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May 31st, 2011
….I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some things you don’t find out until AFTER you have your baby, that might have come in handy to know beforehand.
First off, I’m thinking about breastfeeding. I’m all for breast-feeding, and think it’s a wonderful thing to do both for your baby and yourself. It’s absolutely the best nutritionally for your baby, helps your post-baby stomach contract back into place and helps you lose weight. It’s free and very convenient! If nothing else in my case it forces me to sit still, put my feet up, focus on my baby and stop rushing around which is always a good thing!
But why didn’t anyone ever tell me that it could hurt? In all the literature, there’s pictures of smiling Mums and cute babies with their mouth wide-open and full of boob. Both Mum and baby look calm and content. Rewind 6 weeks ago and you would have pictured me dowing paracetamol before a feed to try to lessen the pain and whimpering for the first few minutes until the pain eased.
To be fair with no1 son, it didn’t hurt initially as he had a great latch, opened his mouth nice and wide, lips back, just like the babies in the literature. However at around 4 months I got thrush in my nipples and it was absolute agony and took forever to clear up. It felt like I was being stabbed with a million needles every time he latched on and was most unpleasant.
No2 son and no1 daughter was a different matter. They didn’t latch on brilliantly, I got really sore, painful nippes and ended up using nipple shields which definitely helped, but probably weren’t great for my milk supply. That being said though, they did enable me to continue breast-feeding when I might otherwise have given up.
My lovely Aerin again hasn’t got a brilliant latch and this resulted in me having really sore cracked nipples at about day 3, when my milk came in and she just couldn’t latch on easily bless her. It was toe-curlingly painful and horrid, much worse than labour! There were tears and tantrums and sobbing phonecalls to the lovely ladies at La Leche helpline who gave me some great advice such as having a bath with Aerin which is when I realised that it was possible to feed painlessly and gave me a glimmer of hope. But my poor boobs didn’t heal easily, despite copious amounts of lansinoh. It came to a head when Aerin was 2 weeks old and I had enough and I called my Mum to tell her that I was quitting breast-feeding as I was dreading every feed.
I started alternating formula feeds with breast feeds and for me this was the best thing that I could have done. It took the pressure off and it gave my boobs time to heal up (and toughen up) so within a week breastfeeding was pain free and I was able to stop the bottle feeds and switch back to breast-feeding which I’m delighted about.
From speaking to other Mums, we reckon that if you are unlucky and have a baby with a poor latch it can take about 3 weeks for your boobs to toughen up. If I hadn’t know that breast-feeding could be pain free I would have stopped. So my advice for anyone in a similar position is to stick with it if you can. Talk to a breast-feeding expert, as breast-feeding shouldn’t be painful if your baby is latched on correctly. Do what you have to do to get through this period, whether it’s using nipple shields, taking pain killers, using bottles to give yourself a break or whatever. Persevere and it will get better.
How was breast-feeding for you? Many people find it pain-free so if you’re one of the lucky ones let us know. Or if, like me, it was painful do you have any top tips for getting through it?
Tags: breast-feeding, breastfeeding
Posted in baby | 18 Comments »
May 26th, 2011
I know you’ll empathise with me. It’s 8 weeks since Aerin arrived and I’ve still got an extra stone in weight sitting mostly around my tummy and backside…nice. I’m still breast-feeding but from past experience I don’t think that really has much impact on my weight aside from making me more hungry!
I know it has ‘only been 8 weeks’ but I’ve decided that I should start trying to tone up and shift some of my mummy tummy. And we all know that at the end of the day losing weight comes down to ‘eat less, exercise more’, so here’s how I’m going to go about it.
Eat Less
As I’m still breast-feeding I’m not going to start calorie counting too strictly but I’ve just come across a fantastic FREE website and iphone app called ‘myfitnesspal.com‘. It’s an interactive food and exercise diary. You tell it how much weight you want to lose and at what rate and it calculates how many calories you need to eat daily to achieve your goal. Then on a daily basis you log what you’re eating and how much exercise you’re doing and you can see really clearly whether you’re going over or under your daily limit.
Like I say, I’m not really trying to cut back on calories yet as I’m still BF’ing. But it’s really interesting to see the amount of calories in what I’m eating. On the not so good side, my large bowl of fruit and fibre for breakfast weighs in at a humungous 410 calories! But to make up for it, dark chocolate is lower cal than I thought…
 Wouldn't we all want a bod like this! Unfortunately much as I’d love to, I haven’t got the time or money to join David Lloyds which is what I did after I had no1 daughter. There’s quite a bit of noise online about a DVD called ‘Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. If you check it out on Amazon it gets fabulous reviews and at under a fiver, has got to be worth a try. The DVD takes just 20 minutes a day so there’s not really any excuse not to do it. It’s also an old-school style circuit training workout, with 2 minutes each of warm up and cool down, plus 3 circuit sets lasting 6 minutes each. The circuits comprise of 3 minutes of strength training, press-ups, squats, lunges etc, using dumb-bells for the arms. Then there’s 2 minutes of cardio, jumping jacks, skipping etc. I have to say that the jumping jacks are doing wonders for my pelvic floor! Lastly in each circuit there’s a minute of abs – crunches, reverse curls.
The workouts also increase in intensity, going from level 1 to level 3 and moving up as you feel able.
I waited until this week to start as I really wanted to commit to doing it for 30 days and giving an honest review at the start and end of that period. I’ve done the workout for 2 days now and am aching a bit in my arms and shoulders, not so much in my legs. It’s hard going as you’re doing it, but as each exercise for just for a short period of time, it’s easier to keep going til the end as you know it will change soon. I’m always glad when I reach the end of the second circuit as it feels like I’m almost done!
Jillian is a teensy bit annoying, but then so are most DVD workout instructors. I do wonder whether I should be using slightly heavier weights but I am actually pretty knackered and wobbly by the end so maybe not. I suppose that in a few days time I can consider changing up and seeing how that goes.
If nothing else, so far it has made me more aware of my posture but hopefully I’ll start to see some results soon, fingers crossed.
Tags: jillian michaels 30 day shred, my fitness pal
Posted in Family Life | 3 Comments »
May 24th, 2011
I seem to have become a sling slut. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but having 4 kids and running a business at the same time means I definitly need some sort of ‘hands-free kit’….but at current reckoning I currently have 5 different carriers or slings, which does seem a bit excessive….
Baby Bjorn
With no 1 son, we bought a baby bjorn which is more of a structured carrier than a sling. H used it more when no1 son was little as I couldn’t get to grips with it – looking back now, that was definitely more my fault than anything to do with the carrier though because I used it easily with no2 son.
It’s a great choice if your man is going to be wearing bubs as it’s pretty butch but still comfortable. H carried no1 son all the way over the seven sisters to Eastbourne in it one day and it worked really well.
When no1 daughter arrived I decided I needed something more comfortable to wear indoors. She was a bit of a screamer you see, and didn’t like being set down, probably because she was hungry… So I ordered two ‘hotslings’ as I thought they looked quite groovy. Which they did to be fair but my LO absolutely hated being in it and screamed her head off, so they were not for us. I see since then than hotslings have made them adjustable now, so maybe that would have worked better for us. Hey ho.
I did a bit more research and found my ‘hands-free kit’ aka my Kari me Sling which I still LOVE and have blogged about it before way back in April 2009. It’s perfect at home, especially when Aerin tends to be a little bit unsettled in the early evening (coinciding with tea-time for everyone else, I think she just wants to join in). She can snuggle in close and have a cuddly snooze which is just lovely for us both.
So, given that I love my Kari-Me, why have I got myself another sling?
Well I wore my Kari-Me at the NEC baby show on Friday and found that the stretchy fabric wasn’t quite so good when I needed to be a bit more active. As I was bending over and lifting boxes etc, Aerin had a tendency to move about a little.
I popped along to the lovely Ladies on the Close Parent stand and borrowed one of their award winning close parent carriers. What a difference! Whilst the fabric still has a bit of ‘give’ in it, it’s heavier fabric and holds the baby more firmly in place which is reassuring. Having the fabric come together on the back means that the straps stay widely apart, spreading the weight of the baby evenly and making it super-comfortable to wear. I literally had Aerin in the carrier all day on Saturday and Sunday and didn’t have any back ache from wearing it at all. And even though the fabric is heavier, it felt cooler to wear as it doesn’t wrap around in the same way. You can even breast feed in it – I haven’t tried this yet but will certainly give it a go.
I almost wouldn’t have believed you if you’d told me there was a better sling than the kari-me, but just goes to prove that I’m wrong occasionally….
Tags: Baby Bjorn review, Close Baby Carrier Review, Hotslings, Kari-Me
Posted in Buying For Baby | 2 Comments »
May 18th, 2011
 Whoopee! Our new Cheeky Wipes Kits have arriuved and we’ll be launching them at the NEC Baby Show which is running from this Friday 20th May – Sunday 22nd May.
Pop along and see us on stand F32 and buy a kit at the special show price of £30!
Tags: NEC Baby show, new cheeky wipes kits
Posted in Baby Show News, Buying For Baby, Cheeky Wipes News | No Comments »
May 17th, 2011
Just before the lovely Aerin arrived we dug out our old car seat for the final time. It’s a Maxi-Cosi, so a good make, but has seen better days, ever since I removed the cover to wash it prior to the arrival of no2 son. I should really have checked the washing instructions first as it recommended sponge washing only. Oops. The cover came out of the washing machine frayed and a bit on the tired side to say the least.
I really begrudge shelling out for a new car seat, especially when it works perfectly but just looks a bit scruffy. So instead I’ve gone for one of the new car seat covers from Minnie Moo. They’re lightly padded and fitted with an elastic edging to ensure a snug fit. They even come with a hood to protect from the sun, although I haven’t fitted mine yet.
The fabric used is a funky cow-print – I went for brown but the standard black and white is lovely too.
They’re priced at £25 but compared to spending £80 on a new car seat, it’s definitely worth it.
And, even better, they are fully washable, brilliant if you have a travel sick baby!
So if your existing car seat is, like mine, a bit knackered, or if you’ve been lucky enough to be given one that’s just a bit tired you should definitely invest in one of these.
Tags: minnie moo car seat cover review
Posted in Buying For Baby, Frugal Living | No Comments »
May 13th, 2011
I’m delighted to be taking part once again in the Friday Club carnival over at Notes from Home. The theme this week is ‘Why do you live where you do?’ and is another great question.
Like many people, having a baby was a major turning point in our lives. When I fell pregnant with no1 son back in 2004, we were both living and working in central London and lived in a Victorian Terrace in Walthamstow, which was supposedly an ‘up and coming’ area. I’m not so sure about up and coming but it was cheap compared to most of London and had good transport links into the City. Brilliant for work, but it was a bit of a dump otherwise, with very little green space and lots of those scary yellow police signs asking for witnesses to various crimes.
When one of these signs appeared at the end of our road asking for witnesses to a murder, we decided that enough was enough and that we needed to get out of London but still be within commuting distance for our jobs.
Initially we looked at Brighton and Lewes which are both vibrant communities with great train links for commuting, however they were both outside our budget still. In desperation, with the arrival of no1 son imminent, we jumped at the chance of a new build house in Seaford which is smack bang between Brighton and Eastbourne. The logic was that it would be good in the short term as H’s parents live there and it would get us out of London – after all we could always move again….
7 years later and we’re still here.
The upside to living in Seaford is the location and the people. The picture above is of the Seven Sisters which is literally a 5 minute walk from my house and forms a stunning part of the new South Downs National Park. Walking up and down Seaford Head was a lovely part of my ‘Operation Baby Out’ back in March when I was a week overdue with the arrival of my new baby… Seaford has a beautiful seafront too, which never gets as busy as Brighton and is fabulous to run along in any weather. There are lovely forests nearby, heaps of walking and outdoor activities available when the kids are a little older.
The nurseries and primary schools available are excellent, with several rated as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted. We’ve all made some lovely friends here, and now that I’ve started the new WI here in Seaford, I do feel like part of the community. It’s great to go out for a walk and bump into friends and people you know.
Why would you want leave that, I hear you cry? After all, you’ve got a nice location, good friends, what more do you want?
Well, the compromise and downside to living in Seaford is also the location. It’s a 2 1/2 hour door to door commute for my poor H into London – that 4 1/2 hours a day, or 18 hours a week. And that’s a pretty good reason to move – or change job!
And although things are improving, there isn’t much in the way of decent restaurants or cafes around, but then I’m quite fussy when it comes to food. That being said though we’re spoilt for choice for decent country pubs in the locality, though none worth visiting in the town itself. The high street is also pretty dismal, full of chemists, charity shops and opticians which probably says a lot about the average age of a Seaford resident as there are so many retirees! There aren’t any of the usual high street chains aside from WHSmith, Boots and Superdrug which wouldn’t be a problem if this was made up for by lots of little boutique-y stores, but it isnt…
So, for the time being we’re settled. We’ve got a lovely house (thanks to 8 months of hard graft) that I can see myself living in for a long time. We’ve got great friends and family nearby. There’s plenty for us to do as a family (but not much for just the adults). Overall, it’s pretty good….
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Here are the other entries in this carnival:
Isil at Smiling Like Sunshine tells us Home is where the heart is.
Jules at I Need Curtains for the Window In My Head posts Why Do I Live Where I Do?
South of the River Mum writes about Bringing up children in London.
Scribbling Mum explains why she lives where she does.
Jacq from Mymumdom posts about why she lives in London.
Rachel at Midlife Singlemum tells us Why she lives in Israel.
Kelly at Domestic Goddesque tells us about Wonderful, wonderful Bromley, and why I live there.
Bibsey Mama gives us 7 reasons to live in Spain in Cool España.
Helen at Cheeky Wipes tells us There’s Always a Compromise.
Jenny at The Gingerbread House tells us about her home in Our house.
Cass at The Diary of a Frugal Family tells us Home is Where The Heart Is.
Jax at Live Otherwise/Making it Up explains Why I live here. Right here. In this house.
Emma at MummyMummyMum tells us about where she lives.
Cara at Freckles Family posts Where I Call Home.
Merry at Patch of Puddles writes Why I Live Where I Live.
Pure Lanzarote tell us the reasons for their choice in Why live in Lanzarote?
Ella at Notes From Home explains her choices in Why we live where we do.
Tags: Friday Club, seaford
Posted in Friday Club | 10 Comments »
May 10th, 2011
Until a couple of years ago, the last time I’d been to a National Trust property was in childhood and all I could really remember was lots of boring flowers and a big house that echoed a lot, where I wasn’t allowed to touch anything.
 © NTPL / Andrew Butler Fast forward 30 years. Last March we took advantage of a free entry day to visit Bodiam Castle, a medieval stronghold which dates back to 1385. It was a great day out, being about an hours drive with lots for the kids to clamber over and see (although they liked the moat just a little too much!) As part of the free entry day they were offering Family membership for about £70 which seemed like a good deal as entry to Bodiam Castle itself would have cost us £15.
One year on, and we’re certainly getting our moneys worth from our membership. Most Sundays, if we’ve got nothing else planned, we’ll pack a picnic and head off to one of the local properties. Sheffield Park is a firm favourite as it’s just 35 minutes away and offers plenty of opportunity for the kids to run around in the fresh air, climbing trees and having fun. Any leftover crusts from our picnic go towards feeding the ducks and we were all very excited to see 2 Canadian Geese, plus 6 cute fluffy yellow Goslings (or Goblins as my 2 year old called them…) last weekend.
For families with small children, the National Trust is brilliant. Although we’ve got the South Downs on our doorstep, the kids aren’t old enough to take ‘off-road’ as we still need to use the buggy when their wee legs get tired (or for carrying our picnic!). There’s always lots of good clean toilet facilities on hand plus most of the properties have cafe’s or restaurants if you can’t be bothered to pack a picnic.
There’s also quite a lot of family-friendly events held there, particularly over school holiday periods. At Easter we all took part in the Easter Egg trail, where for an extra £2 per child we had to find the clues and answer questions on our walk round the garden – the reward was a Cadburys Easter egg at the end. Over summer, most of the properties have kids activities planned for recurring days of the week, so I’m already planning what we’ll visit and when in an attempt to keep them entertained and myself sane!
Tags: national trust
Posted in Family Life, Frugal Living | No Comments »
May 6th, 2011
We have 4 pairs of tickets to the NEC Baby Show (20th – 22nd May) to give away. Become a member of our facebook group ‘We love Cheeky Wipes’ and then just share this post with your friends before next Thursday 12th May when we’ll pick 4 people at random as the lucky winners.
Easy!
Tags: NEC Baby show tickets free
Posted in Baby Show News | No Comments »
May 5th, 2011
Apologies everyone for not being around but as you can imagine, things have been very busy at Cheeky Wipes HQ, with the arrival of baby Aerin. This week sees life back to ‘normal’, and my protective bubble has burst with H being back at work and my folks back in Northern Ireland. So we’ve endured our first school run (no tantrums from the kids or me!) and I’m back at my desk as usual.
The bank holiday weekend was a sociable occasion for us, with different groups of friends round for afternoon tea and cake on Friday and Monday. So there was a LOT of baking going on in our house over the past week or so. Somewhere between Friday and Monday I came to the realisation that it was probably pretty pointless for me to be starting to exercise to lose my baby weight (starting easy with the Davina post-natal DVD) if I was then stuffing my face with cake two hours later. But, given that I’m breast-feeding, I’m not quite ready to give up my cake habit just yet…
So, I dug out my old trusty Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache written by the slightly irritating Harry Eastwood, from Channel 4’s ‘Cook yourself thin.’ I went through a spell of using this book a lot (probably when I was trying to lose weight after my last baby!) but it has been languishing on the shelf for a while now and to be honest I’m not sure why.
This book is fab! It’s chock full of recipes for cakes, scones and other sweet delights but instead of using butter or oil these recipes all use some sort of veg to add moisture. And not just your usual carrots, but beetroot, courgette and butternut squash all feature in some recipes. This isn’t a new idea by the way, when I showed the book to one of my older guests on Monday, she informed me that cakes were routinely made using potato during the war when rationing was in place. There’s nothing new in cookery as they say.
I tried 3 recipes from the book over the weekend and they were all without doubt scrummy. The brownies use beetroot to provide moisture and that lovely squidgy brownie texture. The book recommends roasting beetroot yourself but I used pre-packed, pre-cooked beetroot (not the stuff in vinegar obviously) and the brownies suffered no ill effects.
The white chocolate, fruits of the forest and cinnamon blondie uses butternut squash – I’ve made this before and it’s lovely, a bit different from the normal cake / brownies that I usually make. The white chocolate provided sweetness against the tartness of the fruits of the forest and again, I made life easier (and cheaper) by using frozen fruits of the forest rather than fresh.
The rest of the squash went into the delightful ‘light chocolate cake’. Now I have to admit there is butter in the icing, but there’s also mascarpone, making it a tad healthier than normal butter icing. It produced a fabulous chocolate cake, really moist, chocolate-y and lovely, definitely on my ‘make again’ list.
As I make more of the recipes again, I’ll share them with you – and look forward to more healthy eating recipes in coming months, plus fitness DVD reviews too!
Tags: harry eastwood, light chocolate cake, red velvet chocolate heartache
Posted in Healthy Eating | 1 Comment »
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