Kiddicare Review

In search of a back carrier for the hubby to transport B around the Greenbelt Festival this weekend, we headed off to our nearest Kiddicare. I think I was anticipating it being a bit like a big Mothercare, but I was really pleasantly surprised by what we found.

The carriers were easy to find, and when a sales assistant spotted us looking a bit confused, she came straight over and offered assistance. She was helpful, thoughtful and explained really clearly. First, she demonstrated how to put on the carrier we were interested in, and then she helped the hubby to put B into it, before assisting him in getting it onto his back. She was also amazingly patient and considerate with B who had a bit of a meltdown about not wanting to get off Daddy's back!

When we'd decided to get the carrier - the Phil&Ted's Escape, which we'll be reviewing soon, hopefully - I spotted the Close Caboo carrier, which I'd recently purchased via Zulily in preparation for incoming baby 2. Despite me informing her that we already had one, and so would not be purchasing it in store, the assistant offered to show us how to use it properly, with a demonstration doll. The hubby is delighted to have a clear idea of what to do with it now, and I was really grateful that she was so helpful and generous with her time.

There are some fantastic discounts on pretty much everything in the store, which makes it an even better place to shop. And the restaurant served tasty and healthy options, with child-friendly options, for reasonable prices.

Verdict? We'll be shopping at Kiddicare again if and when we need more kid stuff.

Breastfeeding Myths - Keep Britain Breastfeeding 2013

Hands up if you have ever heard any of these:

If you are ill, you will pass it on through your breastmilk.
You have to have a perfect diet to breastfeed.
Small breasts are no good for breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding ruins your breasts.
If you breastfeed, you'll have no idea whether your baby is eating enough.
If your baby is nursing frequently, then you don't have enough milk.
Your baby is just comfort sucking/using you as a dummy.
You can't exclusively breastfeed twins/triplets. 
Feed your baby every 4 hours/for 10 minutes each side.
Big babies/small babies need formula top ups.
He should be sleeping through the night now.


These are common beliefs about breastfeeding, but each of them is a myth or misconception. Some come from lack of education on breastfeeding or normal baby feeding behaviour; others have been perpetuated by formula companies in the bid to "booby-trap" mums into giving up breastfeeding.

So, I shall tackle each of these myths, revealing the truth, and attempting to give you some great comebacks to uneducated comments from those around you.

Breastfeeding Beyond a Year - Keep Britain Breastfeeding 2013

 "Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended up to 6 months of age, with continued breastfeeding along with appropriate complementary foods up to two years of age or beyond." World Health Organisation

I wrote the following for my 22 month old daughter, who still loves her be-boos!

Breastmilk Pumping - Keep Britain Breastfeeding 2013

I haven't used my breast pump for about 16 months now. 

The first 6 months of B's life were highly stressful. When I wasn't breastfeeding her or administering a top up of formula, I was expressing in order to give her a top up of my own milk each day, and in the hopes of increasing my supply. 

I was lucky if I got 40-60mls over the course of 24 hours, but I dutifully gave it to her each evening.

I was so proud of myself the morning I pumped 1.5oz in one go because I woke up before B!

A Few Breastfeeding Memories - Keep Britain Breastfeeding 2013

I have heard others talk of their negative experiences of breastfeeding in public - dirty looks, snide comments, being told to leave or feed baby in the toilets - but personally, every one of my nursing in public experiences has been positive. Perhaps I have been lucky, or maybe I just have a f**k-off look on my face! I wouldn't say I'm extremely discrete, but I always wear a vest under my top, so that I can pull one top up and the other down, showing as little breast as possible. I don't think it matters whether one pulls the top up or yanks the breast out, but I personally feel more comfortable keeping my bosoms more covered. We are protected by the Equality Act 2010 when breastfeeding in public anyway, so if anyone has a problem with you nursing in public, then it is their problem and not yours, and you are free to complain about them. Check out this info sheet for more advice.

Even princesses need their milk

There are a few humorous moments that have occurred during our breastfeeding journey. The first I remember was when B was about 5 weeks old and pulled off to smile at me. I managed to capture a photo of her lovely grin and sent it to my mum. As I was about to upload it to Facebook, I realised that my nipple was standing proud in the bottom corner of the picture, so I stopped the upload until I had time to crop it out. A few minutes later, whilst looking through my Facebook newsfeed, I saw my photograph, complete with nipple! My sister had posted it, not having noticed herself. Fortunately, she was quick to remove and crop when I pointed out the problem.

Keep Britain Breastfeeding 2013: The Importance of Breastfeeding Support

Despite 81% of women in the UK initiating breastfeeding, by 6-8 weeks after birth only 45% of those continue to breastfeed, and only 17% are exclusively breastfeeding at 3 months post-partum.¹ Clearly women are meeting supposedly insurmountable obstacles to continuing to breastfeed. An NCT spokeswoman, quoted in this article, revealed that 90% of women who stopped, didn't want to.

I did a brief survey of my Facebook friends. Of those who responded, the majority of those who stopped breastfeeding did so because of the lack of support they were given. Some stopped because they had been fed myths about breastfeeding and, without proper support around them, they doubted their bodies' abilities to nourish their babies. And those who continued did so because of the support they seemingly had to hunt down, and through sheer stubbornheadedness. Most of this support came in the form of volunteers and peer supporters, not from midwives and health visitors! And also from husbands, family and friends.

Top Breastfeeding Tips For Dads: Keep Britain Breastfeeding 2013

Today, a guest post from my husband, Chris, who is my biggest breastfeeding supporter! He wrote a post for the Scavenger Hunt last year too, which you can find here.

When our first daughter was born, we discovered things weren't quite right in the feeding department.

B's weight dropped quite a bit in the first few days and we were checked into the hospital as her sodium levels were low.

After 4 days of wasted time, we got discharged and B was diagnosed with tongue tie (http://milkmatters.org.uk/2011/04/15/hidden-cause-of-feeding-problems-however-you-feed-your-baby/) and had it snipped.

We also discovered that my wife had IGT (insufficient glandular tissue) which meant that she couldn't produce enough milk.

So, we had to supplement with formula milk.

In summary, I've experienced breast feeding and formula feeding; both the positives and the negatives.

So, because of my experience, here are some top tips and some how-tos that I wish I had known before I started my journey into the world of infant feeding...

Keep Britain Breastfeeding 2013: Why I Continue to Breastfeed

As I sat down to write this, daddy and toddler had a bit of an accident. They were tearing around the house, pretending to be lions, and B tripped and fell. She landed on her face, cutting both her lips. Blood and tears and snot were pouring down her face; her wails filled the room. But, within 30 seconds, she was sat on my lap having some mummy-milk, or "be-boos" as she calls it. The tears stopped, the sobbing quietened and she was fine before 5 minutes were up. It is situations like this that make me so glad that after all our feeding troubles, and the need to supplement B with formula because of my IGT, I chose to continue breastfeeding. ¹

Last year, for the Scavenger Hunt, I wrote about Why I Breastfeed. And you can read about our first year here. This year I've decided to focus on why I, and others, continue(d) to breastfeed, and what we look back on as the top benefits of breastfeeding.

Silent Sunday

Keep Britain Breastfeeding 2013

British National Breastfeeding Week is running from 23rd-29th June 2013. You might remember that last year I was involved in the Keep Britain Breastfeeding Scavenger Hunt, and I will be involved again this year. Whether you are a parent-to-be, a new mum or dad, a student nurse or midwife, someone with an interest in breastfeeding, or someone who just chanced upon this blog, it's worth getting involved. There will be loads of interesting and informative posts, and plenty of fantastic prizes up for grabs.

Check out the Scavenger Hunt site to find out more about how to get involved, whether as a blogger or company, or to enter the competition.

You can also find my posts from last year here:
Why I Breastfeed
Mother to Mother Sharing
For the Dads
After the 1st Month

Posts this year will include the following topics:
The Benefits of Breastfeeding; Top Breastfeeding Tips You Should All Know; Positive Nursing In Public Experiences & Funny Breastfeeding Memories; Breastfeeding Beyond a Year and more!

Pentecost

Pentecost is considered the birthday of the Church. It's the day we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, the promised helper, to dwell in Jesus's followers. To Christians it is a great day of celebration. We think of the disciples sitting in the Upper Room; we remember the heavenly wind and the tongues of fire resting on their heads; we repeat Peter's speech, declaring the wonders of God to those around him.

However, the importance of Pentecost goes further back than the New Testament. When the Israelites were making their way through the desert, after Moses had led them out of Egypt, they received God's word at Mount Sinai, and God came to dwell in the Tabernacle. The Festival of Shavuot, or Pentecost, came to be celebrated 50 days after Passover, and was originally a Harvest Festival. However, it also became a time when Jews celebrated the giving of the Torah, which legend has it occurred 50 days after the first Passover. So, 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead, Jews were gathered in Jerusalem celebrating God's gift of the Commandments on stone tablets. And on that same day God gave His Holy Spirit and wrote His Law on people's hearts. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, He came to fulfil the law, not to abolish is. Pentecost shows us how that fulfilment is to take place - God's presence is to dwell in His people, keeping his law safe in their hearts, so that they will keep it.

"‘This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,’ declares the Lord.
‘I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,    and they will be my people.’" (Jeremiah 31:33)

The disciples were good Jews. They knew the order of the festivals; they attended the Temple. So they would have been watching for something to happen, and they would most likely have been expecting that something to happen on Shavuot.

"Something exciting was going to happen. Jesus had said as much at Tabernacles, the first pilgrim festival of the year, when the Temple was packed with visitors. (John 7) Something about rivers of living water. Then he died at Passover, the second pilgrim festival.Who knew what he might do on the third? And if he rose on the barley harvest, he almost certainly had something in store for Shevuoth." (A Little Kosher Seasoning - Michele Guinness)

Isn't that amazing? The Old Testament events were always pointing forward to Jesus and the events that would surround Him. God knew what He was doing. Through providing them with a history, He enabled the disciples to understand and expect. And it ensured that the relevance of the Pentecost events would not be lost on the Jewish pilgrims at the Temple to celebrate Shavuot that day.

Traditionally, the Church has taught that the disciples - not just the Apostles, but about 120 men and women - were gathered in the Upper Room together. Logically, this seems unlikely. Michele Guinness, amongst others, suggests otherwise, for 120 is a lot of people to be cooped up together and the likelihood would be that they, along with other "good Jews", would be attending Temple as on other festivals. The Hebrew word for house is the same as the word for Temple.

"Once the geography of the event is right, it changes the whole perspective of things.
There they all were, in a fever of expectation, surrounded by the noisy hub-bub of thousands of out-of-town visitors and cousins. At nine o'clock silence falls for the traditional early morning readings. First from Deuteronomy, an account of the giving of the Torah... Then from the first chapters of the book of the prophet Ezekiel. "High above on the throne was the figure like that of a man. I saw from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire." Suddenly, to the congregation's utter amazement, tongues of fire appear, and hover over the heads of Jesus' followers. The priest, hoping he's hallucinating, tells the reader to continue as if nothing has happened. "Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound..." At which point a sudden loud whooshing sound fills the building. Prayer shawls flap with its force, head coverings are lifted and debris scattered. And then the disciples begin to shout things in foreign languages, and roll around on the floor as if drunk... Peter takes control of the situation. He knows exactly what is happening. He has had seven weeks to work it out. God, in one blow, is fulfilling all the promises he has ever made to his people." (A Little Kosher Seasoning - Michele Guinness)

Wow! It would have been absolutely awesome to experience that. God fulfilled His promises in a show of power, majesty and glory. Shouldn't we be making more of our Pentecost celebrations?

In our house we have a cheesecake party every year on Pentecost Sunday. Dairy products are eaten traditionally during Jewish Shavuot celebrations. This has 2 possible reasons behind it: The promised land of milk and honey that the Israelites were on their way to, or that when Moses told the people the laws, including the dietary ones, they were too eager to eat that they didn't have time to kill and prepare meat properly, so opted for dairy products instead. Either way, you can't go wrong with a cheesecake!

How do you celebrate Pentecost?

Silent Sunday

Real Nappy Week

It's Real Nappy Week this week, so I thought I'd put down a bit of my experience with the washable wonders.

When I was pregnant, we decided to go down the washable nappy route, and I dutifully bought a load of terry nappies, which promptly went missing when we moved house! After a bit of consideration, and conversations with people who already had babies, I made the decision to get used to having a baby around, and changing nappies, etc., before starting with the washables, as I didn't think I'd want to be doing all that washing straight away.

With all our feeding issues, it wasn't until a few months down the line that I eventually felt ready to get started with the real nappies. After exchanging several emails with the very helpful Ella at Bum Deal, I invested in the Bum Deal Bargain Pack of 10 nappies. They came in assorted colours and designs, and I selected a mixture of Minky nappies, some with poppers, some with velcro. Each came with 2 Microfibre inserts, though nowadays you'd get 1 Microfibre and 1 bamboo, which is even better. I also bought fleece liners, which are brilliant because they draw the wetness away from baby's bottom, whilst catching hold of poo, and a selection of wetbags for holding dirty nappies.

I found these nappies to be really easy to use, especially with a newborn, as the poo isn't too bad. I did have to change them every 2 to 3 hours otherwise a bit of wicking went on, but as soon as I purchased some bamboo boosters as well, we had no problems with leakage at all. Poo could just be flicked into the toilet, and the whole nappy popped into the wet bag to join the other dirties.

Bible in a Year - Day 274

Day 268 - Isaiah 1, 2 & 3; Galatians 2
‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’
    says the Lord.
‘Though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,    
 they shall be like wool.' (Isaiah 1:18)
He will judge between the nations
    and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into ploughshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,    
 nor will they train for war any more. (Isaiah 2:4)
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
  

Silent Sunday

What Your Footprint Says About You: Responsible Social Networking

Poor Paris Brown. Her irresponsible use of Twitter has landed her in very hot water. Much of the reporting has made it appear that she was in post when she wrote the offending Twitter posts, so it took me some time and internet digging to discover that the poor girl wrote most of her "offensive" tweets between the ages of 14 and 16 - before she was appointed as Britain's first Youth Police and Crime Commissioner. So, why all the fuss? Don't teenagers do silly things a lot of the time? Come to think of it, there are plenty of adults out there doing much worse. Paris is in the esteemed company of businesses, MPs and celebrities who have had to hang their heads after posting irresponsibly.

Many are calling for her to be removed from her post, claiming her youth and inexperience make her unsuitable for the role. Others are using the situation to further denigrate the opinion of young people these days. We are supposed to consider all teenagers to be irresponsible and poor role models, merely because one girl has made some stupid mistakes. I know a lot of young people from my time as a teacher and a youth worker. The majority are intelligent, well-mannered, valuable members of society. It is wrong to tar them all with the same brush.

What I think this event highlights is the need for better education in the areas of technology and social media. Children and young people are taught about internet safety, about not revealing too many personal details or posting photos of themselves, but seemingly nothing about the power of their digital footprint. Future employers can search the internet for our past and make decisions based on what they discover. Have we failed our young people by providing them with all these tools - Twitter, Facebook, iPhones, Blackberries, etc. - and failing to give them the education they need to use them responsibly?

Bible in a Year - Day 267

Day 261 - Ecclesiastes 1, 2 & 3; 2 Corinthians 9
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8)
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. (2 Corinthians 10-11)
  

Day 262 - Ecclesiastes 4, 5 & 6; 2 Corinthians 10


Day 263 - Ecclesiastes 7, 8 & 9; 2 Corinthians 11:1-15


Day 264 - Ecclesiastes 10, 11 & 12; 2 Corinthians 11:16-33


Day 265 - Song of Songs 1, 2 & 3; 2 Corinthians 12
But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)


Day 266 - Song of Songs 4 & 5; 2 Corinthians 13
Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. (2 Corinthians 13:11)

Day 267 - Song of Songs 6, 7 & 8; Galatians 1 
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father... (Galatians 1:3-4)

Silent Sunday

Mooncup Experiences

Here's one for the ladies. And be prepared, you may feel it's a bit TMI at times...



If you're still here, I take it you're interested in finding out about Mooncups, so I shall give you my thoughts on using one.

When I originally heard about them, I was convinced they were the realm of hippies and other such crazy ladies with long hair and homemade hemp skirts. Then my mum started to use one, and told me it had revolutionised her life, so I did think a bit more seriously about the Mooncup. Just when I was considering buying one, I got pregnant, so it wasn't necessary.

My period returned at 14 months postpartum, and, not expecting it, I only had tampons and towels in the house. It was dreadful! After birth it seems everything down there had changed shape, and I had been religious about doing my pelvic floor exercises, so that couldn't be blamed. The tampons were uncomfortable, drying and wouldn't stay in position. I went through a ridiculous number, especially as just breathing or rolling over could cause them to fall out - not to mention the effect of a cough or sneeze!

So, my thoughts returned to the Mooncup, and I duly went to Boots and bought one ready for the next visit from Aunty Mabel.

Bible in a Year - Day 260

Day 260 - Proverbs 30 & 31; 2 Corinthians 8
Every word of God is flawless;    he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. (Proverbs 30:5)
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)