Bubble bath issues!!

So, we haven’t used any bubble bath in bears bath since October (since his bad nappy eczema, rash issues) but his skin has been amazingly clear for the last few months and I have been worrying about bathing in just water drying his skin out a little. So I made the MASSIVE mistake of using a squirt of Johnsons baby bath…..as soon as I went to put his nappy on after bath time his poor bum already looked more red than usual. Made the decision not to use it again after seeing his little bum but that was only the tip of the ice berg for last nights troubles!

Bear fell asleep on daddy at 8.30 last night (very early for him!) and so we put him to bed whilst daddy finished washing his tv programme and mummy spent her ‘bear free time’ stuffing nappies and sorting the dirty nappy bucket out (also realised I need a hobby!) but he didnt sleep long….from 1am he was very restless. He seemed to be whimpering a lot and waving his hands and feet around. He drank 13 oz of milk between 1am-7am (for those following Bears journey, that is a lot of milk, almost 2 days worth on normal milk intake!) He had calpol, which didnt seem to soothe him much either. We even changed his bum in the middle of the night with the hope it would help him settle….our reserve nappy was not stuffed for bed time though, so by morning he was soaked through!

Even though he is teething still/again I don’t think this was the cause of his problems, but perhaps the bubble bath was irritating him and he was itchy maybe? It could well of been unrelated but seems too much of a coincidence to risk it again! I feel really bad, as it was my decision to put it in his bath in the first place.

So, what can I use in his bath? He likes the bubbles, so wanted something nice for him to use! I think our next trial will be with some simple product. I use simple myself and is nice on my sensitive skin so hoping it may be nice for Bear too. Also, considering changing his shampoo too, as we are still using Johnsons (although has been ok so far, would rather step away from the brand altogether! This makes me a little sad as it is a brand I have personally used since being a tot myself)

If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know. Obviously, we will try anything for him, but hopefully we can find a solution which isn’t going to cost a small fortune.

Unknowingly, doing my bit to save the planet!

It has dawned on me, by making certain choices for other reasons, I can feel proud that I am doing my bit to help ‘save the planet’.

Lets start by telling you a few things that me and hubby have always done….we aren’t ones to have the heating on high, we would rather an extra jumper or a blanket on the sofa of an evening, our house is ‘cold’ to others, so much so, they bring coats to put on whilst inside! We installed a wood burner as our main heating source in our house, cosmetically, it looks amazing…and after 18 months we are yet to buy any wood, just burn unwanted fence posts, furniture, pallet boards, etc. Hubby loves to grow his own, so our garden has its own veg patch, our patio is host to the herb pots and our borders are home to the fruit bushes. We enjoy composting as much as we can and recycle anything possible. We waste as little as possible, after a roast dinner, the left over bones are used to make a stock even.

So, some of our new life choices…

As you may be aware, Bear is cloth bummed, from 7 months old until he is potty trained we will not be contributing disposables to landfill (and as I have been reading just recently, the amount of energy used to make the nappies is also quite high) our reasons for cloth bumming was due to Bears allergies, our second reason would be financial, 3rdly, I quite enjoy it…..planet earth is far from my priorities! We have a large number of nappies now and have spent less than £200, we will be able to reuse all the nappies for future children, saving ourselves lots of money and saving the planet a couple of extra tonnes of landfill waste (disposable nappies are rumoured to take 200 years to decompose!!!)

We wash the nappies on the ‘eco’ setting, meaning the machine is not using too much energy to wash the nappies, we wash the nappies twice a week. And we no longer tumble dry them either (mainly because the ‘low’ setting seems to have broken) but since having to hang the pockets, inserts, liners and wipes up to dry I figured I should be air drying everything…..the tumbler has been on possibly twice since I had this genius idea!

Since getting used to dealing with the nappies I have discovered a love for cloth sanitary products (CSP). Again, disposable ones are manufactured in a energy consuming way and take a long time to decompose. These items get washed with the nappies (so no additional loads to do). It isn’t ‘gross’ as many people think…and the bathroom bin at ‘that time of the month’ doesn’t get full or smell!

I have recently discovered a love for Milton cold water sterilisation…after 12 months of microwave sterilising. So much so I plan to cold water sterilise everything for future babies (that means not having to use the microwave up to 3 or 4 times a day!) It is so much more convenient than microwaving, just was the bottles and pop in the sterilising bucket, takes a minimum of 15 minutes (bit rubbish if you are in a rush!) but then they are ready….no burning your hand trying to grab them out the hot microwave too soon….and you can do more than the 4 at a time you are limited to in a microwave system.

I now work within walking distance of my home. I can also do my grocery shopping within walking distance too. This means that the car is used rarely….so much so that we put a 6000 mile limit on the insurance, a mileage we are expecting to come well under in a 12 month period!

Obviously, my choices are not driven by my love of planet earth….I do what I do for Bear mainly (and hoping to save a few pennies through not having to buy disposable products, buy fuel and hoping the electric bill may reduce too!) but simple life choices can easily have an impact on the environment….if more people did one or two of these things then the planet would be looking a lot healthier too!

FLASH THE STASH!

I am a self confessed Nappy Addict! I love them…..although they are not the easiest of things to try and get a full stash shot of, so I try to take a few every now and again so you get the idea of the size/content of my stash! Also have included some very cute OTB (ont he bum) shots of Bear as I couldn’t resist!

 Early on stash shot, his 1st set of nappies, back when it would all fit in 1 small basket!

doing 3 of his favourite things, playing, eating and sitting by daddy! (sorry for any slightly blurry shots, use my phone, but phone cameras and sticky baby hands do not mix, have now added wiping the lens into my daily routine.

another stash shot, half empty though….missing all of our favourite prints as they would already of been used!

Our landing/drying area!

One of my favourite prints…..star wars! Cheeky monkey crawled away from me in the middle of a change!

Another stash shot (with loads missing) but these are some of the new tots bots I got, some stuffed ready for OTB!

Another quick dash away from me during a change, straight to the nappy baskets to help ‘organise’ them (Bears organisation includes throwing the nappies across the room!)

I would love to get a complete stash shot but think I may have to wait until Bear is potty trained and no longer using them as there is always several in the wash bucket!!!

I love stash shots, having seen some on facebook this morning I have eyed up a few very cool prints (to include, toy story, cars and monsters inc!!) Think we may need a bigger house soon!

I would love to see some stash shots, tweet them to me @mummytalesCMPA and spread the love!

Long awaited Bear update!

Sorry for the delay…..had a busy few weeks with Birthday celebrations and a super busy time at work!

Now everything has calmed down we can have a little Bear update….

Bear is now 1!!!! He had an amazing birthday and was spoilt rotten by everyone. So many cards, gifts and messages and 2 birthday parties.

He has a TOOTH! (soon to be 2) and he loves to brush it with his big boy toothbrush and toothpaste

Bear has almost got to grips with this walking thing….he is balancing and taking steps in all directions, but it is still so much easier to crawl!

He is also getting very brave, he climbs over, round, under, onto….EVERYTHING!! He surprised me the other day, joining in some rough and tumble with his cousin, I was expecting him to cry!

He listens to instructions and is getting much better at answering direct questions. He loves to give kisses, cuddles and nose nibbles! He plays so nicely by himself now too, looks like he is having conversations with his toys!

He sat and watched the whole of Monsters University and has now decided he fancies being on the scare team….lots of ‘raa’-ing in our house.

Eating wise he now uses cutlery really well, you will be lucky if you can spoon feed him anything (although nanny did manage a few spoonfuls of mash and gravy the other day!) he likes to do it all himself. We are even brave enough to let him eat of plates and bowl without holding them/sticking them to him tray!

We have taken him swimming a few times, he is slowly getting braver, but doesn’t much like to let go of mummies bikini top.

Seems to me that Bear is really enjoying toddler-hood! We have booked a holiday to Devon and we cannot wait to see how he is when we are away, think he will love it so much more than when we went away last summer.

Just a quick update for those who are interested, so much has changed in the world of Bear in the last month or so!

Cloth bum rocks….but what is best!?!

So, having only a stash of little bloom ebay ‘cheapies’ to begin our cloth journey we started to experience leaks now bear is constantly on the move. We also found bed time a challenge, even when double or even triple stuffing. So we purchased some more bamboo inserts (rookie mistake thinking mainly microfibre was going to be a good idea!) and some charcoal bamboo for bedtime. We also bought some super cheap china import nappies to try for bed time with a variety of ‘stuffings’ to see what worked (currently having success with a charcoal insert, a bamboo insert, both wrapped inside a standard muslin, reused from bears sicky days, stuffed inside a popper little bloom). Mummy also got tempted by pretty prints (Spiderman, ninja turtles, star wars, fire engines, dinosaurs, the list goes on!) and some amazing bargains (an absolute steal of a deal on a local selling page and a reduced price of cloth in morrisons coupled with my brothers 20% staff discount weekend, practically jumped in the trolley!) so our stash is currently HUGE!! consisting of 5 super cheap china imports, 27 little blooms, 2 TJ nappies, 1 bambino mio and 21 tots bots v3&v4’s…..56!!!! (We are not mental, the ‘steal’ referred to above was far too good to let go so we should now have enough nappies to cloth 2 bubs at the same time when we finally have another!)

My thoughts on our nappy journey!

Super cheapies are failing us a little at the moment, so will be retired for a while.

Little blooms will always have a special place in my heart, Bears 1st ever cloth bum….been relatively reliably so far, just with occasional pressure leaks or ill-timed naps meaning we are attempting to squeeze another hour out of them!

TJ’s are so cool, totally tempted by the ‘boy’ nappies…..ninja turtles and star wars! I love the style of the velcro on TJ’s, find they fit so tidy and don’t look ‘tired’ after numerous washes due to the style of them. Jackie at TJ’s is lovely too, always chatting to her customers via facebook, I like the interactions with the faces behind some of the small, UK based nappy sellers!

Bambino Mio, this one we have had less than a week and as we only have 1 it has only made it on to the bum once! I love the print (elephants) though. In true Bear tradition, he poo’d in it pretty quickly, as he does to all his new nappies! But the quality feel and fit of it was amazing….can’t wait to get this one back through the wash!

Tots Bots….now having a stash of 21 we are getting to test these out lots. The first one Bear poo’d in almost instantly (was OTB less than an hour!!) the second one, boosted with a single bamboo insert, leaked massively, not sure if it was bad fit, pressure leak, under stuffing or if the fleece liner made the wee run off instead of soak in due to the fleecy inside of the nappy (leaking pattern indicated that it leaked from top and leg holes though!) We have had much better luck with the 3 he has tried since (now increased to double boosted!) I thought I loved the cute patterns he has (rainbow spots, 3 little pigs, london, to name a few) but also find myself loving the block colours too, including the purple ones! What is great about Tots Bots is that when I mentioned I had some leaking troubles with my first try they offered to phone me to trouble shoot and try to improve my experience….I felt I didnt need them too as I feel the cloth journey is very much trial and error suited to each child but it is the little things that make the difference!

At the moment I can’t say what is best, I do find myself grabbing for my favourite prints (ninja turtles and star wars) or my tots bots…..but am sure the mio will be very quick out the clean pile again after nappy wash day! Not sure whether it is because of the novelty of new, feeling that they should be better as they are more expensive or that they actually are yet! Only time will tell.

One thing is for sure, cloth is still definitely working for Bear, we barely have to fight any soreness (only when teething), mummy and daddy both love it and we cannot wait to cloth bum the next one (when we have one!)

Would love to hear what your opinions on nappies and brands are….these are the only ones I have tried so far, there are so many more to experience yet! Due to the lack of a nappy library near me we were forced to go it alone, you never know though, I may end up with enough variety and quantity of nappies to start my own!