Review: Bambino Mio nappies

Those of you who have spoken to me in the past few months will be aware that Andrew and I were set on using re-useable nappies for our soon-to-be-born second child.

We both looked at dozens of websites, got a bit baffled by all the information available and kept looking.  

Thanks to the wonder of Gumtree Belfast we found a local woman who was selling Bambino Mio nappies which belonged to her daughter and were no longer needed.  

We went to her house, saw what she had for sale, and bought enough to last our baby for a long time.  Talk about a bargain!   We saved around £50 from the RRP, which we're happy about.

This blog post is a 'review' but a review in advance as clearly we haven't used them yet as the baby isn't born.

Below is a video showing a woman demonstrating how to use these nappies:

It really appears simple and I'm looking forward to getting started when baby is here!   I am a totally sad person, I know, getting excited about nappies!   

All I'm thinking is the price we've paid for these nappies = about what we'd spend in a few months on nappies for Adam.   So we're going to save lots of money in the long run and not be filling around 3/4 of our black bin on a fortnightly basis with nappies as we do now.  

* The liner bit in the video is flushable when wet, and can be composted when soiled.   

* We got a nappy pail which is basically a bucket with a lid on it.   When the nappy padding is wet or dirty I'll take it out of the cover and put it in the pail to soak in hot water.   After being soaked I can put the nappies in a special mesh bag in the main washing machine and wash at 40degrees with normal non-bio detergent and a scoop of Napi San which is a powder for cleaning nappies.   

* Then the nappy padding can be dried on the washing line or over the radiators.    

We got 20 nappies so we'll have plenty to wash and have ready to use.   We got 8 nappy covers and hundreds of liners.   

The covers are a mix of plain white (good and unisex) and some are white with circle patterns like the cover shown in the above video, also unisex.  

It really does seem simple, but I suppose we won't know for sure until the baby arrives and we start using the Bambino Mio products.   One thing we like is that each part is so simply designed and easy to put together, no fiddly buttons or clips.   Just good structured materials which are easy to clean and to assemble.  

So far I would recommend this product to anyone thinking of getting re-useables, but I'll give you my true opinion come around October when I'm really in the swing of using them. 

And quietly tiptoe back

I've done some messed up things in my time.  Hard won victories have been mine, as have bouts of crushing defeatist angst.   I've made a grown man cry and I've had to talk myself out of several situations.

Generally I have to look back at my life with my hand over my eyes, peeping through my fingers.   That's a shame, but there are some brighter moments I can look back on and not feel regret.   I think I'll focus on those light times and try to replicate them where possible.  

When I was younger I made the common mistake of falling into things because it was the 'done' thing, or what was expected of me to do.   Now, with the benefit of hindsight I can see where this may have been misguided and contrary to my own deep feelings.

When Andrew and I got married we had many many guests; only about 40% of whom we have seen in the 5 years since.   I sent out lovely invitations handmade by my sister-in-law to numerous names and addresses which were unknown to me.  Sure we got lots of fancy gifts and got to be fussed over for a few weeks, but if we were to do it again we'd be much more low-key.   Getting married to Andrew was one of the best choices I made in my early 20s, listening to what magazines and well-intentioned relations told us regarding guests, gift lists and decor maybe not so much.   I really do tip my hat to those couples who let their love and commitment be the focus of the day, who elope or get married with their nearest and dearest present only.   Our wedding day was about our love and commitment, but I can't help but feel that we were crowded with some there for the free food and chance to nosey at a pretty ivory gown.

I admit that I have never been very ambitious.   My school grades were always average, sometimes I got A's but generally I was too busy gossiping, daydreaming and thinking of ways to get out of there.  At the time I regretted my lack of motivation, but lacked the motivation to push harder!   It was a vicious circle.   What I wish someone had pointed out was that actually it's okay to not be an academic high-flyer.   Actually it's okay to strive to be a nice person rather than feeling the need to hand out copies of award certificates to prove ones worth.  I don't regret the things that I learnt and really I don't regret not paying heed to the things I could have learnt.   I think if I ever need to know these things then I can find out.   Thanks be to the internet!  
I do think many people are lulled into a false sense of regret that they didn't listen harder in school.... not because what they were taught would have benefitted them, but just because society tells them they should have trotted along and let their mind be filled with the jug of wisdom their teacher had.   I'd rather find my own jug, thanks all the same.   (Perhaps I've just watched The Wall by Pink Floyd, listened to MeatLoaf's 'Everything Louder Than Everything Else' and Rage Against the Machine's 'Take The Power Back' too much....")

It's a well-known fact that I quit my degree at the end of (an unsuccessful) 2nd year.  At the time when I was praying and pacing trying to work out what path to take I felt fear.   Not fear about what would happen to me, just an anxiety about what others would think about my choice.   I do not regret jacking in my course, but I do regret giving the opinions of others more than a passing glance. 

I really do not regret quitting and don't see any weakness in leaving behind something which just wasn't suited to me and my family situation.   Last week I got a text from a friend whom I studied with to say she'd got a 2:1 and was now a Social Worker.   I was genuinely delighted for her and for everyone else I studied with, but that was as far as it went.   I didn't think, "Ohh, I wish that were me..."  Rather I thought, "that could have been me, but I'm content it isn't." 

On the other hand, I don't regret getting into the degree course and giving it my mind during those years.   I learnt a lot of academic facts, learnt a lot about myself, learnt a lot about people.   I knew what I was getting myself in for, yet I was wise enough to know when it was time to get out.   (See, I'm proving my own point: might not be too hot with academia, but I'm hot with common sense.)

I regret that I have used the word, "just" when referring to myself as a stay-at-home-mum (SAHM).   I regret that because personally I think being a SAHM is a very valuable position.   The "just" fell from my mouth when I was thinking about worldly standards of working for lots of money to buy lots of stuff being the measure of a person.

I'm not saying that being a SAHM is a moral platform from which I can look down on people, just that I regret that people don't think more about what a beautiful responsibility it is.   I'm proud to be at home and happy knowing that I'm raising my own children.   I'm also not shelling out upwards of £40 a day (per child) to have other people care for them.   This makes my heart warm and happy.   

>slight aside< I have lots of friends who work and who used paid childcare for their children.   I'm not judging them or what is right for their household, just acknowledging that it wouldn't work for the viewpoint that Andrew or I have.   Mutual respect is the name of the game, otherwise bunfights could happen and I don't want to alienate friends just because we parent differently. 

If I did have any regret regarding the delicate balance of studying for my degree and having become a mother during 2nd year it would be a small but potent one.   I regret my desire to hurry back to college after taking a year off with Adam.   I loved my year off and only weaned him from the breast a week before I returned.   I weaned him almost as a 'new start' because I was going back to being Tracie rather than being mummy.   I was foolish and wrong for thinking that way, and that is what I regret.  I regret the socially acceptable greed of wanting to be everything to all people and to do everything - to work, to study, to fit a child around those things.   I really do not know how other women balance everything and often I'm a mix of awe and being baffled.   I suppose for many it is necessity (of needing to earn money) which is the mother of invention (to sort of childcare, juggle diaries, to find work). 

When I was in college I missed Adam, even though he was being cared for by family rather than paid strangers.   I regret even looking at nurseries to put him into as I just felt like I'd be settling for one of them despite it not being ideal.   In the end I couldn't separate myself from him.   I realised I could be Tracie as well as being a mummy.   I didn't want to put a pre-verbal child of mine into the care of people I didn't know.   So I quit and I came back to my nest.   I want all I do to fit around my family, not the other way around.   I want my husband, my own calm and my children to be the focus of each of my days.   I don't regret anything I do lovingly within my own home.   I cook, I clean, I organise.   Not because I'm a skivvy, but because I want to do so.    It benefits me to have a clean home, homecooked dinners and my children with me as much as it benefits the other members of my household.   I'm not stupid and I'm not taken for granted.   We've found the balance which works for us, and we're holding on tight to it. 

I'm not saying that I sit at home all day and never get out the front door without Adam, of course not!   I am very active volunteering in different organisations in church and as the Designated Person for Child Protection I'm kept pretty busy.   Also, I volunteer regularly for Women's Aid in my local towns.   But these things are secondary and everyone knows it.   My focus is where my heart is, and that is where I devote the bulk of my time. 

I really don't regret it, and as I try to root myself away from the grabbing hedonism of the world I am very thankful that I was able to set down my textbooks and with quiet dignity come back to my home.

 

If you're a dad then this is a shout-out

Happy Father's Day to:

• my dad, thanks for being such a wonderful dad (although he won't be reading this)
• to Andrew, the father of my son and my unborn child.  He is a lovely husband and a great dad so far to Adam
• to my father-in-law (who also won't be reading this), thanks for being part of what made Andrew such a great person
• to anyone else I know who is a dad and a good role model to their children.

Hat's off to you all!  

My friend sent me this picture yesterday to make me smile, so here I am sharing it with you all because I'm caring like that.

It's a rat with a toy teddy!  So cute!

Short sermon - Matthew 11.

As some of you know, my husband has been doing a part-time preaching course for the past year at Cornhill, Belfast.   He's learning and developing so much through the course, and doing monthly sermons in our church which if you get a chance you should come hear! 

I've decided to feature him monthly as a 'guest blogger' of sorts and this post is the first of those.  This post was for a talk he gave to his class-mates in college and makes mention that this week is the Queen's Jubilee.   

*

"When Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the cities.   

When John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?'  

And Jesus answered them, 'Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.  And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.'"

Matthew 11:1-6    

Now you may have noticed that there’s something big happening over the UK next week, with lots of flags and street parties going on - It’s the Queen’s Jubilee, of course. Now, not everyone’s a big fan of the Queen, some think she’s an example of what makes this country great, what makes it unique, and are really proud that we have a Queen.    There are others who thinks she’s more trouble than she’s worth, she costs us too much money, and she’s no right to be there at all.

So people have different ideas about the Queen. And where do we get our ideas from? We get them from the newspapers, from the TV, from the people around us; and we also make up our own ideas about who we would like the Queen to be, what we would want her to be like.

Now, imagine that the Queen decided to drop into your house one day for a chat, just in her old gardening clothes, without her hair done or anything, that would be a bit of a shock, right? So this woman who is usually carefully presented and finely dressed appears in front of you in her muddy trousers, that’s not maybe what you’d expect. And then you get to chatting with her, and it turns out that she’s completely unlike this idea of her that you had in your head. So whether you love her or hate her, I’d bet there’d be some things about that would surprise you, that you weren’t expecting. Maybe the truth is that she likes custard creams, or watches Coronation Street. Maybe she reads Mills & Boon novels, or the Sun newspaper, I don’t know.  But I bet that when you saw the truth, some of your expectations about her would turn out to be completely wrong, for the better or the worse.

This passage starts off talking about a man named John, who had some expectations of Jesus which turned out to be wrong. He’d got some things into his head, some ideas of his own about Jesus, that were a bit off the mark, and when he didn’t see those expectations being met, he was confused, and by the looks of things, he was a bit worried.  This man had been sent by God to tell people that God’s King was coming, so that they could prepare themselves for his arrival, by turning away from their sins, and coming back to God. And John himself had baptised Jesus, and recognised him as the King that was to come. And John had then ended up getting himself in trouble with the authorities by criticising the corrupt ruler of the country for his adultery, and when this passage starts, he’s behind bars. So John had recognised Jesus as being God’s King, and he was getting fairly excited about what he was going to do - Matthew 3:11-12 says:
 “he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
John’s expectation was that Jesus would go straight to the top, and bring down fire in judgement of the wicked, and save the faithful straight away. But instead, where do we see Jesus? He’s teaching and preaching out in the sticks, in Galilee, in the middle of nowhere, and all he’s doing is talking, and healing people.
So John is confused by all this, and he starts to wonder, is this the right man? Have I got it wrong here? He's languishing in jail, this same man who Jesus had declared to be the greatest man who had lived up to this point, as Jesus says later in Matthew 11. But he doesn’t discount Jesus altogether, he sends people to him, just to check. 

And how does Jesus answer his question? Well, he does it in a roundabout way. He tells the messengers to go back to John and look at the evidence, to tell him what they’ve seen and heard. And what have they seen and heard? They’ve seen Jesus heal sick people, bring dead people back to life, and preach good news to the poor. Jesus is actually quoting some lines from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament here, which are promises from God that he would send His Holy King to rescue His people. Jesus is saying to John - look at what it says in this holy book, and compare it to what’s happening now.

So what’s John’s problem? Well, he’s had an idea in his head about what God’s King would be like, and he’s got a bit carried away, and has lost sight of the truth.

Does that ever happen to us? Do we ever get ideas in our own head about who Jesus is, or what we think he’s going to do? People can get some funny ideas sometimes, and sometimes say things which sound very clever and new, but we need to keep coming back to the Bible and checking that we’re getting it right, and that other people are getting it right too, and that’s my first point, our expectations about Jesus need to come from this book, not from in our minds. If we have the wrong idea about Jesus, we’re going to get confused, and that’s only the start of our problems.
So it’s vitally important to read the Bible and understand who Jesus really is, and what it is he actually tells us.

But there’s a problem - have you ever read anything in the Bible that you disagree with? Anything that makes you angry, or offends you? You see, I believe that this book is the true word of God, and that it is completely honest about who God is and what he has done through Jesus, and what he offers us if we believe in Jesus - but what this book says can be very different from what other people think, to the point where we can be offended by what it says. And my second point is that this leaves us with a dilemma, we have a choice to make about what we think about Jesus.

Our first choice is to accept what the Bible says, to consider the offending words, and realise that the source of the offence is our own human ideas and way of living, the sin in our lives and our distance from God that makes his true word seem like foolishness. We are blind because we have turned away from God; but we believe and trust that Jesus can cure our blindness, just like this passage says, and can open our eyes to the truth in these pages. And what does Jesus say about the person who comes to recognise the truth about him? He says they are blessed, or happy. “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me” And that blessing is a beautiful, powerful thing which will change our lives for ever; but more of that in a minute.

Our second choice is to be offended - to look at these words, to hear these words and take offence. And to you today that may seem like a reasonable option - but I need to warn you about this option. If Jesus offends us, then what we have done is stumble over him, we have tripped up on him, and there’s harsh words in Isaiah 8:15 about those who trip up on him - “many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken” Do you see the danger here? Do you see the risk? If you are offended by what the Bible says, for goodness sake don’t write it off, ask God for help, and speak to someone you trust, so that you don’t end up stumbling.

Earlier I said about the blessings that Jesus offers us if we are not offended.  So what are they then? Well, they’re right there in the passage!  This is the third point - the same Jesus who healed all these people in this passage offers these things to every one of us. The fact is, our bodies will get old, and fall apart, and we will die - but this same Jesus, who healed the sick, and brought the dead back to life - this same Jesus was killed on a cross for our sake, to take the punishment that was due to us for sinning against God, and he was himself raised from the dead, and he is our guarantee - our cast iron, rock solid guarantee - that we too will be raised from the dead, with perfect bodies, free from illness, to be with him for ever, in glory. And that is the good news that he’s talking about in Matthew 11:5.

 
You see, there is a real King who has come to meet us face to face, dressed in his old clothes, living like us, sitting around talking to people like you and me, and often people say things which aren’t true about him, or accuse him of things which are false, and sometimes we get confused about what this King is really like - but we can find out for ourselves the truth about King Jesus - we can go to the Bible, which tells us all about him, and see for ourselves - and what we find there may shock us, and it may offend us - but we need to believe it and trust in it, because this is where the key to eternal life is found, the key to God’s blessing, and there is no other to look for. Are you offended today? Are you stumbling over Jesus? I warn you to be careful, because there’s more here at stake than a sore toe or a bruised foot - how you will spend eternity hangs in the balance.