Christmas - A Mixture Of Emotions

It's nearly Christmas and I have not even started my Christmas shopping yet but I'm determined to try and get organised this year.

Christmas is a funny old time for me. It used to be for many years a time of sadness.

The last Christmas I had with my mum was in 1995, I was 17 and I remember Christmas day that year with all my family rallying round trying to make it as normal and happy for me and my brother as possible. My mum was upstairs in bed and I had only been told a few weeks before this that she had lost her battle against skin cancer and she didn't have long left, the doctors had hoped 3 months at least.

My boyfriend at the time who is now my husband was amazing, my total rock and even though we had only been together a month he supported me through one of the hardest times of my life. He had bought me a necklace and I had taken it upstairs to show my mum, she tried to focus on it and we chatted a bit. I'd been told to be strong and as such had tried not to cry in front of her but it was difficult and as the tears came flowing she held me and said 'I'm your mum, I'll always be your mum and nothing can ever take that away". She was so brave and she died not long after on the 29th December.

Since having Pop Princess and Rock Baby Christmas's are now something to look forward to. Pop Princess will no doubt be charging around the house, totally hyper darting from one present to the next. Rock Baby will be more interested in tearing up the paper than the actual toys and I will be watching it all and smiling with my husband (who continues to be my rock) by my side.

This year will be Rock Baby's first Christmas! so it will be even more special. I can't wait to take them both to see Father Christmas, hope RB doesn't get scared, her sister below was not that impressed on her first visit...



I better actually start getting organised as so far I haven't bought a single thing!

When Innocent Play Goes Too Far?

Well its been a wash out of a weekend. I've been in bed most of the time while my star of a husband has been entertaining pop princess and bringing me cups of tea whilst I have been coughing and spluttering everywhere!

Rock Baby went to the doctors last Thursday as I thought she may have a chest infection, but apparently she was fine but I was told to keep a close eye on her. However every time the calpol wore off she had a low fever and has just been so unhappy and just wanting to be cuddled. Today I had to swap my days around as my dad who has been looking after the girls on a Monday and Tuesday for me has also had flu so couldn't look after them today so luckily now I'm freelance it means I can juggle my days in work around. So I was at home today and Rock Baby seemed to be getting worse so I got her into the doctors this afternoon and it turns out she has an ear infection in both ears! poor thing so now she is dosed up on antibiotics and hopefully should be feeling a lot better in the next couple of days.

Pop Princess (touch wood) has escaped the cold germs so far so fingers crossed she doesn't come down with it next.

I had a scare last week when I had left Rock Baby and Pop Princess playing in the lounge to go into the kitchen and I could hear PP giggling away, when I went back in not even a few minutes later I found Pop Princess smothering RB with a big pillow which I had left behind her in case she fell backwards. It's the second time this has happened, the last time was a few weeks ago when PP took a cot sheet out of a drawer in RB's bedroom and put it over her face again in just minutes of being left alone as I was running the bath for them. I'm not sure where she has picked this up from but she obviously thinks it's a game and I have tried to explain to her why it most definitely is not and she could have really hurt her baby sister, but I'm not entirely sure it went in as she just goes onto the next exciting game or subject in her life. Poor RB she has gone from her big sister not wanting to know her for 9 months then in the last month she has gone the opposite way and now won't leave her alone!

I can't help thinking what could have happened if I had not gone back to check sooner, but I guess a lesson learned and I simply can't leave them on their own together so I am making sure I take one or the other with me when I go into a different room. If anyone has had anyting similar happen and have any advice please do let me know!

Sorry Blog I have neglected you!

My poor blog have not shown you any love or attention in nearly a month!

Life has been slightly crazy and I'm sorry.

I've been setting up a new blog for the company I have sent up aptly called Rock and Roll Baby World, having logos designed, sorting out the paperwork to be officially self employed (gulp) and gearing up to being back at work.

Its my first week back and my week is now split by 3 days per week in Cambridge working for my previous employer as a consultant, 1 day per week at home with the girls and on a Friday I do half a day from home.

I've been exhausted! Its going to take me a while to get back into the swing of things and get more organised which is not one of my strong points.

The Girls are having to adapt to a new routine and Pop Princess in particular has been struggling. I have been really lucky with child care as my dad who is retired is looking after them for two days per week and the rest of the time they are in nursery with one afternoon being looked after by my hubby's parents.

Its a lot of juggling and on Wednesday when I came home from work they both wanted to sit and cuddle me and when i picked one up the other started crying, so I was trying to console them both but I think by the end of the 3 days of not seeing me much they had decided that was enough. Then you have the old story of feeling guilty for making them feel unsettled and they have had such a lovely year with me whilst I was on maternity leave and now it's all change again.

Today we have just been to the park and stayed in the rest of the day just playing with toys, making cakes and thank you cards for pop princess's birthday presents. Just trying to spend some quality time together.

I promise not to leave it so long next time, I leave you with some photos taken of our recent holiday in Norfolk, we went about 3 weeks ago and it was freezing!

Pop Princess 3rd Birthday

Pop Princess turned 3 on Wednesday, where have those 3 years gone?! my little girl is not quite so little any more. On the eve of her birthday when her daddy went to kiss her goodnight she announced "Daddy, tomorrow I will be turning 3" in such a matter of fact kind of way.



We had decided on a cup cake themed party as she is mad about cakes. So preparations started the week before and as well as the traditional Pass the parcel, we were also going to do pin the cherry on the cup cake, cake decorating and have a cup cake pinata.

So PP and I got to work on the pinata which was paper mache moulded around a balloon for the top and a flower pot for the bottom, which we then stuck together and painted. We also made paper chains to decorate the room and bought some large pink card to draw the cake for the pin the cherry on the cupcake game. It was great fun making them together and as the weather was so awful in the lead up to the party it gave us a great activity to do whilst it rained outside.

I was trying to be as organised as possible this year but as usual with a husband that unfortunately works late and had big deadlines to meet I was having to organise most of it by myself. I thought we were doing OK but on the morning of the party I was racing around like a headless chicken, trying to entertain PP and Rock Baby, tidying the house, setting up the party, getting myself ready and preparing the food. The party started at 3pm and at 2.45 we were only just doing the sandwiches for their tea! thank goodness one of my good friends offered to come over early and she was a life saver helping to get the food done.


I felt a bit bad though as my husband had taken the day off work and I was getting myself in such a flap I was just barking orders at him all day, I bet he wished he had stayed at work!

We had 8 energetic 3 yr olds for tea and 4 babies and it was a great afternoon. My step mum made the most amazing cake which went down a storm. She is so clever, I only wish I could make things like that.

Pin the cherry on the cupcake was a non starter as they didn't want to be blindfolded! and pass the parcel was hilarious as each of them was holding onto the parcel for dear life or just unwrapping it regardless of whether the music stopped!

The Pinata looked fab although they each pulled a ribbon but the damn thing didn't fall apart like it should have done so I ended shaking it and ripping it a bit and ended up with the top half of it on my head which the kids found hugely entertaining.



PP favourite present was her pink microphone and she was doing her best Liam Gallagher impression on it.....maybe she will take after me and work in the music industry!

The Work Experience Girl

Well I drafted in help this week to help me get the ZingZillas Album out in the post to all the lovely bloggers who had requested copies for reviews.

Although she did have to keep stopping for breaks to suck her thumb!

Pop Princess's first ballet lesson!

On Saturday Pop Princess had her first ballet lesson, she had been excited all week about it. When we got there she marched straight into the big hall and started immediately chatting away about anything and everything. The teacher was cracking up I think she couldn't believe how confident and forward she was; seeing as she didn't know anyone else there. I am so proud that she isn't fazed by new situations and I really hope this stays with her as she gets older.

I was allowed to sit in the corner of the room and watch and we were about ten minutes into the lesson when the kids and the teacher were prancing around the room and the teacher who is lovely (and has the patience of a saint), was telling Pop Princess what to do with her feet and toes. PP stood there with one hand on her hip and the other hand wagging her finger saying 'no I'm not going to do it like that, look I Will do it like this'. As I shrank into my seat the teacher was looking bemused and her brow started to crease.

Five minutes later PP left the group and at the top of her voice said 'Mummy I need a wee', so off we went to find the toilet, got there but no she did not need a wee now so we went back to the class.

Another five mins later and an obviously distracted PP was looking uncomfortable and again 'Mummy I need a wee'. Off we trotted again and this time after what felt like ages holding her over the loo she was done.

She went storming back into the class and announced to the class at the top of her voice 'Wait for me everyone' she then said 'I've just done a big poo'.

By this stage I was cracking up and wiping tears from my eyes. My daughter who is 3 next week is quite a little character and certainly makes an impression where ever she goes and I wouldn't want it any other way! Hopefully we won't be banned when we return next week!



My cheeky madame above!

Win Nip +Fab Products!

I was asked to review a new range of beauty products being launched TODAY! at Boots called NIP + FAB. It didn't take much to convince me! As a mum yes I have the dark circles under the eyes, cellulite around the old thighs and lines starting to creep up all over my face! That's what two babies will do for you so every girl needs a helping hand to at least attempt to look half human.



The NIP + FAB range sounds fantastic......

NIP + FAB, a new collection from Maria Hatzistefanis, beauty expert and celebrated creator of global bestselling brand, Rodial launches.



Tipped to be the hottest launch of 2010 and with a growing list of celebrity fans (Denise Van Outen, Olivia Palermo, Alexandra Burke, Kimberley Walsh, Diana Vickers and Ellie Goulding), Maria created the range of mass market skin care products, with premium credentials for customers who want measurable results but at prices that don’t cost the earth.



The clinically tested range for the face and body delivers 11 targeted treatments from eye brightening and skin plumping to cellulite and nipple smoothing, and is crammed with breakthrough natural and technologically advanced skin smoothing, boosting and firming ingredients.



Each hardworking, no nonsense product “does exactly what it says on the front” and will deliver exceptional ‘targeted results and instant fixes.’ Housed in fresh, stylish packaging and with brilliant product names like Tummy Fix, Lip + Nip Fix, Bust Fix and Eye Fix, this ‘must-have’ range already has a growing waiting list of people desperate to get their hands on these savvy buys.



To celebrate the launch in Boots, we’ve got 10 x NIP + FAB Eye Fixes, worth £14.95 to give away to 10 lucky winners. So if you fancy winning just become a fan of the NIP + FAB Facebook page and quote on it’s wall ‘rockandrollbabyworld’. The 10 lucky winners will be picked at random and contacted by NIP + FAB via Facebook.

I'm looking forward to receiving the products to review and will be reporting back to you all with my findings!

My two girls FIRST ever 'Smile' - The Gallery

I have been absent from The Gallery for the several weeks, shame on me and I so enjoy the weekly prompts but life has sort of got in the way, however this week I am back!

This week's Gallery theme is 'A smile'. I have chose two pictures of the girls and these pictures were their first smiles caught on camera, both were around 4 weeks old.

With pop princess (in the pic below) I remember running to get the camera when she first smiled then coming back and waiting for ages whilst I pranced around in front of her to try and get her to smile again. The result was this picture:



We loved it so much we used it as our new birth announcement cards.

The second Picture was Rock Baby's first smile. This was caught using my dad's camera when we were staying over his house and she was laying in her moses basket chilled out as usual and I was cooing over and then this lovely little beam came back at me. It's not the greatest shot picture in the world but it did catch the moment.



Don't forget to visit Sticky Fingers to check out the other entrants!

Another year another birthday party to plan!

It’s that time of year again when party season begins and with that it brings the pressure each year to put on a party for pop princess. I really thought the whole party thing wouldn’t start till they reached school age but when she was 1 we decided early on that we would just have family over for a little tea party for her, but then we got invites from all our NCT friends to their children’s parties and these ranged from large gatherings at their houses to people hiring out halls!

I couldn’t quite believe the huge effort and planning some of my friends put into these parties after all they were 1 and would not remember. Then I ended up feeling guilty, perhaps I was a bad parent for not making the same effort and not having that same thought process to do anything big for pop princess.

Then last year when she turned 2 me being the rubbish organiser that I am hadn’t even thought what we were going to when invites came flooding in from her friends. These invites ranged from a party on a farm, a hall with children’s entertainer, pottery party etc etc. So not wanting PP to miss out and determined to plan something we went ahead and decided to book a hall and got a little bouncy castle, had music, colouring areas, food, and a lady called Coco came along and did songs on her guitar which was great. It was a lot to organise but PP just loved it, and thank god we had her grandparents to help who dutifully helped set up and clear away. It did end up costing a lot of money but we thought it was worth it as she hadn’t had anything big the year before.

Next Month PP is 3. So far we have been to two of her friends birthday parties who both had a bouncy castle, which seems the most popular choice for 3 year olds and we have also been invited to a soft play party and a swimming party. It seems each year the parties get bigger and there feels like pressure to keep up with her friends so she doesn’t miss out and if you don’t have a party you feel like you have to explain you’re not having one for fear your friends think that their child hasn’t been invited!

So this year PP is having 6 of her closest friends over in our very small house to enjoy a birthday cup cake themed tea party with her. We are going ‘old school’ and having pass the parcel, sleeping lions, a little buffet and music they can dance along to. Plus some cup cake themed games like pin the cherry on the cup cake and I am going to make a paper Mache cup cake piñata! It’s the sort of party I used to have when I was younger and I always enjoyed them!

There will be no pottery, farm, swimming, pony grooming big party this year. Just yummy food, good friends and family and hopefully no stress! Although I’ve already started to worry about it, will PP enjoy it? will it be special enough? and I know I am being stupid because of course she will enjoy it but I just want to do a good job for her, do you know what I mean?






(Above)PP enjoying her party last year

Rock Baby's Strawberry birth mark the progress so far

On Friday we went back to the hospital so that Rock Baby could have a check up, they showed me the picture they took of her on her first visit and in just 7 weeks since we started the medication there is a great improvement in her birthmark.

It is less red and now seems flat against her head where as previously it was very raised. They are very pleased with her progress and after all my worrying I feel so much better as I am now confident the choice we made to go ahead with the new procedure was indeed the right one.

Rock Baby was not born with the birthmark it gradually appeared after about 4 weeks after being born and then gradually got bigger and bigger as she got older. So I have put a series of photos together below so you can see the difference.



The pictures above are from birth up to about 4 months, the ones below are from 5-7 months, the second one in was taken on the day she started the medication.



The picture below was taken over the weekend and you can see the difference very clearly.



Rock Baby gets weighed and has her blood pressure checked on her monthly reviews at the hospital. Thankfully she has has no side effects from taking the drug Propronal and its obviously doing the job it's supposed to.

The last few weeks!

The last few weeks have been hectic! My husband has had two weeks off on holiday and this is the first year we didn't really plan anything, we had the last minute panic of should we book something abroad or even a cottage in the UK but in the end decided against it.

I'm really glad we didn't book anything as we have had a fab few weeks, and the girls have really enjoyed having their daddy around as have I. He works long hours and so in the week he is rarely home to say goodnight to them and with Rock Baby he has struggled to bond with her.

Over the last few weeks I have seen their relationship blossom, RB has been taking much more interest in her daddy, he has been feeding her and giving her her bottles, giving her baths and playing with her and its made me so happy to see this. Pop Princess has been full of beans and making her daddy read 'just one more book' every night before bed.

Me and my husband have also managed to get some quality time with each other, enjoying our first night away since Rock Baby has been born to celebrate my birthday. We stayed in a gorgeous hotel in Cambridge (Hotel Du Vin), had a fantastic room with baths at the bottom of the bed!! My husband spoilt me rotten and we had time just to talk without being interupted and able to concentrate on the conversation and more importantly just to laugh together. We also slept in till 11am the next morning woo hoo, it was amazing.
The girls stayed with Nanny and Grandad for the night and had a whale of a time, feeding chickens, making me a birthday cake and eating ice cream. My initial worries of leaving RB for the first time soon disappeared with my stepmum giving me regular updates by text!

I'm really lucky that my dad found a lovely lady to remarry and she has has accepted the girls as her own grandchildren and they love her to pieces as they do their Grandad. They are always around to help us out and we do manage to have the occasional night out and lay in the next day thanks to them.



We've had lots of day trips including one to Wimpole Home Farm, with my sister in law and her husband and their three children. Pop Princess adores her cousins and they dote over her and Rock Baby. We also went to stay with our close friends in Oxford who have children about the similar age to us. We have been friends with them for over ten years and I used to live with Rebecca when we are at university. We had some mad times together from mud infested Glastonbury to raving all night till 6am the next day. Obviously life has changed a great deal and we were just pleased we managed to drink a bottle of wine and not feel too grotty the next morning when the kids were up bright and breezy at 6.30am!

I can't cook!

I can’t cook to save my life, I’ll give things a go, I want to be a good cook but guaranteed every time something will go wrong.

When I say every time, I mean every time. My mum was a rubbish cook too so I definitely inherited her genes, it meant I never learned any cooking skills growing up and the very little I did learn came from my Nan.

Pop Princess loves to cook and make cakes and I do try my best to do this with her, she often gets bored half way though and wonders off and leaves me to it.



Cooking is not something I enjoy probably because it nearly always ends in disaster. Now as I start to wean Rock Baby I feel like I’m pinned in the kitchen constantly and even her food goes wrong, for instance today I made her Leek, pea and potato puree but I forgot it was on the stove and when I realised the water had all gone and the vegetables were starting to burn on the bottom of the pan!

I tried to make rice pudding in the week in the microwave and the pudding rice and milk spilled over the bowl and exploded everywhere leaving a huge lumpy mess. I tried to make custard but that went lumpy and horrible when I was heating it up and then today a simple thing like baby rusks, I added milk and it still went wrong and wouldn’t go into a smooth paste. All my friends and family keep saying just blend up a bit of the food you are having for dinner but it’s not as simple as that.

I don’t cook in the traditional way, I often cut corners like tonight we had lamb chops, potato rosti’s and Mediterranean Vegetables. However the Rosti’s were frozen and the veg were ready to roast in a tin pre prepared so they just needed to be stuck in the oven. Pop Princess is a really fussy eater and I’m almost certain it’s because she doesn’t have a massive variety. She loves pasta and I can make pasta sauces and things like macaroni cheese but her food is very basic and traditional and I often cook for her and myself as my husband is really, really fussy.

I will eat anything but he is a real English traditionalist when it comes to food (meat, potato and veg), he is also often home very late from work so it’s easier for pop princess and me to eat together earlier.

When it comes to dinner parties it gets me in a right flap. Most of the time I will chicken out and we would order takeaway in but I would love to be confident enough to have a go and cook a really nice meal for my friends without getting into a state about it!



I talk about this with my friends and family and they all make a joke about it and say you can cook, of course you can but I really can’t and it does get me down as I would love to be able to have that natural flair but its something I lack so if anyone has any suggestions on how I can improve or simple recipes that I simply can’t get wrong then let me know!

Update from Monday's hospital treatment on Rock Baby

Rock Baby went into hospital on Monday to start the treatment for her birthmark, as you may be aware I was so nervous about this and was really worrying as to whether we had made the right decision to go ahead.

We arrived at 11am and she had her ECG, blood sugar test (heel prick), blood pressure and blood tests and she coped with these amazingly she obviously cried when they took the blood but no way near as much as I was expecting she was so brave. At 2 pm they gave her the first dose of the drug Propronal, which in effect is a beta blocker which constricts blood supply to the birthmark. They have to test blood sugar and blood pressure 45 mins after administering it and again 2 hours after.

Her blood pressure was notoriously hard to find, the automatic machines would not pick it up as she was just too small and when they did it manually they were struggling to hear so what should have taken minutes ended up taking longer making her very uncomfortable. When they did the heel prick two hours after her blood sugar level had dropped so they suggested giving her some food and milk to see if it would pick up. When they retested it had dropped even lower, not dangerously low but low enough to cause concern.

So when they gave her the second dose at 6pm they only gave her half a dose and they did yet another heel prick and her levels had returned to normal. We were getting her ready to settle her down for the night when the nurse came in and said she had spoken to the doctor and they felt that she should have a cannula put in just in case the sugar level dropped in the night and she needed a drip.



When we were weighing up the pros and cons of having the treatment this was never mentioned that this could be a possibility, so it was a shock to hear she would now have to have the cannula. I just couldn't understand it as her blood sugar was normal as was all her other vitals but on the safe side they wanted it in. In one respect I can understand why as its much more difficult to get a cannula in when something does go wrong but on a 6 month old baby I feel they could have waited for just another hour to see if anything had changed then made the decision as to whether to put one in.




I couldn't go in with her, I watched my husband carry her into the room and as I paced around I thought I was going to be sick as I could just hear her screaming whilst they put it in. It was heartbreaking and as if I didn't feel guilty enough this was the limit for me and I was so upset at putting her through it.

She came out of the room shaking and sweating it was awful her little hand was in a splint and all bandaged up but its amazing how quickly she settled and started smiling again. We got her to bed about 8pm but they had to wake her up every hour till 2am in the morning checking her blood pressure etc.

None of the nurses could get a reading on the blood pressure so what should have taken minutes ended up taking forty minutes and in the end they had to call the doctor to take it. 2am she had the last dose and then they left her alone till the morning.

She had another final dose at 10am the following morning and then we were allowed home. They got the student nurses to take out the cannula and do one last blood pressure check which did annoy me as they really hurt her and I know students need the practice but they knew the blood pressure was hard to get and the nurse was under pressure to get a reading and ended up leaving marks on her little arm where it was done up too tight.

I was just really upset by the whole thing, I just feel we weren't properly briefed as to what could happen i.e the likelihood that she may need a cannula and the amount of monitoring that was required. As we left we were also told she would need the medicine 3 times a day and it had to be spaced out every 8 hours, which means giving her a dose at 11pm at night. I wasn't happy about this as she has just started sleeping through the night from 7pm to 7am and the last thing we wanted was to disturb her and muck up her sleep.

However we tried last night and even though it did wake her a little she settled straight back down but if it does start becoming an issue I'm going to see if they can sort the dose out so she can have it 3 times in the day.

I think in the end she must have had about 10 heel pricks and in the night they were using her fingers, but you know she kept smiling and beaming at them in between the bits when they were hurting her. I couldn't believe how well she coped with it all and she already seems to have forgotten about the whole thing.

We were glad to get her home, she hasn't been unsettled and on Tuesday she slept for most of the day. I now just hope that it was all worth it and that soon we should see her birthmark reducing in size.



(Above Pic) - Recovering at home the next day

Nature - The Gallery

Its week 21 of The Gallery and this week's theme is 'Nature'.

This week Pop Princess, Rock Baby and I went for a walk to the local park and we went on a little nature trail. Whilst Rock Baby snoozed in the buggy, PP set about collecting as many fir cones as she could and she found a handy little hiding place for them in the tree.

We don't have a large garden, its more like a concrete slab the size of a postage stamp so we are lucky to have a beautiful park and river right on our doorstep.

Here are some pictures from our recent outing













Don't forget to pop over to Sticky Fingers / The Gallery and check out the other posts.

Rock Baby Starts Treatment on Monday

Rock Baby is booked to go into hospital on Monday as soon as I rang up this morning and confirmed the appointment I felt sick and I have a strange feeling which just won’t go away.

I also feel guilty as to what I am about to put her through. She is going in to hospital to start treatment to remove her strawberry birthmark which is on her forehead. She has to have blood tests, ECG’s, organ function tests etc to check that she is able to cope with the medication.

They then administer a drug called propranolol at 2pm, the first half hour is the most critical to see if she has a reaction. If she is ok she is given more doses at 6pm and 10pm then 6am and 10am the following day. If all is ok she will be allowed home and then we continue the treatment three times per day until the birthmark disappears. They estimate worst case scenario it can take up to 9 months.

Apparently the results are almost immediate with a reduction in the birthmark as soon as the next day. Propranolol has been used for up to 40 years and is more commonly used for treating high blood pressure.

We are very lucky in that our local hospital has become one of the first in the country to have a paediatrician that specialises in this treatment for birthmarks as the usual route is laser removal. However with Laser there is a risk that the laser will not go deep enough to the roots of the haemangioma.

We have obviously weighed up the pros and cons of this treatment and agonised whether to go ahead and after two consultations with the specialist we decided to have the treatment. I am obviously worried in case something should go wrong and there is no medical reason for her to have it and it is more cosmetic. I think we have made the right decision and I just hope it all goes ok.

Secret Post Club

A couple of weeks ago I took part in my first ever Secret Post Club which is the fantastic idea of Heather over at Notes From Lapland. The idea being you take part in an international secret Santa type swap and you get to receive a lovely surprise present though the post and get in contact with fab new blogs.


Mine came through the post and the post mark on the front was from Hawaii!! It’s the first time I have ever received anything from Hawaii and it’s a place I would so love to visit we were thinking of going there for our honeymoon at one point but settled on Mauritius in the end.

Inside my parcel was a gorgeous necklace with a shell on it and a big pack of chocolate Macadamia nuts which are apparently the taste of the tropics, and my were they tasty! Pop Princess and I devoured them in just two days!

The Parcel was sent by a lovely lady called Sarah Mae who blogs over at www.sarahmaelennox.blog.com and www.littlestitchesfromsarah.blog.com. If you get the chance pop over and read about her recent move to Hawaii!

I've solved the crime!

The other baby in my life Finnie went for her check up at the vets recently and we were told she was over weight and would have to go and see the weight watchers nurse and join the disgraced dog club. We got a lecture and went away with slapped wrists to try and sort out her weight ourselves without her having to endure the humiliation of weekly weigh inn's.




The Wii Fit has come in very handy and we have been keeping tabs on how much she is losing on a weekly basis and she has been doing really well..... until recently.

We could not work it out. She had been on daily walks, her food has been cut down by half and she has not been getting any treats. She started off sulking and looking at her dried food in disgust to see there was no fresh ham on top like we used to give her but just recently she has a certain sly and happy look on her face.




By a strange coincidence Pop Princess has been eating all her lunch and dinner and after notoriously being a fussy eater seems to have turned a corner and for the last few weeks I have been praising her so much when she looks at me so delighted and chimes "I've finished, look I've ate all my dinner!"

Mmmmm something doesn't add up here does it?!

Finnie keeps sloping off licking her lips at every meal time and with further investigation Pop Princess's little hand disappears as quick as a flash under the table I'm no Sherlock Holmes but I think its now dawned on me I have a clever little toddler and a very cunning dog.

Finnie is now banned from the dining room at meal times, so she is back sulking again and Pop Princess? well she has become fussy once more.

My Breastfeeding duties are coming to an end...

I have spent the last few months in a state of breastfeeding limbo. I have been whittling on and on about how Rock Baby would not take a bottle and how it was making me feel trapped and restricting me from getting on with my life.



I tried every bottle out there and all reduced her into a screaming mess so I gave up on bottles last month and instead have been trying her with a cup. This has been more successful and what began as most of the milk going down her top she is now managing to take about 5oz so I have now dropped her 11am feed and replaced it with formula from the cup. Today I have started to also cut out her 3pm feed and replace that with formula too so in effect I will only be BF her first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

So I should be elated she has finally accepted that there is another alternative to me feeding her and I can see me getting back to normality. Why then do I feel incredibly emotional about it all? It's after all what I wanted but for some reason I feel upset and confused by this.

The same thing happened when I switched over with Pop Princess. I said with her and the same with RB that I wanted to BF till she was 6 months exclusively and then cross over, she was easier as she took a bottle with a little less fight but the transition seemed smooth.

BF has such a powerful hold over me its by far the greatest bond making factor for me personally and it's the one area of total control I have, I am or was the only person that could provide her with what she needed and now that's slipping away. But more deeper than that I guess its the fact that she isn't that little newborn any more like her sister before her she is growing up fast and she may well be the last baby I will have.

I have enjoyed BF for the most part but I know I am now ready to move on and as she is no longer crying when offered an alternative to me feeding her I know she is ready too.

So as I write my boobs are sore and huge, I am feeling every so slightly hormonal and I hope I'm not being too selfish for wanting to give up and have my life back. But yes the time has come and I hope that this time next month when she will be weaned off me completely that I wont' be feeling as guilty and I have one happy little baby.



Unfortunately I'm going to need to keep covered up for the next few days as I look like I have a pair of water melons growing out of my chest!!!!

The Gallery - Can you see what it is yet?

This weeks Gallery theme was Can You see What it is yet?


It was supposed to be a photograph of an every day item, taken at a funny angle now I did try but everything I took was so obvious! So I came up with this picture of pop princess playing on her bed with her teddy bears take a close look all is not as it seems!




Hope I haven't bent the rules too much and get booted out now of next week's Gallery!

If you want to check some really good pictures of people that have stuck to the guidelines hop over to Sticky Fingers NOW!

Further to the above I would like to add another picture yes I think i have been clever now and this is from the same shot as above



I got there in the end!

Decisions, decisions......

Its been an interesting week I have made a lot of decisions in the last month about returning to work. I have been incredibly lucky as I have a very supportive boss and after meeting him this week I now know what I am going to do and its very exciting.

I'll be going back to work in November but will be employed as a consultant, I'm going to be doing PR again for established acts and celebs but more excitingly I am allowed to also set up my own company. Rock and Roll Baby World will also be a specialist marketing agency specifically related to mummy blogging!

Over the last week I have been so bowled over with the amount of support I have had from fellow mummy bloggers. I've been picking their brains, sending them questions and they have all come back so enthusiastically and with feedback and advice which will help set me up and I can't thank them enough. If I've had any questions they have been answered straight away and I just feel extremely lucky that I have come across so many genuine people that want to help. This just doesn't happen in the 'real' world but I really feel that the mummy blogging community is such a special place and its great to be part of.

I hope I can now repay the help and support I have received with some great products / exciting trips and acts for them to meet. If you want to know more about my venture and be involved click on my mummy blogging database at the top of this page.

Being a consultant and having my own company will mean I can work from home more and spend more time with the girls and have an added flexibility to my work hours which is really important to me.

So now I am in the midst of setting up a website, designing logos and putting together company information and I feel so excited and positive for the future. Being a mummy blogger and pr I hope will set me in good stead to build on the already fabulous relationships I have made already.

On another note I am back to the hospital tomorrow for our second visit about RB's birth mark. Its a bit more complex than I had originally thought and I have lots of questions still but tomorrow we make our final decision as to whether to go ahead with it.

PP has just spent the weekend with her grandparents and had a lovely time. She adores it over there as my dad has a big garden with chickens which she loves to feed and chase! We don't have a big garden its more of a court yard so she has great fun over there. Soon RB will be able to go too when she is less reliant on me feeding her, but she has been doing so well recently taking milk from a cup and I can now leave her for half the day!

The Gallery - Holidays

This weeks The Gallery theme is holidays. As I don't have a scanner at the moment I had to use what pictures I had on the computer already and so I've chosen this one:



It shows me and my hubby and our little dog Finnie. This was taken pre children on a holiday we went on in Devon about 5 years ago. I chose it as that was our little family us and our dog who we treated like a baby (still do!). We look younger, happy, relaxed, not too many lines under our eyes and it just feels like a life time ago. So much has changed since then, we have two beautiful daughters now, we have a mortgage, we have responsibilities. We are proper grown ups now!

Don't forget to hop over to Tara at Sticky Fingers to check out the other posts!

We survived the POX!

A quick post just letting you all know what’s been happening at Rock HQ these last few weeks.

Well Rock Baby did indeed get the pox and oh my gosh she got it bad! As a second time mum I really should be used to illness now and have an inbuilt rational switch that comes in to play when they do come down with something.

However I do not. RB was so poorly, she was covered from head to foot and I thought babies under 6 months were only supposed to get a mild version, this definitely wasn’t the case.

She was so uncomfortable one night at 2am in the morning I was on the phone to NHS Direct as she wouldn’t stop screaming and was thrashing around in the cot as they were so bad on her lower back and nappy area she was trying to move around to rub them and was very distressed.



This was a week ago and now she is back to her bright and cheery self and the spots are beginning to fade. So it’s been nearly a month inside in isolation, so been a pretty miserable time all round!



Today we have been to the hospital about RB’s birth mark and had our first consultation with the paediatrician who will do the procedure, we saw pictures of other babies before and after and the results are really great. However it will involve blood tests, an over night stay and putting a drug in her body for the next few months and so we are now weighing up the pros and cons of everything. On one hand it would be good to wait for a year to see how much it goes down on its own but on the other if we do wait she will be pop princess’s age and would remember the procedure and get quite distressed at least now she doesn’t really know what’s going on.

On a brighter note we are looking into holidays for a last minute break end of July and boy we need the break! I’m also having my first tattoo next Monday I’ve been in to see them today and they are designing something for me, I am following the old celebrity band wagon and opting for one on my wrist and its going to be an amalgamation of the two girls names, I was nervous as soon as I set foot in there today so goodness knows what I’ll be like next week when I go in to have it done.

The Gallery - Emotions - Goodbye Nan

This weeks gallery post is a special one. The prompt is emotions but this week its linked with Josie at Sleep is for the Weak and her Writing Workshop. I have not particpiated in the writing workshop before but I am so glad Tara at Sticky Fingers has introduced me to it and I will definitely be taking part in the future.



I always knew if anything were to happen it would be me that would find you, I had run the scenario through my mind several times but then when I came round one day and discovered it had actually happened my reaction didn’t quite fit what I had pictured.

I was scared, no terrified I knew something was wrong when you didn’t open the door and the curtains weren’t open, we had joked the night before on the phone how you would need to be up early as after a year off whilst I was on maternity leave it had also been a year since I had used you as my dog sitter.

You adored Finnie and it gave you something to look forward to, something to occupy your lonely days and a friend to talk to. It was Finnie that I sent it when I cautiously opened the door and peered in. I could see you on the floor in the lounge your legs just in sight.

Panic, screaming and my heart feeling like it may explode. I called out to you to see if you would move before I approached. You didn’t. Finnie tried to stir you but you wouldn’t move.

As I got closer I could see you had gone, even as I called the ambulance and they were talking me though CPR I knew there was no point that was obvious enough.

You had the phone in your hand, even now I wonder did it happen after we spoke on the phone or were you trying to call for help.

My emotions? Panic, terror, sorrow, grief, emptiness but now peace. I’m glad I was the one to find you that day 2 years ago but I do miss you Nan.