Christmas can be a wonderful time and Christmas with a baby or children even more so…. hang on…  Christmas with kids is a STRESSFUL time!! ARRRGH! So I was really glad to read the Pampers Village Parenting Panel experts ultimate tips for an enjoyable festive season with baby:

Baby Development advice from Dr Maggie Redshaw:

• The first Christmas stocking is really exciting – bubbles to blow, finger puppets and small picture books are great for babies and parents. Interacting through play helps to facilitate conversation through facial expression, sounds and movement.
• Babies really enjoy wrapping paper and boxes at Christmas, and play with them as they would expensive toys so there is no need to spend a lot, but just take care about items that might not be so good to put in the mouth. A box can be a boat, car or den so use your imagination to bring games to life – this will help baby develop through social and make-believe play.
• Christmas is usually a time for lots of indoor play, but make the most of it when it’s bright and crisp to get out to the park to try a kick around with a ball or play in the leaves/snow – this will help baby to develop physically while having fun. 

Sleep advice from Wendy Dean:

• Christmas can be a disruptive time when you are trying to establish or stick to a baby sleep routine. Here are some tips to ensure that your baby will be asleep when Father Christmas arrives:
• Try and keep your bedtime routine consistent whether you are at home or at a relative’s house. Your baby will then be prepared for sleep, despite the excitement going on around them.
• If you do take your baby out in the evening to enjoy a Christmas festivity, do the bedtime routine at home, put them in pyjamas under their coat, feed at the normal times whilst you are out and then when you get home, your baby will be ready to be put directly to bed.
• Do a wind down routine in a quiet room before daytime naps so that your baby takes a break from the excitement and throngs of people to prepare for sleep.

Skin health advice from Dr David Atherton:

• Winter is tough on everyone’s skin, but especially in the case of babies with naturally sensitive or dry skin. Consider the following:
• You can use a humidifier in baby’s bedroom – if you can, make sure it incorporates a hygrometer to shut it down when the humidity is optimal to prevent dampness.
• Apply a protective moisturiser to baby’s face and hands before leaving the house, and re-apply on your return (this one can apply to mum too!)
• Cover the skin when outside. Use gloves, a scarf and a hat to help keep baby’s skin protected and warm.
• Make sure your home isn’t too hot and dry, especially in baby’s bedroom. Turn down the boiler setting, make sure it is off at night and, if you can, get some house plants to help increase the humidity.

Health and fitness advice from Laura Williams:

• Try and resist the temptation to buy too many Christmas treats in the run up to the big day. Reduced price tins of chocolates, packets of mince pies and tubs of peanuts will be calling you after a long hard day and if you’re cold and tired, willpower alone might not do it. Put off stockpiling them for as long as you can, or stash treats in the car or even in the garden shed – this will make them trickier to access when cravings come calling.
• Have some sort of Christmas fitness plan. Pledge to just 15 minutes a day over the holidays to get your heartbeat raised. You don’t even need to lace up your trainers – a game of Hide & Seek could burn quite a few calories in a relatively short space of time with your toddler, while a long(ish) post-lunch walk (45-60 mins) with the family will burn off a small helping of Christmas pud.
• Try and curb your big eating days to just two or three over the Christmas period. For example, give yourself a green light to eat what you like on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve and for the other days, try and practise moderation, e.g. say no to a mince pie and have a satsuma instead or swap a handful of peanuts for a handful of olives.

Pregnancy advice from Midwife, Mary Steen-Greaves:

• Take a relaxing bath with some lavender drops added to help you de-stress and a warm milky drink to help you have a good night’s sleep.
• Try not to over eat, especially late at night. Eat small meals frequently to help your digestion and keep spicy and fatty foods to a minimum.
• You will still need to wrap up to keep warm when outdoors even though you will feel warmer than usual due to your increased blood. Wear comfortable, sensible footwear to help you maintain a good posture and reduce the risk of slipping in the cold (possibly icy) weather.

Relationship advice from Denise Knowles:

• Involve toddlers in making presents and wrapping them. Taking time to make cards and gifts together helps build the bond between parents and child…it is fun too!
• Delegate as much as possible and ask family to provide elements of the festivities; they’ll feel part of your family and useful – and you won’t feel so stressed. Share the ‘chores’ too. And if you are pregnant, don’t feel guilty about relaxing and putting your feet up; you need to be a little self-indulgent.
• Discuss and stick to a budget for all of the Christmas festivities, presents, food and outings to avoid any disagreements in January when the bills start rolling in.
• Make some time just for you, it’s not selfish to take some time out and sit with a cuppa.

There you have it! OK, so we might have to be supermum to do all of that, but we can try, and they are sensible commonsense tips.

Thankyou and Happy Christmas

Baby’s bath time can be a wonderful fun time as well as one of the daily chores you need to do when you have a new baby.

As you baby gets a bit bigger there are many games you can play at bath time

Share a bath
Listen to music, sing a relaxing song or put in some bath toys and play. It’s a great bonding experience. For safety reasons, be sure not to fill the bath too high or too hot, and always have a firm hold on your baby.

Take care when getting in and out of the bath. Getting your partner to hand her to you, and take her from you is a good idea.

Swim in the bath
Being very careful to keep her mouth and chin out of the water. Hold your baby on her tummy and swish her gently up and down the bath, as if she is swimming.

Go to the swimming pool.

Most pools seems to advise to wait until your baby is 12 weeks old before taking them swimming, and take care if a noisy swimming pool scares her. Many babies just love the water, and can’t get enough ’swimming’.

Always check with your local pool or GP if you are unsure about taking your baby swimming.

Bath toys
Children love bath toys, and this includes babies. Some babies are a little wary of bath time, others love it. A few plastic ducks bobbing around in the water will encourage her to reach out to them. And of course they go ‘quack quack quack!’

Make ice cream hair.

When in the bath, use the suds from your baby’s shampoo to transform her hair into wild shapes. Have a plastic mirror handy so she can see your efforts.

Always make sure you baby is secure and cannot slip when in the bath.

Patting water

Show your baby how to pat her hands on the surface of the water in her bath to make a nice splashy sound. At first she will probably make a fist and it won’t work, but as she gets older she’ll get the hang of it. You’ll probably get just as wet as her!

Remember – while water can be fun, your baby needs to be safe at all times.

Water can be very dangerous.

Always check the temperature of water, make sure you have a secure hold of your baby, and make sure their face NEVER slides beneath the water.

As babies get older and more mobile they become more demanding for attention and stimulation. Sometimes you need a hand thinking of new things to do, so here are some fun (and noisy) things for you and your baby to do together…

Sing Sing Sing

If you don’t know the words to nursery rhymes, don’t worry. When your baby is young, it is the sound of your voice they love not whether you got the words right. TV theme tunes, adverts, pop songs – anything will do.

Play peek-a-boo with her toys.
Watch her laugh when her favourite teddy cries “Boo” from behind the sofa, or from over the crib.

Be silly.
Pull faces, blow raspberries, stick out your tongue. She will soon start to imitate you.

Giddy-up.
Sit your baby on your knee and sing out “giddy-up” while moving your knee up and down.

Play peek a boo.
Hide your face with your hands or her teddy bear and poke out from behind them, saying “boo!” in a bright, friendly voice.
Use different phrases: “peek a boo”, “boo”, “I see”, “Where’s (baby’s name)”, are just a few

Tummy time.
Get down on the floor with your baby. As your baby gets older she will laugh at you crawling and rolling about like a baby. By being on the floor with her, you can see what she sees, watch what she watches do what she does.
You see the world from her perspective.

Little drummer
When your baby can sit up, place a few pots and pans on the floor and give her a wooden spoon to bash them with. You’ll probably get tired of this before she does!

Round and round
A favourite game – even with quite young babies.
Sit her on you lap and hold her close, while tracing a circle round her hand, say,
“Round and round the garden like a teddy bear.”
Then walk your fingers up her arm, saying,
“One step, two steps, and tickly under there.”
End up by tickling her under the arm. As she gets older she’ll start doing the game back to you, or to teddy.

Blanket rides.
Place her on the middle of a blanket and pull her around the room. Watch your baby laugh! (Take care though!)

Get messy
Fun for both of you. Play with water, cooked and cooled spaghetti, jelly – use your imagination. But make sure the “mess” is safe for your baby’s age.

Playing with food
When she is older you will probably tell her not to play with her food, but playing with your food when you are a baby is all part of learning. See how many biscuits you can stack up before they fall. Try making necklaces from spaghetti or cereal and string. (The loopy kind)

Play with bubbles
Bubbles intrigue babies and watching the look of surprise on their face as bubbles burst is fantastic. You can buy child safe bubble mixture with wands in toy shops. (Check the label.)
Playing with bubbles is a good indoor or outdoor activity. Older children love joining in and your little one will be fascinated.

Change the words to her favourite nursery rhymes
Add her name in appropriate places, change different animals, and so on. “Young Kimberley had a farm.” instead of ‘Old MacDonald’, or “Katie put the kettle on” instead of ‘Polly’.
Old MacDonald had a farm – but he can have as many animals as you can do the noises for!

Babies need to have fun, no matter how old they are. If they are having fun – you will too. It doesn’t matter how tired you are – when you get that first smile, first giggle, nothing beats it!

Keeping your baby entertained in the first few days and weeks can be easy – they spend most of their time asleep anyway (if you are lucky!). As they get older and more mobile – they become more demanding for attention and stimulation. When they are young, a smile, the sound of your voice, a cuddle, might be all they need.

Sometimes you need a hand thinking of new things to do…
Here are some idea for creative activities for you and your baby.

Get creative

Make a foot or handprint of your baby.
A great souvenir to remind you of your baby’s hand or foot size at 3 months, 6 months or 12 months.

Buy a handy clay-kit, or make safe paint (mix flour and water to the right consistency, add a little food colouring). Paint their hand or foot, (or press it into the clay to make an imprint), then press their hand or foot onto paper

Make a mobile.
It doesn’t have to be complicated – just safe. Hang it above her cot – out of her reach. When a baby is very young they see black and white shapes best, and then as their eyes begin to focus better, brightly coloured shapes are good.

Make a video for friends and family.
If you have (or can borrow) a video camera, make a video or your baby.
Laughing, gurgling, feeding – anything!
A treasure you will enjoy well into their adult years, as well as your friends and family. You can upload the video to sites on the internet, or make a DVD.

Make a memory blanket.
Use her old clothes to make a memory blanket. You can use motifs from tops, or pieces in different colours and textures. If you are not up to all that sewing – remember you can still be green…
Recycle – Donate. Women’s shelters and other charities all are glad to take baby clothes off your hands. Clothes that are not fit for selling are usually sold to textile recycling firms that recycle the clothes into rags for commercial use.

Make a weight/height chart.
Growth charts can make it easy for you to follow her growth, as well as being fun for your baby as she gets older.

Any other creative ideas that you and your baby have tried – let us know.

With the latest research released by Pampers Active Fit revealing “that parents spend on average 40 minutes each week looking for household items moved by their babies as part of play time.” I wondered if this is actually a very conservative figure.

I know I seemed to spend an age looking for stuff. I’m not sure if it was a case of Mumnesia (any new mum will confirm this is a genuine affliction! ) my offspring trying to be helpful and tidying things away, or simply he knew how to wind me up.

Pampers have worked out that parents are “spending on average a staggering 2080 minutes [or 34 hours] over the course of a year looking for toys and household items their baby has lost.”

I wondered how this time could be better spent…

• Watching 20 movies – non stop!
• Having sex with your partner (2080 times)
• Catching up on much needed sleep

I found that as time went on, I spent more time looking for things. As my baby grew into a toddler, things seemed to migrate that bit further. The things that disappeared changed too, from dummies and toys, to the car keys, my mobile phone, money, food from the fridge, and yes even his bike!

According to the Pampers research

“The most common places toddlers hide items, which are then found by parents, are down or under the back of the sofa (40%), in the baby’s toy chest (14%), under the table (10%), in the pram (9%) and behind the TV (8%).

The strangest places parents have found missing household items or small toys include the washing machine or tumble dryer (one in five), the fridge (one in six) and stuck down the toilet (one in ten).

The most common items to be found down the back of the sofa are toys (nearly two thirds of those surveyed), unwanted snacks (six in ten) and dummies (just over a half of all respondents).”

It all sounds so frighteningly familiar!

I was wondering if I can have back all the time spent on looking for things, probably not.

What’s the strangest thing your baby has hidden/lost and where did you find it?

Now that is a strange title for any post!

It starts off a bit like a horror movie, but it’s not really that complicated.

Let me start at the beginning…

A friend is pregnant, which is wonderful. However, she has a degenerative illness, which didn’t worry her TOO MUCH, until she got pregnant. Though she won’t pass her illness directly onto her baby, there is a risk.

Being a whizz at internet research I said I would help her on her quest for information. I looked up all the information I could, I weighed up the risks, I looked at every avenue of her helping her future off-spring. I knew nothing about storing newborn baby’s stem cells (or cord blood). It was so interesting I thought I would share it with you…

Stem cell storage and the treatments using them get both good and bad press. Cases hit the headlines and politicians debate the ethics, but many people (certainly me) did not know that Stem Cells have been used to treat illnesses like leukaemia for decades. Stem cells are the basis of bone-marrow transplants – now that’s a phrase I am much more familiar with!

In some countries stem cell storage is commonplace, in others it is much more difficult to convince the powers-that-be to store cord blood at birth and therefore store stem cells for the future.

The problem seems to be that only a few illnesses can be treated with stem cells, so stem cell DONATION appears to be more of an option in some countries. Once a mother has donated cord blood after birth, the stem cells can be used to treat children with some forms of cancer and leukemia.

OK, so what are stem cells and what is this ‘cord blood’?

‘Cord blood’ is ‘Umbilical cord blood’. It is the blood that is left in the placenta and in the umbilical cord after childbirth. (While the umbilical cord is still attached) This blood is jam packed with stem cells. In the right conditions these stem cells can transform into other cells and be used to treat some conditions.

The issue seems to be that while uses are limited now, they could be huge in the future (due to continuous research), but for what and how we just don’t know. The question is – Is it therefore sensible to store cord blood as a precaution that it will be useful in the future? Once it’s gone, it’s gone, you can never go back and get it.

Research has shown good results in the using stem cells to treat some medical conditions:

• ischemic heart disease,
• cancer,
• spinal cord lesions,
• bone fractures,
• burns,
• strokes,
• multiple sclerosis,
• Alzheimer’s disease,
• Parkinson’s disease,
• Huntington’s disease
• Diabetes.

…and the research continues
Other research is looking into using stem cells for:

• regenerating organs,
• repairing damaged muscle tissue
• repairing damaged tendons
• creating skin grafts for burns

Stem cells can be used to replace damaged or abnormal blood cells. This happens in treatment for some malignant blood disorders.

At the moment it is extremely unlikely that a baby will ever use their own stem cells, collected in this way. However, it is the chance that cord blood stem cells can be used to treat or cure conditions in the future that convinces many people to have cord blood stored.

So can I advice my friend to store her baby’s cord blood? I really don’t know, but the subject is fascinating.

It’s not often I see something from the Government and I think – now that’s a great idea….
But…. the Healthy Start scheme really does deserve a heads up. I had not heard of it, and I wonder how many women that qualify are not told about it.

Basically, it is a scheme where some women (in the UK) can get free fruit, vegetables, milk and vitamins. If you are pregnant, have children under 4 and receive certain benefits you should qualify.

What you can get:

• liquid cow’s milk
• plain fresh and frozen fruit
• plain fresh and frozen vegetables
• infant formula milk

All you need to do is fill in the application form, and get signed by your registered midwife, nurse or medical practitioner.

Sounds like a good idea to me!

The story about a couple letting people on Facebook decide on their unborn child’s name is bizarre to say the least. Is this Web 2.0 gone mad?

Would you let people on Facebook decide on your baby’s name?

OK, so naming your baby can be a very difficult decision, and can cause many an argument, but at the end of the day to give someone their name is an honour and a privilege.

Myself and my partner had a shortlist, this list kept changing, but they were all names we picked and we liked. Yes, we poured though books and lists, looked at our family trees, and thought we would never come up with a name. There is one thing we did not resort to – asking complete strangers for their suggestions – and giving them the final say! Do I feel strongly about this – I guess so!

Luckily the sensible participants on Facebook came up with nice suggestions. It could have all gone wrong. We have seen Facebook hijacked by groups with a particular motive before. People love jumping on bandwagons. The UK Christmas No1 single, who to hate this week on ‘I’m a Celebrity’ , Let’s help Wagner win ‘The X Factor’. So easily we could have had Let’s give this child a stupid name. It was a dangerous thing to promise, naming a baby is so important.

Our son might grow up not liking his name, that is a risk every parent takes, but at least he will never ask “Mum, why did you call me Happy Daffodil?”

Other related articles:

Do’s and Don’t’s for naming your baby
List of questions to think about to help you decide on babies names.
Top baby names – View and print the PDF ebook for FREE

I’ve posted this video for 1 reason only – it is so funny!

Every time I watch it, it makes me laugh so much. She sings about  the ‘joys’ of childbirth, in a way that is true yet is funny. You may have seen it before, but you never tire of watching a classic again!

Childbirth Song lyrics

You’ve bags under your eyes
You’ve got boobs to your knees
Your hand’s full of poo and your bra’s full of cheese
Your stomach is bloated your clothes do not fit
He still wants sex while you feel like shit
He begs for this favour not long after labour
It’s like eating a meal after you’ve just been sick

And the boys at the office tell him I should give him what he wants
To this I say that they’re a bunch of lalalalalalala

You bastard you cocked up it’s you got me knocked up
Just cos you want me to have bigger tits
You’re pleading, you’re pining
Oh please stop your whining
You’re not getting sex ’til the kid’s 26

You say you want another child, another pregnancy
When you can poo a watermelon I’ll agree

I could have been someone if you just hadn’t come (along)
If I hadn’t been so drunk and I’d said maybe
We’d be going out and stuff, now there’s foreceps up my chuff
Pulling the head of a screaming 10lb baby

And the mums on Hornby Island* say keep breast feeding ’til they’re four
If I do I won’t have nipples anymore

And all the doctors told me that I’d need a stitch or ten
I say sew me up so I can’t do this again.

*an island nearby with a reputation for being very wholesome!

It’s a parody written by Helen Austin and performed at Voices Three 2007, a concert that raised $3000 for the Hospice

I was 8 months pregnant with our 1st child. We bought a bottle steriliser and some powdered baby formula (along with everything else that we did and didn’t need!) It looked complicated, and we didn’t want to get it wrong when the baby came along.

We only bought the formula in the scenario that breast feeding didn’t work out. This was the case in the end, it just didn’t work out for me and the baby. So I am glad we had some formula in stock. 

The steriliser was a Philips AVENT BPA-Free Electric Steam Steriliser. We did lots of research on which steriliser to buy and this one seemed to fit all our needs.

I thought an electric steam steriliser was best, it seemed to do everything for you.

I had a practice at making a bottle up from scratch.

This is what I did:

• Wash the bottle, teat and ring thoroughly.
• Pour into the steriliser the set amount of water using the measuring beaker.
• Place them on the rack in the steriliser – with the bottle upside down.
• Put the lid on and switch it on.
• The machine soon started making noise and you could see the lid steaming up.
• I watched the machine like something exciting was going to happen. However it just sat there steaming away…
• The light going off signalled it was finished.
• Next I opened the lid – far too soon. Everything was boiling hot, far too hot to touch. This was reassuring, the steamer had worked – but bad for my poor fingers!

I knew that once the lid was open anything else in the machine would not be sterile and if we wanted to use anything later we would have to sterilise it again.

Next was the bottle.
At 1st I used the Avent bottles that came with the steriliser, but our baby didn’t really get on with them. We switched to Dr Brown ones on the recommendation of our midwife. These were brilliant.

1st I put the right amount of formula in. I was very careful over the amount. I knew the baby could get stomach ache or not enough nutrients if the amount was wrong, and filled up the bottle to the right level with cooled boiled water.

The water still wasn’t cool enough to drink. So I had to wait… and wait.
Eventually it was ready.

1 1/2 hours after we started.

“No wonder mothers have no time” was my initial thought.

Doing eveything in the right order made everything so much easier.

1. Boil the kettle, with fresh tap water. It can be cooling while the bottles are sterilising.
2. Wash the bottles, then add the water and the equipment to the machine.
3. Switch it on.
4. Go and do something else. The machine takes 8-12 minutes depending on how full it is. The light goes off when it is ready.
5. Prepare the bottle, sit it in a jug of cold water if it needs cooling down more.
6. When the bottle is ready – baby can have a feed!

We got making the bottle up down to a precise art. I wanted to do it properly, and was so glad I had a test run before the baby was even born.

If it took over an hour each time – the baby would get very hungry!