The Bounce Back | Jumping on The TeaTox Bandwagon + GIVEAWAY

The Essential Tea-Tox Detox Tea is designed to naturally boost you, leaving you feeling energised, rested, less bloated and so much more.  I'm late to the party (about 5 years late), but I'm here. The infamous teatox seems to linger like a bad smell, every so often they come back around, and almost every time they do I turn my nose up at them. I'm probably supposed to start this post off with all of the positive vibes that should accompany a 'tea-tox', the benefits it can offer, the svelte figure I'll inevitably achieve, the glowing skin... but no, I'm starting it with my first introduction to magic tea. It was around 6 or so years ago now, and a friend payed £50 for two weeks worth of detoxing tea bags in an effort to lose weight before a girls holiday. Now, at 15 years old £50 was big bucks, and she essentially payed this to sit on a toilet for 4 days before deciding it was a waste of money. Since then, it's safe to say I've been put off them for life. Since having a baby though, it's just not as easy as it was before to lose weight. On top of that, I felt sluggish,  always tired, and at the point where I'd do anything for a little boost. Even if it means trying out a tea tox.

Newborn Hacks | MyHummy Snoozy Bear

I've made no secret of how much I love white noise for my newborn, so when myHummy offered to send Harrison a myHummy Snoozy, I jumped at the chance. myHummy are a The hummy bear is a sleep guard, a soft cuddly friend that has the added bonus of the soothing white noise which activates in response to babies movement. Newborns are not used to silence: they've spent nine months in the womb, encased within the muffled sounds of mummy's life and next to her heartbeat, dead silence is no comfort, in fact, for my baby especially, silence doesn't work at all. Previously we've used an app on our phones - Sound Sleeper - which by all means done the job, but at what cost? Although there's nothing proven as yet, something doesn't sit right with me about placing a radiating phone inside my babies crib.

Maternity Leave Realities: The First Month

Maternity leave was supposed to be all baby cuddles, coffee catch-ups and lunch dates. I'd fill my time with over ironing and learning to cook (given that right now  burning toast is about all I am good for) whilst my baby napped, and having couch cuddles and playtime when he woke up. I had big plans and was under the false allusion they'd be at all possible. I've been on maternity leave for five whole weeks now. In that time, I've gone for coffee once with Harrison in tow. It was through a Costa drive-thru and I forgot to ask for sweeteners. I didn't even leave the car and I still managed to fail at coffee dates. I feel like that alone sums up how well my maternity plans are panning out. My reality was skewed, that much is for sure and I blame all of you. I blame everyone else bar myself. All I had to go on was the cushy baby pictures, the snaps of the ladies lunches and the blogging success of so many mummas at home, false sense of security doesn't even begin to cover it. It turns out, my maternity leave reality hasn't been as scenic.

A Stress Free Bathtime With CuddleDry

The Original Cuddledry Bath Towel is a hands free way to get your baby out of the bath and snug as a bug stress free, or at least so they say. I got this towel when I was pregnant, and dare I say, completely forgot about it up until now. This post is not sponsored nor were we sent this product to review, the concept is just such an interesting one that I couldn't help but want to share my experience with it.

Harrison hated bath-time initially - every night without fail he'd squeal blue murder the minute he touched the water; it was a two person task, one to hold and wash the child, another to hold the dummy in place in an effort to prevent him from waking the full street. At a month old, he's now officially a water baby. No matter how unsettled he is throughout the day, within seconds of being in the tub he's relaxed and content, at peace with the rubber ducks. I can't say his love for bathtime was down to the Cuddledry Towel, but it did help us with the transition of getting him out of the bath without the squeals, that much it was responsible for.

9 Fool Proof Ways to Spot A New Mum

The irony of this post is the naïve ideal I came into motherhood with; when I imagined the first few weeks of parenthood, sure, I imagined sleepless nights, but I also imagined the relaxing coffee dates, mindless chit-chat over lunch with a sound sleeping baby, scenic walks in the park with the pram.. the reality though has been very different, who would have thought. If you happened to see me out and about right now, I swear you could pin-point my newly acquired motherhood a mile off, I practically scream new mum after all.. On the off chance you didn't quite catch my new mum role by my tiny human in tow, here's 9 sure fire ways to tell:

The Bounce Back | Week 1 Update

Today marks 7 days into my Bounce Back from pregnancy plan - I was determined to get back to feeling fit and healthy as quickly as possible, but this week alone has been enough to show me that it's not going to be anywhere near as easy to get back to peak fitness as it was to get there. How did it go you ask? Shit. It just went shit. I lost 3lbs, but that's not really a plus right now, given that I achieved that from eating all but nothing during the day and stuffing my face with Haribos at night time when I can relieve my arms from the baby I've cradled for the best part of 13 hours. The whole point of my bounce back from pregnancy plan was to regain health - getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight is great and all, but ultimately, not worth an ounce of effort if I still feel as unfit as ever.

Christmas Gift Guide | The Memorable Presents for Baby's First Christmas

I made no secret of the fact that I didn't want to go crazy on Christmas presents for Harrison; at 2 months old he's not exactly going to remember the gifts he receives, no matter how extravagant. I talked about it in depth in a recent post, but essentially, I don't think wasting money on toys, or clothes, or anything else along those lines would be worth doing. I won't lie, the thought of it didn't quite sit right with me - christmas is christmas after all, no matter how little, I didn't want Harrisons' first Christmas not to be a special one. I don't believe gifts are the be all and end all of Christmas, but there is no denying that nowadays - because of that, and because of the twinges of guilt I was feeling at the thought of Harrison being presentless on Christmas morning (not that he'd notice, he will no doubt be in a milk-coma...), I decided to find gifts that could be used for the rest of his early years. The things that make you know it's Christmas.

I've found a good few that I've added to my list for Harrison, some of which if I buy this year I'll use for the rest of his childhood, others that I may have to repurchase in years to come. Either way, everything in this gift guide has more sentimental value than a passing trend.  Somehow though in my bid to save money I've managed to amass a list that would probably cost more than I'd spend on the latest range of Fisher Price goodies, but at least with these I know we'll be using them for years to come, and not just for the three weeks following.