Baby Offers & Freebies

While pregnant I signed up to all the baby sites I could as you can get so many offers, money off vouchers and freebies out there. The first month my little man was born I didn't have to buy any nappies at all.

Some of my favourites:

Free Changing Bag: If you sign up to Boots Parenting Club, wait for your welcome pack and receive a voucher for a free changing bag worth £30 when you buy pampers nappies. It's brilliant as it has many pockets and a changing mat inside.

Free Nappies: If you sign up to Asda Baby you can download a voucher for a free pack of Huggies newborn.

Aptamil baby club: If you join you will recieve A free abc guide to infant nutrition, Regular information and advice about nutrition and feeding for you and your baby, sent by email or post, plus lots of information and advice on the website but best of all you get a free polar bear teddy.

Advice & Vouchers: Join the Sainsbury's Little Ones Baby and Toddler Club for great free samples, magazine and more, toddler club welcome pack, free quarterley Little ones magazine and money off coupons. Tesco do this too.

Weaning guides: If you sign up to the baby food sites such as Hipp, plum-baby, Ellas Kitchen, Heinz Baby etc they send you advice and vouchers. The one I have found most useful is Cow & Gate as they send you a free 5 step weaning guide. I've found it invaluable when my baby turned 6 months as I found it rather daunting plus you get coupons at each stage.
http://www.cowandgate.co.uk/order_weaning_plan

It is also worth readng through the Bounty packs given as they have plenty of coupons aswell.

What a year so far

What a horrible start to the year ... a funeral, possible redundancy for the other half and my first day back at work is getting closer so my little bubba will have to go to someone else :-(

Well my little man is now 9 months old (can't believe it) he is standing holding onto everything and it seems much easier for him to get up and down which is making me wonder how long it will be before he tries to walk.
We had to rush off to France again last week due to a grandparents funeral, No wonder really Ollie hasn't settled into a good sleeping routine as we are always disrubting him with travel, staying over at friends and family houses or having people over.
 I have just got a copy of the book 'Good night, Sleep tight' by Kim West the sleep lady-It's a rather large book so will try and tackle it and take action once and for all as I have until 4th April (first dayback at work) dreading it. So I will keep updating.

Welcome 2012

Now 8 and half months old, I can't believe how quickly the little man changes he can now stand pretty well by holding onto anything in sight, he has some funny new faces at the moment and has become very loud and
chatty plus his appetite has grown so much.
He is also incredibly clingy at the moment which can be a bit wearing at times but I have to keep telling myself there will be a day when he will not want cuddles and kisses especially at silly o'clock in the morning. I first thought it was due to having so much attention over Christmas and New Year from relatives and friends and now it's just him and I again in the day but I've been told most babies around 9 months go through this.
Bedtime is still hit and miss and we still have a few wake ups so i've been looking into best routines to get in and looked at the crying down method as I read the Gina Ford book but I can't see it working as I find Ollie does not stop and gets in such a state that it just wakes him up further but I have tried to pick him up less when in his cot but it's so hard not too. I've been reading other peoples thoughts on the matter on Facebook Precious Little Ones threads so its changed my mind about leaving them to cry too long so I'm trying to relax and go with the flow but Ollie didn't fall asleep until 11pm last night - I would like some free time in the evening.
I thought it was suppose to get easier not harder but this year will be very trying year as come April I'll be going back to work full time and will have to sort a whole new routine juggling childcare, work, finance and missing my little man - really not looking forward to it.

Another week past

I'm finding my child hard work he doesn't like to sleep early, he's on the move and very loud. Other mums tell me their kids are in bed by 7pm, no chance I really don't know how they do it. If I put Ollie in his cot at 7pm he will roll around, shout and cry, bang his feet on the bars and no way will he cry hmself to sleep he just gets louder the longer you leave him.
Last night it was 11pm before he finally fell asleep beforehand he was a nighmare he seems to come alive at night (I blame his dad). I do the whole bath thing, turn lights low, give milk, try and read a story but it's impossible to calm him down.

Luckily last night he only woke once at 3.30am gave him a cuddle and dummy which sent him back to sleep until 9am - absolutly brilliant hope every night is like that as i'll actally get some sleep.
He has only been in his own room or the last two nights and both have been pretty good and I must say I prefer having my room back even though the hubby was reluctant but he's not the on who get up at stupied times.

In over 7 months I haven't actually had a break from this and i'm still sane well just about .

7 months and 2 days

Well what a testing time it has been over the last 7 months, for the last month the little man has been very difficult - sleeping is non existant except for the odd day here and there but he seems to be extremly active in the evenings even after the whole bath - calming down cuddle - milk routine it just doesn't matter he decides when we go to bed and lately he falls asleep by 10.30pm and then wakes again for milk crying between 12.30-3am. Last night I even had the neighbour shout through the wall "shut up" what a cheek (they are our noisy neighbours) it's not like I have a mute button he's a baby for gods sake.

Over the past week he now pulls himself along on his tummy, sits himself up and yesterday even tried to get out of his buggy. I can see hard times ahead, he's going to be hard work but probably fun aswell.

Feeding & Teething

Well I have been weaning Ollie for 5 weeks now and this has been the toughest week so far he just will not eat and he finds it funny to knock a spoonful of food out of my hand so it goes flying. I'm finding it incredibly stressful as what am I do to if he will not eat. I've tried all sorts of veg and fruit but last night I tried Plum Blueberry, Banana & Vanilla pouch and he ate the lot he's had this before and loved it, I may need to stock up on this if nothing else does the trick.

Is it because he has a cold or is it due to teething...............I have no idea, I just know for the past two weeks i've had no sleep and become very irritable.

Any ideas anyone?

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6 month milestone

6 months on and little Ollie is now sitting up on his own, eating breakfast and dinner, saying Dadda, holding his own bottle oh the changes are amazing he has a cheeky character already.
He still does'nt sleep but this time I think it's because of teeth so still 2-3 hour wake ups if it stays this way I really don't know how i'll cope with full time work next year - dreading it.

Time is ticking away so fast and I actually like being at home so it's going to be a big nasty shock going back plus i'm not being given an option of flexi or cutting hours so big childcare bills are on it's way and leaving my little baby. :(