PhD: Parent: have Daughter

ThesisBaby and I have been taking part in a Pampers nappy pants product testing trial to see how their pull-ups work for younger rolly but non-walking babies. So while this post isn't sponsored, Pampers did send us a pack of pull-ups for free to try as part of their Pampers Squad initiative. Normally I use a combination of reusable all-in one nappies and Pampers Premium Protection. Some days we use more re-usables and sometimes more disposables, it depends on the weather, teething, if we are going out and if it is a nursery day. Both the reusable and disposable nappies have side tapes, so they are traditionally nappy shaped. The product we are testing looks like a pair of undies you pull up and are traditionally seen on older, toddly babies doing potty training. The product: Pampers Nappy Pants size 4 Things I like about the nappy pants - soft and stretchy, they seems to fit TB well when she has a milk tummy. - the designs denoting the front are cute - pulling them up if

This week I spent both nursery days in the lab; I'm not sure how much help I was because haven't been on the project for most of it, but it was good to be back. Because of this ThesisBaby had a extended time in nursery and something came up which I never considered before- I'm going to miss some of her 'firsts'. The weather has been unseasonable warm and nice, so the babies and tiny humans had outdoor water play (the nursery is split into 0-2's who mostly stay in and have outdoor play times, and the 2+'s who are allowed out whenever), which mean I missed TB's first time outside playing in the grass. It's the first 'first' I missed and I feel pretty.... I'm not really sure, but not good anyway. To make up for yesterday we went outside today and TB rolled around and tried to eat grass, while  I managed to re-read the same paragraph 3 or 4 times before giving up to go and rescue her from a dandylion. So we had our first, but it's n

After falling down a YouTube rabbit hole of best and worse baby buys while bored on an early morning feed I have decided to write my own top 10 list of things every postgrad parent needs, I might do a worst list too. Of course this is just for fun, you don't need any of this stuff, it's just things I've found super helpful which you might also find helpful too. I'm not being sponsored for any of these, just my opinion about the stuff we use. No 10. A baby-wearing coat. I've put this at number 10 because it is a purely luxury item but I found having a baby-wearing coat gave me back my freedom. Suddenly we could pop out to the shops without expedition planning. Now I'm back to work TB comes inside the coat to nursery, then I take off the baby panel and wear it like a normal coat to work, which means less stuff to carry. We have a Mamalila All-weather, and while it's not warm enough for some winter weather, it's done really well overall considering

The last 2 weeks have been a challenge in the ThesisBaby household- everyone has had flu ( the trapped in bed, sore skin awful type), ThesisBaby has got her first 2 teeth and the change to Summer Time had destroyed our bedtime routine. Overall not much sleep here! And then an even bigger disaster- on a trip into the office ThesisBaby was very tired and grumpy and as she flailed around in the sling she knocked my hard-drive onto the floor and now all the files are unreadable. All my Thesis files :( Overall not a great time, but I've decided to make the best of each thing- so here goes; I lost a lot of work- 100's of hours, but most of the really important files had been emailed, so in reality only 2-3 weeks of work was totally lost. I'm using the 'thinning out' of files to start a new organising structure going forward, and I have a new back up scheduled. I've found a MOOC (massively open online course) provided by the University of Wollongong on FutureLearn