Keeping you upto date on whats happening with the Maternity and Beyond family.

23rd August V Festival

Spent the weekend at V Festaival with no children. Had a fab time. The grandparents looked after the little ones. I couldnt go last year as i was heavily pregnant, so had to the sell the tickets on ebay last year. It was nice to spend the time with hubby with no children. I was suprised to see few little ones there with mums and dads, i dont think mine would enjoy it. Also lots of pregnant women there too. Im definately going next year, ive already booked the grandparents for babysitting for next year.

19th August Colchester Zoo

Took the little ones to Colchester Zoo, i think everyone else decided to go aswell. It was manic and having to avoid the wasps today. Little ones loved it though, they spent most of the time playing on the play grounds instead of looking at the animals. I have a gold card, its worth having. I noticed lots of pregnant women wearing fashionable maternity clothes. Us ladies are still able to look fashionable when pregnant, check out our maternity clothes.

22nd July Family Holiday

Just got back from Majorca, our first family holiday abroad with our 10 month old and 4 year old girls. Had a great time, we stayed at Puerto Pollensa resort. This is a great resort for young families. The beach was great as sea was very calm. My 4 year old prefered the beach to the hotel pool. 

5th June More New Products

I am even more excited im adding more products to the website, which are the award winning Groovy Girls Rag Dolls and the unique Automoblox. The Automoblox are wooden vehicles that encourages young minds to build cars and trucks of their own design. Take a look a these great toys.

These would make great gifts for young children from 3 years of age. Treat the little ones!

30th May New Products

Ive very excited i had added new products to our website, including the unique baby bouquets and nappy cakes. The bouquets are hand made with each bud is handrolled with baby clothes tied and then arranged within a beautiful vase, nestled in tissue paper.  Another great baby gift are the nappy cakes, they are also handmade, filling them with quality nappies and gorgeous clothing and gifts, finished off with cellophane and plenty of ribbon. Both are memorable gifts that mums to be will truly cherish.

Due to great success i have add more baby clothes, with the fashionable retro look. Plus to support our England football team we have the England Word Cup. There have been a limited number made so don't delay in ordering.

27th April 2010 Baby Boogies

A busy day for us i took my 4 year old to preschool then i went to 'baby and you' group in the morning with my 7 month old. Where i got to do hand and foot prints, plus i get to meet other mums with babies of similar ages. We do different activities every week.

In the afternoon i took her to baby boogies. She loved it, there was lots of singing to nursery rhymes and playing with musical instruments. These groups are run by Sure Start and are very good plus they are free. Which is a bonus. Its good fun. I believe they have lots of groups/activities run throughout the UK. Click here to visit Sure Start for Colchester, showing you what they do.

Then it was time to pick my 4 year old from preschool and take her swimming lessons.

Ive decided to try the contraceptive implant instead of going back on pill. The implant last 3 years and i don't have to remember to take the pill everyday. Its over 99% reliable in preventing pregnancy, which means that less than one in 100 women who use the implant or injection will become pregnant each year.

The implant slowly releasing a hormone called progestogen into your body. The implant is a small (4cm), thin flexible tube. It is implanted under the skin of your upper arm by a doctor or nurse, using a local anaesthetic to numb the area. The small wound made in your arm is closed with a dressing and does not need stitches.

I was very anxious and even cried, but didnt really hurt. For the first week i had bruising and can still feel the tube under the skin, but doesnt hurt. I even did 5 mile run the day after!

Three weeks later i have been feeling very tearful and have just started my first period. Its quite heavy, i was shocked and thought i would get mild ones. Hope to carry on with the implant.

Im now weaning my second child. Shes now 6 months old, left it a little later than my first, she was 5 months old. I could'nt remember what i did with my 1st, so it was starting from scratch again. I used the anabel karmel book, they are very useful books and spoke to my health visitor too. I gave her baby rice and she loved it and then decided to puree carrots, sweet potato, apples and pears. She only has 1 ice cube of food. I was pureeing the food and then i put it into ice cube trays and into the freezer. I forgot how messy it is.

PCOS is where there are a number of small cysts around the edge of the ovaries (polycystic ovaries). Symptoms include irregular or light periods, problems getting pregnant, weight gain, acne and excessive hair growth. For more information on pcos, please refer to nhs website.

Women with PCOS either fail to ovulate, or they ovulate infrequently, which is why it is one of the leading causes of fertility problems. The gynaecologists prescribed me tablets to kick start my periods and then had a number of blood tests to see if i am ovulating and found out that I wasn’t. So they prescribed me clomid, a fertility drug that boosts ovulation. The tablets did make me feel terrible, I was very weepy and nausea. 

More blood tests to see if clomid was working and it was! Initially I was on one tablet a day from day 3 of my period for 6 days. Then I went to 2 tablets a day. Clomid worked for me, I became pregnant after 6 months. However I didn’t know I was pregnant for the first 3 months. Plus she was 5 weeks early, so I had a very short pregnancy!!

I thought second time round I wouldn’t have any problems getting pregnant again, but I did. I was referred to the gynaecologist again and this time they prescribed my clomid and metformin. Plus I had number of follicle scans, which is used to track a woman's natural cycle. The scans are normally performed by vaginal ultra sound scans from Day 9 of the menstrual cycle (Day 1 being the first day of bleeding). The scan will enable the follicle (fluid filled sacs which can contain an egg) in the ovary to be measured. When the follicles measure a certain size it can then be estimated when ovulation is likely to occur. I found I was ovulating around day 22. This actually worked for me; I wish they did this sooner!! If anyone else is having problems I would definitely ask for these scans.