I've Got A New Hat

Well I’ve finally had my breastfeeding peer support worker induction and have found out just how careful I have to be and how restricted I am about what information I can give out. Basically I am not allowed to mention North Yorkshire County Council unless I’m at one of their centres or sessions i.e. a Baby Café. This is to make sure myself, my family and any families I come into contact with are not put at any risk, which is a good thing. So therefore anything I say on here or anywhere else online will be my personal opinion but with the knowledge that I have had some additional training.

I’m really looking forward to be able to help as many mums as possible with breastfeeding either at the children’s centres or anywhere else. It just means that if I’m not at a NYCC session then I will have my “well informed mum” hat on rather than my “NYCC Peer Support Volunteer” hat on. Maybe this is a loophole in the system but if it means I can help more mums then great – that’s what I want to be able to do but I also want to do it safely without putting anyone in a risky situation.

I’m currently doing the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers’ Mother’s Support Module and so should be able to work under that hat easier and hopefully next year I will start the AMB’s Breastfeeding Counsellor training. This will take 2 years but hopefully this will mean I won’t be as restricted about how I can help other mums to breastfeed & in some cases stop breastfeeding because I’m certainly not against any mum that chooses not to breastfeed. I just want to give mums informed choices and support in their decisions.

So if you need any help with breastfeeding then please remember I’m a well informed mum unless you see me at Sherburn In Elmet Children’s Centre or Selby Breastfeeding Café. Both of which are great places to get support.

http://abm.me.uk/

One Very Special Little Girl

Ok well I’m supposed to be doing some training but I am too excited now to work.

A few weeks ago I had an email from Tommy’s asking people to nominate children for their Champion Children’s Awards http://www.tommys.org/Page.aspx?pid=805

Well I have a friend with a very special daughter so I hesitated for about 30 seconds before deciding I was going to nominate her for an award.

I sent the following email:

I would like to nominate my friend's little girl E for this award.

E was born in Nov 2007 at 28 weeks gestation weighing a very tiny 1lb 4oz. Despite being so tiny she proved to everyone what a little fighter she is and after spending an amazing 5 months in hospital she was finally allowed home with oxygen. I'm not sure exactly when she finally gave up her dependency on the oxygen but it was a bit of a battle for her with numerous trips back to hospital with breathing difficulties. Once again E fought all the odds and has gone from strength to strength. She has been left with chronic lung disease and severe deafness because of her prematurity but she's on the waiting list for cochlear implants so that should see another improvement in her very limited speech. She is currently learning to sign with the help of her fantastic parents. She started nursery recently and this has given her mum and dad a well-earned break each morning because she a lovely but very lively little girl. She really does deserve to win this award because she has battled against the odds and come out fighting. She is a very special and wonderful little girl and her mum and the rest of the family would be so proud to see her win an award like this.

Her battle to survive was followed not only by friends and family but also an online community that both her mum and myself are part of. I cannot stress deeply enough what this little girl has been through and how much she means to everyone that knows her in real life and also online.

To be honest I had forgotten all about it until yesterday when I received a lovely email from Tommy’s stating the E had won an award and would be invited to an award ceremony in London but they needed her mum’s contact details.

I didn’t want to hand out private details so did a very candid text, tweet & Facebook post to get hold of her mum to make sure it was ok. I’m not sure how much sleep she got last night but I didn’t want to spill the beans until Tommy’s had spoken to her. Thankfully she was over the moon and is now frantically doing some retail therapy to find a new outfit for them both.

I’m so glad I made the right decision and have made her mum very happy. She is a very special little girl and really really does deserve this.

4 Cakes, 2 Parties and a Birthday Tea

Well what a week it’s been! My mum and dad arrived on Thurs with a pre-birthday cake for Isabel but we didn’t get round to eating that because we were all going out for my nephew’s 5^th birthday at Pizza Hut with hubby’s side of the family. That was a bit stressful, partly because I just think it was too late and all the kids were tired from school but we survived.

Then came Sat and it was nephew’s party. In her wisdom, my sister in law had decided it would be a good idea to have the party at home. When we arrived there were several small boys just running up and down the lounge and they didn’t really stop until it was time to play a game and then eat. Her house isn’t the biggest and so it just seemed to have children everywhere you went. My two really enjoyed it though but I’m not sure we were popular with the other parents when both of them won the pass the parcel prizes. No we didn’t rig it!

Sunday and it was time for Isabel’s party. I had been trying to make her a birthday cake in the shape of Cinderella but it just wasn’t happening. I realised it really wasn’t going to work when I put the doll in the cake and it only came up to her knees! Isabel really didn’t look happy when I asked if I could break the legs off her doll, oops. Bad Mummy! So at the last moment, it was a mad dash off to Sainsbury’s for a substitute cake, leaving Isabel at grandma’s house so she wasn’t sick in the car. Managed to get her a Toy Story 3 one, not what she’d asked for but best we could do in the time. Finally got to the party venue, Polka Dots in Garforth – http://www.polkadotkids.co.uk/ and almost all her guests were there but still no sign of Isabel. The party went really well and then we all went back to grandma’s house to unwrap the presents. She got some lovely presents. (Mental note – must send out thank yous).

Tuesday 15^th Feb was her actual birthday so I invited family round here for a birthday tea. Of course this meant another cake. I had been to a different Sainsbury’s and managed to get her a Belle cake. When she saw it her face was a picture. It was just what she wanted! Woo hoo I finally got the right cake. Wished I’d done that in the first place though. House was manic and I spent ages in the kitchen sorting out food but it was worth it.

Now what do we do for Charlotte’s 2^nd birthday………….

Small Things Come in Beautiful Packages………Unless you want trousers.

Sorry but I have whinged about this to my hubby for too long and now I have to get it out.

For my birthday & Christmas I had asked for some Next vouchers so I could update my wardrobe. I desperately needed a new pair of jeans and previously had bought them from Next. I knew their short length ones would fit. How wrong could I have been?

It seems that since I last bought trousers from there that someone in their infinite wisdom had decided that the leg length of all trousers needed lengthening by 2 inches. So what used to be petite is now the length that regular trousers used to be and reg is what long used to be. Well at 4ft 11” a 29” inside leg is 2” too long. What research did the manufacturers do before they altered these sizes?

So anyway off I tripped to our local outlet village to the Next Clearance shop on the hunt for a pair of jeans. I scoured the rails looking at every pair. Yes you do have to search through every pair because they don’t think it’s a good idea to put the sizes on the hangers. There was 1 pair in my size but regular length – far too long. I was with my oldest daughter so as I walked away I was having a bit of a rant when a lovely member of staff asked if I was looking for something specific.  I told her what I was looking for and off she went. Back she came with about 5 pairs of jeans. Great, I thought. Nah wrong again. I could have petite or my size, not both. So I left empty handed.

Off we went to the Next shop to see if they had any in. I thought it might just be the clearance shop that didn’t have any in. Trailed round and I found 1 pair but they were just regular ones that were cropped length. They looked like they fitted. I asked a member of staff if they had any short/petite length ones in my size. No they don’t do them in that size. So same as the clearance shop I could choose leg length or fit.

I tried on the cropped ones and they fitted and were the right length. Fantastic! That is until I actually came to wear them for more than a minute or 2. They won’t stay up. As soon as I start to walk or bend over they start to work their way down so my backside would make a builder proud.

So do I keep them or try and return them and end up without any jeans to wear?

And what size am I? ….. well I’m a size 18. Not that huge and considering at least 40% of the female population is size 18 or above. Next are clearly not catering for their market.

Fussy Eaters

Cutter from Lakeland - anything to get her to eat!

After having yet another meal refused by my almost 5yr old I decided I need to see how everyone else copes with their fussy eaters.

The main things she refuses are potatoes, rice, pasta and anything with sauce, well except for schools savoury mince. What do they do with it?

She will eat cereals, sandwiches if the crusts are cut off, fruit, although she’s informed me tonight she doesn’t like apples anymore and most fresh meat including bacon. The bacon was something she virtually lived on while we were on holiday in Mallorca. Good job father in law knows most of the restaurant owners and we could get away with asking for a plate of bacon for her.

As for getting her to eat new things we have tried everything bribery included. She will try a new food but is usually saying yuk before it even gets to her mouth. We insist on her having school dinners on the days where the option is something I know she has eaten previously so she gets to try new things but most of the time she comes home saying she’s only eaten a little bit of whatever it was. So am I wasting my money and should I give in to her wanting packed lunch every day – not that they get eaten? 1 bite out of 2 quarters of a sandwich is hardly eating it.

If she’s had a lunch at school I’m happy for her to have sandwiches but if not then it’s a cooked tea. She will happily eat cheese or beef spread sandwiches or cereal for every meal if I let her or delightful processed meat but no chips or potato. If she hasn’t eaten at least half of her meal then it’s fruit or yoghurt for dessert, although I’m stopping the frozen yoghurts as she sees them as a treat and so doesn’t see that she is limited because she hasn’t eaten her meal. If she does eat it then she can have a choice of dessert – she usually picks yoghurt anyway but she will ask for biscuits or chocolate but then I only offer her fruit or yoghurt if she’s still hungry.

When she’s at home she’s constantly telling me she’s hungry but I’m not surprised because she hardly has any carbohydrates to fill her up and because of this she continually wants to snack. I try and limit snacks to healthy options but biscuits and crisps are a usual favourite. I have tried to give her just meals to see if she will eat them but this makes no real difference. She seems to be a grazer though and I wonder if this causes problems at school when she doesn’t have access to food all day.

We don’t get a chance to eat as a family Mon to Fri because of the time hubby gets home and I’m often working on a weekend but when we can we do try and sit down and eat together, in front of the tv or at the dining table.

So do I carry on as we are hoping she will eventually get better or do I try something else?
How do you deal with your fussy eaters?
Do you have any tips for me to try and get her to eat more things?