Fabulous Toy Boxes

When you live in quite a small London flat trying to keep clutter down to a minimum is really difficult, particularly when you don't have room for a big toy box. That's why I'm loving these! 

They're apple crates from Plant a Box which you can personalise to your little one! You can add wheels, a lid, stencilling, and a blackboard. 

Plus they come in a great range of colours that you can mix and match. I've just ordered some green and cream ones with little W's name one that look great stacked against the wall. 

Priced at £34.95 for the basic box without extras doesn't make them the cheapest option but as a box that can later be used for keepsakes for your little one, I absolutely love them! 

www.plantabox.co.uk 

Being a Mother with Cancer

Today for the first time, we're going to be sharing with you a guest blog from the wonderfully strong and brave Heather Von St. James. She asked us very kindly if we'd be willing to share with you her story to help raise awareness of this devastating disease: 

Whenever people hear my seven-year-old daughter talk about my cancer, she has always has the funniest yet true things to say. For one, she likes to tell people, "I saved my mommy's life." It's a matter of fact for her, something so true that she knows it to her core, and so do I. While many people find it hard to really understand how a child can save an adult's life, she really did save mine and people only realize it after I tell them my story.

My husband Cameron and I wanted to make our marriage a priority. For seven years, we didn't even think about having kids, but finally, I was ready. I wanted to be a mother. There was something about having a baby that I couldn't get out of my head. It took us a little while but three pregnancy tests later, I was so incredibly happy to be a new mommy. I kept wondering about all of the things in the future that were now to come. What was she going to look like? What kind of mother was I going to be? It was months of questions for me while I was pregnant, but it was relatively smooth sailing. Delivery was a bit more difficult. Lily was a breech baby, which meant that I needed an emergency C-section. While it was surprising, we made it through wonderfully. I was holding her in my arms afterwards, just staring into her bright eyes and realizing that I didn't care if I was a cool mom or not. I just had to be a good mom.

That was the happiest moment of my life. It wasn't long after her birth that I started to feel strange. I was tired all the time and losing a lot of weight each week. I went in for some tests because I just didn't feel right. We were finally called back three and a half months later. My husband went with me, and we sat there, the doctor told us that I had malignant pleural mesothelioma. It was the ultimate blow. I had never experienced such an utter fall into emotional peril. How did I have cancer? It was true though. Not only did I have cancer, but I only had 15 months to live if I didn't get treatment. We chose to see a mesothelioma specialist from Boston. He was supposed to be the best with a high success rate.
After that, life was a whirlwind. I first went into major surgery to remove my lung, parts of my heart lining, chest lining and parts of diaphragm. I thought I was supposed to be spending this time with my new baby, but instead I was in and out of the hospital. I spent 18 days in the hospital recovering after the big surgery. I didn't have much time to spend as a mother, and it was all I could think about. Lily was my hope, my bright spot, the thing that I reached out for and thought of when times were most dark. As much as my husband gave to me, I saw myself getting better because I had to for my baby girl. She needed her mother for much longer. Every day that we were apart I thought of her and drew strength from the thought of holding her.

My journey with mesothelioma was difficult. Most people don't survive when diagnosed with the same type of cancer, but I did. I honestly believe that it was because I was able to have strength and continue to fight to be with Lily. I went through so much to be with her. I faced a hard surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, but I was strong because of Lily. She had come just at the right time in my life.

There were other people who helped us during this rough period. My husband was an amazing rock and the person who was always there when I needed someone to lean on. My parents were extremely helpful. I stayed in their home in South Dakota with Lily for a time before going back for chemotherapy and radiation. There were also friends, family and even people we didn't know who reached out and helped us. I didn't know that I had such a big family, but there were so many who just wanted to see me get better and have the family that I had wished for so long ago. It seemed like a lifetime during that year, but I faced those challenges and am happy to report that I am cancer-free today. I'll never forget what it felt like to be a new mother and that kind of happiness stuck with me throughout the ordeal.

Anti-colic bottle reviews

Following my decision to formula feed Arthur finding the right bottles has been an absolute priority as feeding in this way can bring a lot of windy problems. So overall I've tried three of the major brands anti-collic offerings: BornFree, MAM and Dr Brown and here are my findings.

BornFree

Firstly I'm going to be starting with the BornFree bottles, probably the least known out of the three brands in the UK but hugely popular over the pond. BornFree were the first to market with a Bisphenol-A (BPA), Phthalates and PVC free from offering, an attribute they like to shout about. 

The bottles themselves also have a patented Active-Flow venting system which has been designed to reduce air pressure and vacuum build up in the bottle which should reduce colic and gas pain. It's also supposed to allow your baby to control the milk flow similar to breast feeding if you're doing a mix. 

Having not previously heard much about the BornFree range I was quite open to trying them but wasn't really expecting them to perform as well as they did. The venting system is a little fiddly to clean and you have to make sure you separate the plastic parts for every wash as otherwise you would have a haven for bacteria to hide. 

However in terms of feeding and wind and colic the bottles performed well against the popular choices from MAM and Dr Brown. I honestly didn't see much of a difference when I used these bottles in terms of Arthur's discomfort. With all the bottles we did have some wind issues in the first couple of weeks of his life but he never had colic and we experienced very few episodes of uncontrollable crying as a result. 

The actual design of the wide-neck bottles is very similar to that of Dr Brown and I could easily mix and match the teats and tops. The design of the Deco bottles was also quite sweet with a picture of trees and birds and the green screw tops. Furthermore and where they out perform their competitors is in the screw top design. I haven't had a single leak in the five weeks I've been using these bottles which is a major plus in my books. 

With prices starting at £6.50 for a single bottle they're definitely worth consideration!

Dr Brown

The Dr Brown bottles have a great reputation and are often cited as the favourite anti-colic brand so I expected them to outperform all the bottles by a mile but surprisingly they didn't. 

The Dr Brown brand boasts that their bottles are the only fully vented vacuum free design, which helps minimise wind and colic and reduces the build up fluid in your baby's ear. However in truth the system is pretty fiddly especially if you are trying to prepare the bottle whilst out in about, as keeping everything sterile is a delicate juggling act. 

In addition I've found that bottle leak quite easily. You have to make sure that you don't put freshly boiled water in as the steam causes the water to explode everywhere, which is incredibly annoying if you've just put them straight into your nappy bag... They also leak after you take them out of the microwave if you're just gently heating them. I did check on the website to see if their was an answer to the leaking issue and apparently it occurs when steam or too much heat gets into the venting system. Therefore you should undo the caps by half a turn before popping them in the microwave. 

I also wasn't a fan of the measuring line on the bottles which they've recently indented onto the plastic so lines don't suffer from fading. This in theory should be much better for their longevity but actually it makes it quite difficult to read particularly when you have a build of condensation on the inside, so you really have to bend down and take a close look to see the water line. 

However the whole system does work quite well in terms of helping reduce wind issues as we had very little problems when we were using them in fact they probably are slightly better than the competition. 

MAM self-sterilising bottles 

The final brand I looked at were MAM mainly because of their self-sterilising feature, which I have to say is a huge bonus. It means that these bottles are so easy to take everywhere, especially if you're going away as there is no need to cart around a steriliser. All you have to to do is unscrew the bottom of the bottle, place the teat inside with a bit of water, then add the lid and microwave for three minutes. It's that simple. 

Their patented vent system is in the base as carefully designed holes regulate pressure balance and airflow. As their system is built in it means that there are less fiddly parts to mess around with when washing and making the bottles up. Furthermore in addition to the patent on the vent system they've also got a patent on their teats which are made using a silky rubber which is supposed to promote a familiar feeling (I'm not entirely sure what that means). 

What I also like about these bottles is the look as they've each got pretty designs which are quite fun and mean they stand out against the competition's offerings. 

I do have one criticism of these bottles though and that's leaking. As they have two screw parts if you line either of them up wrong you can have some issues and the threading design isn't great and I've had quite a few dripping bottles. 

Conclusion 

There really isn't a clear winner amongst these three so I think your final choice should come down to preference. If you're worried about leaking then Born Free definitely come out on top. Dr Brown are ever so slightly better on the colic scale so if you are having real issues with your baby then they might be worth the investment, especially if you spend a lot of time at home and therefore can prepare the bottles in a sterile environment. 

However, if you're out and about a lot then MAM would work really for you. In fact I think no matter what system you choose it's worth having a couple of the MAM bottles as an emergency back up as you can sterilise them no matter where you are. 

Let me know your thoughts though and if there are any other systems you'd like me to look into. 

Take care,

Mrs W