Review: Organic Monkey Bumfluff Nappy Balm and Hello Mellow Massage Oil

I love trying out new baby products and if they are as good for soft baby skin as the products from Organic Monkey, then it is even more fun. Recently, I was kindly sent two products from the Organic Monkey range to review and after having tried them over a good period of time, I would like to give you my verdict on them. 

The first product we received was the Organic Monkey Bumfluff Nappy Balm. It comes in 50 ml tub and is made with a blend of organic oils and fairtrade Shea Butter. Although Amy is lucky enough not to suffer from nappy rash, I still used the nappy balm quite regularly on her because I like the way it nourishes her skin. It is easy to spread and is soft and gentle to little bottoms. What I really like about this product is that you only need a little of it to cover the area you want to protect, so a 50ml tub will go a long way. Also it doesn't smell clinical like other comparable products which is a real bonus. With £10.50 for a 50ml tub, Organic Monkey's Bumfluff Nappy Palm is a bit on the expensive side however it absorbs much quicker than other products I have tried and it doesn't leave any grease stains on baby's clothes.

The second product we tried is the Hello Mellow Massage Oil by Organic Monkey. It comes in a 125ml bottle and has become an invaluable part of Amy's bedtime routine. The oil has a lovely subtle smell and absorbed really easily when I massaged it into Amy's skin after her bath. Other oils that I have tried before left a greasy film on Amy's skin and even soaked into her clothes. Hello Mellow however spreads nicely and is just a really lovely product to use on her skin. It has a nice smell and it really helps her to relax before bedtime. Similar to the Bumfluff Nappy Balm, the Hello Mellow Massage Oil is a very efficient product, so the price of £12.00 for a bottle really seems fair.

Both products are available in the Protect and Nourish Me gift set. It costs £20 and makes a lovely gift for a baby shower or the birth of a baby. All products are available from the online shop on the Organic Monkey website or a list of stockists that you can find online. 

Disclosure: Mummy Alarm was provided with the Protect and Nourish Me gift set free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced by Organic Monkey.

Which career has the Daily Mail planned for your child?

It's not the first time that the Daily Mail has published a controversial piece but the article that they brought out yesterday couldn't be more ridiculous. In "Give birth in March for a pilot, August for a chief exec or December for a dentist..." (the length of the headline says all about the quality of the text) Chris Brooke reports about the results of a study that analysed the birth months of people in 19 separate occupations using information from the last census.

The results indicate that a person's month of birth is connected to their later profession and therefore could tell you if your child is likely to end up a dictator with a low IQ (that would be all April borns) or a brick layer that has the potential to be linked to Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe, J K Rowling and all other July babies).

Copyright: Daily Mail online

If you believe researchers, the month in which a baby is born affects factors such as length of life, intelligence or health problems and apparently, all of this has to do with a mum's exposure to sunlight in pregnancy. As sunlight triggers the production of vitamin D, a lack of this in the first months of life can have long-lasting effects. Russell Foster, an Oxford University neuroscientist, states: "It seems absurd the month in which you are born can affect life chances, but how long you live, how tall you are, how well you do at school, your body mass index as an adult, your morning-versus-evening preference and how likely you are to develop a range of diseases are all correlated to some extent with the time of year in which you emerge from the womb."

Well, my dear researchers, what about babies that actually haven't been born in the UK but somewhere nice and sunny? What about mums that spent most of their pregnancy in a warm country and what about the intellectual and financial background you come from? I could imagine that at least the latter might have a slight influence on your development. I am not saying that saying that professors can't give birth to a brick layer but in my eyes it is highly unlikely that a child from an upper class background that has a good education and grows up in a financially stable environment, decides to take up a profession that couldn't be further from their parents' job. Don't you think that your parents' education has a big influence on how you are brought up? On the things you learn and get to experience in your life?

According to said study, I have just given birth to a baby that will have health problems, a low IQ and that will walk in the foot steps of Hitler and Saddam Hussein. I myself seem to have messed it up: Ok, I don't know if I will live 215 days longer than anyone else but for sure I am not residing in Downing Street No10 - but don't worry, I'll let you know if you have to change my address on your Christmas card list!

What do you think about this study? Can you find any parallels with your life or have you given birth to a serial killer that refuses to be one?

My birth story or why I didn't care about my birth plan anymore

“Amy is going to be a big baby, so don't be surprised if she makes an early appearance”. That's what everybody from midwife to consultant told me whenever we went for an appointment. Well, they were wrong. My due date came and I didn't have the slightest twinge let alone Braxton Hicks. There was no sign what so ever that this baby was ever going to come out and I was getting more and more impatient. I wasn't uncomfortable, as I was one of the few fortunate ones that didn't suffer from any pregnancy related problems such as heart burn, back ache or sleepless nights, but I was getting more and more stressed because my parents and sister had booked flights to come over from Germany to see Amy whereas Little Miss Stubborn had decided to make herself comfy.

I went for a sweep that did nothing, I walked more than during my whole pregnancy, I had 5 curries in 5 days, I lived on fresh pineapple and I could have killed everyone that thought I desperately needed another useless bit of advice on how to get this baby out. Amy was just too pig-headed to make a move so after another growth scan seven days after my due date the consultant decided due to decreased fluid levels this baby had to come out. I was booked in for induction three days later and just when I got home from the hospital I started to get the first twinges. It wasn't anything major but I was the start to two days of contractions that got so strong and regular that I was almost admitted to hospital hadn't I coped that well with the pain. I was told to get some sleep which seemed just impossible considering the fact that my contractions were coming every four minutes but eventually I nodded off and can you believe it (?) my contractions were gone by the morning, so we had one last breakfast with my family before we went in for induction.

In hospital, Ben and I were taken to the Induction Suite and I was monitored on the CTG before I was given a Prostaglandin pessary that was supposed to get my contractions going again. Well, it didn't. It fell out while I went to the toilet so I was given a second one that also made its way down the drain. The nurses didn't see a point in giving me another one so we decided I would go straight to the Central Delivery Suite to have my waters broken. As my cervix was 2cm dilated the whole process wasn't painful at all, but it all got scary when instead of being pale/yellowish, my waters came out in a dark green.

I knew instantly that this meant that my waters were full of meconium, which inevitably meant that Amy was under distress. I had read some scary stories about situations like this one, so all I wanted was for them to get my baby out as quick as possible – my birth plan didn't matter anymore. Who cares for a birthing pool and nice music when you don't know if your baby is alright? In my head I went through one horror scenario after the other, but the midwife assured me that everything was going to be fine. She put my on a drip to make my contractions get stronger and closely monitored Amy's heart beat. Everything was fine for the next two hours.

My contractions were getting stronger and my midwife adviced me to have an epidural. She explained that it would be a good idea to go for the epidural as induced labour was more painful than natural labour. Originally an epidural was the last thing I wanted - I had even stated that in my birth plan, but as that one had gone out of the window anyway and Ben kept telling me that this wasn't the situation to be too proud for pain relief, I eventually gave in and went for it. Up until this point I hadn't used any pain relief so the idea of feeling less pain was absolutely heavenly, after all I didn't know what I was expecting. I was given the injection and today, exactly 4 weeks after Amy's birth I can say that it was the best decision of my live. I was pain free within minutes and even managed to get some sleep. After about two hours I woke up to the worried face of my midwife.

Amy's heart beat was dropping and suddenly there were 5 midwives and two consultants in the room discussing what was the best thing to do. Some of them wanted to wait and do some tests, others wanted to send me down to the theatre to have an emergency c-section. In the end, they decided to do more tests and switch the drip off as they were sure that that was what was distressing Amy that much. Too make sure they were doing the right thing, they also decided to do a fetal blood sampling test. They regularly inserted a medical instrument into my vagina before they made little cuts into Amy's head to take blood samples that would help them to check the acidity levels of her blood. All of them were higher than they should have been, so the midwife told Ben to change into his scrubs before they took one last sample, which for some strange reason showed us that the acidity in her blood was going back down again. You cannot believe how relieved I was that Amy was fine and that I didn't have to go for a cesarean - thanks to religiously watching One Born Every Minute, that would have been my personal definition of 'Nightmare on Elm Street'. But it got even better: From one minute to the other I had gone from 2cm dilated to 9.5 cm dilated so the consultant decided to perform an episiotomy and deliver Amy with the help of a forceps. Okay, that wasn't part of my glorious birth plan either, but I can assure you, that I did not care at all: After all the trouble leading up to this stage, all I wanted was to meet my beautiful baby girl – after 41 long weeks we finally got to hold our gorgeous daughter Amy Alison at 4.23am.

May I introduce: Amy Alison

 

born at 4.23am on Sunday 24th April 2011

Patience isn't one of my strengths

Baby girl isn't due for at least another three days but I've been feeling like a cat on a hot tin roof for at least two weeks now. I've been going on long walks, had about 5 curries within a week and a half and God knows how many pineapples, but nothing is happening. No twinges, no braxton hicks, nothing! I was really hoping that baby girl was going to be a bit early considering she's quite tall already, but it looks like she's got different plans. Her grandparents and aunty are coming from Germany on Saturday and I already see myself greeting them with a big belly instead of a baby in my arms. That's not how I planned things! But I guess you just can't plan pregnancy and I'll just have to wait and aaaah be patient. Did I tell you that patience isn't one of my strengths? No? Well, it isn't and people asking me if there are any news on a daily basis really do not help. As if I wouldn't tell anyone.  

The absolute highlight was my nan. I ring her at least twice a week to catch up on how she is and how things are back at home in Germany and she seriously asked me if I was going to phone her when the baby was born. No, I'll send a pigeon. I mean, how on earth could I not tell her about something I am so desperately waiting for?

How did you cope during the last stages of pregnancy? Did you try anything to make baby come out earlier and if, did it work?

Review: DVD - Acupressure for Natural Pain Relief in Labour

If you are expecting a baby, the third trimester is probably the point in your pregnancy that gets you thinking more actively about labour and how you are going to cope with it. You will have read what feels like millions of pages about epidurals, gas & air or pethidine and other medications that can help you to deal with the pain of giving birth but what about alternative methods of pain relief? Especially during the last couple of months I have come across various methods such as hypnobirthing, homeopathy or acupressure. None of them made much sense to me though – but that's simply because I knew little to nothing about how they worked. 

 

You can imagine that I was delighted when I was offered the chance to review the DVD “Acupressure for Natural Pain Relief in Labour” by Debra Betts and Tom Kennedy. Ok, I am still not 100% sure if accupressure is exactly my thing, but I am glad that I know more about it now and we will definitely give it a go. We've got nothing to lose, do we?

The DVD, available for £11.99 from JCM online and Amazon, shows numerous acupressure methods for the different stages of labour and even explains different ways to cope with postnatal pains, nausea and breastfeeding problems. A 16-page-booklet that completes the package explains and illustrates the different techniques in more detail. Unlike acupuncture where needles are used, acupressure applies physical pressure to specific acupressure points using the thumbs, fingers, hands, elbows, or with various other devices applied to the surface of the body. So you see, the big advantage is that you can use it wherever you want, Furthermore, acupressure allowes you to actively involve your birthing partner in the labour process.

Having watched the DVD with daddy-to-be, I have learnt that accupressure is completely safe. The best thing is however, that daddy-to-be can now be more involved in the birth of our daughter. He does now know different techniques to help me deal with the pain and emotional stress of labour and said himself that he is happy that he's got something to do now. I have to admit that all the different techniques and pressure points are a bit overwhelming when you watch the DVD for the very first time but I am sure that with some practice, we will be able to use a great amount of them during the birthing process. We'll keep you posted...

Birth Plan: To write or not to write?

I'd love to say that it's a question that's been around for centuries, but writing a birth plan has only become a part of pregnancy during the last couple of years. I guess that is also the reason why there are so many different opinions on them and why many pregnant women ask themselves: to write or not to write?

When my midwife told me that I should think about writing my birth plan at some point in my last trimester, I didn't even think of questioning her. To me it made perfect sense to do a bit of research on the different options of pain relief or to write down what I want and don't want in case of an emergency or to be positive, if everything goes according to plan. But that's where friends with babies burst my bubble: If I believe them nothing ever goes to plan and no one will even be interested enough to look at my birth plan, let alone follow it. Well, to be honest I don't care: I will still write it. Not because I am sure everything will go to plan (you never know and I think it is important to keep an open mind) but because I believe it is a good way of getting used to the thought of labour. In my eyes it can't ever be wrong to know all the options you have and furthermore, who says that it's not going to be me who has a fairy tale birth? I like being informed about things. I like knowing what side effects different methods of pain relief can have and I like to make sure that my partner knows what I want in case I am in too much pain to speak. I personally think that having a birth plan even helpes me to stay relaxed about labour. Well, so far it does. Whenever people ask me if I am scared of labour I shake my head or answer with a clear “No”. I don't know if that's going to change when I am having my first contractions, but having done my research and having it written down somehow makes me feel that little bit more prepared and in control. I feel like I know my voice will be heard even though I might not be able to communicate properly and it makes me feel safe, because I know that I've done my homework. Do you know that feeling from school? It was always that little bit more relaxed when you knew you didn't have to hide from being caught out by your teacher, wasn't it?

Well, I know that in case of emergency I will do everything possible to help the medical staff to make sure my baby is born safely. However, I do also want to ensure that if everything goes to plan I have the chance to experience labour and birth in a for me perfect way. I know there is no such thing as perfect labour, well at least if I believe my friends, but what's wrong with hoping for it?