Naptime Natter

Weaning with HiPP Organic – review and #giveaway

Weaning with HiPP Organic – review and #giveaway

Introducing solid foods to your baby for the first time can be both exciting and a bit stressful. Alex has been weaning since he was almost 6 months old and he loves his food. When you start weaning it can be difficult to know what foods to give your baby and when; I found introducing Alex to solid food pretty confusing. If you decide to start with purees and not go down the baby led weaning route then HiPP organic have introduced a brand new range of baby food perfect for baby’s first tastes. We were recently sent a hamper of the new Pure Vegetable jars and stage 1 savoury jars from HiPP to try, here is what Alex and I thought.. View Post

How to get body confident after pregnancy – tips from a personal trainer

How to get body confident after pregnancy – tips from a personal trainer

The pressure to spring back into shape after having a baby is a very real thing for new mums. We are bombarded with images in the media of celebrity mums easily fitting back into their skinny jeans 2 weeks post birth and not to mention the disgusting magazine articles you see where mums ‘imperfections’ are photographed, zoomed in on and then given a big red circle of shame around them for added insult. There is a reason mums all over the country breathed a huge sigh of relief when Kate Middleton stepped out of hospital a day after having baby George back in 2013 with a very visible (and very real) mummy tummy. These are the images we need to see more of, new mums need to know that bouncing back into our pre pregnancy wardrobe in just a matter of weeks is not only unrealistic but it is unhealthy too.

It can be hard to feel confident in your skin after having a baby, pregnancy changes our body so much and sometimes the body we are left with feels nothing like our own. If you are a mum and feel like you are ready to start trying to get fitter and learn to love your new mummy body (and you should love it, it grew a human!) then I have just the post for you.  Over the past 6 months or so I have been  (loosely) following a brilliant new fitness program designed just for new mums, to help them get healthier and fitter and to love the new body their children have given them. Lean Mums has completely changed my attitude towards my postpartum body, I am now the fittest I have ever been and I feel amazing (you can read all about my experience using the Lean Mums programme here). Today I have an interview with Lean Mums founder and personal trainer Robbie, he is sharing all his expert tips and advice on how to love your body after pregnancy and shows us all that silly faddy diets are so not the way to go if you want to be fit, healthy and – most importantly – happy.  View Post

21 things you can do with a Bullabaloo muslin blanket

21 things you can do with a Bullabaloo muslin blanket

There are so many things you need when bringing a tiny human into the world. There are the essentials, clothes/nappies and so on, and then there are the more luxury items, a nappy disposal unit that smells like flowers and a designer nappy changing bag for example. With an almost endless list of things to buy before you baby arrives, products that are versatile and do pretty much everything are a must, right? Let me introduce you to these amazing muslin blankets for new British brand Bullabaloo.  They come in amazing tropical print patterns and are super soft as they’re made from bamboo. The best thing though is that they are pretty amazing at multi tasking too. To prove my point, here’s a list.. View Post

Baby update – Alex is 10 months

Baby update – Alex is 10 months

Well, can you believe it? Double figures! Alex is now 10 whole months old and his developments has flown through the roof this month, I was looking at him yesterday and I couldn’t get over how much he looks like a toddler now and not so much a baby. Here is what has been happening since Alex’s 9 month update. View Post

Breastfeed with confidence with The Bshirt – review

Breastfeed with confidence with The Bshirt – review

Breastfeeding in public is not really something I struggle with now I am a second time mum. I am of the attitude that if my baby needs feeding then I am going to feed him, it doesn’t matter where I am or if there are strangers around. This was not the case at all when I had Leo, as a first time mum I found breastfeeding in public really nerve wracking to begin with and would go to great lengths to try and be as discrete as possible. There were numerous occasions where I would go and feed Leo in my car while we were out shopping or I would just try and time outings around his feeds in those very early baby days.  Establishing breastfeeding can be really difficult and the last thing any new mum needs is to feel stressed out when feeding because her clothes don’t make her feel confident when feeding her baby. Recently I got to review a brand new nursing top by a lovely new brand called The Bshirt. If you are trying to get feeding established and don’t want the fear of breastfeeding in public to hold you back then get this top on your must have list now. Here is what Alex and I thought of The Bshirt .. View Post

Lansinoh Feed With Confidence Awards 2017 – what are your thoughts on breastfeeding in public? (Lansinoh giveaway)

Lansinoh Feed With Confidence Awards 2017 – what are your thoughts on breastfeeding in public? (Lansinoh giveaway)

As you may already know, this week (August 1st-7th) is World Breastfeeding Week, a week to celebrate breastfeeding, change peoples negative views on breastfeeding and to help people learn more about the most natural thing in the world. If you read my blog regularly then you will know I am passionate about breastfeeding and I share a very honest account of what breastfeeding is really like in my breastfeeding diary.

The UK has one of the worst breastfeeding rates in the world, considering we are a country that knows how beneficial and amazing breastfeeding is, for some reason, research from 2015 shows that only 0.5% of mums are still feeding their babies by the time they reach 12 months old. View Post

Breastfeeding diary – celebrating World Breastfeeding Week and 9 months of breastfeeding

Breastfeeding diary – celebrating World Breastfeeding Week and 9 months of breastfeeding

This week is World Breastfeeding Week and with that in mind I have decided it’s time for another entry into my breastfeeding diary. Alex is now 9 months old and I am so happy and proud to say we are still breastfeeding with no intentions to stop any time soon.

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Baby update – Alex is 9 months

Baby update – Alex is 9 months

Alex is 9 months old, he has now officially be living outside of my belly for as long as he was cooking inside it. It is so mad, I can’t get over it, I know I say it all the time but I this little mans baby days are just flying by too fast. It has been a bit of a rocky month, there have been lots of good times but my not so little bundle of joy has been quite challenging lately too. Read on to find out what has been happening since Alex’s 8 month update.. View Post

The best bottle for breastfed babies – yoomi self warming bottle review

The best bottle for breastfed babies – yoomi self warming bottle review

Breastfeeding or bottle feeding, when it comes to baby feeding it can be very difficult at times for both mummy and baby to figure everything out. Alex is breastfed, we had a few issues to begin with (bleeding nipples being the worst!) but now he is almost 9 months old and feeding is pretty much problem free. There is one little issue though, I wouldn’t exactly call it a problem but it has caused me a fair bit of grief over the past few moths, Alex won’t take a bottle. If you are a breastfeeding mum you will understand how relentless breastfeeding can be and sometimes all you want is a break from it, to pop to the shops or go on a girlie night out or to just have your body back for a day. As a smaller baby Alex would occasionally take expressed milk from a bottle, we had a lot of success with the Lansinoh Momma bottle in those early months. For some reason though, probably due to the fact we weren’t giving him one regularly enough, Alex started to refuse all his favourite old bottles. Formula or breastmilk, he would just scream whenever the bottle went anywhere near him. Even if he was starving Alex wouldn’t let the teat be placed in his mouth. This has been going on until a couple weeks ago when we received a miracle in the post from innovative baby feeding brand yoomi. This may sound like a pretty bold statement but I believe the yoomi feeding system is the best bottle out there for a breastfed baby. Here’s our review of the yoomi self warming bottle so you can find out why.. View Post

Baby update – Alex is 8 months

Baby update – Alex is 8 months

So it is time for yet another baby update, only a handful left before I will be writing about Alex’s first birthday, slow down time please! Alex has come on leaps and bounds this months, he is mastering something new every other day. I have lost my phone this month though so there won’t be many day to day photos in this update as I am an idiot and didn’t back up any of my photos! So much has happened since Alex’s last update , I can’t wait to share it all with you. View Post

Learning to love my postpartum body and getting fit with Lean Mums

Learning to love my postpartum body and getting fit with Lean Mums

I have been a mum now for almost four years and after bringing two beautiful boys into the world it is safe to say my body is totally different to what it once was. I have struggled with body confidence on and off throughout my whole life, I have never felt completely comfortable in my skin and have spent a lot of time unhappy with how I look. I have noticed a shift in how I feel about my body since having children though. I may have stretch marks on my thighs and bum now, my boobs may be pretty much ruined thanks to breastfeeding and it is a struggle to locate a single muscle in my stomach amongst the skin that was stretched to it’s limit – twice – during pregnancy BUT I like my body more now than I ever have. My body is amazing, it grew two tiny humans and brought them into this world through the miracle that is birth. I definitely have a new found respect for my body but that doesn’t stop me wanting to get fit and into a bit better shape too. I am not one for faddy diets or the gym, I can never stick at it and always end up feeling deflated when I inevitably fail. Over the last few months I have been trying out a new fitness programme, specifically designed for busy mums and I am so excited to tell you all about Lean Mums and how, at the age of 26, I finally feel happy and comfortable in my skin. View Post

Baby update – Alex is 7 months

Baby update – Alex is 7 months

OK, I am over 2 weeks late with this update, oops! Now that Alex is crawling (yup, already), I don’t really get much opportunity to blog as often as I would like as I can’t take my eyes off him for a single second. It has been an eventful month to say the least, here’s what has been happening since Alex’s last update. View Post

What is a baby show and 3 reasons why you should go

What is a baby show and 3 reasons why you should go

When I was pregnant with Leo I had never even heard of a baby show, it was just one of many things that I was clueless about as a first time mummy to be. So, when we took Leo to our local show when he was just 5 weeks old I quickly learnt that a baby show is not actually babies performing together on stage, all singing and dancing, as the name may suggest. View Post

10 things I hate about teething

10 things I hate about teething

Ugh, teething. That horrible stage in a baby’s life where they make the transition from adorable little gummy creatures to red cheeked, grouchy beings with fangs. I am not ashamed to admit that I HATE teething, it is the worst thing about the baby days; give me sleep deprivation over a day stuck in the house with a shrieking teething baby any day. I understand that having their gums tortured by spiky little milk teeth isn’t exactly a load of laughs for babies either and I’m sure if my boy could talk he would tell me that he friggin hates teething too. If you haven’t guessed it already, Alex is teething (duh) , he has one little tooth at the bottom of his mouth but no matter how much he chomps on his little fist, no more teeth have made an appearance yet.  These past few weeks haven’t exactly been baby bliss with my little one feeling the full of effects of teething and to take out some of my frustrations I have decided to write down all things I hate about stupid f***ing teething, in true 10 things I hate about you (best film ever?) style. If your baby is teething too, I am sure you can relate. View Post

Please, can we stop arguing about how we feed our babies?

Please, can we stop arguing about how we feed our babies?

Here is something I have often found myself wondering since I became a mum, why do parents argue with other parents about how they feed their babies? I mean, why do people feel the need to pass comment on how others decide to feed their child? I have tried my best to bite my tongue on the whole breast v bottle debate as I do not like arguments and, unfortunately, baby feeding seems to cause A LOT of arguments. I can’t keep quiet any longer though, I am sick of seeing mums online having a go at each other, judging each other and being pretty damn rude to each other over something as trivial as where a baby gets it’s milk from. View Post

Where to next?