October Favorites

Good Evening, Everyone
Is it really the first of November :O???? I don't know why, but time has gone so fast. It honestly feels like it was summer yesterday. Maybe it's because the weather has actually been really lovely lately...there has been rain obviously, it's still England...but it's stayed quite warm. I'm pretty sure it was 20 degrees in the sun yesterday :)
It's sunny, but the leaves are getting orange and the grass is turning brown, so I know it's Autumn...I do like it though. I love that transition period between winter and summer.
The post won't be about weather though, as english as it is to talk about weather, I'll talk about my October favorites today :)

The first thing that I actually heard yesterday, is just so me, and it is a word :D And the word is ''shopping bulimia'' (it's two words :D I know) My friend told me this yesterday and I just love it. I don't know how many of us are affected by the shopping bulimia, but I definitely am :D It's basically going to a shop, picking up a lot of stuff, and then putting it all back. I always pick up a bunch of things and by the time I'm ready to leave, all of the things have found their way back to the rails, for who knows what reason. I do the same thing with online shopping...I find so many things, add them to the basket, and then close the site :D Does anyone else do that ? Would be good to know ...

Second thing is this Nursing tea. If you've been following my blog for a while now, you'll know that I've stopped breastfeeding and then started again and tried every single trick out there to find a way that will suit best for our family. And I think in process of that I kind of stopped producing enough milk to feed Oscar. So I decided I will try this tea, it has been voted the best breastfeeding support product three years in a row by all the voting mothers out there, so I figured it can't do any harm. It's all natural and contains fenugreek, which is meant to help with milk supply (on a side note though, there is no scientific evidence to prove it). I must say I think it really works though. I wanted to test it so I did start pumping again and I've gone from getting 30ml to 50ml with the morning pumping in a week, which might be because of the tea, placebo effect, or the fact that I'm double stimulating (breastfeeding and pumping). Whatever it is I'm going to continue drinking this tea, because if it is the tea that is helping me produce more milk then I why stop :) It doesn't taste all that great and it smells of aniseed(because it contains aniseed :D), which always makes me think of sambuca :S (I hate sambuca) but it's not revolting either :D And I ordered it from Amazon, but I'm sure you can find it from a health shop like holland&barrot or even boots maybe. It is quite expensive for a tea if you take it like that (about 5 pounds), but if you think of it as vitamins/medicine then it doesn't seem that bad :D

This next thing is something I actually waited to arrive in the UK shops. I had seen it on the Sephora website and just couldn't get it out of my mind. SO when I finally realized they are selling it on the last day of October I couldn't have been happier. Went and got it the next day :D
And it is the Urban Decay Vice3 palette. I just think the colours are just so beautiful. And with 20 to choose from I think it's definitely worth the 42 pounds :) On a side note I have never really gotten the whole Naked palette craze, the colours just haven't really exited me, but the Vice palette colours are just BEAUTIFUL :) they all have really cool names as well :D

I think I mentioned in one of the previous posts on how I love Christmas, because of the gift sets all the drug stores do. And I FINALLY got my permanent Boots card the other day, which kind of meant I was actually able to try the gift sets pretty much for free ( I have been collecting points on the paper one for about a year, so I had quite a few) It helped that they were 3 for 2. And I must say I love all of them. I got one skincare, one hair and one body set. So if you're thinking of what to get for your girlfriends, I highly recommend these. Maybe not the Simple one for face actually, because I think it might be too plain for Christmas :D I do like the brand though.
I won't go too much into detail about the products, I'll do a separate post instead because I got a few more things. So I guess the October Favorite is actually just the Christmas Gift Set part :) Go crazy guys, it's only Christmas once a year :D I'm actually not even a big fan of christmas presents, so why not treat yourself instead. Christmas for me is really now about good food and good company for example, last year I had all my greatest friends around for a nice party with lots of food and drinks (I drank non-alcoholic wine without anyone knowing, because we hadn't announced I'm pregnant yet :D)

And the last favourite of the month is red wine. It's something I've enjoyed for a very long time, and I enjoy the fact now that I can have a glass at night without any guilt :)
It might sound like I'm saying I like alcohol, and I really do :D It's my one vice...everyone needs one...right? And now that halloween is over the shops will be filled with Christmas products, which means there will be mulled wine :)

Hope you enjoyed the post.
There wasn't any fashion finds, as I'm trying to just get by with what I already have in my closet for now. I haven't worn most of my clothes for so long anyway because of the pregnancy, so most of them are just like new again :D (I did get a new hat though, because it's going to get cold at one point I'm sure)
Why don't you try the same for a month and you might be surprised on how deep your closet actually goes :)

That's all for todays post :)
Stay tuned, Everyone
xoxo

The Rainy Day

Good Evening, Everyone. This is a post about what I wore on Wednesday. I had to go on a little shopping trip, so I decided to take this lovely dress out for the first time since getting pregnant :)
I'm really liking the moss/khaki green this autumn :)

Dress - h&m (bought last year autumn)

Tights - Primark

Boots - River Island

Cardigan - h&m

Since I now always go out with Oscar I don't get to wear my bags anymore :D I don't have a diaper bag, but I do have my New Look slouchy black leather bag on the pushchair handle, so this is where I keep all my things. I don't even know what it feels like wearing a bag anymore :D

Hope you enjoyed the post :) I must start getting ready now, as O is asleep (FINALLY) and we are going to go watch Jon Richardson tonight. So it's kind of like date night, except we are only going to the show and then coming straight home (my friend is babysitting :)). There shall be no dinner before and no drinks after :D I guess that's what it's like having a baby though, you make sacrifices...it's still good to get out every now and then without O and play grown-ups :)

Stay tuned, everyone :)
xoxo

2 Month Update

I know I'm 5 days late with this post, but since my sister was here at his actual 2 month birthday I didn't want to waste any time on the blog because we only had 4 days :)

I say waste time...I don't mean it in a bad way, but it is quite time consuming.

Usually I try to write when Oscar is asleep so I won't miss out spending time with him because he is so alert these days I feel bad about leaving him to entertain himself...which he actually quite enjoys sometimes :D

This is the big boy on his 2 month birthday. We are celebrating with cake, and the only presents are the books I'll be buying every month :) I must admit I bought 4 this month rather than just one, but I just couldn't choose :D

Anyway I'll go through all of it in detail now. Hopefully I won't leave anything important out :)

SLEEP

I have been trying to give him a bedtime routine since month 1 and I really think he likes having this routine, knowing what comes next. For us it starts with him waking from his last nap at around 6, I then feed him and have a little play, he does get tired after and hour and a half or so, so I usually let him have a nice 30 minute nap around 7.30. The hard part is not to get carried away with having the grown-up time and actually waking him up after half an hour. 

That is the key for us, as if I let him sleep longer he won't go down in time and doesn't sleep as long when he does. 

After the nap I wake him up by changing his diaper and then it's bath time. We give him a bath every night now. I tried not giving him a bath yesterday just to make it a bit easier, but I just felt so bad, and ended up doing the bath anyway :D He just gets so excited once I start taking his day clothes off that I couldn't not give him a bath :D It's a nice thing though, because he still really enjoys them.

After the bath I give him a little massage and we have a little play and sing along on the changing table :D This is just to get him ready for food. Around 9PM I do his last feed of the day. I give the bottle at this feed, because I like to know how much he is getting.

He usually falls asleep while eating and then doesn't wake up until 2-3 AM :)

This is the longest stretch of sleep we get during the night, but it's not too bad, because once I change and feed him at night, he goes to sleep so quickly again (max 30 minutes) and then sleeps another 3 hours or so. 

I use to get up at 6 AM and then feed and change him in the living room, because it takes him longer to settle after having a good 8 hours of sleep during the night, but now I just stay in bed and get up around 8/9 AM instead :)

And during the day he does have a few naps, but they are not very long, apart from around 12pm when he goes down for as long as 2 hours :)

He always sleeps through our walks as well, so I try to do them at this time. 

Another thing sleep related is his bed. He still sleeps in the co-sleeper at night, and has his long nap in the stroller, but these small naps during the day he has on the couch (nice and safely, I hardly ever leave the room) on the pregnancy pillow, and I have noticed he is much more calmer when it's softer, so I have just been delivered a Clevemama foam baby pillow, so I will be testing it out tonight to see if he sleeps any better with that. 

He is just so wriggly I find him sideways in his bed about 7 times a night :D

FOOD

He still feeds every 3 hours. I still do combined feeding, so I breastfeed him and then top him up with formula/infant milk about 30 minutes later apart from the 9pm feed, when I solely use a bottle to monitor how much he is getting :)

We are still using Hipp Organic Combiotic First infant milk packets, but now are also using the powder version. 

I thought it will be really annoying to boil the water and then get it to the right temperature, but it's actually been quite easy. I boil the water and poor some in a another bottle for the next feed, and do that every time. The reason we decided for the formula powder is just the cost. The packets are not too expensive at 74p each for 200ml but the massive box of formula is only 8 pounds :)

The one thing I did expect to be happening with Oscar was reflux and lots of spitting up, but we have managed to get a baby who is pretty good at holding down his food :D

I'm not saying it has never happened and never will, but the amount is so small I hardly notice it when it does happen.

The amount of milk really varies I think, I think 2 month olds need to eat 150ml at every feed 5 times a day, but Oscar eats around 120ml each feed every 3 hours (7 times a day). I'm really not worried about that though, because it seems normal :) Eating 5 times a day would mean he feeds every 4-5 hours and that's just not going to happen, as he only lasts longer than 3 hours after the 9pm feed, when he goes down for 5-6 hours :)

I'm also quite looking forward to starting him on the solids. We will start around 4/5 month mark rather than the 6 month mark I hear from everywhere. It's just that we've read that starting earlier will help with his development and he is less likely to get allergies and be fussy about food :) I'm not saying everyone has to do the same...it's about finding what suits your family I guess.

DEVELOPMENT

At his 6 week doctors appointment, he weighed at a hefty 4.56kg and was 55cm long :) I would say that now he is nearer to 5 kilograms and is about 60 cm long :S I'm taking this from how his clothes fit him rather than actual measurements, so I can't be too sure. He is a big boy though :D :)

The main thing that is different from last month is that he is now able to hold up his head. He also pulls himself to sit if we hold his hands, and he loves sitting like that for ages. He just feels so happy and alert. Another thing I'm actually really happy about is that he is quite into listening everything we are saying, so I've been reading him some fun books every now and then. I realise that he can't understand any of it just yet, but hearing different words and colourful pictures help with his development, and it's something we can do while cuddling :) 

Another thing I have noticed is, that he is getting more and more hair, which I'm really happy about :D He did have really dry skin on his scalp for a long time, so the hair took time to come out, but it looks like he's going to have a full set of hair very very soon.

And I think this is it...at least it's all I can think of at the moment :)

Hope you enjoyed the post and if you have any questions why not leave a comment below, and I will be sure to answer as best as I can.

Stay tuned, Everyone 

xoxo