Author: agnieszkawhitaker

I am 31 years old first time mum to a gorgeous baby girl who was born end of October 2014. I am also a Visual Merchandiser Manager for one of the biggest High Street Fashion Brand in the word. I love fashion, beauty, travel and now also babies :-)

SELFISH REASONS FOR BREASTFEEDING! 

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

We all know about the huge benefits of breastfeeding your baby. I would like to highlight the selfish reasons why breastfeeding is great:


1. Big boobs !!! Ok so if you are already gifted by big boobs (lucky cow) then you might not be that pleased about it. But if you the owner of a small bust this gives you a chance to have a pair of nice boobs ! You can see if it suits you and if it will be worth investing in Implants in the future.

2. When baby wakes up at night to be fed you don’t need to get up, get out of bed and go and make a bottle , you just get your boob out 😂

3. Reduces risk of you developing breast cancer !!!!!!!

4. You burn 500 calories a day by doing so !!!!! But if you want to use it as a weight loss tool then you need to make sure that you don’t consume more than your daily calorie allowance, you eat healthy …. and yes you will have to start exercising 😁 But an extra 500 calories are always welcomed ! Or you can just use it to eat extra cakes and not put on weight 😂

5. Helps your uterus to contract back to its original size much quicker … that has to be a good thing ? 

6. Prevents you baby getting ill ! breast milk is packed with disease-fighting substances that protect your baby from illness. How is it selfish? If you want to get any sleep at all at night you don’t want your little precious baby to get a cold or anything else. Also it’s heartbreaking seeing your tiny love unwell! 

7. You save a fortune on formula, and you can spend this money on shoes 👠!!!

8. Because your boobs are bigger and they have to be easily accessible you have to buy lots of new clothes !!!! Which one of us doesn’t like to shop…especially with a big pair of boobs 😀

9. The most important one NO PERIOD!!! It gives you few extra months without blood !!!!!!

Oh and the saggy boobs ….

…. the damage has been done when you are pregnant as that’s when your skin has been stretched. 

So if you are unlucky to have those it’s not because you were breastfeeding. 

APPLES IN PANCAKE BUTTER 

DESERT RECEPE, SNACK RECEPE

APPLES IN PANCAKE BUTTER  This is another great idea for a healthy snack/dessert. It’s very tasty and so quick to make. You can also make lots of them and keep in the freezer! 


INGREDIENTS:

– 1 glass of flour 

– 1/2 glass of milk 

– 1 egg

– 2 big apples 

– 1 tsp vanilla extract 

– 1/2 tsp baking powder 

– 1/4 tsp cynamon

– A little bit coconut oil 
COOKING METHOD 

  Mix all ingredients together until you have nice and creamy mixture. You want it to be quite thick so it sticks to the apples easily. Peal apples and remove the middle of it. Slice them in to 1/2 cm rings. Deep in to the mixture and fry in coconut oil until golden (around 1 minute). 

CARROT BISCUITS ! 

DESERT RECEPE, SNACK RECEPE

CARROT BISCUITS ! 

 Those are soft, low in sugar and have hidden vegetable ! Perfect combination !!! 


INGREDIENTS: 

– 350g plain flour, plus extra for dusting your hands

– ½ tsp baking powder

– 1 tsp ground cinnamon

– 1 tsp mixed spice

– 140g butter, softened

– 50g soft light brown sugar

– 1 egg beaten

– 200g carrot, finely grated
COOKING METHOD: 

 Combine the flour, baking powder and spices in a bowl. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Beat in the egg, followed by the carrot. 

Tip in the dry ingredients and mix to form a dough.

 Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Dust your hands with a little flour, then divide the dough into 2cm balls. Use the palm of your hand to flatten each one to a thin circle. You can bake them like that or cut shapes out of the dough. 



 Bake for around 20min at 180C.

SUGAR FREE YUMMY BROWNIES !!! 

DESERT RECEPE

Sugar free Brownies !!!!

I am one of those annoying mums who don’t like to give Chloe sweets. I try to make cakes and biscuits myself so I can make sure that they are as healthy as possible. Those are brilliant! Chloe things that she is eating “chocolate”. 


INGREDIENTS: 

75g Coco

75g Wholemeal flour

130g Butter (melted) 

1 Ripped banana 

200g Medjool Dates 

1tsp Vanilla extract 

2 Eggs

1/2 tsp bicarbonate 

COOKING METHOD:

 Preheat oven to 160 C fan oven. 

 Chop the dates and cover in the boiling water with bicarbonate. Leave for 20 minutes. 

 Add dates and the banana in to the food processor and blitz.

Combine all of the ingredients together; Put in to the cake tin and level off then bake for 20 – 25 min.

This might be sugar free but your child (and you) will love those brownies ! ❤️

WEEK 5 😳

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

WEEK 5 from a life with a newborn baby and 2 years old toddler. What have I accomplished ? 

1 – I have mastered the very tricky act of leaving the house by 9am. 

2 – Have had the best evening of my life when Chloe has had a meltdown for over an hour … without a reason. 

3 – Shopping trip to Westfield and I actually managed to buy something for myself not just the kids; Kids 2 big shopping bags full of clothes, Mum 1 dress and one jumper … shouldn’t that be the other way around ??!! (Oh and Dad got one thing 😂) 

4 – Biggest achievement of all was 2 days without doing washing !!! Yuppie !!! 

5 – Discovered that Skylar is now 5kg !!! 😳This child is massive !!! It must be all of this tiramisu in my milk (I am addicted to it) 😀. 

6 – Managed to see lots of friends in hope that I can talk about something different than babies and nappies… that didn’t happen, but it was still nice to see all of you! 

7 – A 45 min nap on one occasion !!!!!! Rest of the days she is still awake when Chloe naps. 

8 – Have been on time on half of the occasions 😀. We are getting there 😀

9 – Oh and let’s don’t forget about mastering how to take off my denims with one hand while holding baby and folding washing one handed !!!! 

HOW/CAN ? You prepare for your second child :-) 

BABY ADVICE

How to prepare for your second child.I don’t think that there is anything you can do to prepare yourself for second child; but there are quite a few things you can do to make it easier for your first born.

BOOKS

As soon as your bump becomes visible start reading your child stories about “baby in mummy’s tommy” and them becoming big sister/brother .My favourite books were :


And “Princess Poly I am new big sister”. 

 . When/if you find out what you are having you can start reading books about them getting baby sister / brother. This will help them to understand what is happening and what is to come. 

GET THEM INVOLVE 

It’s very important that you get them involved in baby related things. We got Chloe involved in preparing for the new arrival: 

– helping to fold baby clothes (or shall I say unfold? 😂) which she loved, she would pick up every single garment and say: mummy look it’s so small ! 

– taking her to midwife appointments to check that “baby is ok”. 

– help decorate her sisters nursery (choosing where to put toys, what photos to put in to frames)

– going shopping to buy things for the baby and asking for her help with it. 



PRESENT FROM THE BABY

What makes the inconvenience of the arrival of the sibling more bearable is a nice present. Your Firstborn is more likely to “like” someone who gave him present (especially when it is something that they really wanted). 

VISITING RULES

Make sure that your guest give your child as much attention as they will give to the baby. It is a very good idea to get your toddler to show quests where the baby is and ask him questions about the baby. It will make them feel very important. 
LITTLE HELPER

 Get your toddler to help with the baby. Getting involved in everyday tasks will stop your toddler feeling excluded. Giving nappy and wipes, bringing blanket etc all of those little things will make them feel as a very important big sister/brother. 
UNDIVIDED ATTENTION

 The hardest thing for your child to deal with will be lack of attention. They live gets thrown up side down; one day they are the only person who gets your attention the next day there is someone who gets much more of your attention than they do. Make sure that each day you do spend quality time with your toddler. Put aside an hour a day when your baby is sleeping when you can have lots of fun with your toddler; it will be hard when you are sleep deprived but it will make a huge difference to your child. 

NEW ROUTINE

 You won’t be able to follow all of your old routines of bathing, feeding, reading stories, tucking in to bed. Make sure that you make new ones which involve the baby and work with having two kids. My husband does Chloe’s batch time and bed time routine but I make sure to take Skylar to Chloe’s room for her bed time story. This now has become our new family routine and Chloe loves it. 

 Those things has worked for us. Chloe has adapted very quickly to the new family dynamics and is in love with her baby sister . 

Cosmetics for your baby and toddler. 

BABY ADVICE

 I have been using Childs Farm cosmetics on Chloe for a long time now so I was very pleased to see that they have just launched range for Babies.  Childs Farm is an award winning British brand that uses natural ‘free-from’ ingredients and essential oils to produce mild, kind and delicious smelling toiletries that care for the skin and hair of newborns, babies and children. 

The gorgeous smells of the cosmetics comes from organic sweet orange, mint, tangerine, grapefruit and tea tree oil.

They use only natural detergents which come from beets, corn and coconut. 

Use of natural moisturisers like vegetable glycerine and honey.

 Highly recommend theirs baby and toddler range. We love it ! 

CUTE BOOTS ALERT !!! 

YUMMY BABY & KIDS FASHION

I have this obsesion with buying shoes for Chloe! She defenitely had more of them than me 😁
Now that autumn aproaches I decided that she will have only 2 pairs of boots: one smart and one casual (how many pairs of shoes does a toddler need????)  That was untill I have seen those cute as hell boots! There is no way that I will be able to buy only 2 pairs 😁.
Get your hands on them before they go …

From ZARA : 


From River Island :


From NEXT

SPINACH PICHI PASTA 

DINNER RECIPE

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL … SPINACH PICHI PASTA 
This is a great dinner idea for your little one! What is very exciting is how much fun it is for kids to make it and how healthy it is! 


INGREDIENTS:

– 100g baby spinach.

– 150g flower. 

– 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese. 

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

 Put baby spinach and flower in to the food processor and mix until combined well. 

You want it to be this same consistency as play dough 😁.

Then to the fun part, you need to shape your pasta. Your little one will have so much fun doing it with you. Divided the sought in to 1cm balls and the roll it until you achieve thin rolls of pasta.

 Cook the pici straight away, or leave them to dry out for a few hours, or even overnight. If you are Cooking them straight away add to the boiling water and cook for around 8 minutes; if you cooking them from dry then allow extra 5 minutes. 

 Once ready put on the plate, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve (this will give you quite a few portions which you can freeze). 


 I have made this pasta from Jamie Oliver recipe from his new book Super Food Family Classic (http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/spinach-pici-pasta/). I have made the recipe for us grown ups and adapted it for Chloe. If your child is older then you probably can follow the recipe and just miss on some chilly flakes.