Pass it on Pass it on

Ok, I have been tagged by the immensely talented Kate of Kate Takes 5 and the Magnificent Molly Forbesin a meme that isn't the usual run of the mill post then pass it on. In fact I'm a bit terrible with memes, I have several times in the past been tagged and intended to take part, but then forgotten to do so until it is well and truly after the fact. I can't with this one though. You see this meme has a purpose and involves a little bit of activism - which is always right up my street.

So here's what it's all about, as explained by Josie from Sleep is for the Weak

Save the Children’s most ambitious campaign to date is to bring into focus the fact that 8 million children a year are still dying from preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea.For the next few weeks the No Child Born to Die campaign is shifting its focus on to vaccination programmes in developing countries and we need YOUR help to make some noise.
In June, David Cameron is hosting a hugely significant conference in London attended by world leaders. This meeting marks the chance to ensure the funding shortfall for vaccinations (4.7 billion) is met by all the donor countries – it might sound a lot but this easily achievable, even in the current economic climate. It just takes commitment from those in power and holds the potential to save the lives of millions of children.

Now if those same world leaders can save the bankers surely they can Save the Children too?
Save the Children are also sending three influencial bloggers to Mozambique to follow the journey of a vaccine form 'coldhouse' to child and report back on their experiences.
The power of Social Media is strong and has worked before so let's use it. If you're reading this simply click this link to sign the petition and then pass the link on to as many friends as possible.

In order to carry on this blogging juggernaut I'm tagging 8 more bloggers to join in. Just follow these steps:
1) Get your child to either draw or craft a self-portrait of themselves now or in the future, perhaps imagining what they will look like or what they might do.

Well, as I can't get Babyzoid to put wax crayon to paper as yet (crayon to mouth, more like), here is a Paint masterpiece by yours truly on where I want to be when I grow up - namely in a pretty French chateau, complete with vineyard living the life of Riley. And look, there we are! Famile Zoid under the lilac tree :D

2) Sign the Save the Children petition and share news of it with your friends.

3) Come back and join the linky on Josie’s Sleep is for the Weak blog or over at Red Ted Art.
4) Tag 8 bloggers to do the same.

Here's mine:
Kylie at Not Even a Bag of Sugar
Heather at SAHM Lovin' it
Vickie at Never Found the Plot
Anecodotes of a Manic Mum
How to Laugh in the Face of it All
Motherventing
Tattie Weasel
Inside the Wendy House
Crystal Jigsaw

Silent Sunday

NHS Listening Exercise Update

As most of you will now have heard the NHS reforms have been put on hold by Nick Clegg.  This is great news as it suggests that there has been lots of opposition to the reforms via their 'listening exercise'.

It is brilliant that so many people have felt strongly enough to air their concerns, but there is still a great possibility that the plans will go ahead.  Nick Clegg yesterday made an announcement which diluted aspects of the bill substantially and offered real hope that the most worrying reforms (namely competition) might be scrapped altogether as it got sent back to the committee stage.  However, Conservative backbenchers are already rallying, >>Tories fight back<< as most do actually support Andrew Lansley's agenda.

Therefore it is more important than ever that we make our voices heard to stop damage being done to the NHS which would likely never be reversed, even with a change of government.

I wrote a post a few days ago asking for help in championing the protection of Neonatal Services and I am doing so again.  If you haven't already done so then please read >>this post<< and fill in the listening form.  The deadline is now the 31st of May.  You really do never know when you or someone close to you may need the safety net of a fully functioning Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Even if you don't feel able to ask for protection for neonates, competition is dangerous for the NHS.  Those behind the reform accuse those who speak out against the reforms as 'scare-mongering', but we've all seen what happens to public services that become market places.  Contracts are put out to tender and companies who put in unrealistically low tenders win the bid.  Then cuts have to be made to be able to provide the service and there are never any winners - least of all for the consumer. 

Don't let this happen to the NHS. 

The Gallery - My Backyard

This is my back garden. Ok, this was my back garden almost a year after we moved into our home - before I had Babyzoid and had the time to keep it neat and tidy, which I loved doing.

Now, it's not a great garden, a great garden for me has lots of space and trees and mature shrubs, perhaps even a summerhouse like my Nanna used to have in her garden when she was still alive. My sister and I used to love that summer house as it was like a deluxe club house where we could escape the grown ups with all their endless coffee drinking and my Grandad's pipe smoking. Nanna used to let us have our drinks in there, and she'd always let us pick some flowers. When I think of my ideal garden I imagine it full of the huge daisies that Nanna used to love and send us home with.

My garden doesn't meet that ideal at all, but it is a little space where we can have drinks on the decking of an evening and hold the odd barbecue. Of course now we've a little girl who is becoming more and more mobile everyday I now look at the garden with the critical eye of a mum. I see hazards. Everywhere. High decking, which Babyzoid could easily fall off; lots of sharp stones which would graze tender little knees; lots of plant pots which could be pulled over by a girl who doesn't know her own strength (or does but likes causing chaos!); a long wilderness at the back, which at this time of year attracts the wasps like nobodies business. All easy maintenance when you work long hours and don't have much spare time to potter.

Now? I want the huge grassy child friendly daisy filled gardens of my youth. The next house...Babyzoid will have all the space to run and play and eat the flowers like I'm told she does at nursery! Aye, that's what we always say. The next house...

See other's back yards - Gallery badge on the right!

The Monday Munch #1 Skinnyish Blueberry Muffins

Not done in a proper muffin pan - hence the cupcake shape!  Taste beautiful though!

This is the first entry in my Monday Munch series, which will involve me posting a recipe that is either my own, or one I've modified over the course of time. For my first posting I'm going to share with you my Skinnyish blueberry muffins.

They are skinnyish because they:

use margarine or spread and not butter

don't contain as much sugar as other non-skinny muffin recipes I use

However, they are not full on skinny as I prefer to use whole eggs, as opposed to only the egg whites.

Ingredients

250g self raising flour

2tsp baking powder

75g golden caster sugar*

125g frozen blueberries (don't defrost)

Juice of half a lemon

235ml milk

2 eggs

Makes 12 muffins

*if using Splenda that would be roughly 5 Tbsp as it weighs less that real sugar. You'd need to experiment though to find your ideal sweetness.

Method

Sieve flour twice into a mixing bowl(this makes them nice and fluffy)

Add in the baking powder

Gently rub in the margarine. You should end up with a mixture that looks like powdery breadcrumbs.

Add in the sugar and blueberries and gently mix with a metal spoon

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk and lemon juice

Add this to the dry mixture - stir very gently so you don't knock the air out of the mixture. It doesn't matter if not all of the flour seems to be mixed in and the mixture SHOULD be lumpy!

Spoon into 12 muffin cases

If you don't put your cases into a proper muffin tray, then the muffins will expand outwards and you'll get more of a fat cupcake shape. They will still be delicious, but you won't get that split bursting over the top thing happening!

And that was The Monday Munch, Week 1. I hope you enjoy!

Copyright:Cook For Baby

NHS Listening Exercise: Deadline tomorrow!

Finish screen: My views have been successfully submitted, Messrs Cameron and Lansley!

Fill in form here

Visit here for guidance on how to protect neonatal services

xXx

Silent Sunday

Feeding time at the zoo: Before and after

It's been a lovely few days enjoying the company of Babyzoid's Aunty Di, my sister. Although Do lives in Holland now, Babyzoid is always overjoyed to see her and seems to remember her every time. She'll soon notice that Aunty Di is no longer here and there may well be a bit of grumpiness as being indulged by 2 doting parents is no consolation for having an extra exciting cool person spoil you.

On Thursday we all went out to lunch at the local Wetherspoons. Babyzoid really got stick in with her meal, an Annabel Karmel spaghetti bolognese, which was almost (but not quite, of course) as good as mine. So glad we got 'before and after' shots of a pretty prim princess turn into a spaghetti-swirlng, sucking, orange trough-truffler. Awesome!

NHS Listening Exercise. Deadline in 3 days and we NEED your help!

Babyzoid in Neonatal Intensive Care

I have an urgent favour to ask of my readers and Mummy blogger friends. The Government led NHS Listening Exercise is closing on Monday and we need as many people as possible to fill in this short survey outlining how the NHS can protect neonatal services

The Future of the NHS Form

The key points are as follows - please feel free to copy and paste these, though please personalise if you are able.

“Choice and Competition”

· Competition and choice is not an appropriate driver of service improvement within the context of neonatal care
· Collaboration across the different NHS organisations providing neonatal services, rather than competition between them, is vital to the provision of high quality services for premature and sick babies
· Neonatal networks are essential to ensuring this cooperation between the various providers of neonatal care across a region

“Advice and Leadership”

· Welcome the responsibility of the NHS Commissioning board for commissioning all three levels of neonatal care
· The excellent work of neonatal networks, the bodies which currently coordinate care for premature and sick babies, must continue. Structures and funding need to be put in place to support these networks in a reformed NHS
· Situations where mothers and their premature or sick babies were transferred hundreds of miles away from home are mostly a thing of the past, this may reverse if the networks are dismantled.

“Education and Training”

It is crucial that training for neonatal nurses is available and that all neonatal units in England meet the minimum standards set out in the Toolkit for High Quality Neonatal Services
· That one-to-one nursing is available for babies in intensive care
· that 70% (special care) and 80% (high dependency care) of the workforce should hold a current Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registration and that 70% should hold an accredited post-registration qualification in specialised neonatal care.

We need the government to understand that there can be no short cuts when it comes to premature and sick babies.

Please let me know via Twitter, email or in the comments section if you have filled in the survey. Thankyou so much :)

Sambuca: Rest in Peace, Richard.

It's been a rough week. There have been highlights, such as the brilliant Bliss training day in London on Saturday. But the updates will have to go on hold for a day or two. I found out on Sunday that a former workmate back in my hometown passed away at the weekend. He was truly a wonderful guy who even if you didn't know him that well stuck in your mind as being one of the most positive people you'd ever met. And he was bloody hilarious. A bit of a tart and a cheeky bugger he was always making people laugh. He had always had the hots for my sister, who is absolutely devastated by the news. He still worked with my mum and they were really good buddies - partners in cheekiness who bonded over cancer survival and mum good naturedly having to fend him off my sister over the course of a decade. He had beaten cancer 4 times, unfortunately the 5th was too big an ask. My mum is devastated and saw him as a surrogate son which I joked about as I asked him how he was doing on Facebook just a week or so ago. He cheerily replied that mum was a star and that he was doing really well, in spite of the fact that he was stuck in a hospital miles from home as the doctors battled to help him back to health. He never complained, he never indulged in self pity, and he never wanted anyone to feel sorry for him. Mum saw through it and knew he was suffering, but he wanted to be the charming caddish life and soul to the last. He truly was brave and inspirational and you only have to look on his Facebook wall to see how loved he was by everyone who had met him.

I can't help feeling how cruel life can be. How it can be snuffed out for no good reason. But they do say that the most brilliant lights in the universe burn out quickly, and he was indeed a brilliant light to all who knew him. My thoughts go out to his family and his close friends. So Rest in peace, Richard. And have one on Family Bennett:

Flashback Friday - Bunny power!

Classic cocktail night with my sister and our two friends Carrie and Lynsey, all dressed as bunnies in glitter wigs. This must have been oooh about 8 or 9 years ago? Still young, all childfree, all single, all completely inebriated on some pretty vile cocktail concoctions which we took in turns making, following no recipes whatsoever. Unfortunately my culinary skills do not stretch to mixing drinks, and indeed my efforts all wound up looking like blue turps mixed with mud and tasted no better. Still, did the the job and we all piled up the local rock dive afterwards and had what I assume was a very good night, not that I can remember a damned thing about it!

I'm on the left looking quite wide-eyed and pouty. In reality I'm just 'bevvied-up' to coin a good 'ol northern phrase.

Now take a gander over at Cafe Bebe's at what is definitely the friendliest picture hop in cybertown.

I don't know about you but...

...I hate when people drop in unannounced.

Doesn't matter who it is. I just don't like it. I realise that everyone is different and to some it might seem odd for friends and family NOT to treat your abode as open-house and visit any time they desire. I most likely am a little anti-social, yes. I have to mentally prepare myself to socalise or even make a phone call. I'm not always at ease with people, even when I might appear it. Fundamentally, I am shy. And my home is my sanctuary. So don't just drop by when it is convenient for you, because if I don't know you're coming then it darned well won't be convenient for me. And I'll think you most bad mannered. There, I said it.

This is my first ever entry for this meme. Now see what niggles other folk over at Oh Mammy's:

Silent Sunday

Flashback Friday - Godiva festival while pregnant

I haven't joined in with Flashback Friday over at Cafe Bebe's in a while, simply because Fridays are always so very hectic for me as I put in a lot of road miles, but having a look through some of the entries made me want to join in. And being reminded of Karin's wonderful news (preggers!!!! Yeeeeh haaaaa!) and the thoughts of possibly having another child of our own, I wanted to dig out a photo of when I was pregnant and really happy.  So here is a really really late entry!

I'm about 4 and a half months pregnant here but barely showing because I'd just escaped the Hyperemesis curse. Indeed I only looked pregnant for about a month, then I gave birth, so is it any wonder that in spite of it all I want another shot at it? I want that beautiful massive heavy bump, damnit!

So here's the photo with some of the festival tents in the background - my parents and a very blonde me! OH is behind the camera and stepson has managed to avoid being in it somehow! Oh, and Babyzoid is in my belly :D

This was such a lovely sunny day. My parents were down for the weekend and along with my step son we all went to Coventry's free Godiva festival. Dad bought the biggest slice of watermelon I'd ever seen and in spite of him beavering away at it all day it never seemed to shrink! I was really excited that Idewild, one of my favourite 'current' bands were playing, but unfortunately I didn't make it to the end as I was a tired pregnant weakling and had to be taken home all wan and pale before they came on stage. Ah well, we still had an awesome time!

3 reasons to be cheerful

I first became aware of this blog hop run by the divine Mummy From the Heart a few months ago at a very dark time in my life. Since I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of my daughter's premature birth I have rarely found much cheer in life, aside from Babyzoid's beautiful smile and infectious giggle. The '3 reasons' exercise every Friday was therefore a useul exercise every once in a while to force myself to look for the positive, and when you do that you will nearly always find something, even if I struggled for 3 reasons some of the time! I haven't joined in every week, and indeed haven't written an entry in some time, but that is because as I worked at overcoming the trauma and the black fog (my 'pet' term for depression') started to lift a bit, I didn't have to force myself as such. Life hasn't gotten any easier, but my perspective finally started to shift once I took control and started the healing process. So with that in mind I will gladly share my reasons to be cheerful:

1. My therapy session this week saw me deemed to be on the border of only mildly depressed to being in remission! That means I'm getting better. There is still a little way to go and I still have a few wounds that simply need time, but the depression that remains is not so much linked to the breakdown I had a few months ago, but to what I do with my life now. How can I get out of this unhappy career situation I find myself in? I feel that the final weeks before I was signed off from work were the straw that broke the camels back. Now I need to figure out if that camel's broken bones can actually be fixed, or if I need to find an exit route. I think I know what the answer is, and how I fare will either see me well and truly in remission, or be a potential trigger for a recurrence. This means I need to be positive and proactive in setting goals that I am actually going to strive to achieve. Wish me luck!

2. The Bliss Neonatal care campaign is going pretty well and I have a training day next week at the London HQ. I credit involvement in this activism campaign as being a key driver for my own personal recovery. I have taken a couple of years of stress and trauma and I am making them count for something. And it is starting to bear fruit. I have been sent contact details of a fellow prem parent who saw one of my press articles and is inspired to get involved. That makes me feel good and want to achieve so much more. Indeed I'm co-facilitating a workshop at the training day on meeting and building relationships with your MP. How cool is that?!

3. My baby and toddler recipe site, Cook for Baby, is coming along nicely. I'm adding new content, tweaking themes and so forth. I just need to get a bit of photography sorted, which is not my strong suit as most of my photos are taken on the somewhat inadequate Blackberry Curve.

4. Babyzoid is quite literally making huge strides in terms of her walking. She's a proper little toddler now. She's also becoming increasingly more sophisticated with her comminication, which means less angry shouting and less headaches for mummy. Definitely a reason for cheer!!!

And of course it's Spring!Q Here are a few photos of Babyzoid enjoying the gorgeous sunshine:

What is making other Bloggers cheerful this week? Click on the button below to see!

The Gallery - April was the bestest month..

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot

Our April was anything but cruel as Babyzoid finally stopped teasing us and took those first steps we'd been longing to see. And once she got going there was no stopping her. Well, aside from the glue ears that seem to have made a sticky icky comeback and sent my brave little girl's balance all skew-whiff again. But still, she's trying bless her, and she's got many 6-7 step dashes under her belt. Her Daddy and I are so very proud of all that our little miracle has accomplished in her short time on this world and here are some lovely pictures from April's last weekend that show her at her adorable, beautiful best:

Look Mummy! Here I go!

I was there, and now I'm here!

Proud grandma cuddle, and she's put a pretty grip in my hair to keep it out of my eyes. Don't I look cute?

And now a Daddy cuddle. Daddy hates having his photo taken, bwah ha ha!

Me? I love being papped! Especially in my new outfit! :D

Now check out what else happened in April by visiting the Gallery at Sticky Fingers: Badge on the right!

Silent Sunday - Walking with Grandma on Royal Wedding Day