Thursday 19 March 2015

Oscars Bedroom Update

Hello, Everyone :)
As promised, this is a post about the progress I've made in his little bedroom. I say little, it is actually the biggest bedroom in the house :D I just didn't want to put him in the box room that people tend to do with nurseries. There are two reasons for this. One is that D still needs a home office and the smallest bedroom is just the right size for him. And secondly the room has weird built in wardrobes which Oscar doesn't mind but I didn't want for our bedroom :D Selfish I know. But the room is nice and airy and also very light during the day :) The room is facing the road and pavement, but the house is quite far from it and also living in a quiet cul-de-sac it doesn't really matter :D

BEFORE


AFTER



I decided to go for quite a colourful theme. I'm not a big fan of all beige and natural for children as I think it's just a bit boring :D The furniture is white stained oak and I've gone for green, orange and blue accents. I'm also thinking of bringing the rug from the living room to this room, but I'll need to find a replacement first :)

The one thing I was quite excited about to be having in the room was the bookshelf and the arm chair. So now part of our bedtime routine will be reading a story. The bookshelf is just low enough for him to reach once he gets older :) and the armchair is nice wide, deep and cozy :) It will also be used for the night time feeds, unless I decide feeding him while he stays in his cot a better option.


Another big thing for me was storage. D likes to order everything in bulk, so we have months worth of wipes and diapers in the house at all times :D Having the different boxes is just a good way of storing them without the room looking cluttered. I'm thinking of labelling the boxes as well, just to make it even easier to find things :) I keep saying I need a label maker :D maybe it's best I didn't have one :D

I have put some boxes in the drawers just to make it more tidy and easier :) The one thing I don't quite like about the room is actually the dresser area. I had planned to hang a picture of his little newborn outfit above the chest of drawers. But the frame I ordered is WAAAAY too big, and it's dark grey, which really doesn't go at all with the whole room. So my plan is to get some ornaments for the dresser and some colorful picture frames that I can scatter above the dresser :)
I also need a new lampshade, but that's the least of my worries :D



I got the wallstickers from Amazon for 12 pounds. I think they go really well alongside with the oak furniture and colorful accents :) And I was expecting them to be quite small and not sticky enough, and I was completely wrong. They are perfectly large sized :D and they are sticky but still easily peeled and repositioned. I think the stickers make such a big difference to the whole room and look :)


All in all I think I've done pretty good :)
Oscar already loves sitting in the chair and eating books...yes eating :D I read he chews on the edges :D And he loves looking at the colorful stickers :)

All the furniture you see is from Ikea apart from the cot which I got from Mothercare and it's their Stretton range :)

Hope you enjoyed a little look in Oscars new bedroom :)
Stay tuned everyone, and thank you for reading :)
xoxo

Tuesday 17 March 2015

Oscar is 7 months old

Good evening, everyone :)
This month just flew by. I don't know weather it was because Oscar was being a little sweetheart or it's because there has been a lot going on, but it seems that the month was shorter than usual :D Or maybe it's because the days are getting longer and brighter and nicer and there for I am happier and nicer and better at dealing with everything life being a mother throws at me...I mean throw it at me, I can do this shit.


All and all this month has brought us a lot in the baby field. Oscar just seems to be more of a human. He laughs and smiles and talks and squeals (This is his favourite way of communicating :D)and something we kind of always seemed to miss, but have definitely witnessed this month is him moving about.

He can now turn on his stomach, depending on which side he finds things that interest him and he can also move backwards very well. I mean very well, he has mastered the backwards crawl :D He can also kind of move forward if he is on a soft surface. It needs to be soft because his way of getting forward involves him smashing his face/head down and then pushing forward :D He also uses the half way flip over to get about. All in all he is just very good at moving... definitely can't leave him on our bed unattended for more than a few seconds. And when he is on the floor playing in the living room and I leave...9 out of 10 times I come back a minute later with him squealing of either joy or frustration under the sofa with only his head sticking out :D Just like that :D



I have kind of started on giving him 3 meals now as well. But he has been on two solid meals a day for a good 2 months. The 3rd meal that I have started is the lunchtime meal. I am just not quite sure what to give him :D So I chose this time to start finger food and little bits and bobs that he can pick up himself rather than me feeding him. I think this is probably the best time for it as he is usually happy and rested and ready for action and new things. He has tried bread and little cheese and tomato and raspberry puffs. He doesn't like anything slimy :D Like a banana or a slice of avocado, he will pick up and then put it down in disgust :D he doesn't mind the taste though. He just doesn't like the feel of them in his hands :D He also has water in a sippy cup as a drink on the side of his solid meals :)

He has every solid meal sitting in his high chair (I'll link the OXO tot one as an amazon app, if you want to check it out :))I chose this chair over the Stokke Trip Trap that I initially wanted to get as it just looks more kid friendly and just like the trip trap I can convert this to a toddler chair, which was one of the main points. I figured that if I'm going to spend this much money on a chair it should at least last us for a good few years :)


Another change I have made in his food this month was that I switched from the creamy baby porridge to weetabix with almond milk. And I have also cut down on using the Hipp Organic/Ellas Kitchen fruit puree pouches. Instead I bought massive packs of frozen blueberries and raspberries and I use them in the weetabix porridge :) This just means I know exactly what goes in his little tummy and it's also a lot more cost effective :D 
Like I said earlier, this month has been a very packed month. I decided to plan more and do more. So now I plan our meals with D and also Oscars. Most days he just has whatever we have, because I try to be quite thoughtful in what we have for our meals and make sure we are healthy. This just makes life a lot more easier and efficient. We have our dinner together sitting at the table now, which I was really looking forward to doing :) I just think it sets the right tone for the evening ahead. 
Another thing why I like that Oscar is already having what we are having is that it will probably make the transition of having food easier. It should also be good for making him like food and not becoming a fussy eater.

I got this planner from Amazon and it was only like 5.99 :) the good thing about it is that it has magnets at the back, so it's perfect for the fridge.

He still eats milk, but those feeds have definitely decreased. He will now have about 100ml max and has a milk feed around every 4-5 hours. Apart from the night feed. He still gulps down the whole 200ml :D I don't know if it's because he is actually hungry because he does last a good 5-6 hours after his last feed, or because he usually falls asleep during feedind and just does it in his sleep. But he still eats it and I still give it for him. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this, but I make his milk warm. I even do this during the night by having hot water in the thermos. And I think that one way of getting rid of the night feed in time is to stop doing this, as he really does not like cold milk :D 

And the night feed brings us to the night time :) He sleeps a lot better these days. He fusses a lot still, but because we have the camera, we can just see that he is very good at putting himself back to sleep. Something we didn't really know before getting the baby monitor, as I used to run every time he made a noise.  The camera just gives a lot of confidence in having him upstairs. He actually notices the camera as well, which is quite funny at times. And I know that I have to go up when he looks at the camera and won't close his eyes, as this is my cue, he is awake and needs attention :D
He still sleeps in the co-sleeper next to our bed. And this month I have been so good and completely stopped taking him next to me at night. I used to do this when he would fuss before his feeding time, to make him last a bit longer. Because he is just so active and won't stay put even when he is asleep, we would both be uncomfortable if I would take him. Plus he doesn't need it :) Which is great for me, as I do feel like I get a better night sleep now. I have also noticed that I have grown a bit deaf to his little cries during the night :D Which in result has given me a few tiny heart attacks when I have woken up and he has managed to flip himself over and is sleeping with his face smothered in the mattress :D Obviously not completely. He did start sleeping on his side quite early and now is going that bit further with it and sleeps on his stomach every now and then. Freaked me out the first time he did though.

Since the days do seem longer I have managed to go out for walks a lot more. And he is just so different now. He likes to sit up and look around and be a little charmer when old ladies start talking to him :D We also went on out first swim session in the swimming pool the other day, and he absolutely loved it :) He was squealing and splashing about and just loving every second of it (unless he inhaled some water...then he wasn't really happy :D)And since I have signed up to use the pools for 3 months, this will definitely be something we will continue doing and hopefully with a little help he will learn to swim sooner rather than later. D still can't swim and he is over 30 :D 
Because he needs so much more attention and stimulation I have also signed up for sensory classes, which should be interesting. I'm still in the waiting list though, which is slightly annoying. Mostly because they have these classes in different locations, but my unability to drive means I could really only go to the one that is closest to our house. I could take a taxi or the bus and venture a bit out, but I'm still a bit vary of that option. I'll let you know what I'll decide :)



Size wise I am not quite sure how much he weighs or how tall he is, I will get that checked at the baby clinic on Wednesday. I think he is around 9 kg. He is now wearing 9-12 month clothes. He still fits in a few 6-9 month ones, but they are becoming slightly too short for him now.

I'll shortly go over his daily routine and then that will be it I think :) Tomorrow I will continue with the baby theme and do his nursery update as another patch of furniture has arrived :)

06.30AM - wakes up (this time doesn't change. Either we put him down at 7pm or 9 pm, we tried :D)
08.30AM - First milk feed of the day and then he goes down for a nap (So do I, I can't do 6am morning :D)
10.00AM - We wake up and then have breakfast. 
12.00PM - Milk Feed and short nap
14.00PM - lunch time. Fingerfood and sppy cup
16.00PM - milk feed and somewhere here, he has a longer nap.
18.00PM - dinner time. We all have dinner at a table :)
19.00PM - Bath time and little play before bed
19.30PM - bed time and last milk feed in bed

Hope you enjoyed the post. I tried to write down everything that I can remember for the reason that I will then have somewhere to refer back to when I need to :) Hopefully it was also a bit useful. If you have any questions then don't hesitate to ask :) I'm no expert, but will give advice based on my experiences.
Also I will be travelling with him for the first time in a few months. So I have a question for all you formula feeding mummys. How do you do it the airport and plane, with all the liquid restrictions??

Stay tuned everyone :)
xoxo

Friday 13 March 2015

Purple Make Up

Good Evening, Everyone :)
This post was meant to be accompanied by a video as well. But I just can't get myself to edit photos AND videos just right now :D So it will just be a little make up look for you guys in purple tones :)
I am definitely thinking of starting doing videos now though, as I just think it is the right time to add a different dimension to the blog :) It will also be one year of me starting the blog very very soon, so I just think why not challenge myself a little bit. If you have any suggestions on what program to use for the editing let me know :)


 The finished look

I used Bourjois 123 CC cream, Maybelline liquid nude foundation and Collection Lasting finish concealer for the base.
MUA blush and B. Contour kit and Rimmel Matte powder as setting and contouring.
On the eyes I have Maybelline Color Tattoo in On and On Bronze. Topped with L'oreal nude cream shadow to set and shading and crease are burgundy tones from my Urban Decay Vice 3 palette.
Eye liner is L'oreal and mascara is Telescopic by the same brand.
On the lips I have Revlon Lip Stain and L'oreal lip liner :)
I used my old and trusted Collection brow kit in medium :)





Hope you enjoyed this little post :)
And the dead plant at the background. I also hope you love my outfit :D The pink dressing gown surely suits the purple fancy pancy make up look :D
Stay tuned, you guys :)
xoxo

Wednesday 11 March 2015

My New Short Hair

Good Evening, Everyone :) I recently made a big change in the way I look by chopping off more than half of my hair length :) I'm one of those people, who actually hates going to the hairdressers. And that is also a reason why I haven't been in about 3 years :D One of the reasons I hate going there is that you are stuck looking at your own darn face for hours, and I really don't like to stare myself in the mirror constantly :D Another reason why I haven't been for so long is that I always come out of there feeling unhappy with my new do/color and it takes me weeks to get use to it. But this time I left feeling happy with my new shorter hair and actually excited to go back very soon :)
I went to Suyo hair on the Harborne high street in Birmingham, and the lovely consultant James gave this amazing new hair do :) Definitely will be going back to him or at least to that salon. I was made feeling very nice and pampered and I even had a coffee :D ... even though it was 8pm ...

Hope you like it :) I certainly do :)




And as always
Stay tuned xoxo

Thursday 5 March 2015

Style Post

Hello, Everyone :)
This post has been a long time coming :D And I'm sorry about it, and that is all I'm going to say. I didn't do daily outfit posts for a really long time for the reason. I didn't want to put another mirror selfie picture up here. But I now have a camera that I can set up with a timer and voila ?? or not. Have you guys tried to take a photo of yourself with a camera and a timer and all that jazz? I felt like a right dick :D so please be kind...the photos are my first. I'm sure they will get better :D So enjoy ?! Also you can spot my new shorter shorter hair do :)





About the outfit. It is definitely a very laid back, casual outfit, but not like a ''let's go to the grocery store around the corner'' but more like ''lets head to town for a bit of shopping''
The sage green jean trousers are from asos. They are slightly high waisted and made out of super soft fabric :)
I also got the bag from Asos, but it's actually New Look.
The sweater and shoes are from Missguided. And the belt is an old buy from H&M. It's a bit worn and old, but my new gold and tan belt needs another hole as it's too big for this waist height.

Hope you enjoyed the post and are not too weirded out about how I look on the pictures :D haha
Stay tuned :)
xoxo

Monday 2 March 2015

Oscar is 6 Months Old

Hello, Everyone :)
I am seriously late with this update post, but I just can't find time. I haven't even been writing this for long, as in a little every day. I just have been so scared to even start it, because I know it's going to be long and time consuming :D 
The 6 month mark has always been like this magical spot in the baby time line, that seems to be very very important. This is when your baby starts solids and starts sleeping through the night. They start sitting up and do their first move towards crawling and they will also start getting teeth...oh wait...that is not the case :D EVERY BABY, and I mean, every baby, is completely different, and I don't think some magical monthly milestone mark is going to happen at the same time for everyone :D
I will go through Oscars routine again in this post and tell you all about his development :)

This is him at his 6 month birthday night. We try to take a same kind of photo every month :)

EAT
We got the OXO Tot High Chair

He is now on two solid meals a day :) And he really does enjoy all kinds of foods. In the morning now, he wakes up and about half an hour later has his milk feed. These have gone down in measure as the solid food intake has increased. He still has about 120ml of milk every feed though. And then after that I give him some creamy porridge with either a fruit puree or some yogurt.
The next time I give him solid is around 6PM. Because these feeds are quite messy, we tend to do them before clothes changes. So after dinner he has his bath and we put his pj's on him. In the morning I change his clothes after the porridge. 
He has had so many tastes, that it would be silly to try and start counting and listing them :D I will say that I make his dinners myself. I boil or steam some vegetables and puree them up with some cooking water. Sometimes I also puree meat with the vegetables or some fruit. I think the best taste that has gone down with him is mango and beef. He really likes mashed up bolognese sauce with minced meat or meatballs, whichever we have made for ourselves :D
He also quite likes banana, which I think is because it's sweet. 
And we have also tried the pouches from Ella's Kitchen and Hipp Organic. Most times the yogurt or breakfast puree for the porridge comes from the pouch. Unless I have some blueberries, then I mash those up in there.
For some reason everyone keeps telling me that once they start eating more, they will sleep more. And no offence to those people, that might have been the case with their children, but Oscar didn't get that memo.
Considering that he has his last solid food around 6pm and then after that doesn't have anything until around 11pm. Sometimes I manage to sort out the feeds so that I give him his milk after the solids just before bed. This means he won't get up until after midnight. But it's not about volume of the food rather than the timing. He still feeds twice a night, and has more milk during those feeds than during the day. So I think he still needs that nutrition. 

SLEEP

This is something that has really baffled me. I had no idea that there are babies who start sleeping through the night a 3 months and some who still wake up once or twice during the night when they are 1.5 years old :D or even older. And they are all normal. Actually if you look at some statistics then most babies still wake up during the night until they are around 1 year old. And it's nothing to do with how good you are at setting their sleep routine, or how comfortable their bed is. I have heard though that sleep training, in a sense that you let your baby cry himself to sleep, would work, but there are so many controversial studies about this one, that I won't be testing it out on my baby :) I'm not going to judge anyone who does try it out, and lets their baby cry it out, I'm just saying I don't have the heart to do it. And I'm also saying that I might change my mind at one point :D But for now it's pretty managable.
He goes to sleep at 7-7.30 PM and then wakes up just before I go down at 11-12. And then again around 3-4...a couple of time he has missed out on the 11pm feed and gone right through to the night. In those cases he wakes up around 2-3 am. In the morning it is pretty much the same time, every time. He wakes up around 7-7.30 am.
Naps have gone a lot shorter during the day. But he does still have one long 2 hour stretch of sleep around noon time. And I have noticed that he did last around 3 hours being awake, but now that has stopped and gone back to 2 hours...I'll explain that later.
I have to mention that we now have a crib in his room, where he has an occasional nap, but still sleeps in his co-sleeper. I am just waiting for an armchair to arrive, because other wise we would have nowhere to feed him when we move him to sleep in his own room for the night. I'm a bit scared of how it's going to go down :S

PLAY

This has been the biggest difference. From last month to this month he is just gotten so much more playful. He enjoys when I read to him, and likes to turn the pages or play with the puppets. And when I sing he will kindly babble alongside with me :) He is definitely a lot more aware of everything. He now watches cartoons, which ok, I feel a bit bad about, but he gets so smiley and talkative that I just can't deny him them...or me the free time :D 
Another thing he has learned to do with his toys is NOISE :D He loves to bang all his toys either on the floor or on his chair table or on our table or on the side of the bath. Just everywhere...for some reason the banging noise is interesting for him :D 
He is also much more observant of the toys. He will hold them up and look at them. And he will figure out what they do, like rattle or roll or... stuff like that. It's so amazing to watch him discover the world around him. He still discovers everything by putting it in his mouth though, and is obsessed with phones and remote controls :D

MILESTONE

  • For like a week, Oscar was teething so badly. He would drool through his dribble bibs like they were going out of fashion, and was in such a bad mood...it was so hard, because there wasn't much we could do about it. We tried the teething gel, but that only seemed to help for a minute or so :D SO all we had to do was wait it out...and...now...there are no teeth :DNone of his teeth have shown up yet, which just makes me think that more of these weeks are ahead of us very soon :D
  • He is now definitely able to sit by himself for a very short time until he launches forward to grab something that has drawn his attention and then ends up on his belly :D But he definitely is sitting. He is not able to sit up by himself, as in get into a seating position from lying down. But is able to hold himself in the position when we put him to sit. I say a short amount of time, I mean a few seconds, 10 sec max, unless there is some kind of support around him.
  • He is not sleeping through the night like I already mentioned.
  • He is very good at flipping himself on to his stomach now. He will flip over the other way as well, but enjoys being on his stomach a lot more, as now he is able to move around. It's still early days as in he isn't getting forward rather than either backwards or just circle around on his tummy, but he is mighty good at it. Sometimes I leave him in the middle of the mat on his back and when I come back 2 minutes later he has rolled over/twisted and turned himself into a completely different place. I definitely have to keep my eye on his when he is on our bed.
  • I stopped changing him on the dresser a long time ago because he is so active and will just wiggle away
I have forgotten what I wanted to say now that I have started writing this post. But I do know that I wanted to mention the poop :D Literally the poop. I though that once we start solids ( we started very slowly after his 4 month mark)he will be struggling with digesting, but he has been surprisingly amazing in that department :D 

And on that lovely note :D 
Hope you enjoyed the post.
If you have any questions or advice or anything you think I should know about the upcoming months, let me know down below in the comment box :)
Stay tuned :) 
Tomorrow will be an outfit post, as I haven't done one in AAAAAGES :D
xoxo