We have a baby!!

So I haven’t updated the blog in a VERY long time.

Truth is, I’ve not been in a great place. I’ve broken down in my Drs Surgery, I’ve not felt baby move for the majority of the time and I’ve been so caught up in selling and buying a house that I just haven’t had the mentality to sit down and update!!

Our house was sold and we were well on the way to buying. In fact the day the buyers pulled out (a week before my due date like wtf?!) we were actually waiting on an offer we had made to be accepted. Turns out because our buyers pulled out that day, the vendor didn’t want to accept our offer and we were then in catch 22!

The selling side was horrendous. I was harassed by estate agents and everyone else from start to finish and my mental and physical health just slid. I was so ill and I just ended up crying most days wondering what I’d got myself into, how I could cope moving with a newborn and I honestly just didn’t enjoy any part of my pregnancy from then on. It made me feel so so guilty, because the way our little girls life had come about was so extraordinary and crazy that I had everything to be happy about, but inside I wasn’t enjoying any minute of it. It’s most likely now the end of the road for us children-wise, and that made me feel even worse. I desperately wanted my last pregnancy to be cherished!

So fast forward to now. Isla has arrived! We welcomed her on the 22nd December and I honestly can’t imagine what life was like before she arrived. My birth story is a little traumatic (for anyone currently pregnant) but so many people have asked how it was and if I managed a VBAC, that I think I just need blog it all so I don’t have to re live it all each time 🙈

So I went in to be induced on the 21st. They examined me, I was 1cm but the midwife really struggled to break my waters. Took her a good 6 minutes but she managed it! I immediately got up and was walking around. We’d planned to go walk around the hospital, but my waters were literally leaking through pads and going onto my trousers ahhhh! So I had to walk around the room until they’d all pretty much gone. I began having a few tightenings that progressively got a bit more painful, but when they came to examine me further not much had happened!

They put me on a drip, probably around 2pm ish, but advised that because of my previous section with Evie and slight blood loss, they didn’t want to push me too far too quickly in fear of scar rupture.

They examined me at 8pm and said that I’d progressed a little! YAY!! My body was actually able to labour! It was dilating!! I was so so happy that I was having a chance at a possible natural birth.

They kept increasing my dosage (in fact the midwife increased it way earlier and much higher than the Drs advised, which I’m not happy about!) up until 12am when they examined and said nothing had changed in 4 hours. By this time I was in agony. Midwives and Drs were saying the noises I was making during contractions were that of ladies in the pushing stage of labour (bear in mind that I’m so quiet when I’m in pain, and have a high pain threshold!) I didn’t have gas and air until about 9pm even though I’d been in pain from the drip since 5pm. The midwife who broke my waters said I must be superwoman as she really had trouble doing my waters and that not having gas and air for that was crazy. Anyway, doctors were worried my scar wasn’t going to be able to take anymore contracting and my contractions felt directly behind it every single time even I was starting to say something wasn’t right. No no no!! I felt like this was Evie’s birth all over again!!! Drs advised of a c section again, Said they could carry on but they really didn’t want to as it was a huge risk, and I was desperate for them to just turn the bloody drip off I was honestly ready to just rip it out myself 😂

I completely agreed and when they left to go get my gown etc all I remember was being in absolute tears begging for the drip to come out. They were taking me straight down that moment so thankfully they took it off!

C section went really really well! Despite me having to bend over for the spinal whilst having a constant contraction because the bending triggered it 🙈 It was all a bit surreal and the staff were absolutely astounding. I honestly can’t thank them enough for everything they did! My BP dropped when I was in there but they sorted that quickly.

Recovery went fine too. Went up to the ward, Jon left as it was like 2am! And I was left alone.

My pad was changed, but after that only my obs were done by what I think was a trainee. TMI, but blood loss felt way too much, and when I looked the bed was like an absolute bloodbath! Clots, blood, even my top ‘quilt’ sheet was starting to soak. I range the bell and the nurse looked then ran to grab a dr, Drs were paged, I heard the emergency call over the tannoy 🙈 and my bedside was literally filled with Drs. One attempted a manual clot extraction, I got jabbed with a needle, an additional cannula inserted, then a dr was manual massaging my uterus to get it to contract again. That wasn’t working great so I got jabbed again and then I was wheeled down to theatre to be put under general anaesthetic and they could try to halt the bleeding. They didn’t have time to do written consent to hysterectomy etc so they had to do verbal consent eek!

I came round and they’d managed to halt bleeding. They’d inserted a balloon to help and that seemed to do the job. I had to have 2 units of blood (they were a little panicky as I have to have irradiated blood so it had to be ordered in before my section that was previously planned then cancelled!), and my BP and obs were still a bit all over the place so they had me on oxygen for a while afterwards.

Turns out I’d lost just under 3L of blood. The majority of that on the bed. Drs were baffled as they asked me how I felt and honestly I didn’t feel as ill as I apparently was. I should have been really light headed and sick! They came to see me after my op and said that even when I had a dr massaging my womb on one side, being wheeled to theatre for high emergency surgery, I was still chatting away and making them all laugh 😂🙈

It was all a little surreal and it felt like I was in a bit of a movie scene on the bed haha! But I’m so thankful that we’re all here, all safe and Isla is now 3 weeks old!!

The past 3 weeks have gone lightening quick and I’m not too sure how I feel about her growing so quickly. She’s almost long enough to fill the Moses basket now,too.

I feel like a stressful pregnancy was all preparation for what was to come after Isla arrived, it was like the tip of the iceberg type of thing. I’m slowly settling into life as a family of 4, but this no sleep lark is crazy!

It’s a very long post, but I felt with the messages I’ve had asking if I’m okay, if we’ve had baby and how it all went and then asking for details, I felt I had to do a big one as a major update!!

Here’s a pic of our girls together 💕 Evie pulling a silly face as per!

26 week update!

I’m now 26 weeks pregnant, and time seems to have slowed down!

Weeks 4-24 whizzed by and now we’re crawling through at snails pace. To be honest that’s a good thing because we have so much to buy still and so much to get done, I think if it was whizzing by too quickly it would be a big shock!

Baby is absolutely fine and doing well snuggled up in there. I have an anterior placenta again, which means movements are softened by the great big placenta in between my belly and baby…. Wonderful. Also means any 4D scans we try to have will likely have a big fat placenta covering baby’s face and I just don’t want to risk paying so much again haha
Obviously I worry that we’ll end up where we did with Evie and be induced for reduced movements, but I know what to look out for now and I ‘know’ a bit more I guess. Movements just this morning have been further up and I got jabbed in my ribs which I never had with Evie, so I’m taking it as she’s moved from being breech at our last scan, to a normal position now. Phew, Fingers crossed!

Home wise it’s hard. We are yet to find a house, and are very aware that we need to find one before December (or at least get our mortgage accepted before then) as I’ll be on maternity and mortgage wise we’ll not get anything. We can’t extend this house for another 2 years, so we literally have no option but to move. Can’t do rented as they’re over £300 more a month than our mortgage, which we can’t afford, so we’re stuck waiting! The stress is unreal. We find a nice enough property and then BAM something happens, there are too many issues to fix, or it’s too out of our budget and we get outbid. We’ve been looking for over 6 months now and it’s just getting stressful more than enjoying looking at houses.
I have spent night after night trawling for AIPs in the hope that someone will lend us just that little bit more to buy a bigger house around here, but I’ve had no luck.

I have the usual mum guilt that comes with A) having a 2 year old and B) Being pregnant with a second child. I feel like that, plus the stress of the house, plus the Pelvic Girdle Pain that seems to be getting worse, I’m just finding it so hard. I’m losing sleep, I’m crying at nothing, I’m snappy and I’m just miserable. It’s an endless cycle because I’m so thankful and grateful that I’m pregnant again and having the sibling I’ve always wanted for Evie, but I’m just so stressed and upset all the time right now, and I beat myself up about that too. I should be ecstatic!

I’m not kidding when I say we’ve bought 2 things clothes-wise for baby. We have a steriliser and a pack of dummies, but other than that we have nothing. I’m torn between getting things out the loft to clean/ put up, and box them away ready for a new house. I genuinely feel like I can’t get excited, because so much time is taken up by the house hunting and worrying, that we’re stuck with what to do and what to buy, then where to store it if we do buy it and can’t put it up. We have a few other worries going on which I won’t detail in this blog, but it all doesn’t help when it’s happening at once. I keep trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel but it’s so hard to envisage it all working out!

Evie is starting to realise that shes having a baby sister now, because she keeps saying it. And she says that the baby is un mummy’s tummy growing bigger and bigger and that she’ll come at Christmas haha! It’s so sweet having Evie start to understand it all. It means it won’t be such a shock when she comes.

I’ve been wanting to start doing a bit of vlogging recently, but i’m not too sure whether to start or whether our boring life would be any good! I wanted to do a week by week vlog, but we’ve been so busy that’s gone out the window a little- oops. I think I may give it a go though!

Ending the post with an obligatory pic of Evie and bump. Because getting a 2 year old to sit still for a picture is an achievement in itself.

 

18 Week update & life with a 2 year old

So this week i’ve hit a bit of a low. Total confusion, total worthlessness and just not knowing what to do! Pregnancy wise though, everything is AMAZING and i’m so happy!

Baby is absolutely fine, I haven’t felt any proper movements just yet but I know they won’t be long. I’m officially 18 weeks today and i’m hoping this pregnancy carries on as quick as what it has been. I do have a bump, It’s still a very jiggly, wiggly bump but there’s definitely one there.
I’m currently rotating the same 3 outfits for work & casual so I really think we need to go shopping this weekend. I feel like a right mum haha!
I’m getting more heartburn/ acid this week. Which is absolutely fine! Not enough to warrant getting prescribed Gaviscon, which tastes alright but that texture…. ugh! That’s something else!

Evie has been strange the last few weeks. When we were weaning her she was like a gannet, she’d eat everything. And nowadays she just hardly eats a thing. She’s on Movicol for her tummy issues, and for the past month or 2 she’s complained her tummty hurts. Coincidentally she’s started potty training herself too! And when she says her tummy hurts, 9 times out of 10 if I ask if she needs a number 2 she’ll say yes. Which is good, she’s noticing she needs the loo.
However, the past couple of weeks we’ve also had “I don’t feel well”. I have no idea where it’s come from but she says it a LOT. Randomly. And afterwards she’ll say she needs a cuddle. I’m struggling to know if there’s genuinely something wrong or if she’s just doing it for a cuddle. I’ll ask her whats wrong, she’ll say “I don’t know” and i’ll ask if her head hurts, her bum, her legs, her teeth, her eyes, etc. She’ll say no!
She’s also gone from sleeping in her bed overnight, to the last couple of months being inconsolable and coming into our bed.
Last night was horrendous. She woke up when we were downstairs crying, so I went up and she’s sat upright, still asleep, arms waving in front of her shouting no. I saw she was sweating so took her top off, and put her fan on. I calmed her down, gave her a cuddle and put her back down.
A few hours later when we’d gone to bed she woke up crying again. This is quite normal the past few months and so I knew she’d end up in our bed. But I put her down, covered her up, turned the fan off and she went back.
Then a few hours later hell broke loose! She was hysterical. At first I thought another night terror, great, but she was totally coherent to what we were saying. Although she was hysterical she answered in response to us. I tried to put her back in her bed and it made her worse. She climbed into our bed, grabbed my pillow and started hugging it. She wouldn’t let go and i’m sure neighbours thought I was really doing something to her because she was horrendous. Everytime I tried to take it from her she’d get louder. I finally calmed her down after her thashing around and she ended up saying she wanted a cuddle.

This all sounds very tame but honestly it’s actually really got me down. I feel it was a pretty traumatic night last night for all of us, Jon included and I honestly don’t know what else to do.

I’m at a total loss. Is all this because she senses a new baby? Is the not feeling well genuine, is it new baby, or is it just attention? Is the not sleeping because of baby, or illness? Is it a weird growth spurt lasting months, which coincides with suddenly potty training? She’s been nibbling her fingers a bit too. Is she doing it out of teething or out of anxiousness?

I honestly have no idea. I can’t even think about it too much because I just feel useless!
I think i’m going to trial her without dairy for a week or so, to see if there’s any improvement. She had her milk allergy when she was a baby and i’m wondering if maybe shes just slightly intolerant still or something similar. Anything is worth a go I guess. If not then I’ll have to go to the doctors to see what they say!

The sick house!

I feel like I should be writing an apology post.

For the past few months I’m back and then gone and back and gone and the real reason? There’s 2. When I started Scentsy I had no idea how much work it would be! It has been to the point where I missed Evie’s first roll over because I was replying to a potential customer on my phone. Jon gets in at night and tells me to put my phone down. I’ve worked so so hard since September, harder than I ever worked in a 8.30-5.30 job and I’m trying to find that balance between Scentsy, blogging and life. I’ll get there but I definitely need you all to bear with me whilst I get into the swing of it all!

Second reason…. teething & bugs. This past month we’ve been plagued with 2 colds, 2 stomach bugs, a reaction to a teeny bit of a biscuit that had milk in (which sent us backwards again) and also teething. We’ve had reflux galore & ive been so busy nursing Jon and Evie that I’ve forgotten to even look in the mirror and wash my face some days.

 On the subject of teething though, I have a blog post on its way about what’s worked and what hasn’t for us to help ease teething pain! Along with the Organix review of porridge/ baby rice. 

And guess what?! ITS CHRISTMAS THIS WEEK! That means a whole LOAD of reviews on toys and goodies that Santa brings Evie.

I’m due a 7 month update on our little cherub too, so I’ll pop that up this week too. Here’s a pic to show you the attitude I’m dealing with….. “mummy, this is my chair. I want to lie on it and drink my milk in peace. None of this I’ll sit you on my lap stuff, just let me sit alone. And pick my bottle up when I drop it too because you know it’s too heavy for me to hold” 

6 Months old – Evie update

Wait one minute…. 6 MONTHS? Really? Like, half a year 6 months? I’m almost certain that time has fast forward like back to the future. I’m not sure i’m ready to commit to saying that my little girl is growing up to be a big girl and that she’ll be crawling, walking, talking, arguing back and all sorts within what will feel like days.

I originally made a draft blog post, decided not to post it, then posted it to my personal facebook instead. I’m not sure why on earth I didn’t write it here in the end, but I should have!

So here it is, a little look back at our journey so far. Go grab yourself a cuppa, maybe some tissues, a nice comfy blanket too. You’ll thank me after!

2 years ago today we were told that if me and Jon wanted a child we would have to have donor egg IVF treatment. What’s more, we would only have one chance one the NHS. If our one cycle failed we would have to pay upwards of £9,000 to have another go. We knew beforehand that we would need IVF, but had no idea that a donor would be needed.

On that day for the first time I hated my cancer journey. I hated what it had done to my body and that I was still seeing the aftermath of it 7 years later.

EXACTLY 2 years to the day, our beautiful little girl is 6 months old. 6 months today! Throughout my pregnancy I worried about bonding. What if I couldn’t bond because she wasn’t considered genetically mine?
Well today I am sat with my partner in crime, albeit she is grumpy with a cold and teething but she’s here, she’s safe, and she is just perfect.
I started my business recently because realistically, we won’t have enough money to afford IVF to give Evie a sibling if I stay in a 40 hour job going nowhere fast. If that is the case, I want to be able to work from home and spend as much time as I can with our only child. I don’t want to work 9-5, come home tired and exhausted and have the ‘can’t wait until bedtime’ attitude. I want to earn money for IVF, I want to stay home with our child and I want to donate money to various charities that have helped me throughout the years. I want to LIVE life.

I am so so proud and thankful of Jon for standing by me through the breakdowns from family/friends pregnancy announcements, hospital visits, monthly negative tests and more importantly for being the most amazing father who Evie will grow up admiring. He is more of a man than most men dream to be.

And thank you to my mum for always supporting me through everything even when you don’t understand something, and for taking me to our most important consultations too. If I am just half the mother to Evie that you are to me I will be ecstatic.

I can’t thank Nurture Fertility (and James Hopkisson, he’s still helping me at hospital to this day!) for giving us hope. For explaining everything in the fog of infertility, for the laughter, the cries and the sheer support they gave us all the way. I will always remember they day our little Evie embryo was transferred to me. We saw this tiny spec of cells on one screen and had an ultrasound of my womb on another and even with my legs in the air strapped into stirrups, all whilst in front of a man who had a big tube and all sorts of equipment lined up 🙈, we giggled, wowed, and almost cried! The amount of support is unbelievable, even as an NHS customer.

To anybody who sees this and is struggling like we did for so many years, remember that it is completely normal to feel disheartened with pregnancy announcements & it is normal for jealousy to feel overwhelming. It is normal to want to hide away and even to decline baby shower invites or meeting friends with children because it mentally hurts. Nothing anyone says or does will make you feel better, but NEVER give up hope. I really believe that my positivity played a massive part in our successful IVF.
Dreams CAN come true, no matter how far away they seem.

This is my dream come true. I feel like I am complete again. I feel like I am able to fully enjoy my life (although i’m also yearning for a sibling for Evie!). She is my dream come true, and I make it my sole mission to give her the best in life, to enable her to see the good in this world, and to make her realise just how special she is every day of her life. 
I love you so much my little munchkin xx

MIA

I have had a few messages on Instagram and a few emails asking if I am ok. 

IM SORRY! I know I have been MIA a little bit and there have been 2 reasons why.

1) We re-challenged Evie on ‘Normal’ formula….which ended in pain, eczema flare ups, sleepless nights, the works. That + teething has just been crazy. It took a week to settle down and if I’m honest I felt like I had no time for myself as I was always tending to Evie, poor thing! She was re-challenged 2 weeks ago and only yesterday did she improve!

2) I have started up a little business. It’s a Scentsy business. This has taken up so so much time these past 2 weeks, I’ve been working part time hours just training! You never realise how much time labels, business cards and information sheets will take to design. If anyone is in the UK and wants a nosy feel free to check out my FB page here or my website here. 

After I’ve explained my reasons….I’m back!! I’ll be doing reviews of Organix porridge, weaning updates, a review of our pushchair system from Silver Cross and all sorts in the next 2 weeks, so please stay with me!

Change of name update

For anyone who has followed me from the start, I promised that I would pop a new post up once my name is changed.

I will still do this, but just a heads up that  it’ll obviously be changing to Along Came a Baby. I have purchased the domain for this to make it a .co.uk website and just need to do all the technical bits on wordpress to make it an official web address linked with my blog. It’s a little more technical than you may think.

I’m hoping to do this within the next 2 weeks so keep your eyes peeled as you won’t be seeing a baby one day popping up on your reader anymore! 🙂

Marisha x

A Day in the Life – Weekend

I thought i’d do a little post that lists the things we get up to on a normal weekend day.
I’ll warn you beforehand…. this isn’t that interesting! I would have loved to start up vlogging but I just don’t have enough confidence to do that right now.
For any parents that wonder if it’s common to want to sit at home all weekend when you have a young baby- I can guarantee all parents have weekends where they do not want to do anything but stay in pjs and cuddle.

I have added some pretty pictures to go along with the things we do, to make it a teeny bit more interesting.

I will start off in the morning….

7.10am – Evie’s tossing & turning so I get up and make her bottle before she’s fully awake, so that she doesn’t wake Jon up. Here’s my morning set up! a cooler bag with cold boiled water, a flask of hot water, formula dispenser & her bottle.

I get this gorgeous smile when I go to change her nappy!

I attempt to write the outline of a blog post on my phone whilst i’m feeding her.

8.30am – Pop Evie down and find an outfit for her.

8.39am – I’d have taken a pic of the above but someone decided that today is a sicky day and sicked up on it within seconds of changing her. You do not want to see a pic of this!

9.00am – Evie has refused a nap. Not uncommon at all nowadays! Bring her down to have playtime in the Jumperoo. Daddy wakes up halfway through so decides to play with her.

9.33am – Jon keeps Evie entertained in her Jumperoo

                                   I hang the washing out & put another load on to wash.

9.56am – Change Evie’s top as shes sicked up all over the other one. Jon changes her this time

9.57am – Wow! We got all the boxes out of the attic last night and left them in her nursery. I can’t stand to see the mess any longer so I seal them up. Look at the mess!

10.02am – Evie is tired. YAAAYYY NAPTIME!

10.08am – Bring down the attic boxes so that we don’t wake Evie up, and seal them downstairs. Why is tape so friggin’ loud?! We may as well have done it upstairs!

10.41am – Attic boxes DONE. Make myself breakfast as Jon never eats brekky.

11am – Take boxes back upstairs and pass them up to Jon in the loft

11.40am – The creature has awoken! Time for feed. It turns out she can also hold her own bottle now! Since when did she start to become all independent?!

12.07pm – Entertain Evie pie. We actually got her bouncer out of the loft…. we bought it when she was newborn she was way too small for it. Now she’s too big! Whoops! But she likes the tiger haha.

12.20pm – Change Evie again as she’s sicked up all over her clothes. Again… you do not want to see that!

13.35pm- Jon decides to take Evie to the shop for a walk. He doesn’t get much Evie time at all as he works so much so at the weekends I try to let him have as much time as he wants to spend with her. This includes feeding/changing/bathing etc.

15.25pm – Jon wants to feed Evie. I won’t complain! Look at her face!!

15.50pm – Put peas on to steam & blend using the Tommee Tippee steam & blend. PS this thing is amazing. I’ll be reviewing soon!

16.00pm – Sit down for lunch. Yep…. ‘lunch’

16.20pm – Pop some more washing out while daddy plays with Evie

17.02pm – Jon decides to take Evie for a bath tonight – first time in a while he gets to really enjoy bathtime with her alone. Look at that chubs! I put next load of washing on. Am I just doing the washing today or what?! Evie goes for a nap after this.

17.04pm – Put steamed & pureed peas into ice cube tray

17.06pm – Noticed that Jon left a mess…. doh! Clean this up then hoover & steam clean the floor

17.50pm – Make some stilton & broccoli soup. I’ve missed this!

18.00pm – Evie wakes up from nap so daddy goes to get her

18.15pm – Make Evie her bottle ready for when she wants it.
18.20pm – Egg Evie on as she’s trying to roll onto her front. GO ON GIRLY!! The amount of determination and concentration on her face is crazy. Maybe she’ll finally do it tonight!
18.40pm – She finally managed it! Well, with a little bit of help. I then cry because she’s
crying that she did it.
18.43pm – I finish soup while Jon feeds Evie.I’d take a pic of this but I managed to blitz green soup all over the kitchen. It.went.everywhere.
19.00pm – Play with Evie on her playmat.
19.28pm – Bring the washing in. I have a pic of this but i’m not going to lie… it is literally just a pile of washed clothes.
19.30pm – Play with Evie again & change her nappy and clothes
20.10pm – Put Evie to bed. Nanight little one!
20.20pm – Make tea. It’s late so we just decided on pasta, cheese & sausages.
20.40pm – Begin writing a new blog post.
21.09pm – Serve tea and finish blog post

23.20pm – Get bottle, flask & formula ready for tomorrow morning. This is our general set up for the first morning feed as Evie sleeps through the night now, thankfully.

Evie’s 4 Month Update

Evie turned 4 months old yesterday. Where on earth has my tiny little sleepy cherub gone?!

No one ever told me that they literally grow overnight. You wake up one day & you think “but you fit into this yesterday!”. The first couple of times it happens have you confused and scratching your head as to whether the lack of sleep and new 24 hour job has just made you lose it and maybe this jacket hasn’t ever fit her. I can assure you this is not the case! They’re like Elves working at night behind the scenes. Anyway the point of that is, she’s bloomin’ 4 months old!!

She has very almost outgrown her carrycot. She sits in her seat unit good as gold but slips to the side a little so i’m getting my use out of the carrycot while I can.
She has started to grab things (much to Larry the Lion’s dispair!) , try to hold her bottle and has started to belly laugh! Her personality really is coming out and it seems like she’s as bossy and stubborn as me…. I feel so sorry for Jon!

She’s recently discovered the wide range of wailing (but not crying) noises she can do and she does her best to let the neighbours hear this too. Nothing like being proud! It’s currently all day every day.

If we stand her up she comes up to my knees. She’s going to be tall! Me and Jon were always meant to be tall but chemo stunted out growth, so she’s going to tower us!

Yesterday I put the side of her Next2me crib up. I’m not going to lie I had a little cry. I used to wake up and stroke her head, or hold her hand, or put my hand on her belly. I can’t do that now and although i’m excited for her growing up I just really do not want her to grow. I want her to be my baby forever and i’m sad that I feel it’s the end of an era. But I know she’ll always be mummy’s girl and our friendship will grow with her.

I got her weighed 3 weeks ago and she was 14lb15oz. She is definitely over 15lb5oz now…. she’s so heavy! I can’t imagine holding her as a toddler on my hips but I guess you just get used to the weight.

She is the happiest, giggliest, cutest baby girl I have ever met. Me and Jon love her so so much and although Bella doesn’t show it, we think she loves her too!

I’ll end with a few photos from this past month 🙂

 

 

 

Baby Items I Regret Buying

Every new mum I have known has spent a lot of their pregnancy buying cute little outfits, all the bits and bobs that bloggers say are their hands down life savers, and then baby arrives and they find that some of the stuff doesn’t work for them! Truth is, babies aren’t robots and won’t conform to the ‘standard’…. unfortunately for us we have to learn as we go along!

As a follow on from the newborn must haves post I wrote the other day, I thought I would also write something that details some of the items that I kind of regret spending money on.

1.   Nappy Bin
   

   I bought a nappy bin for upstairs to use when she’s taking her naps rather than bring her downstairs. Although I do actually quite like it, it takes up a bit of space in our already small room and it also only holds 18 nappies. It’s advertised as holding 28 size 3 nappies…. no chance!

2.  Changing Unit/ Dresser
   

   We got bought one of these, so although it isn’t something I regret buying, I regret not asking them to buy us something else we really needed at the same price. The bath was great for the first 3 weeks, but then Evie outgrew it as it has a big ‘seat’ bit in the middle that she kept sliding off which meant her legs were all scrunched up at the end, and she kept pulling the plug out. Cue water spewing all over our bedroom carpet…. more than once! We do use the changing unit bit and use the storage bits to put all her bathing stuff in, but the bath element seems a bit redundant now.

3.  Johnsons Baby Products / Fragranced Products
   

   We made the mistake of going a bit Johnsons mad and bought loads of the stuff, along with other fancy, nice smelling baby soap and bath bubbles. Evie developed Eczema and has quite dry skin and we found that anything really perfumed really flared it up so we had to stop using them. I have used them myself *ahem* I love the smell *ahem*. Definitely don’t buy a whole load of baby bath products, maybe get one of a few different types to try.

4. Electric Breastpump
   

   This again got bought for me, but I feel bad because I only used it for about 2 weeks before I gave up breastfeeding due to Evie’s jaundice. I wish I’d have bought a manual one to start with then invested in the electric one I wanted if we got established.

5. Blankets
   

   Oh man, the blankets! You walk into Evie’s nursery and look under her cot and I’m kidding you not, the WHOLE of the drawer underneath is choc full of blankets. It’s that bad that I have forgotten what blankets are actually under there. I discovered the other day that we actually have 2 of the exact same blanket. How on earth did that happen?! Evie absolutely hates anything on her legs, blankets especially. So until she’s older these wont really be used except when they’re forced on her and she can’t move her legs!

6. Swaddle Wrap
   

   We bought an expensive, velcro, snazzy swaddle wrap. Guess how many times she has worn it? Zero. She hated it. As a newborn she would have rather been wrapped in her cellular, and even then she’d want her arms or her legs out. This wrap was no use to us as much as I wanted it to be.

7. Neutral Coloured Toys
   

   This won’t be the same for all babies, but Evie had absolutely no interest in anything beige, brown or white. I really didn’t want garish greens, blue’s, red’s & yellows but I had to eat my words and I’m glad I did. We bought her a playmat and a sit me up from Mothercare which she has literally never used. We have a colourful gym & a bouncer that she fell in love with, same with the toys that came with it. I’ll be getting the sit me up out again now she’s nearly 4 months and can sit up well.

8. Boppy Pillow
   

   One sentence. Ain’t nobody my size gonna fit one of those round their waist.

9. First Month Outfits
   

   We bought a few outfits aged up to one month, and some even newborn. You can totally get away with dressing your baby in some really nice quality sleepsuits/vests for the first 2 months at least! We only dressed Evie in one or 2 outfits during her first month and the rest are now in storage.

10. 0-3 Month Clothes
    

    Obviously I don’t mean I regret buying them. I regret buying as many as I did! She didn’t wear all the bits I bought her as she is so long she quickly outgrew most of them before 3 months! If we ever manage to have another child, I’ll buy a few 0-3 months but also buy a lot of bigger sized clothes too, because at the moment as it stands now we have a day’s worth of 6-9 and 9-12 month clothing for her.

11. Mittens
    

    Ugh, I bought LOADS of mittens. I never used them. They were way too big for her little hands to keep on and I found that if I bought sleepsuits with the mittens on, they stayed on perfectly.

 

Is there anything you regret buying for your little one? Let me know in the comments below!