The Chicken Pox

Something we dreaded but knew inevitably would happen at some point. 

Mia came down with the chicken pox on her leg, mostly on the inside of her thigh all of a sudden one afternoon. I took her to the doctor - at the time I didn't realise it was the chicken pox and although he said there were some convincing pox marks he wasn't convinced at that time that it was full blown chicken pox (how can there be convincing pox marks but he not be convinced it was chicken pox?!) the next day some of the spots had blistered over but there was new ones appearing. Some on the other leg, more on the original leg travelling down towards the ankle, a few on her tummy and back.

She wasn't itching. She didn't have a fever. She wasn't unhappy. The only thing that was different apart from the spots was her appetite. She had lost her appetite completely. She was fine at bedtime and a happy bunny most of the time. 

It wasn't as bad as I had thought it was going to be. She continued to get spots for a week and they continued to blister each day. By the following weekend after the initial spots appeared they were beginning to clear up. We had to avoid other children and pregnant women as chicken pox can be harmful to pregnant women. 

                                Day 1

                              Day 2

I feel quite relieved she's had them so young and didn't have too much of a tough time with them. 

Sick Baby

We have had a sick baby this month. First we had the dreaded chicken pox! Luckily they were not too severe! Then we had a stomach bug which resulted in violent vomiting all night! 

Poor Mia, I hope March brings us better luck! 

                Chicken Pox day 2

  Tired after being up all night vomiting :(

Toddler Haul - February 2014

Some of these were bought as gifts for Mia. She's a very lucky girl!

JoJo maman bebe - £35

JoJo maman bebe - £18

JoJo maman bebe - £18

JoJo maman bebe - £11

JoJo maman bebe - £20

Mia 15 month update!

Mia is now 15 months! It seems crazy that in a couple of months she will be 1 and a half! Seriously where does the time go! 

Mia is on the move this month. She is really confident walking now. We bought her some reins the other day so that she can walk in busy places with us but she is still safe. She loves the freedom and has discovered puddles! It's been really rainy here recently and we took her to the park the other day as it was sunny for once but there are a lot of puddles around. She wore her new wellies and she absolutely loved slashing around in the puddles! Maybe it's all that peppa pig watching, 'jumping up and down in muddy puddles!' 

She is still wearing 6-9 month clothing although I have started trying her in some 9-12 month tops now. Trousers are too big in both 6-9 and 9-12 unless they're leggings or have pull in waists. 

We went to her one year review this month, a little late I know but better late than never right?! She weighs 8kg which is about 17Ib and is 74cm in length. She is sitting in the 9th percentile for weight which she has consistently been in and is in the 25th percentile for height. The health visitor was very happy with her progress though, both physically and mentally. 

We are also attending two classes a week now, sing and sign and movers which we both enjoy. Mia loves being the centre of attention and being around other children. 

She still doesn't like egg! But she now likes cucumber, cheese and fruit purée pouches! 

She also had the chicken pox this month! I will go into more details and how we coped with that on a separate blog post but she didn't have them too badly and although they lasted a while she didn't have any itching which we were so thankful for! 

Healthy toddler meal

Tonight we made omelettes and although Mia has never been keen on egg we though we would try her again! 

She has cucumber, potatoes cut into small cubes, some cheddar cheese and a onion and potato omelette. 

She devoured the cucumber which I was surprised about as she never used to like cucumber. She also devoured the cheese! I only have her a small amount as cheese is high in saturated fat. She also enjoyed the mini potatoes. I think she enjoyed the omelette. She only ate a little bit and seemed to prefer it cold but it's small steps to get her interested in eggs. 

At the farm

I didn't get as many photos as I would of liked today. Partly because I only took my iPhone and not my camera and the iPhone battery just died really quickly. Not sure why? I had no signal all day so I put it down to it trying to locate a signal which killed the battery?! 

Mia had a lovely time and I will definitely take her back in the summer. They had so much for children including: an indoor play barn, a higher outdoor play area, ride on tractors, electronic tractors, trampolines, a real tractor offering tractor rides around the farm, arts & crafts and obviously lots of animals. We were fortunate enough to see the newborn lambs this time. 

JoJo maman bebe toddler snow boots

So we have been desperate to get Mia some wellington boots. With all this awful rank the UK has been having we definitely needed something to get her feet dry! Unfortunately Mia has very small, dainty feet and normal Wellington boots just fell off and she couldn't walk in them at all! So we found an alternative. We found snow boots in JoJo maman bebe. This is what they look like:

How cute are these?! They are rubber over the foot similar to a Wellington and so will keep her feet dry, they are a waterproof material on the upper boot similar to that of a waterproof jacket and they tighten with Velcro straps! Normal

Wellington boots have no way of making them tighter unlike these snow boots which was what Mia needed to keep her feet in. They are also lined with a fleece type lining - similar to what you get on the inside of a coat. They are still not easy to walk in for a toddler who's only just started walking but they are certainly a lot easier than Wellington boots and are extremely cute! They cost £20 I believe which isn't bad for something she will wear a lot and she definitely needed something in this weather! 

I think they also sold them in blue and yellow and possibly other colours too. We opted for the pink because they match her coat. 

Visiting the Ducks

Before the river burst it's banks AGAIN we were lucky enough to have a sunny day and Mia and I decided to go and visit the ducks. Mia loves watching the ducks swimming up the river. It's something we used to do a lot in summer. I can't wait until next summer when we can make this a regular thing! 

Healthy toddler meal

Another healthy toddler meal idea. I actually put this together very last minute. We have only very recently started giving Mia fish fingers. It's a weird one for me because I don't know whether I would class them as healthy or not. I don't think they're unhealthy as such. We buy the 100% fish fillet ones but they are classed as frozen food and as a child I always grew up to believe that wasn't good for you. 

Anyway to get Mia eating more fish (the problem is we don't eat much fish as a family so this is an easy option!) we have started giving her fish fingers every once in a while. So I paired them with some vegetables - carrots, peas, sweet corn and green beans. I also gave her some raisins too! 

I realise that's a lot of veg! I actually ended up saving half of it for her dinner that evening. I paired that with shepherds pie which is one of Mia's favourite meals! 

I love reading about other people's recipe ideas for their babies and toddlers so if you have any recipe ideas or any suggestions if good websites/blogs to look out please leave the link below! 

Sleep Training - Night Seven

9pm asleep. 

2am woke for dummy. 

5:42am woke for dummy

6am finding it tricky to settle back to sleep. 

9:30am up for the day. 

It seems to be getting better!

Sleep Training - Night Six

9pm asleep, took longer than usual. 

10pm woke for dummy 

11pm woke for dummy. 

2:30am woke for dummy. 

4am woke for dummy. 

6:12am woke for dummy

8:30am up for the day. 

This dummy seems to be causing a lot of waking. I want to get rid of it but we've only just moved rooms and beds. Another big transition might be too much! 

Sleep Training - Night Five

9am asleep, once again to the soothe and glow seahorse. 

10pm woke up for the dummy, went straight back to sleep. 

11pm woke again briefly. 

12:15am woke up, sitting up in bed, took a little while to settle back. 

2am woke again for the dummy. 

2:30am woke again. Seems to be waking with a start. 

2:50 woke again. Mummy has a long drive tomorrow so I decide to bring her to the spare room at this point. 

A little annoyed about last night because she would of stayed in her bed had I persevered for longer but with having a very long drive tomorrow early morning I felt it safer to get some sleep. 

Sleep Training - Night Four

9pm asleep quickly to the soothe and glow seahorse. 

9:45pm awake but settled quickly. 

10:45pm awake screaming. Think she has a tummy ache again. Going to change her diet tomorrow to find out what's upsetting her tummy. 

11:30pm really struggling to settle, still very upset. Manage to calm her down on the spare bed. Decide not to try to move her as she's obviously in discomfort. 

3am wake for the dummy but went straight back to sleep. 

9am awake for the day. 

Hopefully tomorrow is better and she stays in her bed. No more tummy aches please! 

January 2014 favourites!

This month I have been enjoying a lot of bath and makeup products. I have especially been enjoying products from Lush. I like Lush bath and shower products but I do find them quite pricey. However for Christmas and my birthday I was lucky enough to receive quite a few bits from lush. I also received some lovely new makeup which I have been loving as well! 

This is a lush bathbomb - I have used many different lush bath bombs this last month. I do not have a favourite one as such I have just been loving using baths bombs in my baths this month! 

Another favourite this moth has been the Burt's Bees lip balm. I had never used this before or any Burt's Bees products but had always heard great things about it. I received this for Christmas and have been loving it. It kind of makes your lips feel tingly when you first apply it but then it leaves them feeling really lovely and soft. I like the fact it fits nicely in my handbag and it smells really nice too!

Another favourite is the Clinique high impact mascara. I have talked about this in a review earlier in the month. I have been using this mascara for 2 years now and still continue to love it!

I have also been really enjoying using the Rimmel scandal eyes eye liner in black. It's like a felt tip pen and so easy to apply. I use it on my upper eye lid and it stays in place all day. It's really pigmented and only cost me £5! Bargain!

My last beayty product favourite is another Clinique product and it's the cream shaper for eyes. It's an eye liner which I use on my lower lids. It's really soft and creamy so doesn't drag as you apply which is one of the things I loathe! Eye liners which feels like they're pulling or scratching!!! It's really pigmented and stays in place. I have been wearing this everyday! 

My last favourite which isn't beauty related is an app called Flappy Bird. I'm not one for playing games really. I use my iPhone for watching YouTube and browsing the internet mostly but everyone was raving about this game! I downloaded it and I've been enjoying the banter with my friends and family as to who can get the highest score! I must admit unlike some others I have got bored of it now but for a few weeks it's been great fun!

What has your January favourites been?

Sleep Training - Night Three

9pm asleep once again with the soothe and glow seahorse (love this!!) 

10pm woke up crying and doesn't look likely to settle. Think she may have a tummy ache. 

10:30pm asleep after falling asleep sitting on the rocking chair with daddy. 

12am woke up but went straight back to sleep. 

2am woke up and went back to sleep after some comforting. 

2:30am woke again just for the dummy. 

5:20am woke up thinking it was morning. Took Mia into spare bedroom to sleep. 

8:30am up for the day. 

Much better night than the previous night!

Sleep Training - Night Two

9pm straight to sleep with soothe and glow seahorse

10pm woke up but went straight back to sleep. 

12:46am awake not wanting to sleep. Went back to sleep and within 5 minutes awake again. 

1am I'm too tired from previous night to battle. Take her into spare room and sleep there. 

Tonight the plan is to move spare mattress into Mia's room so that if we do end up sleeping next to each other again at least it will be in her room. 

Sleep Training - Night One

7:30pm fell asleep to soothe and glow seahorse with no fuss. 

8:30pm woke but went straight back to sleep once we came into the room. 

2:30am woke and refused to go back to sleep :( sat next to her bed until 3:30am. She finally went back to sleep but woke again in 5 minutes. Sat next to her until 4:20am. 

4:30am taken her to spare bedroom to sleep next to me on spare bed. 

8:30am awake for the day. 

Tired.

Mia's new room!

So we have made the decision to move Mia upstairs into her own room! You might be confused as I don't think I ever finished blogging about what was happening with Mia's sleep. Basically she used to sleep in the nursery next to our room at the back of the house. Unfortunately we have construction work going on and they start very early and sometimes move rubble during the night. As Mia has an original sash window which us obviously not double glazed the noise was waking her up constantly.

It was not good. 

So we moved her back into our room and co slept again until she turned 14 months. Last Thursday. 

Last Thursday was the day. The day we decided it was time to try again. We decided to move her to the too floor at the front. Her new room is not backing into the construction site and is double glazed. 

We moved all her furniture upstairs and decided to move her straight into a bed. A cot bed nevertheless but a bed all the same. She had never been a great sleeper in the cot and she was used to being in a bed as she had spent most of her life in bed with us at night. 

I am going to keep a diary night by night of the transition of moving Mia into her new bedroom. I think it will be useful for other parents going through the same transition especially from co sleeping but also for myself to see her improving night by night. I hope. The first blog post of night one will be uploaded tomorrow (they are going to be a few days behind if that makes sense because I wanted to upload this post showing her new room before starting the night diary) 

So this is Mia's new room in photographs

Bedtime soothers

We have bought and tested many products to help Mia calm and settle during bedtime. Some of the products we have:

A lullaby cd. 

A read aloud story. 

Fisher price soothe and glow seahorse. 

A lullaby cot toy. 

The cd is good, she definitely calms to it. The main problem is that Mia is a very light sleeper so any noise that is made once she's asleep can potentially wake her and with a cd I have to physically go in and turn it off. 

This lullaby cd comes with a book and is made by chad valley. It contains the classics like rock-a-by baby and then others that I haven't heard of before. 

The read aloud story called 'it's snorey time' we have yet to try. I bought it in tk maxx before Mia was born because the illustrations looked really cute and I liked that it came with areas aloud story as well. 

Mia's soothe and glow seahorse we bought when Mia was 4 weeks old. She didn't take to it at all and I was pretty disappointed. I had seen lots of mummy vloggers on YouTube and mummy bloggers talking about it and recommending it. Mia just didn't seem bothered by it all all unfortunately. However now she loves it! I put it on when I put her to bed and she watches the tummy gently glow and listens to the lovely gentle lullabies. 

I would definitely recommended trying this. It's become part of our bedtime routine now!

The final product we have (apart from a cot mobile which she never used to much as she mostly co slept with us and now has gone straight into a cot bed) is a lullaby Peter Rabbit. It looks like this:

You ca hang it on the cot or bear the cot. At the moment we have him on her wardrobe as we are using the soothe and glow seahorse more but we used to hang this above her cot for the short time she slept in there! You pull Peter down:

And he plays a soothing lullaby. I can't remember from the top of my head which lullaby he plays?! If anyone knows please let me know. For some reason I'm thinking it's hush little baby but I could be wrong! 

What soothing products do you like to use with your baby? Is there one product that you use every night as part of your bedtime routine?