Weaning: Completely Baby Led

Weaning terrified me and I am back to tell you that it doesn't anymore!

 My baby is growing up and becoming a little person. A little person who can and will be influenced by my eating and the food I choose to give him. 

I'm not a healthy eater, I don't eat fruit, salad or many vegetables. I have a fear of unknown foods and a huge fear of texture, living off mostly carbs and meat. I have gotten better in recent years but my diet is still far from good.

I want Rory to have a healthy relationship with food unlike his Mama!

Not long ago I wrote that we were doing a combination of purees and baby led, that was mostly through fear if i'm honest with myself. Fear that I wouldn't know what to give him that was healthy so a puree full of veggies would be the healthiest option but I have realised that just isn't the case. A healthy balanced diet includes fruits, veg and everything else!

Rory started refusing the spoon, he only wanted to feed himself so thats what pushed us to let him, I started with what I considered safe food such as boiled veggies but soon enough he was stealing my toast and staring longingly at our food.

I just thought fuck it, i'm going to feed him what we eat but with baby safe changes and added fruit and veg. He now eats a close variation of our meals everyday and he is finally embracing food! He could eat all day long if I let him!

Here he is eating a mini stir fry! Well cooked steak with baby corn, carrot and broccoli. He loved it and it was relatively mess free which is a huge bonus!

Mini pizza is definitely a fave of his as he is such a carb lover like him mama, he really enjoyed this meal. The pizza got demolished first followed by the carrots but as usual he ignored the broccoli.

I just don't get why he doesn't like broccoli! It is one of the few veggies that I like so I try and hide it as best I can! This is a quick dinner of cheese and broccoli on toast, he really enjoyed this one!

For breakfast he often has cheerios, fruit and a yoghurt. This may seem like a lot of cheerios but they mostly end up on the floor or in the dogs belly! The blueberries always get eaten though as they are a huge favourite! The skins do tend to come out in his poop though so I try not to give him too many haha!

A yoghurt is one of few things he will let us spoon feed him as he just loves them so bloody much! 

If you are struggling with BLW I would advise you to just do it! Give them a little of everything to try and if they don't like it, try again later. Get yourself up to date with how to cut and cook things safely which can easily be found online and away you go. As with adults, everything in moderation. The only things we avoid is chocolate, sweets and we try to keep salt at a minimum.

These are some other foods that have been a big hit...

. Grapes cut into quarters

. Easy pealer oranges, these are his faveeeee

. Blueberries

. Crumpets

. Toast

. Reduced salt baked beans

. Raisins

. Cream cheese sandwiches, sometimes with sneaky broccoli inside!

. Cheerios

. Mamia Carrot puffs (instead of chocolate for Easter, because bunnies love carrots!)

. Humous

. Carrot fries (homemade)

. Grated cheese

. Peas

And a few things he doesn't like...

. Broccoli on its own

. Cucumber

. Strawberries

. Banana (which he will eat from other people but not me?) Maybe he knows I hate them! lol

Learning With Little Ones This Easter

Something a little different on the blog today! I was recently contacted by education.com and asked if I would like to share a learning worksheet (https://www.education.com/worksheets/)with my readers and talk about their website. At first I thought well, Rory's too young for this but then I thought, many of my fellow mums do have older children and with the Easter holidays in full swing they may be looking for both fun and educational activities to do with their little ones! 

"Education.com aims to empower parents, teachers, and homeschoolers to help their children build essential skills and excel. With over 12 million members, Education.com provides educators of all kinds with high-quality learning resources, including worksheets, lesson plans, digital games, an online guided learning platform, and more." (education.com)

Education.com has a huge selection of worksheets and activities that you can download and print for free, whether your kids love to learn or would rather just colour it in, they are sure to find hours of entertainment and maybe even give you time for an uninterrupted cup of tea!

The worksheet I have chosen to share with you all is the "Crawlies Maze" as it is great for a range of ages, even Rory who is only 8months old will enjoy watching me do it or me holding his hand to help him it. In addiction to this worksheet you can find loads more printables on the website for you to explore. 

Zoella X ColourPop Collaboration - Brunch Date Palette

I am a huge Zoella Fan, I do feel she has been slacking recently with her youtube channel and her Zoella Beauty range but when this collaboration was announced, I knew I needed to try something. I had never used anything from ColourPop before either so this gave me the perfect excuse to try them out!

I have always been concerned about shipping and customs costs when ordering from America so have always avoided it but this collection if ordered within 24hours had free shipping to the UK which was a really nice and well thought out choice from Zoe and the team at ColourPop. This fact is definitely what swayed me into going for it!

I am all about eyeshadow palettes, I have quite the collection already so I knew what item I would be purchasing! 

Lets first talk about the packaging, it's beautiful! The palette is a basic cardboard (reminds me of Zoeva) but has a luxurious matte soft feel and the design is wonderfully whimsical with the waffle design outer packaging and the brunch inspired pink palette. A perfect combination of fun but also grown up. 

It fits perfectly with the design of the rest of the range which I think is so well designed, very unique and aesthetically pleasing!  

I would have loved to get the whole collection but my maternity leave budget meant just the palette for me. It cost roughly £17 including a small fee which I thought was a reasonable price for a collaboration palette.

Inside you have 12 shades, 5 mattes and 7 shimmers/foils. In my opinion there is a good selection of creases shades, natural shimmers and a few pops such as the gorgeous blue and the gorgeous burgundy. It is certainly a palette you can wear everyday but it is entirely possible to make something more fancy out of the shades. It is the perfect take on holiday palette for me, I could easily create a week or twos worth of looks out of this.

Left Top to Right Bottom

Maple Syrup - Sundae Funday - Sunny Side Up - Americano - Brunch Club - Extra Slice

Champagne Toast - Pancakes Please - French Toast - Skinny Latte - Cinnamon Sugar - Mimosa

As you can see, the swatches are impressive! The mattes are very pigmented but also very blendable so it's easy to apply because it is so easy to blend out and keep looking perfect. It really doesn't take a lot of work to get the crease looking great. Brunch club is an intense matte blue, not the most unique of shades but is a nice addition. 

Maple syrup, Americano and Mimosa are the perfect selection of crease shades that will work with most looks and French Toast is the most beautiful burgundy that you could use in the crease but I think would work wonderfully for a smokey eye. Extra slice is a matte with flecks of gold glitter and it is the absolute dream! I can't wait to do a full smokey eye with it.

The shimmers, especially Pancakes Please and Cinnamon Sugar just kill me. They are so incredible beautiful and right up my street! I have used them both so many time since owning this palette so I am sure they are going to become everyday faves. 

There has been a lot of backlash on this palette, people saying the shades are boring but I just don't agree. It is an everyday palette, yes but it is a step above. A step more pigmented, a step more sparkly and you definitely can make it work for a night out too.

Ultimately I am really pleased with my purchase! What does you guys think of the collection and this palette in particular? 

TOP TIP: Like many ColourPop shadows (so ive heard) the shimmers and even the blue are best applied with a finger in order to get full pigmentation. You can use a brush but you get the best look with your finger.

SHOP THE COLLECTION HERE

MUM TAG!

I came across this new Mum Tag on youtube created my Emily Norris (find her here!) and it has been done by many of my fave mum youtubers now which ive really enjoyed watching so I thought I would do it here on my blog! Its so interesting to hear how other mothers find parenthood and their experiences so I hope you enjoy reading mine!

1. Favourite mum hack? Im not sure this counts as a hack really but a baby carrier! Babies clingy? Carrier. Babies tired? Carrier. Need to be hand free? Carrier. Muddy walk? Carrier. Breastfeed on the go? Carrier. I love it.

2. Most embarrassing mum moment? Ermmmm, none? I don't embarrass easily and for some reason Rory is better behaved in public than at home!

3. What part of the day do you love the most? Either seeing his smile first thing in the morning or 7pm when Liam gets home from work and Rory is so excited to see him!

4. What part of the day do you like least? Between 5 and 7pm, Rorys a grump so its just counting down the minutes till Liam gets home.

5. The worst thing someone said to you while pregnant? Again, none. People were really supportive while I was pregnant and I loved every minute of it. 

6. Baby name you didn't agree on? Many! I like unique names and Liam doesn't so much! I can't remember exact names honestly but I remember liking Ryan or Bay for a girl and Liam hated both.

7. Do you co sleep? Absolutely not, its something I really done agree with. I mean, each to their own but I would never do it. I do not think its safe, I think it creates bad habits for baby and I also like to have one place thats just mine!

8. Something you bought but never used? We were really careful not to over buy so there wasn't much that went unused but we never used mittens because they are just pointless and we didn't use the swaddle as Rory is a spread out sleeper!

9. Two hospital must have items? I gave much during a heat wave so my mini fan was a life saver. Also makeup, I know that sounds crazy but to be able to have a shower, fresher myself up and put a little makeup on after birth made me feel human again.

10. Are you a routine mum or a go with the flow mum? and what does bedtime look like? Both! During the day I go with the flow, he feeds when he wants, eats when I do and sleeps whenever he needs too but I done let him sleep after 5.30pm so that he is tired enough for bedtime at 8.30pm. His bedtime routine is always the same, up to bedroom, pjs on, feed in nursing chair while Liam reads out loud, baby lullabies on then bed. 

11. What type of labour did you have and what pain relief? I went into labour naturally at 40+4. I started feeling light contractions on the Friday, the ramped up Saturday night and we headed to hospital at 4am Sunday. He was born Sunday 11.47pm. It was a loooong labour and I had high blood pressure and temperature so it was really difficult, I had an epidural and do not regret it!

12. Have you been mum shamed? No but I wouldn't take any notice if I was. I don't care about other people opinions of my mothering in the slightest. Unless i've asked for it and its constructive!

13. What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced since becoming a mum? In the first 5weeks, breastfeeding was really hard. He cluster feed really badly and I felt really trapped. I couldn’t leave the sofa for 5+ hours a day and often in the evening while Liam was at work so I would sit in the dark watching Netflix with dead feet and starving. I cried over that a lot. Now, it’s sleep. He’s is a terrible sleeper, currently waking 8+ times a night, it’s really hard and people always say it will get better but it never seems too.

14. The best bit of advice you’ve received and the biggest piece of advice you would give a new mum? I think people telling me that it gets better has helped a lot actually because it’s true. Every hurdle will improve eventually and it’s all worth it for your baby. To a new mum I would say don’t pressure yourself into doing too much, you may feel you need to say yes to all the visitors and all the baby groups but you don’t. Take some time to relax with your baby, to sleep, to get used to being a mum rather than putting pressure on yourself to please everyone else.

15. Who’s your mum crush and who do you tag? Charlotte Louise Taylor and Giovanni Fletcher! And I tag BecomingMumsy!

Baby Led or Spoon/Puree Led Weaning?

Weaning is the one thing about parenting that I always worried about, I am not a healthy eater, I am terrified of new foods and different textures. I am also scared of any foods that ripen or go off such as fruits and cream cheese. Basically, I'm a freak and I have been so nervous about passing on my weird habits to my child. I want Rory to have a better relationship with food than I have.

We began spoon fed/puree weaning because we felt that way he would be able to try lots of flavours without having to deal with the choking hazard and the different textures straight away. I decided to make my own purees to both save money and give him the purest ingredients, we started with buying spoons, bowls and puree storage pots for using in the fridge and for freezing. We thankfully already had a NutriBullet to use for blending!

I have found that most fruits and veg just need boiling till soft then blending with a little water until the required consistency and pretty much everything can be frozen. We try to give a veg puree in the evening and a fruit for breakfast because we found that if we gave too much fruit in the evening, the sugar rush kept him up at night! 

Winners so far have been blueberry, carrot, apple and sweet potato (separately not together!)

I think purees have their upsides in that baby actually eats the food instead of throwing it on the carpet, it is less clean up and and easier as you only need to defrost a pre made meal rather than find three nutritious meals to make from scratch each day. We can't just eat the same meal because as I said, I am a terrible eater!

We have tried some thicker foods and finger foods as well, edging towards the baby led side of things.  He likes really small pasta with a homemade veggie sauce as you see him to trying to snatch the bowl in the photo above! 

And he has tried carrot sticks, broccoli florets, toast, pitta and various baby snacks such as rice cakes and puffs which have mostly been a hit except the wet and slimy things. Such as strawberries! 

Watching him turn up his nose at strawberries but gobble up toast happily makes me so anxious. How does he know that strawberries are healthy and toast isn't so much? Why will he eat an Ellas Kitchen Puff but only pick at a carrot?

So, basically we have been doing a bit of both spoon and baby led. Spoon feeding does have its downside which is where the finger foods come in. With just puree alone they don't get to explore the food and make their own choices about what goes in their mouths. I've found that when I do give him solids, he is very apprehensive about it, he often doesn't put it anywhere near his mouth which can be really frustrating when you have spent ages cooking it but I think a little bit of perseverance with baby led will hopefully improve this and change apprehensiveness to curiosity! 

Ultimately, I don't know what is the best route or what will benefit baby most because every baby is different and will want to do things differently. I'm really trying to remember this and stress a little less!

Are you currently weaning? Hows it going?

Or have you in the past and have some tips for the rest of us?

Current Favourites

Recently, I've collected quite the list of favourites to share with you! Hopefully something here inspires you to read a book or have a pamper.

Firstly, coffee in this beautiful Starbucks mug with cookies/biscuits to dip. I've really been enjoying this mug recently, Liam got it for me for Christmas as we are big Starbucks fans and appreciate a good quality mug. It is the perfect size and shape for me and has a lovely wide top so you can dip even the biggest cookies inside. 

My biscuits of choice have been these Cadburys Mini Stars, I got them in Poundland, I've never seem them anywhere else but they are chocolate biscuits with a thick white chocolate star on top. I love them because of the way the white chocolate star melts into a delicious gooey mess on the biscuit when dipped in my coffee.

I am a big reader or at least I was until Rory came along and I lost the me time I used to read in. I bought Louise Pentland's Wilde About The Girl a few weeks after Rory was born and have only just finished it! It's taken me 6 months but it was a great read so fully worth it, I have now started reading Some Kind Of Wonderful by Giovanna Fletcher and have been stealing away every possible second to read it. It is so good already and I'm only a quarter of the way through!

A way I've been finding time to read is to have a bath! I either put Rory in the bouncer and have a bath while he watches his fave, Hey Duggee in the bathroom or wait till the weekend so Liam is there to take care of him. I take a book to the bath and pop in some bath time treats to make it a truly luxury experience. I've been really loving these Tranquil Beauty Bath Bombs and also the Zoella Beauty Moisturising Solid Bath Oil. Be aware that these bath oils really make a mess of your bath so you will need to scrub it down afterwards but they do make your skin feel soooo soft!

Lastly, music is something I've neglected since Rory came along but recently I have been really getting into it again! Bring Me The Horizons new album, Amo, is so so good so it has been my album of choice since it came out. I have also been loving Ashley Tisdale's new stuff! Both are worth checking out if you fancy something new to listen too.

Find My Faves

- Starbucks Mug : Instore

- Cadbury Mini Stars (I got my white chocolate ones from Poundland but can only find a link to the milk chocolate from Iceland)

- Wilde About The Girl By Louise Pentland

- Some Kind Of Wonderful By Giovanna Fletcher

- Tranquil Beauty Bath Bomb Set

- Zoella Beauty Moisturising Bath Oils

- Bring Me The Horizon : Amo, can be found on most music streaming services

- Ashley Tisdale : Love Me Let Me Go, can be found on most music streaming services

6 Months of Motherhood

Today, Rory is officially 6 months old and I have been his mum for half a year. I won't lie and say that this hasn't been the hardest 6 months of my life or that every step has gone exactly to plan but it sure has been the best 6 months of my life.

Rory is such a delightful little person, he has perfected his resting bitch face but when he does laugh or smile, it is so beautiful that you can't help but smile back. He can roll over, sit up unaided and is so close to be able to army crawl! He loves toast, sweet potato and his Sophie giraffe. And he really really loves his fur brother, Watson. 

He is such a daddies boy but is very clingy with his mummy. He gives the best cuddles with his chubby arms and soaks the bathroom every time he has a bath.

I am so proud of everything he is and I am because of him. I am so proud that I have exclusively breastfed him for 6 whole months and that I can happily whip out a boob in Starbucks or even while using a baby carrier in the supermarket. 

As I said though, not everything has been perfect and simple. I hated breastfeeding at the beginning, I struggled with lack of privacy and still do sometimes. He's a fussy sleeper, waking minimum of 3 maximum of 6 times a night, he won't nap in his cot during the day or in the pram meaning that I'm still breaking my back carrying his chubby 22lb butt around in the baby carrier. He isn't a fan of taking a bottle which makes ever leaving him hard and he is frustratingly clingy. 

At times these things get me down but then I look at all the things he has learnt in the past 6 months and feel so proud of both of us and of Liam for being the most amazing father. 

I cannot wait to see where we are in another 6 months, what we will do for his first birthday, what his first word will be (we think it will be papa) and when he will walk. 

Motherhood is and will continue to be a complete rollercoaster and I'm loving it!