tattycrafts

Further to my last post where I decided not to be a frumpy mum, today I ventured into a personal shopper experience in Debenhams.  It's a fantastic service and I wish I'd discovered it sooner.  It was so easy to book an appointment.  The website asks for very straightforward information.  I do wish it asked for a little bit more info though such as your dress size, style preference, height etc as this could come in useful for your shopper later. Screenshots of the booking process:     I was 5 minutes early for my appointment and the girls at the paydesk called for my shopper to come down.  The lovely Sammy arrived about 10 minutes later. Sammy was lovely and welcoming and I immediately felt at ease.  The only thing that puzzled me at this point was being asked if I had booked my appointment.  I had in mind that they would be aware of all the bookings and know who they would be working with and when.  Very odd. Despite the ...

I've never been known for being fashionable or trendy. I've always gone for comfortable with a twist. The twist for the last 9 years has been my hair. I've always made an effort with my appearance and liked to feel 'pretty'. Since having a baby I seem to have lost my way.  My current day to day wear consists of leggings or jeans (which don't fit) either a vest and t-shirt/jumper layer because it's been nice and easy for breastfeeding on demand. Nine months have passed since the baby arrived and for nine months before that my wardrobe was severely limited by a large bump poking out front. I return to work late January, and as I look in my overflowing wardrobe I struggle to put together more than a couple of outfits I feel comfortable in. One of my problems is that I lack confidence in putting together an outfit that works. I struggle to visualise how pieces can go together and really don't understand what works for my shape. Holding my hands up in de...

As a first time older mum, the minute I knew I was pregnant, I couldn't do enough research into all the options available, and all the choices and decisions I'd have to make. Some of the choices I've made have raised a few eyebrows (babywearing and baby led weaning for example), but I've done my research and I'm comfortable and confident in those. So much so I generally don't even try to defend those choices when questioned. The one thing that is repeatedly asked of me though is why I give my child the food he gets, or rather why I don't give him the food I don't.  I believe in encouraging a baby to try as many flavours and textures as possible, as long as it's healthy.  That's not to say I won't ever let him have chocolates, cakes, chips etc, but there's a time for those and that time is not right now. The latest figures, for 2012/13, show that 18.9% of UK children in Year 6 (aged 10-11) were obese and a further 14.4% were overweig...

This weekend was the first time I've been away overnight from my little boy. He's 8 months old today and it doesn't seem 8 months since he came into my life. Ages ago however, in my naivety, I thought at 8 months I wouldn't worry about leaving him,  at 8 months he'd be sleeping through,  and at 8 months he'd be happily taking a bottle of expressed milk. Guess how many of those things actually happened?  None!  To be fair perhaps I wasn't worried as such but I sure as hell felt lost without him and would have preferred to have him and my boyfriend with me for the weekend. In the week leading up to the trip I have expressed milk like it was going out of fashion. On the plus side I now have a freezer of milk, which as a friend said, is probably enough to feed the street! On the downside, increased expressing means my body thinks there's increased demand when there isn't.  I planned for this and brought my breast pump with me and made sensible plan...

After a terrible night with almost non stop crying and a morning of grumpiness,  I thought it would be nice for Oscar to meet Pingu. We went with some friends and hung around waiting for Pingu to make his grand entrance. The crowd showed their appreciation as he worked his way round towards us. Oscar's pal Henry had a little stroke of Pingu's nose and then it was Oscar's turn. Pingu held out his flipper to say hello and Oscar turned down his bottom lip and let out a huge shout.  Poor old Pingu pulled his flipper back so quick! Poor Pingu.

The strange sound of an alarm woke me up. I've been so used to the yelling of the baby getting us up on a morning, that for just a moment I thought I was dreaming.  Then I remembered, today was the day we'd been waiting for and my other half was having surgery. The sound of the alarm gave us half an hour to get out of the house and hit the road. I left the Poomonster asleep on the bed while I got dressed and packed his bag with his clothes and all the food and milk I'd prepped the night before. The poor dog was very confused by so much activity at such a disgusting hour and deservedly gave me a filthy look when I put her breakfast in her kennel and put her out for the day. The car was loaded, toys were grabbed, and at the very last minute a sleeping baby was carried downstairs to be put in the car seat.  Operation Minimal Disturbance was activated. Poomonster woke briefly and looked a bit confused but happily settled into his seat and before we knew it he was out like a...

One thing I've learned as a mum is that every baby is different.  This seems like an obvious statement but there are some things that some people don't realise. My little fella rolls, sits like a Champ, laughs,  giggles and chats away to me.  He enjoys his food but isn't a fan of breakfast but really loves satsumas. But then I have friends whose babies are a similar age and don't do some of these things. But then those babies will do things such as sleep through the night! Something Oscar definitely does not do. For a while now it's been difficult to see other breastfed babies sleeping through and wondering what I was doing wrong.  The long and short of it is that I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm frequently asked by family and friends if he's sleeping through and receive lots of suggestions of things to try. But then I read the information in this website: https://www.isisonline.org.uk/how_babies_sleep/normal_sleep_development/ As we all know every...