Life With My 2 Boys

I appoligise for the lack of posts this past week - its been one of those weeks where nothing much has happened but it never seemed to stop long enough for me to update my blog. My Laptop was unusable for a couple of days, which didnt help, and it was Elliotts last day of playschool for the academic year last Friday and everything seemed to be gearing up for that.

But this is a brand new week, its Monday and we are sitting in waiting for a courier care od Dorel Customer Services to come and collect our Maxi Cosi Axis car seat, which has potentially developed a fault. I have to say the service I have always recieved from Dorel has always been second to none - We previously had a problem with our car seat, which on the whole we are very pleased with, and to say that Dorel bent over backwards, went above and beyond the call of duty is an understatement. Now we have more problems here they are again coming to collect the seat and get it seen to just in case this minor problem turns out to be a major comprimise to the seats safety in an accident. I dont normally name names but we have very few customer service heros out there and so on this occasion I will say that we have been taken care of by Noel Seabrooke and Laura Parker over there and they are staff Maxi Cosi should be proud to have representing them!

So that having been said I'm going to pop on a new product review on a seperate posting and also find out what this weeks Gallery challange is!

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Elliott and Sam went to a pirate and princess party this afternoon - here they are dressed up for the occasion!

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The conversation went like this ...
Elliott: "lollypop" (as in I want a lollypop)
Me: "No Elliott you've had ice cream and you are going to have your dinner soon"
Elliott: "No dinner, lollypop"
Me: "Elliott I've said no, you've already had ice cream"
Elliott: "LOLLYPOP!"

At this point I decided to leave him to sulk for a minute while I called my husband so not to envoke a major tantrum; 2 minutes later I found him like this....

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All quiet for a couple of days on the blogging front. At present I should actually be prepping a drama workshop for a church youth group tomorrow....or today now.....but Sam has only just managed to settle for the night and as such work has not yet began; I need to get my poor tired brain into gear!

Yesterday I somehow managed to get locked out of my own blog- how embarrassing! However I am back in now and this morning my next product to review arrived on the doorstep in the form of the sanamama wrap - so far I cant persuade Elliott to give it a go but in the products defence he hasn't been in the most co-operative of moods today.

My plan for this week is to take part in the "Gallery" for the first time - this is something for blogging mums to join in on every week where we take a picture and write a piece on a given subject mater - this weeks theme being travel. As soon as this came in my content for this topic leapt to my mind after a particular incident last week so all will be revealed soon; I am hoping to take my picture tomorrow if I can capture it quickly enough.

Other plans for this week include writing a progress report on Elliotts eating problems and his check up on Wednesday with the health visitor at clinic. We shall also be taking part in a photographic competition to win tickets to Lollibop 2011 so again the results of that will be posted on my blog for all to see.

Aside from that we will be testing the sling at some point, Elliott willing, and seeing what the boys throw at me during the week......oh and I have a plan for my blog but all will be revealed!

On the subject of the boys we have made great leaps in improving Elliott and Sams relationship over the past few days. Their relationship wasnt bad - Elliott basically spent the majority of his time ignoring "baby", which is understandable, Sam doesnt exactly do a lot that a 2 year old can get excited about and when he does enter into his field of vision it is usually from being in his way of a cuddle or attention. On Friday Elliott wanted to play trains and because Sam was requiring my attention I said that if mummy played "baby" had to play too. Intitally he wasnt too amused but very shortly he started to enjoy playing with Sam and since then he has begun to actually request that Sam joins in his games.

Here is a video -- I should point out that when hubby and I play "trains" with Elliott we arent allowed to touch the actual trains

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Well things have taken a somewhat dramatic turn for Quinny in the past 24 hours - whoever is having to deal with the fall out over there deserves a weeks holiday and a VERY large box of chocolates!

Basically what has happened is that Quinny have had to put this years casters program on hold as the buggy they had chosen, the Senzz, has problems and therefore they are now going to wait a while longer and launch it with a brand new product instead - so it's not a case of "no you're no longer doing it" just a "not just yet" - fair enough. For me I think a) getting a new product to review before it has even hit the retail market not only is great exposure for my blog but b) I would rather take on a product that the manufacturers think is fantastic and put it through its paces to see how it holds up to expectation,than take on a product that has been on the market for a while and that they have already had plenty of feedback on to work out the kinks. For me product testing isn't just about writing what I think about the things I use everyday but reviews such as the type we are doing for quinny I hope will be taken on board by the manufacturers and the kinks that we find in it as parents and every day users listened to and used to improve on a design so that its a better product for everyone.

One day I will write up reviews on all the buggy's I have used so far but as a brief example the first buggy we owned was a silvercross 3d and the break system on it was rubbish if you were using it on public transport, the reason being the bus would go around a corner, gravity would take its effect on the buggy, put too much pressure on the break and the break would just come off. As a consumer I would hope that somewhere along the line Silvercross would take note of this, look at the break system and say this isn't good enough for our consumers, our consumers need to know that when they step onto a bus with our product with their baby in it that they aren't going to have to stop the buggy from escaping down the aisle every time it goes around a corner. As a consumer and public transport user I want to know NOT to purchase this buggy as it isn't suitable for my personal needs. Why is it so important to know this? because my CHILD, the most precious thing in the world to me is riding in it!

A good design means you have happy consumers that recommend your products to their friends and happy manufacturers that sell more buggy's - I remember the first thing I was told when I began working in retail at 16 was that if you have a happy customer they will tell 3 of their friends, if you have an unhappy customer they will tell 10 .... bring that up to date with Internet capabilities and these little blog sites with individual reviews can have a MASSIVE impact.

Quinny are getting a big backlash to pulling the senzz from the program right now that I personally don't think is necessary and I am actually surprised by the immature attitude some people, not even the people who were involved in the program, are taking to this. I think for many women their buggy to them is not only something they transport their child in but its an extension of the parenting experience, this picture we have had in our heads since we were little girls playing with dolly's and by offering a new toy to play with and then saying they cant have it may be more upsetting to some people than even they understand.

For now it is business as usual in our house, I am going to be continuing to try and find new products to review for my blog and to try and get that side of things off the ground as well as blogging about my boys because above and beyond everything else, I'm a mum!

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Well she came over - I'm not too sold on this new health visitor we have, she has this slow controlled tone normally adopted by opticians conducting and eye test - I will break down the things she has said may help with Elliott's eating -

** As we don't have a table we are to eat around an invisible table with Elliott facing us in his highchair with no distractions from the TV --- to be honest this will actually help with Elliott's wind down period before bed that there is a point when he knows the TV goes off.

** We are to keep light airy conversation during mealtimes and try to discuss simple things that he can understand that he can possibly contribute to.

** He is to eat his dinner from a large dinner plate with small amounts of food - this is apparently to trick him into thinking he has less food to get through than he does.

** We are not to draw attention to it if he doesn't choose to eat and not offer him anything else until the next allocated meal time.

** If he asks for something before we want him to eat his dinner we are not to say "no" but tell him directly but to say something like "Elliott we are going to eat dinner now so when you have had some then you may have a yogurt for desert"

** He doesn't have to eat all his dinner but as long as he eats some he can have a healthy desert, if he its nothing then he isn't allowed anything else.

** Make a fuss about what he has eaten and not draw attention to what he hasn't

**To reduce the amount of juice he has and to give him water - this is to ensure that he is drinking because he is thirsty and not because he just likes the taste.

I think that's basically everything - we will see how he gets on this evening - on Wednesday I have to him to the clinic and get him weighed and measured to see how his growth is getting on.

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This blog is really still in its infancy - not unlike Sam. At the moment it is slowly getting more attention and with a bit of luck over the coming months it will steam roll. As well as updates on the boys and the challenges that we face as a family I am also going to continue to write my product reviews and on this I have some exciting news!

We have been selected by Quinny UK to become new Quinny Casters testing out the Senzz travel system! Over the coming months we will be set challenges by Quinny to put the Senzz and ourselves through our paces. This is a really exciting opportunity and hopefully it will be the first of many big reviews for LWM2B

Here is an image of the Senzz to demonstrate what it is that we will be testing - I will post more info on it's specifications etc when it arrives and maybe even break into a spot of video blogging!

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Well I have been taking steps to battle Sams flat head and Elliotts eating - in fact the first step has been the same one, speak to the health visitor.

First up Sam - well she has said that there is nothing that can really be done to prevent it because its from the side he is sleeping on and that when his hair gets thicker it wont be so noticable....gees thanks for that! - so we are back to looking into flat head syndrome pillows and ways to encourage him to want to spend more time on his tummy rather than laying down.

Now onto Elliott - The health visitor has decided to do a home visit when he is at pre-school so that she can discuss it and ways to get him out of it. She did give me some literature to read and one thing I did find interesting was to NOT take away things like, chocolate, ice cream, biscuits etc - apparently for a fussy eater these are their "safe" foods, things they know wont harm them and so by taking these away it wont encourage them to eat "proper" meals it will just take something else out of their diet and they will loose all the calories etc from that and loose even more weight. I guess if the childs issue is with food and not with the fact that they are too full to eat then this makes sense when you think about it. So for now we will just continue as we are for another 48 hours and then see what she comes up with on Friday.

Things I will be blogging about soon....

More product reviews - being sent a couple of new products to try out aimed at young babies so I will be letting my thoughts be known on those.

Also - my battle with breastfeeding

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I seem to be getting a flat headed baby! -- I never had this with Elliott so its a new one on me to be honest. I dont think it is too bad at present but I would rather get ontop of it now before it becomes a problem.

So plan of action is to research a few products and then spend money we dont have - adding reviews of what I try to my blog.

The first thing I need to implement is more tummy time....we tried this today and he wasnt amused so I guess I will also try and find something that will encourage this also.
So here we go off on another side road journey....

There is another battle that we NEED to start winning in this house and that is Elliotts eating - or should I say lack of it!

Elliott was an amazing eater when he was being weaned - he would eat anything you put in front of him and he was an absolute joy to feed and loved flavour. Then one day at 18 months old he litterally woke up and decided he was going to be a fussy eater and he has been that way ever since. Elliott is one of those children who wont even put food in his mouth to taste it first, some days he wont even look at his dinner before declaring that he wont eat it. He basically is living on toast and weetabix as well as chocolate when hes allowed it. Tonight it has become screamingly aparent that something has to be done because my little boy with the typical 2 year old tummy now has a flat stomach and I can see his ribcage! 

At present he is cutting his back teeth so he has a few days grace till they settle down and then its going to be a case of trying what we can to turn the corner and get him eating again!

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Well I havent been particularly great with my blogging this week but I have a valid excuse

Last friday my cat, Charlie, had to be rushed into the vets with a blocked bladder - he was in until Wednesday and is now absolutely fine after this life threatening condition. I thought that was going to be the worst of the week but no

On Monday it was REALLY REALLY hot all day, Sam had spent all day wide awake and feeding due to the heat and by the evening was not only sticky but also colicy. I decided to let him have a nice cool bath before getting him to bed and see if it helped to settle him down. In the bath he wasnt a particularly happy camper and just as I was about to get him out he somehow manage to flip onto his side and either all or part of his face went into the water - it was hard to see because of the bath bubbles. I immediately lifted him out and he came up with his face covered with bubbles, panicing and not breathing because his face was covered he thought he was still in the water so was holding his breath. When the bubbles came off he was crying and trying to catch his breath and I put him on his stomach over my lap with his head lower than his body so any water could drain out of him. I was somewhat concerned about him because he seemed to be taking his time to recover from what seemed like a minor incident so I called NHS direct, who were about as much use as a chocolate t-pot! They spend most of their time making sure that they ticked all their boxes and asking me stupid questions like had he been crying for more than 4 hours and did have a rash - he had an accident in the bath it wasnt relevent to check him for menangitus! - they said he was probably fine because his breathing was returning to normal and just to keep an eye on him in case he developed a chest infection

 

Tueday rolls around and Sam spent most of the day sleeping and not eating very much - due to the amount of time he had spent awake and feeding the day before I figured that it was mainly due to this and he was just playing catch up because he seemed generally well in himself. At around 6.30 he went down for a nap and when he woke an hour later the first thing I noticed was that he was hoarse, he was trying to cry and no sound was coming out but a guinea pig squeek every now and then. He then started to cough and didnt look well and because of the accident the day before and the useless nature of NHS "please dont sue us" direct I decided to call the out of hours GP service to see if he needed to be seen or could be left till I could get him an appointment the next day. When the GP called me back he said that he did need looking at straight away and arranged an appointment with the out of hours GP at our local hospital - so off we go in the car and I notice that when Sam is in his car seat he is struggling to breath slightly and when he crys he cant breath properly either. The GP was lovely and she gave him a good once over declaring that although his symptoms were blindingly obvious she couldnt find a sore throat or hear an infection in his chest but she wasnt happy with him because of his age and she wanted him to be seen by a pediatrician. So off we go again but this time to childrens a&e.

 

I have to say they tried to sort him out as quickly as possible, he went straight to the front of the long queue into a room to wait (for a long time as the Dr was in resuss with a 9 month old) but we werent to see anyone then for about 2 hours. The doctore eventually comes and he was lovely - he kept saying "thats beautiful" a lot so the friend of mine that was with me and I nicknamed him Dr Beautiful - he gave Sam a thorough once over and again could see he was ill and see his symptoms but couldnt find the cause. He concluded that he thought the bath accident was probably co-incidental and he was either starting a chest infection or he had a virus and that he would either go home and get better or get worse but I was to wake every 2 hours for the rest of the night and check he wasnt struggling to breath or at all blue!

 

So after a very sleepless night - not aided by the doorbell waking Elliott up when I crawled in at 4am - we came into wednesday!

 

Sam again spent most of the day asleep or briefly feeding - I took him to clinic to be weighed under the theory that if he was going to loose weight due to being unwell it would be a good idea to have a baseline for the loss did he need to see a dr again. By the evening he still didnt look well and then at around 7 he developed a raised rash on the side of his face, at which point I decided that enough was enough and I was taking him back to a&e to be seen again. On arrival we were in for another LONG night but after a breif stint in the waiting room were shown straight to a room to wait for the pediatrician, who was able to see us a lot quicker this time. She again concluded that he was obviously unwell but she couldnt find why and so she was going to consult the dr we had seen the night before, Dr Beautiful - as soon as he heard that Sam was back he came straight down to see him and find out what had been happening since the night before. They were both really concerned about him and decided to ask the registrar to come and see him,which took some time as he was trying to save the life of another baby at the time - one who sadly didnt make it. When he was able to be consulted he ordered for Sam to have a chest x ray, which happened immediately and as we walked back in to a&e he was looking at it on screen.

 

This is when we finally discovered the cause of Sams illness! He had infact inhaled bath water after all and the chemicals in the bubble bath etc were causing a bacterial infection in his bottom right lung, and he also found that he did infact have a sore throat in a really difficult to see place. He was allowed to go home (at 4am again) with a plan of how to sort out his feeds, calpol for his throat and antibiotics for his chest. They also said that it was a good thing that we went back because he was not going to get better on his own and my instincts were right about the cause of his problems.

 

Since then he has been improving day to day and although still not completely 100% he has started to find his little voice again, is awake and feeding more and is lossing his chesty rattle. It has been a tough few days and the worse thing in a lot of ways has been that he hasnt been able to cry - he gets upset but no noise comes out so I have been constantly been paranoid that he is crying and distressed and I cant hear him so car journeys and bed times have been stressful -  I found putting the crib on rock so it moved when he cryed helped give me a visual cue there and if it had gone on much longer I was going to attach bells to it so I would hear it moving too. Sam in himself has been a little darling and even when he was at his sickest at any point you could get him awake he was still smiling!

 

Here is a rare couple of pictures of the boys TOGETHER taken on Tuesday before we knew that Sam was ill

 

 

 

You wouldnt have thought there was anything wrong with him that afternoon

 

 

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