate buttercream icing: 250g unsalted butter (room temperature) 400g melted white chocolate 500g icing sugar
Linking up to #creativechallenge, #allaboutme and #recipeoftheweek linkys. |
Welcome!Artist, Baker and Blogger. Mum to my two beautiful, cheeky girls. Muddling my way through parenthood with equally cheeky Husband. 
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