Saturday 17 September 2016

Zeta Vooom

  

As Baby A gets older, I needed to make sure that I am happy with the pushchair I have for him to take out with us. Up til now I have used the Quinny Zapp chassis with his Pebble carseat on it as it’s easy and convenient and ideal for short trips to the shops, but for a day out it isn’t suitable to leave him in his carseat for too long, and the Zapp isn’t great off road. My normal pushchair, the Maxi-Cosi Mura Plus, is great for all terrain and has a lovely big comfortable seat, but it is a chunky beast and getting it into the boot of my car is awkward, as I have to remove the rear wheels from the chassis and lie the seat unit over it in a certain way to make it all fit. It doesn’t leave any space for bags which means I can’t do any shopping, and if we’re going out for the day it means I have nowhere to put the picnic bag, the change of clothes you inevitably need when you have two young boys, so I wanted to find something suitable for us to use.

I did my research, as always, and found that a highly recommended lightweight buggy was the Zeta Vooom. I liked what I saw, and I found it for an excellent price from Baby Travel, which included the Footmuff. I made my order for the Vooom in the Ocean colour, and waited for my delivery.


When it arrived it was in a tall, slim box and I wondered how it had fitted, but as an umberella fold pushchair it doesn’t need much space. The only thing I had to do was add the front wheels and it was ready to go.


The sun canopy is vast. It covers very well, with an extra piece at the front that can either offer additional protection or which can be held back with a toggle if it isn’t needed; it’s a wonderful size and offers brilliant coverage regardless of the recline position the seat is in. The seat offers four recline positions, each easily achieved by the simple buttons either side of the seat back.  The most reclined position is almost a lie flat, making it perfect for naptime.
There’s a small viewing window in the hood, so you can peep in and see if baby has fallen asleep and recline them if necessary while you’re out and about.
 There is a very good size shopping basket as well as a pocket on the back of the sun canopy drop which is perfect for your purse, mobile phone and keys and feels much safer to me than putting them in the shopping basket.
The front wheels are swivel wheels, making the turning circle very small, but if you want to lock them in position you can do (great for off road) by clicking the switch on the top of each wheel unit. The handlebars are foam covered and very comfortable to grip – you can push the Vooom with one hand no problem and you don’t feel like you’re fighting against it. As Baby A is still only a year old, he has the seat up at the front because his legs aren’t long enough to dangle comfortably, but you have the option of having it set up or down, depending on the side of the child.
The seat itself is a nice quality, with padded harness covers and plenty of adjustment in the harness to make is suitable from new-born up to 15kg (around 4 yrs old) The fold is nice and simple and the pushchair collapses down to a long, slim size ideal for stowing in the car boot. There’s a transport clip to hold it all together once folded, and a carry handle on the side of the chassis making lifting and carrying it when folded much easier. I am so impressed with the nice touches on this pushchair, the thought that has gone into it, for such a low price. The Footmuff is also lovely – it comes with a headhugger, which you’d use if you were using the pushchair from birth, and the headhugger and inside of the Footmuff is a lovely soft fleece fabric, making it feel very cosy and comfortable. The front of the Footmuff can be completely unzipped, so you can also use the back of it as a seat liner if you prefer. I think I’m going to take advantage of that when we start using the pushchair more often for days out, as it’s easier to remove a liner and wash it than it is to try and clean the pushchair seat fabric itself.

This pushchair is almost perfect – very nearly almost perfect. It has a couple of downfalls, which may just be me being fussy, but there you go.
-    - The seat unit doesn’t go parent facing. Now Baby A is a year old this isn’t such a massive thing, but personally I do prefer the option, and I’d never use anything for a new-born that wasn’t parent facing.
-      -  The brakes are a bit iffy. They’re very basic press on / lift to release and you have to press on with quite a bit of force to get them to engage properly. The first couple of times I thought I’d put them on they hadn’t quite clicked in properly so they weren’t holding the back wheels still.
-    -  The raincover is a bit pathetic. It goes over the handles and over the sun canopy beautifully and I had high hopes for it, but then the front of it doesn’t fit around the pushchair seat very well and there are Velcro strips to do up around the chassis near the front wheels to hold it in place which I can see being a faff to put on in a downpour and which won’t stop a kicking toddler from getting the raincover off. Since the size of it isn’t great, it leaves a gap between the seat and the raincover down both sides, so in particularly wet weather it isn’t going to keep your baby completely dry.

-      -  The wheels are plastic and they look a bit cheap. I don’t know how long they’ll last. They don’t make that awful rattly sound that some pushchair wheels make, but I don’t know that they’ll do many miles before they need replacing. We’ll have to see.

On the whole I am very impressed with this pushchair, and very pleased with my bargain purchase. For what I paid the pushchair is excellent, and it meets my needs for it. Once we’ve done a few more trips out with it we’ll see how well it fares but at the moment I am very satisfied with my Zeta Vooom and would encourage parents looking for a compact stroller to check it out. Delivery from Baby Travel was prompt, though the courier reference number they gave me didn’t work when I spoke with the courier they were able to track the parcel and tell me when it would be delivered, so that was all good.


I’d give this lovely little pushchair a four out of five.


Zeta Vooom

  

As Baby A gets older, I needed to make sure that I am happy with the pushchair I have for him to take out with us. Up til now I have used the Quinny Zapp chassis with his Pebble carseat on it as it’s easy and convenient and ideal for short trips to the shops, but for a day out it isn’t suitable to leave him in his carseat for too long, and the Zapp isn’t great off road. My normal pushchair, the Maxi-Cosi Mura Plus, is great for all terrain and has a lovely big comfortable seat, but it is a chunky beast and getting it into the boot of my car is awkward, as I have to remove the rear wheels from the chassis and lie the seat unit over it in a certain way to make it all fit. It doesn’t leave any space for bags which means I can’t do any shopping, and if we’re going out for the day it means I have nowhere to put the picnic bag, the change of clothes you inevitably need when you have two young boys, so I wanted to find something suitable for us to use.

I did my research, as always, and found that a highly recommended lightweight buggy was the Zeta Vooom. I liked what I saw, and I found it for an excellent price from Baby Travel, which included the Footmuff. I made my order for the Vooom in the Ocean colour, and waited for my delivery.


When it arrived it was in a tall, slim box and I wondered how it had fitted, but as an umberella fold pushchair it doesn’t need much space. The only thing I had to do was add the front wheels and it was ready to go.


The sun canopy is vast. It covers very well, with an extra piece at the front that can either offer additional protection or which can be held back with a toggle if it isn’t needed; it’s a wonderful size and offers brilliant coverage regardless of the recline position the seat is in. The seat offers four recline positions, each easily achieved by the simple buttons either side of the seat back.  The most reclined position is almost a lie flat, making it perfect for naptime.
There’s a small viewing window in the hood, so you can peep in and see if baby has fallen asleep and recline them if necessary while you’re out and about.
 There is a very good size shopping basket as well as a pocket on the back of the sun canopy drop which is perfect for your purse, mobile phone and keys and feels much safer to me than putting them in the shopping basket.
The front wheels are swivel wheels, making the turning circle very small, but if you want to lock them in position you can do (great for off road) by clicking the switch on the top of each wheel unit. The handlebars are foam covered and very comfortable to grip – you can push the Vooom with one hand no problem and you don’t feel like you’re fighting against it. As Baby A is still only a year old, he has the seat up at the front because his legs aren’t long enough to dangle comfortably, but you have the option of having it set up or down, depending on the side of the child.
The seat itself is a nice quality, with padded harness covers and plenty of adjustment in the harness to make is suitable from new-born up to 15kg (around 4 yrs old) The fold is nice and simple and the pushchair collapses down to a long, slim size ideal for stowing in the car boot. There’s a transport clip to hold it all together once folded, and a carry handle on the side of the chassis making lifting and carrying it when folded much easier. I am so impressed with the nice touches on this pushchair, the thought that has gone into it, for such a low price. The Footmuff is also lovely – it comes with a headhugger, which you’d use if you were using the pushchair from birth, and the headhugger and inside of the Footmuff is a lovely soft fleece fabric, making it feel very cosy and comfortable. The front of the Footmuff can be completely unzipped, so you can also use the back of it as a seat liner if you prefer. I think I’m going to take advantage of that when we start using the pushchair more often for days out, as it’s easier to remove a liner and wash it than it is to try and clean the pushchair seat fabric itself.

This pushchair is almost perfect – very nearly almost perfect. It has a couple of downfalls, which may just be me being fussy, but there you go.
-    - The seat unit doesn’t go parent facing. Now Baby A is a year old this isn’t such a massive thing, but personally I do prefer the option, and I’d never use anything for a new-born that wasn’t parent facing.
-      -  The brakes are a bit iffy. They’re very basic press on / lift to release and you have to press on with quite a bit of force to get them to engage properly. The first couple of times I thought I’d put them on they hadn’t quite clicked in properly so they weren’t holding the back wheels still.
-    -  The raincover is a bit pathetic. It goes over the handles and over the sun canopy beautifully and I had high hopes for it, but then the front of it doesn’t fit around the pushchair seat very well and there are Velcro strips to do up around the chassis near the front wheels to hold it in place which I can see being a faff to put on in a downpour and which won’t stop a kicking toddler from getting the raincover off. Since the size of it isn’t great, it leaves a gap between the seat and the raincover down both sides, so in particularly wet weather it isn’t going to keep your baby completely dry.

-      -  The wheels are plastic and they look a bit cheap. I don’t know how long they’ll last. They don’t make that awful rattly sound that some pushchair wheels make, but I don’t know that they’ll do many miles before they need replacing. We’ll have to see.

On the whole I am very impressed with this pushchair, and very pleased with my bargain purchase. For what I paid the pushchair is excellent, and it meets my needs for it. Once we’ve done a few more trips out with it we’ll see how well it fares but at the moment I am very satisfied with my Zeta Vooom and would encourage parents looking for a compact stroller to check it out. Delivery from Baby Travel was prompt, though the courier reference number they gave me didn’t work when I spoke with the courier they were able to track the parcel and tell me when it would be delivered, so that was all good.


I’d give this lovely little pushchair a four out of five.


Sunday 14 August 2016

Dan TDM On Tour




J has been a massive fan of YouTuber DanTDM for a long time. He got into watching the videos at first because Dan did a lot of Minecraft based videos, and I was happy for him to watch them as Dan keeps it ‘clean’ with his language and there are always warnings ahead of the video playing if it’s going to be something which will be inappropriate for younger viewers, such as ‘horror maps’ which I don’t let J watch as he tends to have nightmares afterwards.

You may know that one of the characteristics of Asperger Syndrome is ‘obsessive’ behaviour, which I think is a bit of a negative way of saying it, I prefer to say J has ‘passions’ rather than ‘obsessions’. When he is interested in something he likes to know everything to know about it, he immerses himself in it and he absorbs a wealth of information on the subject. DanTDM is one of his passions, I would go so far as saying that he is a hero of J’s. Nine times out of ten if J is watching a YouTube video, it will be a DanTDM video, and he refers to himself as “Team TDM” and his favourite colour is diamond blue.

Some months ago, I saw DanTDM post on his Facebook page about doing a tour of the UK with a specially written show. I thought it would be a wonderful thing to take J along to, so I was thrilled to discover that the show was coming to the Ipswich Regent theatre on August 13th, exactly a week after J’s sixth birthday. What an ideal birthday gift! To top it off, there would be a limited number of special “Diamond” tickets available – you could upgrade your standard ticket to a VIP one, and have the added experience of a meet & greet with DanTDM himself, a photo taken with him, and a special goodie bag of ‘exclusive DanTDM goodies’. It was expensive, but with the help of my parents and Daddy P’s parents we got ourselves three tickets for the show, and upgraded J’s to a Diamond VIP ticket.

We decided not to tell J that we were going to the show until his birthday. This was to prevent him becoming too worked up about it by knowing about it too far in advance, so we kept it a secret and after his party last Sunday once everyone else had left and it was just our family left, I told J about his main present, explaining that it wasn’t something we could wrap, so I’d made a poster to show him with the information on it. He didn’t seem very excited at the time, but he didn’t really take in what it meant at the time. Later that evening he asked me what a theatre show was, so I explained we would go and see DanTDM on stage doing a performance – he thought it would be like going to the cinema and watching a normal YouTube video on a big screen, so the thought of seeing the actual DanTDM in real life started getting J excited about the idea.

As the week progressed he was asking us things about the show, details like what the performance would be about (which we had to explain we didn’t know, as we hadn’t seen it and it was being kept secret until you went to see the show) He refused to watch the teaser trailer that DanTDM posted on his YouTube page as he said he didn’t want to ruin the surprise. I tried to prepare him for it as best I could, explaining it would be a long, busy day, that there would be lots of other boys and girls there and it would be crowded, noisy, that it would be dark in the theatre with bright lights on the stage that would probably flash around the crowd at times. It’s difficult to prepare any child for a new experience like that, but even more so when your child is on the autistic spectrum and is very sensitive to noise and lights.

On Thursday evening, we told him that we had upgraded his ticket to a Diamond VIP ticket, and explained what that meant. As the reality dawned on him that he was actually going to get a chance to MEET his hero, and have a photo taken with him, he became even more excited.

On Saturday morning, due to the VIP experience, we had to set out early to make it to Ipswich on time. J was up at 7.30 and making a picture to give to DanTDM when he met him. It took a little while of persuading him to get washed and dressed, because we kept saying that the show wouldn’t wait and if we weren’t there on time for the meet & greet he wouldn’t get the chance. We were ready and finally left at 9am.

We arrived at the car park next to the Ipswich Regent theatre just before 10am, and from there we walked to the Corn Exchange for the meet & greet. A long line of people was already waiting outside, so we joined the line and waited. At this point we had our first hiccup of the day, because waiting in a line is boring as we all know, and J hadn’t brought his stress ball to concentrate his energy on when he became restless, so he began getting quite upset and agitated. He didn’t want to hold our hands, or stand with us, he kept dancing about and getting quite stressed. Other people in the queue started staring, and while I am now beyond the point of caring about this, J is now at an age where is very aware of how others are reacting to him, so once he noticed the staring he became more upset. In the end Daddy P took him off for a walk while I waited in line, to calm him down. Once the line started moving again as people started being let in, Daddy P and J returned to me and we played “I Spy” as we shuffled towards the door.



We only upgraded J’s ticket to the Diamond VIP version, and as a child under 14 he had to have one adult with him, so at the door Daddy P had to say goodbye to us and just J and I made our way into the Corn Exchange.

It was well organised at this point. Our tickets were checked at the door, then we gave our names to a lady with a clipboard who checked us off and we got a raffle ticket, the number of which was our turn to go and have the meet & greet with DanTDM and have the photo taken. After this we went up the stairs to the merchandise table, and J chose a lanyard with the TDMTour image on one side, and a space for Dan to autograph on the other side. We went into the hall, and J chose seats to one side of the hall, where he could clearly see the big screen TV that was set up showing DanTDM YouTube videos.

There was a bit of a wait while everyone else came into the hall, and once everyone was in and seated they greeted us all and explained what was going to happen. Then DanTDM himself came out onto stage with his familiar “Hi, everyone” shout, which is how he starts all his YouTube videos, and the crowd went wild. J was sitting next to me in stunned silence, his eyes huge, and glued onto the figure on the stage. I must admit it was surreal even to me that this familiar person, whose voice I hear daily, was suddenly standing in the same room, so goodness knows how crazy that must have seemed to J.

Then Dan took his seat on the stage, within the prop used for the photos, and one of the staff announced that everyone with a raffle ticket number between 1 and 20 was to go and line up beside the stage. Our ticket number was 72 so I knew we would have a wait before it was our turn, so I concentrated on trying to ensure that J didn’t get bored while we waited. We went to the loo (I know that seems a bit weird, but I needed it by that point and it meant we spent about five minutes walking around getting to the loo, doing what we needed, and walking back from the loo again) By the time we were back in the hall, numbers 1-20 were about halfway through, so then we sat looking around the hall and I was pointing out some of the features like the circle seats at the back, the old light fittings in the big dome on the ceiling, we looked at the other people there and we admired various different DanTDM / Minecraft / various gaming t shirts, and hoodies, we spotted all the people with blue hair, those who had modelled their entire look from hairstyle to skinny jeans on DanTDM, we spotted people carrying pug soft toys (Dan’s favourite dogs), those with the official tour baseball caps on sale, those with lanyards the same as J’s, and J of course watched the video screen.

Numbers 21-40 went up to wait in line and J asked again what number we were, so then we worked out how long we had before it would be our turn to go and line up. At this point he started getting a bit anxious because where we were sitting was right by where the line was for going onto the stage, and with the full 20 people in the line, plus their parents, for their photos, they ended up blocking the view from our seats to the TV screen, so J didn’t have that to concentrate on, and he started noticing how many people there were around him, how noisy it was in the hall, and after rooting through my handbag for something to distract him the only thing I could find was a tin of mints, so he had a mint and then decided he wanted to lie on the floor under the chairs to feel safe.

People don't often see this side of J and I debated for a long time whether or not to share this photo. But this is his life. This is what he did in a packed room full of people to feel more secure and calm about the situation.


To give them their credit, I didn’t notice anyone in the hall bat an eyelid about this behaviour. If they did, they were discreet about it. While it is totally normal for me to see him doing things like this, and I could understand why he would find the cool, smooth wooden floor calming, in situations like that you normally find at least one person who gives him a funny look or stares at us like they can’t believe I am allowing him to do whatever it is he is doing, but this group of people didn’t make a fuss at all. Even the usher from the theatre who was in charge of the line of people waiting for their photo to be taken just glanced over at him and smiled at me.

By the time our group was called, J was more than ready for things to happen. If we’d not been in that group I don’t know how I’d have kept him entertained any longer. I may have messaged Daddy P and asked him to get us some lunch and meet him at the door to collect it, but as it was we just about managed to last and when numbers 61-80 were called J shot out from under the row of seats and galloped to the lady checking the numbered tickets and into the queue. We were behind another young lad and his mum who had a picture for Dan, and in front of them was a lad with his mum who had a knitted DanTDM toy that his grandma had made the night before, which impressed J no end as Grandma P does a lot of knitting so he had the idea of asking her to make him a DanTDM next time he sees her. They were both very nice and we chatted while we waited, and behind us was another family with two boys, plus mum and dad, and one of the boys was antsy about queuing as well so his mum took him to sit in front of the TV screen beside the queue, and J ended up sitting on the floor with them while I stood in line til it was almost our turn. The guy at the bottom of the stage steps was lovely and chatted to J and myself while we waited, and then when we were called up the stairs to stand at the side of the stage ready to go and have J’s photo taken he was vibrating with excitement and the guy realised that and was talking to him as well.

At last, it was J’s turn. He skipped across the stage to Dan full of confidence, and when Dan said hello he was laughing and said hello, and the pair of them sat and had a chat – J told Dan all about the picture he’d drawn so they had a chat about that and Dan complimented him on what a good picture it was, and thanked him for making the effort, then he signed the lanyard, and they had their photo taken and finally J got a high five from Dan and we left the stage. The whole thing had taken only a couple of minutes but J was so excited and so happy. Immediately after we got off the stage, we went to the lady in charge of the printer, and J’s photo rolled out of the printer as we stood there and was put in a special DanTDM Tour card. We went to the table where the goodie bags were set up and J gave his name, received his goodie bag and then it was time for us to head back outside and meet up with Daddy P.

One very happy little boy finally meeting his idol!



To be honest, I had hoped for the price we paid, the goodie bags would contain more goodies. Inside was a special edition DanTDM Tour t shirt (we’d emailed weeks in advance for what size would be required), a small packet of jelly beans and a bag of flavoured popcorn. The bag itself is a sport-bag style with the DanTDM logo on it so that can be used again, but after all the hype about the “special goodies” and the promise of “a limited edition t shirt and much more included” I had been hoping for a bit more. Luckily J wasn’t disappointed and was still skipping about because he’d actually met and spoken with DanTDM.



We were out of the Corn Exchange around midday, which meant we had an hour and a half until the show started down the road at the Regent Theatre. We walked back to the car and popped into McDonalds on the way to pick up some lunch, which we took back to the car to eat – though disappointingly J’s Happy Meal was missing the drink and the sauce which caused a bit of a hiccup as he started getting really upset about it until Daddy P shared his milkshake. We chose to eat in the car as McDonalds itself was so packed and noisy that even the brief time we were in there was an issue for J – he was spinning, trying to run away to find somewhere to hide, wanting to lie on the floor (not practical in a crowded McDonalds!) and was generally becoming quite a handful, so we took our food and went to sit in the car where it was familiar, and peaceful.

After eating lunch we headed to the theatre, and to be honest this is the bit of the day that was the most stressful. Although everything else up to that point had been busy and noisy, it had at least been well organised and because we had been told what was happening we could guide J and as long as he knows what is going on and what is happening next he copes well even in new situations. This wasn’t well organised and we didn’t know what was happening.

There was a massive line from the doors of the theatre down the road. So naturally we joined the end of it, thinking this is the line to get in. Ten minutes later, a guy selling programmes for the show came down the line and announced, “This is the line for the merchandise, so if you don’t want merchandise and just want to go straight in, you don’t need to be lined up here”. Well thanks for that, man selling programmes, but why wasn’t that clearly marked by some rope and a sign of some sort? So half of us who’d been patiently standing in the wrong queue then went around the line and through the doors into the foyer of the theatre.

In the foyer it was packed. There were people everywhere, it was noisy, it was confusing, and it was hot. We had tickets for Circle seats, and the doorway to a staircase marked “Circle” had a line coming out of it that went back out of the theatre doors, that seemed to include people waiting at the bar to buy drinks. We really didn’t know where we were meant to be going or who to queue up behind, so we kind of stood in amongst this mass of people to wait. Again, no guidance what was going on, who was waiting for what, a lady did come and ask us all whether we had Circle seats as she didn’t want Stall seat people waiting in the wrong place, but everyone did (apart from those who were queuing for the bar) but other than that it was very disorganised. J became agitated, we were in a massive crowd of noisy people and it was hot and sweaty, and he wanted to find somewhere quiet to relax but we had nowhere to go, it seemed ridiculous that they were letting people into the foyer and not letting us into the theatre itself because we just ended up getting more and more packed in and getting hotter and hotter, it was getting noisier and noisier … The inevitable happened, J started spinning and covered his ears and started walking backwards, which meant he was bumping into people, he didn’t want to hold hands with me or Daddy P and instead wanted to run around Daddy P in circles which was impractical because of how crowded it was, but the more we tried to explain the more distressed he became. Daddy P gave him the DanTDM Tour programme to look through to distract him, but he wanted to lie on the floor of the foyer to read it, which was impractical due to the crowd of people walking about.

I was on the verge of marching over to the bar and demanding that they let us into a quiet room for J to calm down as I could see he was teetering on the edge of having a meltdown due to this huge sensory overload, but fortunately at that point they started letting people into the theatre, and the line started shuffling up the stairs. J was still not calm and it was difficult getting him to walk slowly behind the group of people in the queue ahead of us, but we managed well until we got to the bottom of the stairs, when a couple came down the stairs against the rest of the crowd of people. Of course everyone else shuffled to the side to get out of their way but J had his hands over his ears and was staring at his feet so he didn’t realise the woman was coming straight toward him, and when I tried to tap his shoulder to get his attention to get him to move he freaked and stepped sideways, even more in the path of this woman – so she barged past him, a six year old kid with his hands over his ears looking at his feet in amongst this noisy, hot crowd of people, and she just marched by knocking him sideways into me as she did so. Of course Mama Bear raised her head and I growled at this woman about knocking my child out of the way and she could have said excuse me and how rude of her to be so obnoxious to such a small child, but of course she ignored me and instead her husband looked suitably ashamed as he scuttled along behind her.

Fortunately the line was moving quite rapidly by that point, so we continued to go upstairs and as we got closer to the door into the theatre J began to visibly relax. As soon as we were in and found our seats he was staring at the stage excitedly and bouncing in his chair, completely at ease again. It was darker than it had been in the foyer though the lights hadn’t gone down yet for the performance, it was noisy with the chatter of the audience filing in, but it was cool and now we were in the theatre and he could see the stage, J focused on that to help keep him calm.



Once again, the familiar “Hi, everyone!” rang out over the speakers as Dan came on stage and the whole place erupted – but instead of being bothered by the noise, this time J was well and truly part of it and he screamed, clapped, stamped his feet, cheered and booed his way through the show, completely immersed in it all. He was completely and utterly under the spell of DanTDM and all that was going on during the show, and he loved every minute of it.

I took the opportunity during the second half to pop out and visit the ladies room without the queue of hundreds, and while I was out I stopped at the merchandise table, which was also free of the crowd, and picked up a TeamTDM armband and an official TDMTour t shirt (J had seen other kids wearing them and announced they were cool and he liked them – since he hadn’t actually asked for anything from the merchandise stands and had coped so admirably with everything that had been going on, I thought it would be a nice additional treat to compliment the less than wonderful goodie bag)

After the show, we exited the theatre from the circle seats via a side door that lead us straight outside rather than going through the foyer. We got back to the car and took a moment to have a drink before we set off for home. J sat in the back talking about the show until we started off for home – then he was very quiet. It’s normal for him to chat constantly in the car, but if he’s particularly tired he will be absolutely silent, and that was how he was yesterday on the way home (with the exception of telling me as I did 60mph down the Bury Road from Ipswich that he urgently needed a wee … thank goodness I am prepared for events like that, so we pulled over and he used the Coke bottle from the boot!) After that he was quiet again til we got home – he was his usual bouncy self at home, chatting away and playing with a variety of toys for 30 seconds each before they were abandoned in favour of something different – I did his dinner and Daddy P took Baby A up to bed, then I took J up to bed at 8pm. I had been expecting him to still be very hyped following the day, but instead he collapsed in bed without argument and after I read him a couple of chapters of James and the Giant Peach he wanted to listen to his BFG audio book until he fell asleep – which was only a few minutes later.

As much as he enjoyed the experience on the whole, I think if I were to take him to an event like that again I would make sure we don’t leave the stress ball at home (I only had Chloe the cat in my bag and he announced after trying to use her to calm down that she just didn’t help) I would make sure that I had more to entertain him in the long queue, as I was woefully unprepared for the amount of waiting that had to be done, though it would have been hard to do much in the queue perhaps a pad of paper and a pencil so he could do some drawings while we waited would have helped. Also I would have taken his noise reducing headphones with us, except they have mysteriously gone missing so I am going to need to invest in another pair since they were so useful.

The confusion at the theatre I hope they will consider looking into for future performances to prevent children like J becoming overwhelmed, because he was so close to meltdown and if he had gone into one at that point I would have had to take him to a quiet room to calm down or else taken him out of the theatre and back to the car which would have been next to impossible once he was in full blown meltdown. I think it would have been better controlled with clearer signage outside for the merchandise line; not allowing so many people into the foyer until they were at the point of letting people into the theatre so it didn’t get so packed; perhaps an idea could be for them to adopt a similar idea to Manchester airport, which offers a ‘Blue Band’ option when you book your flights, which alert staff to invisible issues such as autism and allows autistic customers and their families to go through the airport without queuing and to be provided with a quieter space for calming down when necessary (Personally though I think most places like the theatre, all airports, train stations, bus stations etc should adopt this idea as it’s not easy getting a child like J out and about for events without meltdowns due to his sensory overload in those situations).

Altogether it was a very enjoyable day and I am very pleased we managed to get tickets and, more importantly, that we were able to upgrade J’s ticket to a Diamond VIP one. It really made the day extra special for him to meet his idol. It was an exhausting day for us all, but it is one that we will all remember for a very long time.



Tuesday 26 July 2016

Summer Holidays - Days 3, 4 and 5


Day 3 of the summer holidays was Saturday. I was off work, so wanted to take the boys out of the house. They’d been bouncing off the walls the last couple of days, so I figured it was due to boredom / needing a change of scenery and something to do.



We went to the library, and J signed up for The Big Friendly Read. He has a little passport type book to fill in with six books that he reads over the summer holidays – any six books he likes – and he is rewarded if he completes the challenge. It reminds me of the Book Trail I used to do at my local library as a kid – does anyone else remember that? Anyway, he was well up for the idea, so we have hired three books to kick him off – one is short stories about dragons, the other is short stories about robots, and the third is short stories about dinosaurs. While we were there, we saw that the library was running a treasure hunt that day – you had to find six Roald Dahl images around the library and note down what number they were marked as, and what the character name of the image was. It took us the best part of an hour, but J was well into it and interacting with all the library assistants happily discussing the characters, where he’d found them, and the ones that took a bit longer to find. I was surprised there were so few people there, but I suppose as the weather was nice very few people thought about visiting the library to waste some time that day – it tends to be busier on a wet afternoon in the holidays, not one when the temperature outside is almost 30 degrees!

After that we headed to the market and had a mooch about for a while, then we went to Subway and got some lunch. J said it was too crowded and noisy in Subway to eat there, so we headed down to the riverside and found a quiet spot to sit on a bench in the shade of a willow tree. By the time we got there, Baby A was fast asleep in his pushchair, so he slept while J and I had our lunch and a chat and generally relaxed in the sunshine.




Sunday was day 4 of the summer holidays, and we went over to Grandma and Grandad P’s house for the afternoon. Grandad P cooked Sunday dinner, Baby A rolled around on the living room floor quite a lot (he’s crawling backwards and rolling brilliantly, but still not found forward gear with his crawling so he backs into corners and gets annoyed quite a lot) J was quite overexcited so after dinner he went to the park with Grandma and Daddy P for a little while to let off some steam. We got home late, he was put in bed, but then was back downstairs again by 9pm and ended up sitting on the sofa cuddled up, first with me and then with Daddy P, until I went up when Baby A woke up around midnight and when I got back downstairs again after settling him I found J asleep on the sofa and Daddy P asleep in the armchair. I woke Daddy P to carry J up to bed and went to bed myself.

Monday / Day 5 – I was working from home today, and this morning the internet connection was completely rubbish so it kept messing about and dropping my connection. The boys hadn’t slept well and they were grumpy and Daddy P hadn’t slept well so he was grumpy. It was a rocky old day with arguments, cross words, I struggled to get my work done, Daddy P wanted to get the gardening done, the boys wanted our full attention … It was rough. I have an ultimate plan though. I’m off work tomorrow and Wednesday, so have made plans for both days with friends of mine who have kids in J’s class at school, so J has someone to play with while I get some adult conversation and we get out of the house. As I’ve managed (finally) to get a decent amount of hours work done today, it means that for Thur, Fri, Sat and Sun I’m not under as much pressure to get as much work done, so I can take it a little more easy and take a break every so often to concentrate on the boys rather than trying to get my head down and crack on with lots of hours like I was trying to do today.

I love my job, I love being able to work from home and on the whole work around the boys – but times like this, not even so much today because Daddy P was home to help with the boys, even though he was grumpy about it, it’s the holidays that are really hard because J deserves to be going somewhere, not sitting at home playing computer games and watching TV – he deserves my attention, my patience, not me telling him “in a minute” and snapping at him for wanting a moment of my time. I hope we can enjoy tomorrow and Wednesday without any huge issues, and I can relax, and we can muddle through the next four days before we go on holiday and I have 2 weeks off work to devote every moment to my gorgeous boys and doing all kinds of things that they’ll enjoy.

I had a day of feeling like a bad mummy today, feeling guilty for trying to juggle work and home life and feeling like I dropped everything instead, having total mum guilt for having to work at all, but I tried my best and I have to remember that’s all anyone can ask. Tomorrow is another day!



Saturday 23 July 2016

Maxi-Cosi carseat Summer Cover



When Baby A was born last August, I wasn’t up for going out much in the car, and by the time I was taking him out I was using the Pebble carseat with the matching Footmuff. I love my Pebble, and I love the Footmuff, too. Its lovely and snuggly, the inner fabric is like t shirt material so its nice and cosy and soft against baby, and because it’s the official Footmuff to use with the carseat you know its safe, because the harness goes into the back of it, does up directly around baby, and the Footmuff does up over the top, so baby is securely harnessed in correctly. It kept Baby A gorgeous and warm through a long, chilly winter, and I was a bit sad when it was time to take it off when the weather got warmer again.

My ickle dinky dot was 6 weeks old in this photo


The weather turning warm meant that Baby A was getting sweaty in his carseat. Like his big brother, the combination of warm weather and being in a carseat means his hair is soaked and his clothes are sticking to him within ten minutes of travelling. I had learned with J five years ago that the summer cover for the CabrioFix was an invaluable piece of kit – and the summer cover for the Pebble is proving itself to be just as invaluable for Baby A.

The Pebble carseat with Cool Grey summer cover
(as seen on the Maxi-Cosi website)


I went for the Cool Grey colour summer cover, because I think it goes best with the existing Denim Hearts fabric. Although you don’t see any of the carseat fabric as the summer cover goes over it entirely, the harness pads are still the same (denim blue) and the rubber trim of the carseat is blue. I’m still using the headhugger in the carseat even though in just 2 weeks time Baby A will be a whole 12 months old, and this is a soft, grey, t shirt fabric.

I felt a bit sad, covering up my beloved Denim Hearts fabric. Having said that though, I cannot deny that Baby A is much more comfortable with the summer cover in place than he would be without – temperatures have been high 20’s / early 30’s here recently, and I think he would have been seriously hot and bothered using the carseat without the summer cover.

The summer cover is made from towelling fabric, so it keeps baby cooler by wicking away moisture from around the baby to keep them cool and comfortable.




Summer covers really are fantastic, I highly recommend them – I’ll be getting one for Baby A’s next carseat, too, and I’m considering one for J though he doesn’t get as sweaty now he’s in a high back booster seat – I think because it’s less closed-in than a carseat with harness. If you have a Maxi-Cosi carseat and you’re interested in a summer cover, you can buy them direct from the Maxi-Cosi E Shop for all current style Maxi-Cosi carseats, RRP £30.

Saturday 2 July 2016

The Beach Fixes Everything




I love this quote, because for me, it’s so true.

I’ve been stressed and harassed and short tempered and irritable for a while, just the usual uphill struggle of being mummy, being wife, being housekeeper, juggling responsibilities of those roles with working, plus I’ve not been getting enough sleep, and I’m having a bizarre allergic reaction to something (it’s been going on for ages now, nothing huge just an intensely irritating angry red rash down my arms and on my chest which itches like crazy, and I’m popping anti histamines and using Benadryl cream but it’s not helping so I think my next step is a visit to the doc)

Today, a last minute decision to go to the beach. Mum was there already, she came over to our house yesterday and since Baby A and I were up so early this morning and it looked like it would be a gorgeous day, I did a couple of hours work first thing then packed a bag, got the boys in the car, and we headed for the caravan to spend the day with mum. After lunch, we drove to the beach, and from the moment I kicked off my sandals and felt the sand between my toes, took a nice deep breath of fresh sea air and listened to the waves crashing and I immediately felt more relaxed.

The beach unfortunately can’t pay the bills, it can’t get rid of this annoying allergy, it can’t stop me getting stressed when I’m asking J to do something for the millionth time, it can’t stop Baby A from waking up six times a night and me being overtired all the damn time, but you know what, it does fix everything. For a few hours this afternoon, with the sun shining, the waves crashing, the sand between my toes, watching J run around like a loon because he had space and freedom to do so, watching Baby A curiously touching and playing with the sand, wiggling his toes in it and giggling happily, I felt fixed. I felt relaxed, I felt calm, I felt content.




I must go back again soon.

Mummy P

       x

Thursday 30 June 2016

A Difficult Time



My pregnancy with Baby A was not a straightforward one. From practically the moment I got pregnant until 20 weeks, I had sickness morning, noon and night – the doctor described it as “mild” HG, which I gather it was as I was never hospitalised with it to be rigged up on a drip, but at the time it felt anything but mild. My knees were sore from kneeling on the bathroom floor tiles vomiting into the toilet so often. My eldest, J, became obsessed with mummy being poorly when I was home alone and he ended up crying every morning when I tried to drop him off to school because he was so frightened of something happening to me. I was so exhausted that when I wasn’t being sick, I was asleep. At 18 weeks my doctor prescribed me some medication to try and resolve the sickness – at 20 weeks it finally worked, and I started to feel more human again.

The human feeling didn’t last long. Pretty much as soon as the sickness stopped, the PGP and SPD kicked in. Pretty soon I was walking like I’d been kicked up the backside, and physiotherapy helped but didn’t resolve it. Again, I was considered a mild case as I didn’t need a walking stick or a wheelchair, but again it didn’t feel that way as I hobbled to school and home again twice a day, or held onto the shopping trolley in the supermarket for dear life as it was the only thing keeping me upright for the length of time that shopping took.

Despite the difficulties my body was having, I was utterly in love already with this baby I carried. At our 20 week scan they couldn’t finish all the checks required or confirm whether I was carrying a boy or a girl, so I went back at 22 weeks for another scan where it was confirmed all was well, and I was expecting a son. My heart burst with happiness despite the difficulties I was having, and the love which consumed me already doubled in size as I imagined my two sons growing up.

My joy was tainted when I had to have a chat with one of the duty midwives after that scan. She told me that they were operating on a new system which looked at mothers height and weight to work out the weight the baby *should* be. Using the new system, my first baby was considered small. J had been five days over due date when he was born, weighing in at 6lb 10.5oz. I thought it was small at the time, but hospital staff at the time had said it was within normal parameters, nothing to worry about, so I hadn’t done. Now here was a midwife saying I’d been right all along, they would expect my baby to be bigger than that, particularly as he was over due. She advised that due to his birth weight it might indicate that something wasn’t working properly during my previous pregnancy, so as a result they would be keeping a closer eye on me during this pregnancy.

Every two weeks I returned to the hospital for another growth scan, and they measured and checked amniotic fluid levels as well as the size of baby to ensure he was growing as they would expect for his gestation. At 34 weeks I was told that baby was breech (feet down) and I was booked in for consultation to discuss ECV.

I was petrified. I’d heard awful things about ECV’s, the stress they put on babies, how painful they were for mums – I knew of one woman I’d gone to school with who’d tragically lost her baby at 40 weeks after an ECV – I was beside myself with worry. I discussed my fears freely with the consultant at the hospital; she was so calm and confident in the ability of her colleague to perform the ECV it was hard not to believe her. She advised that if they didn’t do an ECV I’d have to be admitted to hospital for a planned C Section as baby was no longer feet down but bottom down and they couldn’t allow me to have a natural labour with him in that position due to the likelihood of additional complications (I’d had a difficult labour with J and his heart rate had gone from accelerating massively in between contractions to dipping far too low during them; he’d struggled and had a bowel movement, and when he was first delivered he had to be taken away from me to have suction and it seemed like an age before his first cry)

At 35 weeks I arrived at the hospital for my ECV. I was still petrified, struggling to stay calm, hoping with everything I had that baby had moved into the right position and I wouldn’t have to go through with the ECV. I was hooked up to the monitors and left for an hour so they had a good baseline reading. The consultant came and checked me over and confirmed baby was still bottom down and ECV would be necessary. “What if I say no?” I asked quietly. He looked at me directly. “Well, then, I’d have to respect your decision and we wouldn’t go ahead with it. However, I must advise you that since you’re now 35 weeks pregnant you could go into labour at any time, and we couldn’t risk that happening while you’re away from the hospital. That means I’d have to admit you, and you’d have to stay here until baby is born.” My heart stopped. He wasn’t kidding. I couldn’t stay in hospital for that long – Daddy P had to work, it would scare the living daylights out of J who was already freaked out enough about the effects pregnancy was having on me, I still had work to finish up before I started maternity leave, but at the same time, I was so scared for my baby.

The consultant registered that this was a big issue for me. “Look,” He said, “I’ll be honest with you. If this hurts, I’m doing it wrong. It might feel uncomfortable, you might feel a bit sick, but if it hurts, tell me and I stop. It shouldn’t hurt – at all.” He looked at me carefully. I’d been told by friends in another county that at their local hospital they were told an ECV would always hurt like hell, that gas and air would be available and they were encouraged to “put up with it until they couldn’t take any more” I told my consultant this and he looked horrified. “We don’t operate like that here,” He said, “If I’m hurting you, tell me and I stop, no questions.” He then ran through the fact that they would monitor baby for at least an hour after the ECV to ensure he wasn’t distressed, and what the ECV would involve, and all that kind of stuff they have to tell you.

He left Daddy P and I for a moment to think. My mind was spinning in a thousand different directions but this consultant, the way he spoke, his reassurance (the fact that he reminded me a lot of a paramedic I used to work with, known fondly as Big Kev and who was in the classification of “knows his shit”) the fact that without this ECV I would have to stay in hospital until a predicted difficult breech delivery or have an elected c section … The decision suddenly became easy. “Lets get on with it, then” I said.

As predicted by the Big-Kev-Alike consultant, the ECV wasn’t painful – it wasn’t even that uncomfortable. It made me feel a bit swimmy and sick, the same as if baby had a good old aerobic workout, but the consultant was gentle and didn’t rush through the procedure, kept checking on the monitor to confirm baby wasn’t distressed, and he was very pleased once it was done, and done so quickly and simply. His only concern was that baby wouldn’t remain in that position before delivery as it had been so easy to move baby round.

I stayed in that hospital bed, on the monitor, for far longer than an hour afterwards. When I asked a midwife why, she said it was just for additional reassurance as I’d been so scared beforehand, the consultant had asked them to increase their normal timescale to be doubly sure that everything was OK before I was released. I wanted to tell him thank you for that, but I never saw him again.

At 36 weeks pregnant I had another growth scan, umbilical function was checked, amniotic fluid was checked, position and growth of baby was checked. The sonographer was happy. I felt relieved. It seemed like, finally, the pregnancy was going to plan.

Two weeks later, the day before I was 38 weeks, I returned for another growth scan. I was asked to go and wait in the ward. It had happened before, and they’d wanted a urine sample, so I assumed it was the same this time round. Daddy P and I sat together chatting and not worrying. We thought everything was OK. After a while of waiting, midwives milling about but nobody dealing with me, I asked a midwife if they needed a urine sample again as I was desperate for a wee. She said no, I was free to go for a wee, so off I went. As I locked the toilet door it suddenly struck me – if they didn’t need a urine sample, what was I waiting for?

Back on the ward, I found out. Another consultant came to take us into a side room. She looked serious. “Your growth scan this week shows baby hasn’t got any bigger since the last scan 2 weeks ago,” She said. “It would appear your placenta is failing, and baby isn’t getting the nutrients he needs to grow. He’s small for this stage of pregnancy, in the fifth percentile, but as long as he was growing he was better off staying inside. Now he has stopped growing, we’re concerned. We want him to be delivered, as quickly as possible.” She was all for inducing me then and there. My world stopped, imploded, erupted, my mind was screaming no, my hands cupped my bump instinctively trying to protect him – but how could I? My own body was betraying me again, failing my baby, failing to help him thrive. If it hadn’t been for those extra scans I’d have never known – he was as active as ever, as I was religious about counting the kicks and being aware of his movements – but here was this woman telling me he was in serious danger if he wasn’t delivered quickly.

I went home that afternoon to make a shaky voiced phone call to my mum, who changed her plans immediately to come up and collect J the following morning to take him away to stay at the caravan. I packed my hospital bag, made arrangements with my mother in law for her to take me into hospital the following morning to be induced. I was petrified, again, and all night I barely slept because I was panicking about him not making it until the morning.

The next morning, in a daze, I got into the car and we drove to the hospital. I don’t remember if we talked or laughed or if we were silent or what happened. I was shaking, and scared, and willing my baby to be OK.

I was induced just after 11am. I was encouraged to walk around, to keep active, as the theory was that it would be quicker if I did. All day, Daddy P and I went from the maternity ward, around the hospital, out to the field next to the hospital and did circuits around it, and while I had contractions, labour didn’t kick in. Daddy P had to leave the hospital when labour wasn’t established by late evening.

Baby A was born after 20 minutes of active labour, at twenty past three in the morning. It was very quick and he weighed only 5lbs 4oz. After delivery one midwife commented on the “scrappy looking” placenta, which is what caused the issues with his growth – my scrappy looking placenta was the result of placental dysfunction, and I was very lucky that the pregnancy was being monitored so closely and he was delivered when he was.

At the time, all the extra scans, the travelling back and forth to hospital, paying the extortionate car park fees, it seemed like such a pain in the backside. I’m so very glad they happened. I’m so very glad that the hospital were working from that new information which said my first baby was expected to have been heavier than 6lbs 10.5 at 40+5. I’m so glad I went to every appointment, and so glad that after a difficult pregnancy and a tough first couple of days (a whole other story), all has been fine for both of us.

Baby A is now 47 weeks old. Last time he was weighed he was a healthy 22lbs. He loves his food, he is active and happy and healthy and every time I look at him I am so thankful that despite everything, he’s here and he’s OK.






Mummy P 
       x













Wednesday 29 June 2016

Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix & EasyBase 2


While I was going through some old files I came across the information I put together for the CabrioFix and EasyBase2 for my original blog.


While I’m now using the Pebble with EasyBase2, this information is still relevant about the CabrioFix and could be helpful to anyone who uses one. There are many handy features about this carseat that many people don’t use simply because they’re not demonstrated thoroughly by the retailer prior to purchase.