Sneak Preview..

Keeping this secret has been killing me!! I've been given permission to give you snippet about where I'm going on Monday.

I and a group of Parent Bloggers have been invited to London to be a part of Pampers and UNICEF's 1 pack = 1 vaccine campaign. We've have been asked to be ambassadors!

I am both excited and extremely honored to be asked, now I can't give you many details (mainly as I don't know much my self!) but I will give you the full story Monday. I will probably be blogging on the trip home!!

Phew that feels good to tell you all!

Have a great weekend

NM X

Sleep Is For The Weak...

...well that's what Baby Girl must think, because she won't ruddy sleep and is definitely not weak!!

Now I know I keep banging on about how great BG slept when she was younger but trust me I need something to hold onto! I need to believe that she will again sleep through the night or I might go mad!

The first 9 weeks BG was home was hard, she woke through the night for constant feeds and me and OH would take turns to do the night shift, sometimes one of us sleeping down stairs with her so the other could get some sleep.

Then at 9 weeks she dropped 3 nights feeds in a space of a week and started sleeping 7 till 7!! We couldn't believe our luck, we were secretly quite smug, we had friends trying different sleep routines and we had done nothing and yet or baby slept 12 hours straight!

Don't get me wrong she didn't always have a good night sometimes she would settled till 8 or 9pm and other times she woke early but all in all she was a dream that is until about 10 weeks ago.

Our perfect night had come to an end!! At first we though it was her teething and low and behold 3 teeth popped out !! yay sleeping though the night will commence again, WRONG!

She is still not sleeping right at all and we are suffering. BG either settles really well at night but them wakes super early, its been 3.30am for the past two days, 4.30am before that. We just can't settle her and get her back into her cot, that girl wants to play! Or she doesn't really settle at all and is up most of the night!

Now I am fortunate that OH helps through the night, actually to be honest he does a lot of the nightshift then will wake me early so he can get a few hours before work. The problem is that even when he gets up to her I still don't sleep well and I can hear her and miss him in the bed!

I read somewhere that between 6 and 10 months Babies go through a sleepless phase due to all the new things they are learning and it passes. Well BG will be 10 months on Sunday we are praying that this ends soon.

My house looks like a bombs hit, we've almost given up on food and coffee is my bestest friend in the whole wide world!

At this rate we won't need a costume for Halloween me and OH can go as Zombies!

Now over at the fab blog Sleep is for the weak is a sleep deprivation carnival and she wants some pictures, thankfully there are none of me but a few of OH...sshhh don't tell him

NM X

My Lost Hour

For those of you that follow me on twitter or have read previous posts will know I'm job searching at the moment.

I'm also on Job Seekers (which I'm not that proud about) and if we could get by without the money I wouldn't bother but we need it.

Every fortnight I go to the Job Centre and "sign on", that is sign a piece of paper to say I've actively looked for work, and show them what I've done. I've been doing this for about 8 weeks now.

Last week I got a letter inviting me to a Back to Work session to "assist your search and improve prospects of finding a job", I was more then a little insulted!

So today I went along to a local hotel to attend this group session. For me it was complete waste of time, its not that I don't know where to look for a job, is that I can not find a suitable role for me. Finding part/time flexible work is not easy.

I could see that the session was useful for some, and there was offers with help with training etc but I already have the skills that they were offering. They explained the different resources available if you haven't got a computer or access to the Internet.

I spent the hour going, yeap doing that, doing that, doing that!

They tried to tell us that there was work in our area available!

Fun Fact 1: In my Town last week was 75 full time positions available on the Job Centres website
Fun Fact 2: There are currently approx 1700 people on Job Seekers in my Town

I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle!!

I'm in an unfortunate position that I don't drive and our public transport is limited so its hard for me to work outside of the area! I feel like I'm going round and round in circles and the real kicker is I can only claim Job Seekers until January as I was on maternity previous to my claim and haven't paid enough NI contributions!!

This is the first time in 13 years I've been unemployed! and I'm only is this situation as the company I worked couldn't accommodate part-time hours and I could afford full time childcare

So today I lost an hour I will never get back and I'm no closer to a job!!

NM X

Scream

Baby Girl decided that today she would communicate through a series of screams!!

We had the tired scream, the unhappy scream, the pick me up scream, the put me down scream, the hungry scream and the happy scream.

I have a splitting headache and I'm hoping that tomorrow she learns a new form of communication!!

Right off to take more painkillers for this headache

NM X

The Mega Meme Part 1

OK so I'm a bad, bad blogger!! I've been tagged but lots of lovely people I keep forgetting to do the meme's. So I'm now going to do them all....in two parts

I shall do part one today and part two sometime next week.

Here are the meme's I have to do:

The Blame Tara Meme from Tara at Sticky Fingers
The 7 traits meme from Hot Cross Mum and Really Rachel
A Photo tag from Kellyfairy at A Place Of My Own
You're blog is lovely from Ruth at Look Left at the Pleiades
One Word Answers meme from Insomniac Mummy
10 Favourite Film Characters from Linda at You've got your hands full

So just a few as you can see!! I've decided that I'm not going to pass the memes on but I will pass on the award!

Here are the first three meme's!!

Blame Tara

Ok for the Blame Tara Meme I have to answer 10 questions, so here they are with my answers

1. Who is the hottest movie star? Christian Slater, I have a thing about his voice. I went to see him in One Flew Over The Cookoos Nest and found my self chanting "drop the towel, drop the towel" when he was wearing a itty bitty towel around his waist then remembered I'd gone to the play with my dad!

2. Apart from your house and your car, what's the most expensive item you've ever bought? A TV for my Dad

3. What's your most treasured memory? Holding BG for the first time

4. What was the best gift you ever received as a child? My first bike

5. What's the biggest mistake you've made? Spending 5 years with my ex

6. 4 words to describe yourself. Friendly, organised, impatient, tired.

7. What was your highlight or lowlight of 2008? Highlight - The birth of my baby Lowlight - The birth of my baby, she was born after 3 days of failing to be induced by c-section.

8. Favourite film? Some Like It Hot

9. Tell me one thing I don't know about you. I hate mayonnaise

10. If you were a comic book/strip or cartoon character, who would you be? Super Girl

I hope the answer weren't too boring for you!

7 Traits

Yes you've guessed it right for this meme I have to list 7 traits I have.

Now to be honest I hate ones like this, I find it hard to list things about my self, but never mind here I go...

1 Loyal

2 Bossy

3 Impatient

4 Friendly

5 Independent

6 Loving

7 Ambitious

Photo tag

For this I had to go to my 6 photo folder and find the 6th photo and then explain about the picture....

This is actually one of my favourite photo's of BG and if there wasn't sick in the corner of her mouth it would be perfect! She was about 2 months old when this was taken and its just a random picture I took one afternoon when we were home (I have lots of them!)

OK that's the first 3 done, now as I was putting this together I was given two more awards!!

Lorraine at Ramblings Of A Mum On The Run gave me the Zombie Chicken award (I will explain next time!!) and Emily at Maternal Tales From The South Coast gave me the Over The Top award! Thank you ladies I will pass them on in the next instalment

Feel free to answers the questions above your self, if you do then let me know

Part 2 next Sunday

NM X

The Best Of British Mummy (& Daddy) Bloggers Carnival

Hello Hello Hello and welcome to the latest BMB Carnival. If you are new to my blog welcome to my place and if you've visited before welcome back!

Its my great honour to be the latest host and I've got so many great posts for you!

So grab a coffee/tea/dietcoke/glass of water, sit back and have a great read!

First I have a great collection of School posts, some are back to school and some are first day trials and tribulations.

Jo Beaufoix now has two girls in school, how did the first day at school go?

Sarah from the School Gate, is finding her son's first day at school emotional, she discus's what its like for the mum's as well

Nixdminx is cooking her way through NTA (new term anxiety)


Milla at Country Lite has had an interesting time being a hostess with the mostest!! Its all sounds Yum.

Mummy Do That talks about the the question that people are scared to ask her in her post The Unsaid.

Liz at Living With Kids is not sure how it happened but The boy does nothing!

Mums The Blog keeps having those Paranoid Parenting moments, I have them all the time!

Catherine at Withenay Wanders has a daughter who wants to be the Green Man

Helen at Business Plus Baby talks about becoming a parent for a second time.

Potty Mummy at The Potty Diaries has a new show called PR Agencies do the stupidest things...

And the Sun Shone for Elsie Button over at Flower Fairies and Fairy Cakes

Claire Lancaster has done her own Group B Strep Screening test, found out why this test is important

Ladybird World Mother's children find her most amusing!

Maria at Fab Mums has a pillow for the Tooth Fairy!

Rebel Mother at Another Day In The Mad House has found Divine Solitude and if that picture is were she's going I might have to join her!

Pippa at A Mothers Rambling has started planning Christmas!! You might want to scream ......like Noddy Holder of course!

Football Identity is being discussed over at Brits In Bosnia.

Sandy at Baby Baby has a baby that smells of strawberries, beats what BG smells of!!

Kellyfairy at A Place Of My Own shares with us how her son got his name Piran

Our A Modern Mother Susanna is dealing with PTA Politics

The Survival Guide for Rookie Mums reminds us to Enjoy ours kids, don't endure them! Good advice!

Have A Lovely Time tells us the 10 things they loved about Blackpool, yes there really is 10 things!!

I'll let Nadine at Time Management Mum explain what Vesuvial is!!

Victoria at Its A Small World After All has been walking in the Swiss mountains with her Children, sounds fantastic!

Babyrambles worries that her Podge watches too much television

Surprised and Excited Mum little girl is A Whole one and a half

At Sleep Is for The Weak its all Linguistic Mysteries and Practical Storage Solutions!

Tim at Bringing up Charlie gives his apologies

angels & urchins have been invaded by the SMOG

Insomniac Mummy tell us her 5 things....

Linda at You've got your hands full talks about Kindness and Strength

Over at TheMadHouse there is a worry she might be strange! Not as strange as the rest of us!

Yummy Mummy Tips shares with us how see meet her Perfect Partner, she's a very lucky lady!

Muddling Along Mummy asks Has becoming independent women unable to ask for help?

Andrea the Accidental Business Woman shows how to Feed A Family of 5 for £20 a week, yes a really said £20!!

Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy? asks us to take a chance! Go on its worth it!

Carly at Wives and Daughters tells her Labour Story

Half Mum Half Biscuit has been Sellotaping pretzels back together

Now there is a warning with this next post from Maternal Tales From The South Coast its is poo story with pictures!! Look at the the size of that (sorry!!)

Lastly our most recent host the lovely Clareybabbling gives us an update on Little S

Phew all done. I've had a great time pulling this together, its been a great excuse to read loads of post and find new blogs.

Hope you all enjoyed reading them.

If you want to host a carnival then check out the schedule there are some dates free!

NM X

I have a quick last minute addition from Lorraine at Ramblings of a Mum on the run, this is her post for the Save One Mammy Campaign, she asks Who Gets Hurt?

Musical Mini's and our First Swing!

Yesterday morning me and BG had our first session at Musical Mini's. We had done a trial session about 3 months ago at our baby group and have been on the waiting list ever since. Well a space came up and I jumped at the chance.

I had been looking at something locally to take BG to, the baby group we went to, went right down hill and everything else is to far for me to get to without a car. BG loves music and making a noise so I thought this would be perfect.

Anyway we went along yesterday and she absolutely loved it! It was right up her street, sing and clapping and playing with instruments. I didn't know how she would react to all the noise but it didn't faze her at all, the more noise the better.

She did try to eat most of the instruments she was given to play with except the maracas which she knew straight away how to shake!! I was a little concerned when the instruments where being put away that she would start screaming as she does at home sometimes but she didn't, she let them be taken out of her hand and put into the box.

The group of mum's were really lovely, not at all clique which I was worried about. My friend that I met through baby club went as well so it was nice to have a friendly face.

Afterwards as it was only 11am, we took our girls to the park, where BG had her first go on the swings which again she absolutely loved and have a good old giggle.

Last night she was absolutely shattered and was asleep and in bed by 7.30 and didn't get up until 5.45!! We've had three nights in a row now of undisturbed sleep, fingers crossed it stays that way!

Have a good weekend

NM X

Wordless Wednesday

I was moving my photo's from my old laptop and found this picture of BG, she was 2 days old!

I've Gone and Got....

Blogger block! I have no idea what to write at the moment.

I keep thinking I have great ideas, then I write them out and they are pants!

I think it may be severe lack of sleep Baby Girl is still not sleeping properly, she woke at 11 last night and finally fell asleep at 8.30 this morning!!! My brain is really not functioning at the moment, I can't even concentrate to do the meme's that have been passed on to me!

Hopefully this will pass soon and I will be back to my super funny and interesting self *cough* *cough*

Anyway to keep you going, I am hosting the next BMB Blogger Carnival on the 15th September email your entries to newmummy@live.co.uk.

Also I'm running a Review Rodeo over at New Mummy's Tips on Tuesday, so if you want your review entered send it over to me by Monday night.

OK off to find my mojo!

NM X

Blogger Love

As its the 1st of the month I thought I'd share some blogger love

Firstly the latest British Mummy Blogger Carnival is being held over at Clareybabbling so pop over and have a read.

The fabulous online Organic Children's store Daisychainbaby has relaunched their blog, so I suggest you go and have a look!

For the chance to win a Goodie Basket from Daisychainbaby then check out Cafe Bebe's competition.

On the competition theme Sophie4sophie is running a competition with a difference, for the chance to get your hands on a unique dress then go and enter now.

And lastly a little plug for me, I'm holding a review rodeo next Tuesday at New Mummy's Tips, if you would like your review posted them email me at newmummy@live.co.uk

NM X