Natural Beauty with Baby
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If you’re adjusting to life as a parent or you’ve been in the thick of it for years, then find solace and advice here. It’s a messy, beautiful reality, and this section can help you find your parenting flow!

Home fertility test kit to track your hormones
Pregnancy

I took a home fertility test kit – here’s what I discovered

Hi, it’s nice to see you here! Today, I’m talking about female fertility and using a home fertility test kit. Some months back I was approached by LetsGetChecked who wondered if I’d like to try one of their at home health tests. LetsGetChecked have been offering personal health tests in the UK since 2016. They use the world’s best accredited labs and tests range from sexual health, wellness, vitamin status, lyme disease, and more. Go straight to my discount code for LetsGetChecked! Since most of my readers are women planning or parenting little ones, I was beyond interested to try a home fertility test kit. Our family is complete and I just turned 40, but I still have fertility curiosity, like am I still fertile even though I’m breastfeeding? Am I approaching menopause soon? How quickly is my fertility declining? When can I expect to see menopausal symptoms? I admit,…

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Cara's first birthday
Parenting

A letter to Cara on her first birthday

To Cara Grace Oh Cara, how amazing your first year has been! You were born at home in a complete hurry, protesting very loudly. Your birth was one of the best moments of my life. We wished for a girl and I’d convinced myself you were a boy. I checked twice when I held you in my arms for the first time! You’re confident, gregarious, sweet, loving, and smart. Your first year has flown by and I can’t believe we’re saying goodbye to your babyhood. And you’ll be our last baby too, which makes it all the more poignant. Your little life is so precious. I love that you share songs and games with us. You always look to mummy and daddy for a game of peekaboo or clap hands. You can be quite studious, and you like to examine new things in great detail. Your favourite game at the…

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Jonah wearing daddy's glasses
Parenting

A letter to my son on his third birthday

To my dear Jonah It’s your third birthday tomorrow. You’re only 3 years old, but it feels like you’ve always been with me – isn’t that funny? The boy who made me a mummy. The boy who helped me learn how to be a mummy. I’ve made quite a few mistakes, but you always forgive me and love me. And I love you back, so much. Right now, we are each other’s world. You share my blood type, my air sign, and my love of pumpkins. I feel like you get me (except when you throw yourself on the floor at Tesco, yep, not then). Yet, you bring about such mixed feelings in me. I love seeing you grow, but it’s happening so fast. Each year that passes it feels like I’m saying goodbye to one little boy, and meeting another. You’re inquisitive, fun, nature and dirt loving; a definite…

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What to expect at a toddler speech evaluation
Parenting

What to expect at a toddler speech evaluation

Well, it’s been a while since I posted a parenting update. This is a long and somewhat cathartic post, but I hope if you have a toddler speech evaluation coming up, you’ll find it helpful. We’ve been concerned over my 2 year old son’s speech since June last year. It began at Jonah’s routine 2-year check, when our health visitor flagged a possible speech delay. After an 8 month wait, Jonah had his toddler speech evaluation. Read on to find out what happened at our appointment and learn more about the activities we were recommended to try with Jonah – they’re proving to be effective for us! Throughout, we’ve sought ways to improve his speech at home. It’s a long wait for the assessment, and a long wait for the speech therapy sessions, and we want to take every step possible to help Jonah along. It all starts at home,…

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Cara has started solids and we're doing Baby Led Weaning
Food

Starting baby led weaning – the first two weeks

I’m really excited to share our experience starting baby led weaning. I thought it might be helpful to share Cara’s first foods, how I’m preparing her meals, and our set up. I hope it’ll help you get started, as I know how daunting it can be at the beginning! We began weaning Cara the day she turned 6 months old. I have to say, we’re finding it so much easier the second time around. You see, we introduced my son Jonah to solids with baby led weaning too. He’s almost 3 now, and a voracious (yet very messy!) eater. So, we know the differences between gagging and choking, we’re more prepared to deal with the mess, and importantly we’ve seen first-hand the benefits of baby led weaning. If you’re unsure if baby led weaning is right for your family, it’s definitely worth reading up on the benefits, or buy the…

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The Second Baby Book review
Parenting

The Second Baby Book Review

Sarah Ockwell-Smith’s latest book, titled The Second Baby Book, adds to her collection of parenting books under the gentle parenting umbrella. As the name suggests, this book is all about how to cope with pregnancy number two and create a happy home for your firstborn and your new arrival. We always planned to have 2 children – Jonah came in June 2016, and Cara in November last year. I find Sarah’s books a huge source of guidance and reassurance. Especially since I’ve often found myself at odds with some current parenting styles. Gentle parenting shifts away from authoritarian parenting and aims to be child led, respectful, and mindful. I’ve enjoyed Sarah’s other books including Gentle Parenting and The Gentle Eating Book. As a mum to four with a degree in psychology, she is so knowledgable but also relatable – she really understands. I just wish The Second Baby Book had…

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Cara's birth story
Parenting

Cara Grace’s birth story

I’m so excited to finally have time to share Cara’s birth story here on my blog. Her birth was a truly amazing experience, I still can’t quite believe it. I’m so proud of her, myself, and my husband for staying calm. It was a normal Wednesday and although I’d previously guessed Cara would arrive on the 14th, I woke up feeling like my baby was staying put for a while longer yet. Jonah and I went to his usual gymnastics class, had lunch, and spent the afternoon indoors playing with his wooden railway and watching TV. Around 4pm, I felt cramping that was more intense than Braxton Hicks. I was surprised at the intensity of the contractions so soon, but I remembered one of my favourite hypnobirthing affirmations. Each surge of my body brings my baby closer to me. Husband called, I lit my hypnobirthing candle and kept breathing through cooking Jonah’s…

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Multivitamins for toddlers
Food

Multivitamins For Toddlers – 6 Reviewed

This post discusses the need for multivitamins for toddlers and reviews 6 popular multivitamins that are suitable for older babies and toddlers. My 2 year old son Jonah and I have tested 6 popular multivitamins for toddlers over a period of several months. At the end of the post, you can find our verdict on the 6 brands we tried, and learn which is our favourite amongst the picks. 25% off At Home Vitamin D Test Kit to measure your amount of vitamin D in the blood. Order online with next day delivery. Collect your sample at home. Return your sample using the pre-paid envelope to our accredited laboratory. Receive confidential results in 2-5 days with 24/7 support. It’s good to know. Use code HELEN. I really hope you find this post helpful in selecting a multivitamin for your toddler! Why give multivitamins to toddlers? NHS guidelines state that babies and…

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Jonah and Martin at the Little Baby Bum live show
Parenting

Little Baby Bum Live Show review

This post is a little bit different to my usual, but I’m itching to share our experience! I hope you enjoy my Little Baby Bum Live Show review! Have you heard of Little Baby Bum before? Some of my mama friends haven’t – some know it well. For those who haven’t, Little Baby Bum is YouTube’s number 1 educational children’s channel. It also appears on Netflix. Jonah has been a huge huge fan since he was about 18 months old – he’s 2 years old now. In fact, it was one of the first things he enjoyed to watch. What is Little Baby Bum? The cute 3D animations feature traditional nursery rhymes and original songs and centre around several loveable characters such as Mia, Jacus, Baa Baa, Daisy, Pig, Incy Wincy, Baby Panda, Robot, and Twinkle, to name just a few. One of the channel’s videos, The Wheels on the…

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Helen and Jonah
Children's Skin Care

How to nourish your child through cleaner beauty

Let’s talk about a subject very close to my heart – how to nourish your child through cleaner beauty. As parents, we naturally want the best for our children, and there are so many choices to make. From food, clothing, toys, education, whether or not to vaccinate – the list is endless and often overwhelming, especially for first time parents. I feel the choices we make about what skincare products to use, and how we use them, are important. We can nourish our children through our skincare choices, and reduce the chemical burden we place on them. But wait, I hear you say – I don’t want more choices! As a busy parent, there’s no time to make lots of complicated or overwhelming ingredient checks. I hear you, honestly. Since I fell pregnant with Jonah in 2015, I’ve spent plenty of time scrutinising ingredients to ensure nothing harmful works its…

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