Nourkrin® post pregnancy tablets 3 month update

Over 3 months ago I have started testing Nourkrin® post pregnancy tablets (£29.95) as I'm suffering with a postpartum hair loss. 

It is quite upsetting to realise that my wonderful, long hair are not so wonderful anymore. The amount of hair I have lost after one shower wash was shocking. I was on a verge of crying every single time I looked at my loose hair and wanted to shave what I had left as I thought that nothing can fix it. I was lucky enough to try Nourkrin® post pregnancy tablets.

"Nourkrin® post pregnancy for hair maintenance is a safe and drug-free OTC supplement to help maintain natural, beautiful hair for new mums".

 I was taking 1 tablet a day after the morning meal, sometimes I forgot to take it straight after I've eaten which I think majorly changes the effect of the tablets.

In months 3 I didn't see any difference at all. Since I had a haircut my hair grew longer but it could be either due to the tablet or the nature. What was really surprising is that after month 3 I still have few loose hair and I have also noticed that my hair were greasy quicker than ever, again not sure if it's due to the the effect of the tablets or natural.

I have 3 more boxes to maintain the good looking hair, hopefully by the end of the 6 months trial I will have beautiful, healthy hair thanks to Nourkrin®.

Disclaimer: I was provided with 3 sets of Nourkrin tablets for the purpose o these updates. All opinions are honest and my own.

Review: My Baby's Name Is sleeping bag

Have you ever seen a cool, bright and trendy sleeping bag? If you haven't, may I introduce you to My baby's name is. I have never seen a bright coloured sleeping bag until I came across this brand.

"My Baby's Name Is was created in 2014 in London, UKby designer Szymon Klos, with the loving support of his wife Halina

& inspired by their daughter Matylda...

Our sleeping bags combine a considered design approach 

with environmental material sourcing & manufacturing quality".

You can pick from a variety of sizes (0-6, 6-18, 18-36 months), colours (blue, green, grey, orange, yellow) and tog (2.5 and 1 tog) at the reduced price of £25.

As it's design is so bright and enticing to play than to sleep I wondered would it keep L awake?! But to my surprise L wasn't really bothered about it's brightness maybe when I opened the cute white box for the very first time.

I must admit I have mixed feelings about My baby's name sleeping bag.  Let's start with positives:

- made of soft 100% cotton with the added design feature- stitched-through

- you can personalise your sleeping bag by adding your baby's name on the name tag sewed inside the bag (useful if baby sleeps at the nursery) 

- double fasteners on shoulder straps

- zipped sides which "starts" at the bottom (the zip itself has zip guard at the top)

- I have opted for 2.5 tog and L was safe and very warm in her sleeping bag

Negatives:

- the outer material looks like an outdoor jacket and feels a little bit annoying when I stroke L before she falls asleep. I can be stroking her for up to 30 minutes and when I used it for the very first time it felt weird, "loud" and left a burning sensation on my palm.

- I have picked 6-18 months sleeping bag but it seems that at only 14 months L is a little big for the sleeping bag. Upon checking other sleeping bags it seems to be a common problem

- the tag inside the sleeping bag is too close to feet, so when L feels it she instantly wants to mess with it. Luckily My Baby's Name Is invented a perforated line along the tag so it makes it easier to remove the tag.

Overall, it's a functional sleeping bag with a unique design and if my negative points don't put you off go for it!

Disclaimer: I was sent the above item for the purpose of this review. All thought and opinions are my own.

Review: Premier Inn 'Purple Sauce'

As we all know the world is saturated with sauces, for all kinds of occasions, from the wonderful ketchup to the yucky brown sauce.

Everything is a personal preference, for Premier Inn to offer an alternative breakfast sauce in the form of 'Purple sauce' is bold to say the very least. For those of you who watch shows such as Dragons Den, you will see the plethora of sauces trying to start off or compete with the 'big boys'.

"Crafted with the help of expert chef Ed Baines, Purple Sauce is designed specifically for breakfast and is set to ‘shake up’ the hotel chain's breakfast menu and get guests ready for the day ahead".

Now to Purple sauce and whether I like it or not. The presentation (in which the sauce was shipped), was superb. A very vintage looking wooden box , which immediately made you think this is going to be something quite special. This is a sauce developed alongside British celeb chef Ed Baines (ITV's Britains Best Dish ) after all! 

"Ed Baines commented: "Purple Sauce is the perfect accompaniment to a cooked breakfast. Its smoky flavours really work well with meat – particularly pork – and its underlying fruity flavour is very satisfying".

Purple, maybe.. more plum coloured sauce and more darker once on a product of your choice.

The main essence of the sauce consists of blackberry base (fruity and perhaps a little strange for a sauce), cumin, chillies and cider vinegar (along with the bog standard salt, pepper etc...).

Even though it is a breakfast sauce I decided to experiment a little bit and picked three different dishes to try the sauce with.. a simple sausage & egg sandwich, beef burger and a steak.

On the sausage sandwich, it was okay. Would I swap if for ketchup, probably not, the vinegar taste of the 'purple sauce' is quite overpowering. Whilst I acknowledge that ketchup has other ingredients than tomatoes, the reality is it tastes a little better on a sausage sarny.

On the beef burger, I actually enjoyed the sauce, beef is quite a strong flavoured meat, and therefore the purple sauce seemed to complement the strong flavoured beef burger (and salad). So a definite thumbs up with purple sauce and beef burgers.

As you can imagine, the steak too was excellent with the sauce. I would actually argue that the sauce seems more tastier on a strong meat (such as beef). 

I personally would have this sauce over jack daniels sauce, blue cheese sauce (even natural juices) in a restaurant.

As you can tell from the above a mixed review for the purple sauce, but a definite winner with beef!

Please note that the 'purple sauce' is only available in all 'Premier Inn' hotels and restaurants with sachets available at breakfast time.

If you get a chance to try Premier Inn's Purple sauce, then I say you may be in for a treat!

Disclaimer: I was sent the items mentioned above for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Little L is 14 months

                                           

This month wasn't any different to the previous one. It seems that L reached her main milestones and evolving into a toddler. 

Poor little L was teething most of the time and now she has 10 teeth which is great.

Clothing wise she is still small for 12-18 months outfits, but big for 9-12 months. I try to mix and match sizes, shame she didn't have a chance to wear all her short sleeve t-shirts.

Sleep is still a pain for us, in the evening she would sleep half an hour on her own and then will wake up crying. In order for me to get on with my evening I carry her downstairs and she sleeps in my arms up until I'm ready to go to sleep, it is not ideal but it's better than spending hours trying to put her to sleep.

L had her first holiday abroad, I was dreading the 4 hour flight, little did I know that we will have a 4 hour delay as well. L's routine was totally messed up because of that but overall she was a trouper!

We bought hands and feet casting kit, now just need to remember to use it! Can't wait!

Review: Keep Me Going breakfast cereal and giveaway

I used to avoid breakfasts simply because I didn't have time for it, when I got pregnant I decided that it would be a great to introduce a healthy breakfast into my life. Since then I used to have oat porridge every single day up until I gave birth. When L was born I didn't have enough time to cook porridge ( I have never considered porridge out of a packet as I try to avoid added sugar), so now I would share banana and crumpets with L. I do like cereals but I can finish the whole box in 1 day. 

When Keep Me Going offered me to review their cereal box I was very excited to try wholegrain breakfast cereals and see if I can refrain from eating the whole pack in one go. 

"We all know that breakfast is meant to be the most important meal of the day, since it provides the energy needed to keep you going until lunchtime, without the need for snacks.

Wholegrain breakfast cereals provide an excellent start, but too many contain high levels of sugar, salt and fat. We've managed to cut these right down, but when you try “Keep Me Going...” ™, you'll probably be surprised at how good it tastes".

If you are trying to cut down on sugars and salts these cereals could be just right for you!
Keep Me Going cereals contain "whole grain barley & whole grain oat flour (81%), sugar, rye malt, magnesium, salt, vitamin mix, (vitamins C, E, B6, B12, thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin, folic acid, biothin, pantothenic acid)".

I must admit I didn't follow portion instructions as a breastfeeding mother I would need more food than a normal human being, so I served myself a generous portion of cereals. I liked the crunchiness and taste straight away it reminded me of the rye bread I used to eat with butter back in Russia, yummy! My husband though disliked the taste and opted not to test it, he said it tastes strange and not tasty at all. 

One pack of cereals (375g) lasted me 2-3 days, which means that potentially it could be quite pricey- a pack of keep me going in Ocado online store is £2.65. But if you ration food wiser than me and generally eat smaller portions a pack would last you a week, which isn't too bad.

If you have a little one interested in trading cards,s/he will be pleasantly surprised to find a pack of 3 free trading cards full of interesting facts about different countries.

Keep Me Going were kind enough and offered the opportunity to win few packs for my readers, all you have to do is fill out the Rafflecopter form below (the competition ends on 7 October 12am):

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I was sent the items mentioned above for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"BabySteps" Scratch-Off Calendar giveaway

When I was pregnant with L I used to have couple of  apps on my phone which I checked weekly for baby growth updates. I was looking forward to reading something new about baby's development. 

Recently I came across "BabySteps" Scratch-Off Calendar by "Splash Brands" ( £12.90) and thought that it's a great advent calendar alternative in a pregnancy world.

"Having a baby on the way is an amazing time. Yet nine months can be a rather long wait. With that in mind, we created the perfect companion for all parents-to-be: the"BabySteps" Scratch-Off Calendar. 

This poster-size calendar features one interesting and entertaining fact for each day of your pregnancy (between weeks 5 and 38). 
Beautifully designed wall calendar with facts, tips and trivia about your pregnancy.
One new field is scratched off every day, from pregnancy week 9 to week 38 (weeks 5 to 8 are always uncovered).
Contains 236 fields with information about baby's development, astonishing general facts and helpful tips from experienced mothers and midwives.

The "BabySteps" Scratch-Off Calendar is the perfect present for all expecting parents".

All you have to do is fill out the Rafflecopter form below (the competition ends on 22 September 12am):

a Rafflecopter giveaway