Nuby Reviews - Rhythm Bottle Feeding System

A while back I was contacted by Nuby Australia and asked if I'd be interesting in joining their team of bloggers - a Mummy Blogger if you will. They offered to send Family Smyth some of their new products to test, review and giveaway here.

First up is the Rhythm Bottle, with additional teats and disposable liners. Curious. I'd seen these advertised and wondered both what they'd be like to use and what the actual point was.
There's a better explanation of bottle usage over on their website but essentially it's a sterilised liner that fits in the purpose-built reusable bottle and reduces air in the milk filled liner, thus reducing air intake by your littlie, thus reducing colic.

Let's begin!
Child and toddler paraphernalia not strategically placed.

Lady Pippa has the odd bottle every now and then, and has always suffered with colic and gas. Whilst she latches well she doesn't need to work particularly hard to breastfeed and is a bit 'relaxed' slack about the whole affair, so I was keen to try the bottle system for one of her bottle feeds.

The bottle is supplied with one newborn sized teat, so Nuby also sent a packet of 3+ month teats to fit the bottle. There are notches in the sides of the teat to help you align it in the bottle top and there are air intake holes in the teat itself.

Pip do it on her nown.

What's disconcerting about using the bottle is there's no bottom in the bottle, so it looks just like a regular bottle, only it's really a cylinder with a screw top. The first time I washed it I knew something wasn't right with it but I just couldn't work it out. It took me a few seconds to realise there was no bottom in the bottle. I'm sure that if I had more sleep it would have been slightly more obvious to me...

To use the liners and bottle system you assemble the liner within the bottle, warm the feed seperately and then pour into the liner. With the bottle top and teat on, you push the bottle of the liner upward within the bottle, essentially pushing the air out of the liner through the teat, making it somewhat airtight.

Feedwise, the Rhythm bottle system works just like a regular bottle. As the bottle is emptied, the liner collapses on itself. Several comparisons sprang to mind, but, well, I'll leave that one well alone. Pippa enjoyed being able to hold the bottle herself whilst we fed and I found the bottle quite easy to hold. I did have trouble with a bit of leakage through the air intake holes, and I'm not entirely sure how to get around it.

Finished feed. Collapsed liner. 

THE MRS SMYTH RECOMMENDATIONS

The Good Bits

• The liners are sterilised, so if you are formula feeding and needing sterilised bottles these would be ace for on the go.
• Pip did not have as much gas after the feed, and I do think that the liners reduce air in the feed. Win!
• It's easy to assemble and far less daunting (for me) to have to think about sterilising bottles and teats. I've never formula fed under 6 months before so I've not needed to worry about sterilising bottles and teats for breastmilk.

The Not So Good Bits

• There was a bit of leakage through the top of the bottle, so that would be cumbersome if you were feeding like this every day, but perhaps you'd find out how to fix that.
• I don't like the disposable nature of the system. I think it's a great idea for now and then, but unless you had a baby who had severe colic I don't agree with throwing away liners for every feed.
• Cost. The bottles, teats and liners are relatively inexpensive, but at approx $7 per box of 50 liners, it could wind up being pricey if you fed with this system full time.
• I disagree with feeding juice to babies and infants, and I think it's counterproductive and unhealthy to advertise  'Simply drop a pre-sterilised liner into a Rhythm™ Disposable Liner Bottle and fill with breast milk, formula, juice or water.' (Source: Nuby website)

Overall

I really liked the system. I wish I'd had it for my first baby Millie, who had weeks of colic and gas in her early days. I love the disposable liner system for travelling - I'll be taking them with me when we travel interstate this month.

What do you think? Would you try the Nuby Rhythm Feeding system?

*Products were supplied to me by Nuby Australia for the purposes of review on my website. No payment was offered or accepted. All opinions are my own.

FFS Friday - Twonager Edition.

We are about to journey to family birthday interstate. Two kiddlywinks under 3 on a plane and a 4 hour car ride. Gulp. FFS.

In a discussion with my SIL about portacots, car seats and high chairs she says she's just spent an entire afternoon with my MIL going through her wardrobe trying to decide what to wear to the birthday party - did she have anything formal enough? I hadn't even given it a thought until she mentioned it. Now I can't stop thinking about it. My personal checklist to leave the house these days is: vomit free? Let's ride. FFS.

I've been sewing up a storm - pics to come. In the course of the last week I've burned my hand on my iron and sewed my finger. Bent needle and everything. Amazing. FFS.
I did finish two quilts, a skirt, a bag, hemmed some jeans and abandoned a project.
I gave said Twonager a quilted blanket I'd been working on since March. She'd been watching me work on it but I hadn't let on it for was her. I set the washing machine for 5am, had it in the dryer at 6am, folded it up and gave it to her at 7.30am.
'Remember it was your birthday? Here's a present Mummy's just finished for you.'
'I don't like it. I don't want it.'
'It's a special blankie, Mummy made it just for you.'
'I don't want it.'
FFS.

I thought it was an anomaly until we were gazing out the window an hour later, talking about the moo cows across the road...
'Oh! Moo cow, Mummy!'
'Yes! Look at it! Now, remember Mummy made you a special blankie for your birthday?' Hushed, reverent tones.
'Yes. I don't want it.' Hushed, reverent tone.

FFS.

Despite telling me 'IT IS SO PITTY MUMMY IS IT MILLIE'S?' for the last two weeks and  subsequent rejection she has been snuggling under it all afternoon and said 'I REALLY LIKE IT' tonight.

Thank god. FFS.

FFS Friday

This week kind of levels out to a nice, even keel. That said, there's been all manner of excitement (question mark?) and excitement (real, live excitement).

It turns out that despite the myriad of cars, comings and going and noise, only two people live at BNHQ. They are actually quite nice to speak to. Their dogs still bark all day and they fix their cars all evening, but at least I'm no longer worried they're going to maim me. NO FFS.

• Pip has gotten two teeth in two days. I imagine this is quite painful, and I'm certainly sharing in her pain as she had me out of bed 9 times on Monday night. FFS.
• There's more coming. I can see their taunting white points. FFS.
• We went camping last week and it was amazing. However, as I was ferreting through the linen cupboard finding blankets I rested my head on the sheets to get a better look inside. Then I realised I'd not only fallen asleep, I'd fallen asleep standing up in the linen cupboard. FFS.
• I need to put a sign on my front door saying 'A TWONAGER LIVES HERE.' This week has seen the introduction of the 'Time Out' space for Millie. It's so hard, and I'm mourning the loss of her sweet little baby innocence to a two year old who seems to be as stubborn as her mother and father. FFS.
• When I went to pick up Millie from daycare on Wednesday at 2.59pm, the car did not start. FFS.
• I love living in the country. I rang my local Bridgestone service centre who dropped everything, drove to my place, jump started the car (cost: $0!) and offered to follow me to their centre so they could check the battery. NO FFS.
• I got them to replace the battery in Handsome James. That was $125 I hadn't seen coming. FFS.
• He runs like a dream now. NO FFS.
• He needs his shocks replaced, and is getting two done this month and two the following month. The car account currently has $0 in it. FFS.
• In the past two weeks I have rotary cut my finger once, cut the same finger with a knife and mandolin sliced a different finger. FFS.
• I have always bruised easily (YO PLATELETS, WHADDUP?) but it's a bit extreme at the moment. My legs are always covered in bruises and I can tell you what every single one is.
  'This one's the bed end.'
  'This one's the fire guard.'
  'I ran into the clothes horse.'
  'Millie pointed her elbows into my thigh.'
  'I ran into the door frame.'
  Sadly these are all true. I'm just freakin' clumsy. FFS.
• After the 9 wake ups from Lady Pip on Monday night, Lucy woke me up for a 10th. Suffice to say I didn't react particularly well. FFS.
• The cat really is a f**king fruit loop. FFS.
• I joined a quilting class in Huonville. I bloody love it. I left Mr S with the kiddies at 6.30pm Wednesday night and came home at 8.45pm to a quiet house. I'm going again next week and every available opportunity after that. NO FFS.
• My latest project looks awesome. NO FFS.

Easter eggs, lies and a washing machine.

I have a very serious problem.

When I did a load of washing yesterday and washed my dressing gown I was certain that I had emptied the pockets. Whilst Mr S was unsurprised that I thought I'd emptied my pockets and I had not, it brought light to a much more serious problem.

It appears that someone has been in my house, sitting around all evening not only wearing my dressing gown but eating a large quantity of Cadbury solid easter eggs. They have then stashed the evidence in my dressing gown pockets. 

When I took the load of washing out of the machine there was a handful of scrunched up easter egg wrappers, a mangled receipt and a lone tissue. But mostly easter egg wrappers.

I'm certain that this is an attempt to derail my Yummy Stay At Home Mummy Yoga Pant Wearing facade... it makes it seem as though all I do is sit around in my dressing gown eating (my children's) easter eggs.

You and I both know that it's all lies, right?

FFS Friday...Up next... Locusts.

Perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration, but after this Tuesday? It truly felt like it.

• I've been feeling less than awesome for a week or so now and I've been blaming it on my flu shot of two weeks ago. Truthfully, it's probably sleep deprivation. Gah. FFS.
• I awoke at 1am and fed Pip, and again at 4.30am, and again at 6.30am, at which point I made a cup of tea and leave the tea infuser in. That's how dire my situation was. I congratulated myself on using breastfeeding as a way to weigh the least since early 2010. The downside is the lethargy. The plus side is aforementioned weight loss and the ability to imbibe a disgusting amount of chocolate and sugar. Sort of FFS.
• We breakfast, Pip goes down for a nap and I attempt to ready Millie for Playgroup, aka Mummy Time where Millie gets to play too.
  Pip wakes and will not feed before we go out. Uhoh. This does not bode well. I find a dummy clip and congratulate myself (again) for a job well done, ensuring we have a quiet car ride without Pip flinging her dummy all over the place.
  2 minutes up the road, I hear Pip yelling from her seat. Pull over to discover that dummy is indeed, still in her mouth. She's just holding it out to yell. FFS.
• 8 minutes up the road, Pip is still yelling in various dulcet tones of Bobcat Golthwait. Turn the radio up. Millie exclaims about every cow/tree/car/truck she can see.
  15 minutes up the road, Pip yells louder again and Millie demands 'SING, MUM. TOO LOUD, PIP.' from the back seat. I begin singing songs about bicycles, working through my repertoire until I hit The Beatles. We make it to my friend's house and I dash inside to say hi whilst the kids are happily waiting in the car, talking to my friend's kids.
  I dash back out, realise it's been a few minutes and both kids are screaming, snotty and inconsolable. Millie gets a box of sultanas, Pippa a headpat. We head to Playgroup. I sing more Beatles tunes loudly and Millie and I listen to Pippa's banshee screaming. FFS.
• Into Playgroup, Pippa starts screaming when a friend says hello to her, and doesn't stop and won't feed for the next 40 minutes. She eventally feeds, burps, looks happier. Millie sidles up to me and says 'Poo.'
  No poo. She wanders off, and comes back in a few minutes, walking like a cowgirl. Alas. FFS.
• I change her nappy, change Pippa's nappy at the same time and run out of wet wipes. Congratulate myself for having the exact number of wipes required. You can see where this is going.
• Millie comes running up again, walking like a fragrant cowgirl. SERIOUSLY? FFS.
• A friend hands me her wet wipes and I realise that I'm out of Millie nappies. She is shoehorned into a Pippa sized nappy and we head home.
  Well, almost. Pippa screams in the car park for ten minutes and I rock her gently by the side of my car until she's somewhat consoled. She is not consoled. I pack her into the car and thankfully she's asleep before we hit the highway.
• I bought a beautiful fancy True Cut Rotary Cutter this week. I nicked the blade on the second use. FFS.
• The next day I bought a replacement blade. First cut went via my finger. FFS.
• I have low platelets. This means I bleed a lot. I panicked, rand Mr S at work (voicemail?!) and Googled 'How to stop cut bleeding'. Pressure on wound, wound above heart. FFS.
• I was cutting white muslin. FFS. Thankfully (?) the cut was so deep it didn't bleed immediately. Muslin saved.
• That night Mr S was out, the girls were in bed by 7pm and the house was mine. I sat down on the floor with all my fabric and pattern and got cutting again. I was interrupted every ten seconds by Lucy the cat rubbing my hands, licking my fingers and scratching the pattern. FFS.
• Lucy also feels that using her litterbox is optional. Next to the box is much nicer option. FFS.
• Thankfully Lucy's litterbox lives in our bath, so it's an easy clean up. We've just started bathing both girls in the big bath so most days I wind up disinfecting and scrubbing the bath. FFS.
• Mirena. Enough said. FFS.

You missed my FFS, didn't you?

Now, go and enjoy Sarah's FFS Fridays too...

To the left, on the bench please.

It's the enjoyment of shopping online, with the smugness that comes from knowing you do not need to venture to The Supermarket.*

*Unless you are me and even though you have an extensive list to shop with, there is inevitably a few things that slip my mind. Usually the glaringly freakin' obvious things, like bread.

Let's rephrase that then.

It's the enjoyment of shopping online, with the smugness that comes from knowing you will need to venture to The Supermarket, but it's a duck in and out job, not a packed lunchbox kind of affair.

I started doing my groceries online a few months ago when my lovely pregnancy hormones vacated and left my mental health somewhat lacking. Along with seeing my GP, I started to find any little ways to make life easier. Strangely enough, the prospect of not taking an infant and a toddler to the supermarket made me feel like my life could be easier.

I tried my local supermarket, but their food quality was crap, delivery expensive and they didn't have the basic things online for me to purchase. Their phone assistant told me it was 'probably that the shop your order is picked from is low on stock, so they reserve that stock for in person shoppers.'

What now? You're charging a premium per item and in delivery that means I can't buy my BBQ sauce online because someone in New Town might want to buy it?

'Could you not just pop in to your local Supermarket and get it in person?'

Yes. I could. But, genius, that isn't why I'm doing my shopping online now, isn't it? When I leave detailed notes in the 'Detailed Notes for This Item' section, I also have an expectation that my personal shopper whom I'm paying more from might actually read it, not completely ignore it.

So I tried The Other Supermarket from Another Town. And grocery toting angels sang from on high. My groceries are delivered to my kitchen bench. I can pay by EFTPOS in my kitchen, should I choose. The delivery is half the price of The Supermarket, and we're actually spending less on our groceries because I'm not wandering aimlessly distracted by shiny things for some unknown reason. My delivery person will even take the plastic bags away to be recycled. My one beef is the sheer amount of plastic bags used - they have no other option unfortunately, but last week I received one zucchini in a clear veggie bag in a shopping bag. One.

The other first world bonus of doing my shopping at The Other Supermarket is that because we've never shopped there, their home brand goods are like another fancy brand that we haven't tried yet. I've so far whittled us down to Other Supermarket Corn Flakes, Other Supermarket Pasta, Other Supermarket Lemonade... as I clicked through this week's shop I hopefully said to Mr S 'What about Other Supermarket Ice Cream?'.

'No. Absolutely not.'
'Okay, okay, I just thought I'd ask.'
'I am 33. I have tried them all. I have been around the ice cream block.'

I did not buy the Other Supermarket Ice Cream.

Clothes. THEY ALSO SELL CLOTHES. I bought P a pair of socks to test the Clothes At A Supermarket quality, and they're not only lovely, they are highly reasonably priced.

So once a week I write my list, I sit down and click my grocery shopping into the ether of the internet. As if by magic, two days later it turns up in my kitchen. MAGIC, I tell you.

This is absolutely not sponsored. It would be brilliant if it was.

Tormented by the major keys...

of children's music.

It's up there with realising that you're still watching Giggle and Hoot but the baby is asleep and the toddler is at day care.

I've always had a song stuck in my head. Usually it's a half written one that won't leave me alone until I finish it or at least write it down. Since I've had children it's a little bit different. Now it's either various Play School tunes or really catchy half written children's songs that won't leave me alone.

Today I am HOME ALONE.

I'll just let you ponder that for a moment.

I KNOW. ALONE.

I've been playing catch up with sewing, and have had the grand event of starting AND finishing a project in the same hour. Oh my goodness!

But there is a dark side to this joy that is Parental Alone Time.

It's the children's songs stuck in my freakin' head.

I happened to catch myself watching Giggle and Hoot's 'Gigglearium' this morning after everyone had gone out (oops) and now I can't stop singing 'Singing Solo'...

There's also usually a few varieties of Justine Clarke's greatest hits, including 'Dinosaur Roar' and 'Jelly Jelly Jelly'. It's a good thing I think she's ace.

I'd love to sing cool indie songs in my head, so I could seem cool and indie... but the truth is I'm just a country folk loving nerd who makes up songs about bicycles to make her gorgeous girls smile.