tattycrafts

I'm not normally a fan of meme's, but there's one doing the rounds at the moment which has my full support. It's one that I firmly believe everyone should do, every day, even if they just do it in their head and don't share it with the world. The current popular meme invites people to post daily their three positives for that day for a week. My only problem is actually narrowing it down to three! I've always been a "glass half full " kind of gal but this really went into overdrive in 2006 when I developed a real appreciation for being alive and appreciating all the small things, and started to let go of the things that really don't matter. If you can't change it, or it's not in your control, just let it go. Every day I wake up happy and appreciative of my life, the things I have, and the people I share my life with. Of course there are things in my life which are not perfect, but even on the most miserable and shittiest of days I can loo...

Last night I did something I've never done before and was wracked with guilt. Typically it's not even something I consciously did, but the finger of blame is shouting at me in my head. Of course I know it was probably a one off, and no harm came of it...but THE GUILT! As many of you know I wear two hearing aids and BB (Before Baby), I took my hearing aids out for bed.  Obviously I can't do that anymore and have taken to just turning off the one against my pillow. I've occasionally rolled over in my sleep and as my active hearing aid hits the pillow the feedback prompts me to switch one off and the other on. I can only assume I was so knackered I just turned it off without switching the other one on. Of course this meant the sound of the baby waking went unheard,  the sound of hungry grumbles were unheard, but the sound of his wailing went on for long enough to eventually alert the OH to wake up and I was subsequently woken very abruptly by a shove. Of course he was...

All my life I've known that if I had the chance to have a baby I was going to do my damndest to breastfeed. So there I was, pregnant. Determined . With boobs. Ready. Midwife: How are you planning to feed baby? Me: Breast Midwife: Marvellous! Make sure you go to the parenting class to learn everything you need to know. *at parenting class* "Breast is best.... No faffing about in the night... Less to carry...drink plenty " Marvellous says I! I know everything I need to know. Right? Nuh-uh. They don't talk about flat nipples, leaky boobs, how many muslins you need, and that breast fed babies still get wind. And they definitely don't tell you how long baby may feed for. Ok in the main it's about 15-20 minutes,  but then you get the occasional marathon session. Setting times to go places and meet people are loosely made,  friends begin to realise that you're either going to be late,  or arrive and lob a boob out before you'...

With a young baby in the house it can be hard to find time to relax. It's also a bit tricky to get the baby to relax for bed, especially when Daddy works late and arrives home and the baby gets excited!  I kid you not, he may only be 9 weeks old but the minute Daddy walks through that door he's all smiles and giggles for him, no matter if he's been Grumpy Baby all day. I've been looking to find ways to settle him down on an evening and build a routine for him including, bath, massage, feed, cuddles, and eventually sleep. As well as trying to work out the order of each of those things to suit both us and Oscar, I was also a bit clueless how best to massage a baby. There are all sorts of videos available on places like You Tube, but none that I can see by any professionals, or that are particularly instructive.  I was recently contacted by the New Stork Time s to review their downloadable "Massage for Happy Babies Routine".  It's on special offer at the...

Being on maternity leave has freed up so much time, I can bake, get my house in order, finish all those unfinished projects, right? WRONG ! So many people assume that my life now consists of coffee mornings, baking, and watching box sets on Netflix, and that I'll be home anytime they decide to drop in, or that if am at home it will be convenient to call round and cuddle Oscar. I get to have an afternoon with the girls once week to catch up, exchange hi's and lows and show off our babies. I have appointments at breastfeeding clinics, doctors appointments, shopping to do, a never ending mountain of washing, drying and ironing to do, amongst lots and lots of other mundane tasks. Oh and I have a baby to feed and look after throughout all of these things. It isn't easy. He doesn't sleep and feed according to my schedule and around things I need to do, so I've become an expert at multi tasking and can even hang out washing while holding the baby. It's bloody hard...

I recently signed up for the opportunity to be a #MorrisonsMums along with lots of other bloggers.  Over the years I've shopped at a number of different supermarkets, and tended to favour two of them in the main, swapping between them depending on offers available, and how flush we are!  When I told my OH what I was doing he got rather excited. He's fairly unique in his species in that he generally doesn't mind going to the supermarket, but he got a bit excited about this, especially when I showed him that Morrisons have permanently lowered the prices of over 1000 every day foods.  For a Bank Holiday shop we would probably normally have taken ourselves to one of the other favoured supermarkets, so we were interested to see how successful this shopping trip would be. I'm a frequent shopper at Morrisons and can generally predict how much I'll be paying at the till by glancing at the contents of my trolley.  OH and I took the opportunity to treat ourselves a little...

A while back,when boobs first started their pregnancy bloom, I struggled with finding nursing bras in those larger sizes, and that were also pretty, and affordable.  Following Oscar's arrival, the post baby bloom arrived and the search was on once more. My friend Annie who shares similar traits to me sent me a link one day which brought a ray of hope.  She suggested I look at an online shop, very appropriately called nursing-brashop .   At first glance I was immediately impressed by the set up and the very clear indications that it catered to sizes across the board, including those elusive larger sizes. As well as browsing by size you can also browse by brand, and by type. I was impressed with the variety of types of bras available.  Far better than I'd been able to search for elsewhere. I quickly placed an order for two bras, one plain and simple, and one pretty one as a treat for myself.  The shop made me even happier when I discovered free UK deliv...