Review: AngelCare monitor

As a mother the most important thing is to ensure that your child is safe at night  when they are sleeping. In order to reduce SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) it is essential that you pick a baby monitor that is going to alert you at crucial times. The baby monitor that we use is the "AngelCare baby movement and sound monitor and its great!

The monitor comes in three parts: 

part one: 

An under-the-mattress movement sensor pad comes with the set. You place the mat underneath the mattress and plug it in. Once plugged in and switched on, on the monitor when your child next lays on it if there is uneducated movement and breathing the monitor will alert you immediately. This is a great feature as it gives you peace of mind all the way through the night. 

part two: 

The Angelcare parent unit. This part of the set is the portable parent unit, it projects the sounds coming from your child's bedroom. You control all of the functions on this part. Furthermore it also tells you things such as temperature in the child's room. The device is portable so you can take it around the house and has a good signal range. 

part three: 

AngelCare the nursery. The nursery part goes in the child's bedroom and picks up any detected sound or movement. The nursery works in co-operation with the parent unit.  The nursery also allows the sensor pad to plug into it so it can work. 

The best thing about the AngelCare monitor is that all three parts work together to make sure that your child is safe at night. The sensor pad gives parents peace of mind when their children are peacefully sleeping. The monitor allows you to take it with you round the house so if your child wakes you can go see to them immediately. The monitor also has a temperature gage on it and will also alert you if it is too hot in your child's room. The monitor takes 4 standard double 8 batteries. The average battery life is around 3-4 days, we buy rechargeable batteries and change them when they run out. We have used this monitor since Alice was born and we love it. The monitor cost around  £80 and is currently on sale on Amazon, although it may cost a little more than other monitors it is certainly worth the extra pennies to ensure that your child is safe at night. Like I stated before we have used this since Alice was born and we have never had a problem with it, it has been a great reliable monitor and has really made us feel at ease. 

If you would like to purchase this monitor then here are some links below: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angelcare-AC401-Movement-Monitor-Sound/dp/B0013FW5G8

https://www.johnlewis.com/angelcare-movement-and-sound-monitor-ac401/p231136658

For information on more products made by AngelCare visit their website: 

https://angelcare-baby.com/UK/

The Honest Mum 

xox

Review: AngelCare bath support.

Bath time used to be a nightmare for us, Alice would scream and scream until we got her out. One day a friend suggested using an AngelCare bath support and since then bath time is one Alice's favourite times of the evening and its all thanks to the AngelCare bath support. For those of you that don't know what an Angel Care bath support is, it is a special seat designed for babies to sit in when in the bath, you can buy it in pink, blue, grey or green. Here is our one as you can see Alice loves hers!

What I love most about the AngelCare bath support is that it allows my child to sit in the bath without the worry that she is going to drown. Alice can comfortably sit supported in the seat and has done since she was 2 months old. The design of the seat allows you to fill the bath up higher than usual as it is angled so they do not lay flat in the water. The AngelCare bath support is perfect for families who don't have space to store a baby bath or would prefer to put their children in a big bath from a young age. The seat itself is made from plastic so is easy to clean, it also has holes to allow water drainage.  The price of the support is around the £20 mark which to me is a great price for a great product that will be used regularly. Alice has used this since around 2 months and is now almost 7 months and still fits in it comfortably, however now she is getting older I am thinking of purchasing the AngelCare bath seat as I loved the support so much. If you are looking for a sturdy, comfy bath support for your baby I would definitely recommend the AngelCare bath support.

Places you can purchase it from: 

1. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angelcare-Soft-Touch-Bath-Support/dp/B00AWMV9CY

2. https://www.mothercare.com/supports-and-mats/angelcare-soft-touch-bath-support/LX5061.html

3. https://www.johnlewis.com/angelcare-soft-baby-bath-support/p231850148

If you would like to check out any of the other products produced by AngelCare then check out their website: https://angelcare-baby.com/UK/

If anyone else has used any other products by AngelCare then let me know as i'd love to try them out in the future. Thats all for now thanks for reading!

The Honest Mum 

xox

Easy recipe for busy mums!

 Anyone who knows me will know that I am not all that keen on cooking but quite recently I have decided to take it up. I have never been good at cooking in my life but now we are weaning Alice I decided to start teaching myself how to cook. I have only made three meals so far but they seem to be a success so I thought that I would share with you a quick and easy recipe for busy mums, because lets be honest we haven't got all day to make a five star 3 course meal right?

Recipe: Chicken and bacon pie

Ingredients: 

1. Half a cooked chicken or frozen chicken chunks 

2. Half a packet of bacon 

3. Mushrooms 

4. 1 onion 

5. Vegetable stock cube 

6. A tbsp of olive oil 

7. Frozen pastry (or make your own if you are clever!)

Method: 

1. Heat olive oil in a pan 

2. Prepare and chop the onion and mushrooms

3. Chuck the chicken in the pan (if uncooked) along with the bacon, cook until browned. 

4. Add the vegetable stock cube

5. Throw in the onion and mushrooms 

6. Roll out the frozen pastry into a rectangular cooking dish 

7. When the onion is clear and the mushrooms are cooked spoon out the ingredients into the dish on top of the pastry 

8. Roll out more pastry and lay gently over the top 

9. Put a cross shape over the middle of the pastry with a knife to vent the pie 

10. Heat the oven to about 280 degrees, place the pie in the oven until the pastry is golden on top and slightly browned. 

11. Let pie cool down for about an hour, using a serving spoon dish pie out on to plate with either chips or mash and vegetables its your choice and your done!

Overall this pie takes about 45 minutes to prepare and make therefore making it a quick and easy meal for the whole family! Like I stated before I am not the greatest at cooking but this was very simple to make and didn't take much time at all and tastes delicious so why not give it a go you might be pleasantly surprised.

All the best (has anyone else gone Mrs Hinch mad?)

The Honest Mum 

xox

feeling like a complete failure.

The one thing I was most worried about when I found out that I was pregnant was that `I was going to be a complete fail of a mother. I would spend many nights worrying that my unborn child has no idea what kind of life they are coming into and what kind of mother they would have. I would drill it into my head that I had to be the perfect mother and nothing less, but I was so wrong. You don't have to be the perfect mother as long as:

1. Your child is alive and well.

2. Happy

3. Fed and watered

4. Is wearing clean clothes

5. Has a clean nappy

6. And is smiling

If your child is all those things then you do not need to worry you are doing great. Often as mothers we put too much pressure on ourselves to be the perfect mother but as long as our child is alive and well nothing else matters. Who cares if your house is a mess. Who cares if you haven't taken your child out to baby groups. Who cares if your child isn't dressed today. None of that matters, all that matters is that you have done the bear necessities to keep your child alive and happy and for that you should be proud. Everyday is constantly a challenge when your a mum and we all feel like a fail sometimes because we feel we could of tidied the house better or gone out for the day but instead we didn't but thats okay because you did what needed to be done and that was making sure your child is okay. So next time you feel like a failure and you feel like your not good enough just remember your first and most important job is to keep your child alive and well and if you've done then they are doing more than enough.

The Honest Mum 

xox 

5 things we vow to never do when we become parents but do anyway.

When you think about one day having children in the future you imagine what life would be like as a mother and all the great adventures you and your bundle of joy will embark on. You watch other mums out with their children and you think my child will not be doing that or that and definitely not that. we've all done it, vowed that our children will not be doing this in that but in reality after several months you finally give in and do all those things that you vowed not to do! Here are 5 things I vowed to not to do when I had a baby but have already done in the first 6 months.

1. Watching programmes like Peppa Pig, Telletubies and In The Night Garden-  I swore I would never expose my child to the absolute rubbish that is them programmes but Alice isn't even 6 months old and I have watched the Peppa Pig series on Netflix a 100 times. Total fail.

2. Sleeping in our bed- Another thing we swore we would never do is let our child sleep in our bed but that didn't quite go plan. Some nights Alice is up a 100 times in the night and we are exhausted and the only way to get her to sleep is to put her in our bed. We shouldn't but when we are that tired we cave in.

3. Let her watch the Ipad- Yet again something else I said I wouldn't do but some mornings the only way to get her to stop crying is to let her sit in bed and watch Peppa Pig on the Ipad. I know I shouldn't be exposing her to screens at an early age but its unfortunately just the way modern generation are these days.

4. Let her stay up late- Some nights she stays up as late as 9pm. Bad I know. I vowed that she would always be in bed and settle by 7pm but sometimes life doesn't always go the way you planned it. Some nights she's just not tired or over tired and screams until I pick her up so I give up and let her stay awake until she falls asleep.

5. Food- I have recently started weaning Alice and I was adamant that I would never feed her anything bad like junk food until she was old and today at almost 7 months old she had a McDonald's chip, a bite of a chocolate muffin and a lick of my strawberry milkshake. Mum police come at me.

We all have expectations of things we will and won't do when we have children and sometimes we get so adamant that they are not going to do this and that but when the time comes and your child is screaming for Peppa Pig or a McDonald's chip I say give in. Life is too short to argue with a toddler. If they want it then they are not going to stop until they get it. Comment down below some of things that you said you would never do as mum but have given into it will be interesting to know.

The Honest Mum 

xox

Its okay not to be okay

This post here goes out to all the mums who are struggling. To the mum who had next to no sleep last night. To the mum who has been up since 5am. To the mum who has told their child off several times already this morning. To the mum who has picked up countless toys and washed countless bottles. To the mum who is hiding in the bathroom. To the mum who feels like giving up, its okay to not be okay.

As a mum we do nothing but love and care for our children 24 hours of the day 7 days a week. It is a full time job except their is no sick days, or holidays and you don't get paid to do this. Nobody can prepare you for motherhood. No one can prepare you for the long nights, the lack of sleep and constant worry that you feel, am I good enough? Is my child happy? What can I do better. Some days I stand there over Alice's cot and watch her peacefully sleeping and think to myself "Mummy will try better tomorrow".

Some days I get dressed, others I don't. Some days I leave the house and other days I stay in. Some days my house is spotless other days I let it slide. Some days my child is played with, read to and sung to other days I sit her in front of the TV for the most part. We've all been there. Some days you feel like your on top of the world and you think I've got this whole motherhood shit and others day you break down several times wondering if will ever get easier and thats okay. We are all human. We all have those days where we feel like we can't cope, and there comes a time where we all reach breaking point and we sit there and we cry. We cry because we feel like we failed our children. We cry because we feel like they deserve a better mum. We cry because we're tired and worn out and that we dedicate our life to looking our children but who looks after us?

Some days I fake a smile and pretend that everything is okay when deep down its not. Deep down I want to go back to bed and block the world out. I feel awful for even thinking that. I should want to get up and spend time with my child and play with them, but some days I just don't feel like it. I think to myself I don't feel like being a mum today and that makes me feel even worse that I would even think that but its the truth. You can't hid from the truth. You can put a brave face on but what does that achieve? lying to yourself that your okay. Nothing. It achieves nothing. You don't have to hid behind a smile, no one is going to judge you if you cry. No one is going to think your a bad mum for wanting 5 minutes to yourself. We are all drowning in this sea of motherhood desperately trying to gasp for air.  The shore seems far away and you long for the coast guard to come rescue you but as the days go on and you drift further and further out to sea you begin to get tired and you feel as though you can't carry on but thats okay because once you've hit rock bottom the only place to go is up.  Motherhood is one of the most challenging journeys you will ever go through and we all strive to do our best for our children day and day out but sometimes it all gets little bit too much and thats when its okay not to okay.

The Honest Mum 

xox 

We all have our down days but if they persist then please reach out to your doctor, your midwife or health visitor and seek advice because although its okay not to be okay if you are constantly feeling down then seek medical advice as it could be postnatal depression. Don't suffer alone and get the help you need. For more information on postnatal depression or if you think you may have it look on the NHS website for support on where to go for help. 

The joys of kids TV

If you are a parent I can 99% guarantee that some point in your life you have endure the weird and ever so mind numbing Cbeebies. Cbeebies is a children's channel that shows a variety of children programmes throughout the day and runs from 6AM until 7PM. It has entertained children for many years and now I find myself sat there throughout the day watching Cbeebies with Alice and the more I watch it the more it begins to grate on me so I thought I would share with you some of things I find strange on Cbeebies.

1. Mr Tumble- now most people who watch Mr Tumble will think it is a sweet inocent programme that encourages sign languages and includes children who have special needs. Although that is the main focus of the programme ew also see Mr Tumble dressed up as many different characters such as Aunt polly... that is something I don't need to see first thing in the morning.

2. BING- now I have written a whole separate blog post on this if you'd like to read it but to sum it up Bing is a spoilt bunny who lives in a weird world where teddy bears come to life and care for the children and he walks around talking like he's two when in actual fact hes more like 5. The aim of the programme is to teach children a lesson however I think they are teaching them how not to talk properly instead!

3. The Twirlywoo's- I mean what even is the Twirlywoo's. Four weird little creatures who live on submarine with a little spiky thing that has a secret whole in the wall where he hid's from the Twirlywoo's. Each episode they seem to learn about something like 'spinning' and they go to some place which is real life with real people and try out the theme of each of episode and then suddenly fly back into their submarine and chase some rings around and inflate 10 times the size and ends I mean whats up with that?!?!

4. The Telletubbies- enough said.

5.  Abney and Teal- Abney and Teal is on every night at bedtime hour and it the strangest programme ever. To start with why does a little girl live on a island with a teddy, where is her parents?!?! Why are they always eating porridge and where are they getting the mixture from as they never leave the island. Lets talk about Bop they always refer to Bop as a male but in one episode Bop has babies somehow!?! Also whats up with Neep making holes everywhere, and what even is Neep I think he is supposed to be a radish but I am not 100% sure and don't even get me started on Toby Dog get some new material!

I could rant on forever and ever about Cbeebies and the weird things that we expose our children to everyday but children seem to love it and I will never understand why but all I know is that Alice loves it and it has taken over my TV and that I long for the day where she turns around and says I do not want to watch Cbeebies that is for babies. But until then I will keep sliding down the rainy-bow as flappy birds fly over me as I sign can I have some porridge please (god I need to get a life)

If you have made it this far then thank you for reading comment down below some things that grate on you about Cbeebies!

See you soon

The Honest Mum 

xox