Friday 19 October 2012

Disposable Nappies

Here I am, joining in the the old nappy debate, and write our experiences of different brands. I wish I'd read a bit more about them when I was pregnant, I ended up picking up huge boxes of Huggies because they were on offer, and we ended up throwing most of them away!

Huggies-
I thought I'd start with these. In all honesty, they are the worst brand we have used. They leaked, didn't fit well, gave Julian rashes. Ick. Basically, Huggies have an 'amazing' chemical in them, which turns urine into gel. Well this 'amazing' chemical, can form burns and all sorts on the poor babies! We were changing Julian's nappy when he was a few days old, and noticed these horrible little crystals all over him, so I decided to have a look online and see if anyone else had experienced these.
I'm a member of a great little forum called Baby and Bump, so I thought I'd start there. I came across a thread about Huggies, and it turns out a lot of mums and dads had problems with them. Someone posted about a story that they read from the States. In short, it said that a poor woman had been arrested for child abuse. She took her daughter to the hospital, because she had burn marks all over her genitals. Well the authorities concluded that the woman had poured boiling water over her daughter and scalded her. But it later turned out that this 'amazing' chemical in her nappies (Huggies) had burnt her! I mean, the poor child!
Since reading this story, there is NO WAY I will put these on Julian ever again. The rest of the boxes were binned, never to be bought again! I wouldn't risk putting something like that near my own skin, so why would I do it to my son?

Pampers-
These have actually been fine for us. The actual nappy design seems a lot better than Huggies. They have a kind of net inside, that seems to make them more secure. We have although, had a few leaks with these, with both ones and twos. And, to add to that, they are soooo expensive compared to our current brand! I had to run and get some from our local supermarket a few weeks ago because we were running low, and they were almost £7 for around 30 nappies!

Asda Little Angels-
By far my favourite nappy of the lot. They seem to fit really well. Julian has had, I think, 1 leak in the last 2 months of using them. He hasn't had any nappy rashes, and to top it off, they are £3.19 for 42 nappies! The one and only downside to these is that you can obviously only get them in Asda, and our closest one is the other side of town; however this is easily sorted as we order our groceries online from there anyway!

I know we haven't actually tried many different brands, but I thought I'd give my opinions on the ones we have used, just in case they help other parents or parents-to-be!

Emma x

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Hmm...

Wow, I didn't realise I hadn't updated in 8 days! This is going so well already... Lol.

On Monday we had a planned visit from our Health Visitor. Julian's weight was a bit up and down (he dropped from the 50th to just below the 25th centile in 2 weeks), so she's coming round every couple of weeks to keep an eye on it. Last time he was weighed he was 10lb 5oz. That was 2 weeks ago. This week he weighed 10lb 11oz. So he gained 6oz in a week, and has now dropped to the 9th centile. The HV said that babies are meant to gain at least 3-4oz a week, so he has just gained enough, but he was really scraping it. She's not overly worried at the moment, but she's coming back on the 29th to see how he's getting on. I breastfeed on demand, so he's feeding every time he's hungry. He feeds pretty often too, around every 2.5-3 hours.

If Julian's weight gain isn't any better at the next check, then we will have to talk about giving him a supplement of formula once a day. I'm really hoping I don't have to do that. I have nothing against women who chose to formula feed, but for me personally, I want to do it all myself. My body grew him for 9 months, so why should it not do anything for him now? I feel like a failure, I feel like I've failed my son. My milk obviously isn't doing enough for him, which is truly heartbreaking.

I've started offering him a feed every 2 hours. And so far he's taken every time. So hopefully he's just not realizing he's hungry straight away. It's not a major increase in feeds, but with any luck, that little bit extra will help him pick up the weight.

Julian's a very active, and alert little boy. Even the HV said she can't believe how active he is for his age. He's extremely strong too. So maybe he's just burning calories more frequently than the 'average' baby, because he's so active? I don't know. But it's giving me a major headache worrying about it!



Another 'event' this week is my little sister's birthday today. She's 11 now. I can't believe how quick it's gone! I remember my mum bringing her home from the hospital! She genuinely is the most amazing little girl. She's like my best friend. She's amazing with Julian too. She dotes on him so much. She's always getting him little presents out of her pocket money, and constantly asks to burp him after a feed, or change his nappy, or cuddle up with him. It's so sweet. Although, she hasn't quite grasps how to change a nappy yet, so you kind of have to redo the side tabs again, bless her.


I bought her this bear from Julian. It says 'Awesome Auntie' on the scarf.

We're going round to my mum's to see her tomorrow. We always go to pick her up from school, and she comes running out and asks to give Julian a cuddle. So cute!


I seem to have rambled a bit with this post, so I'm going to leave it here!

Emma x

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Welcome!

Hello!

This blog is a follow on from my TTC/pregnancy blog 'Journey to a Baby'. For those who don't know me I'll give you some brief details!



I'm Emma. I'm 18 and I live in Essex with my fiance Dave, who's 28, and our son, Julian. 





Julian was born at 6:20pm on the 6th of August 2012, at 39 weeks gestation. He weighed 7lb 0.5oz. When I was pregnant I wanted a natural water birth, but as many of you will know, any birth plans you have end up going straight out the window! I ended up having a natural birth, with only gas and air for pain relief. My labour ended up progressing pretty quickly, and I didn't have time to get in the pool!






Fast forward to today, and Julian is now 9 weeks old, and the most perfect child I could ever wish for. He started smiling a few weeks ago, which is the cutest thing in the world! He now goes to bed at 9pm and wakes at 6:30am. I exclusively breastfeed, on demand, and it's going really well. When he was weighed at 8 weeks he was 10lb 8oz!






Julian loves bath time, being naked, milk, and cuddles with mummy and daddy. He also loves watching TV! Well, looking at the lights and colours anyway. Embarrassingly, he has a thing for The Jeremy Kyle Show. We'll have to wean him off that when he starts to understand what they're saying!





                         


I'm going to try and update this blog as often as possible with all of Julian's achievements and any parenting things that I feel the need to share! Thanks for reading!

Emma x