My review of close parents new pop in nappy with night time booster

I was lucky enough to be chosen to review Close Parents new Design for a nappy.

I was dubious at first using a pop in nappy for bedtime, as Jack is a really heavy wetter, and until now we had only had success with heavily boosted fitted nappies with wraps.

After prewashing the nappy was finally ready to go on Jack. I put it together, by popping in the soaker with integral booster and then added the night time booster. You don’t need to but I also added a fleece liner on top, as Jack’s such a heavy wetter I liked to make sure I can keep as much moisture as possible away from his little(or chunky)bottom.

At 11 months Jack still wakes very regularly at night, and is a little milk monster, so upon his first waking I checked his baby grow, and it was dry. I then did this every time he woke throughout the night, and each time I was amazed…dry. So when we got up in the morning and he was still dry I was amazed. I took off his babygrow and vest, and felt around the edges of the nappy, and there was no wicking at all, completely dry.

I took the nappy off, and the insides were completely wet, yet none of the moisture had escaped the nappy. As well as being a heavy wetter, jack is also a front sleeping boy…the biggest recipe for disaster in the nappy world, so to have no leaking at the top of the nappy was amazing.

With the testing I was also asked to test the nappy for daytime use, without the night time booster in. Well I was reluctant to do this, as it meant that on the day I used it, I couldn’t use it for bedtime. I had no doubts at all that the nappy would keep him dry in the day. We already have close parent bamboo pop in’s in our nappy stash, so I knew that the nappy would work, and it did not let us down. Jack’s very active, and not only is he walking and running everywhere he how now discovered climbing. Even with all this movement there was no leaks or wicking at all.

With cutting 2 teeth at once, on 2 of the mornings after testing the nappy at night we woke up to very yucky nappies, but everything was contained fantastically inside the nappy and there was no chance of it escaping out of the nappy.

I am still amazed at just how fantastic this nappy is, and it has well and truly exceeded my expectations of it. Jack is chunky, and the nappy fits him, with the aplix on the widest it will go, but I really do think this nappy will last us until potty training, especially as now he’s moving around he is slimming down.

I am now just waiting for the nappy to be available to buy, when I will definitely be buying more, and will be getting rid of some of my not so favourite nappies out of my stash to justify buying more.

Out of 5, I give this nappy 5+ as I just love it.

My review of Maclaren Techno XT Pushchair

Maclaren Techno XT.

I want to start by saying I LOVE this pushchair.

It is so lightweight and easy to push, even when we’ve got a buggy board on it.

It’s easy to recline and sit back up, and my little ones look so comfy in it.

When Eva was 18 months old I was pregnant again with number 2. We had been using the pushchair from the travel system up until this point, where it really was on its last legs, so we decided it was time for a new pushchair. I already had a maclaren in mind, as I have always loved the look of them, so did some online research.

After doing some research my mind was made up, it was going to be a maclaren.

I narrowed it down to either the Techno XT or the XLR. The reason we went for the Techno XT was because we didn’t know the sex of baby number 2, so wanted a colour that was suitable for both sexes. We went for the Black.

Eva is now 3, and is tall for her age, but still fits into the pushchair(very rare she goes in it now, but we did put her in at Sainsbury’s last week when she fell asleep in the car), and Jack loves it, and really does look comfy in it. Sometimes I wish I could get in myself :-p

A year and a half later and I still refer to it as “my new pushchair” as it really does look almost as good as new.

The hood is just fantastic, it’s massive, with a pull down visor and then the top of the hood unzips so it drops down even more. Fantastic for if we’ve left the rain cover in the car, or it’s really sunny.

The rain cover folds up small and fits in one of the pockets on the back of the pushchair(or underneath in the basket if I don’t have time to fold it up neatly). It pops onto the hood with 4 “buttons” so if it suddenly starts raining I really can have the raincover on in under a minute. With our previous stroller it used to take ages to get the raincover on, whilst Eva was sat getting wet.

The seat is well padded, and reclines by pulling 2 handles up on either side then sliding them backwards. To put the seat back to sitting I just put my hand behind the top of the seat and gently pull it back up.

The handles also have 3 height settings, which is great for us, as my partner is tall, and wouldn’t push our old pushchair as the handles were too low for him, and it used to make him back ache, whereas he will quite happily push our maclaren around.

It has a very decent sized basket, and as most people do, I hang my changing bag on the handle bar, meaning any shopping I get easily fits into the basket.

As I said at the start, we quite often used this with a buggy board on, which doesn’t affect the use of the pushchair, I can still lie the pushchair down if jacks asleep, and Eva still has room to stand, and I don’t feel like I’m walking into the buggy board as I extend the handles to the highest point, meaning I’m stood further back.

I cannot think of a single fault with this pushchair. It will easily last us until Jack is walking and beyond. I will either pass on or sell on this pushchair when we do finally finish using it, as it is such a joy to push, and so far has kept in such good condition.

So out of 5, what would I give this pushchair…without a doubt 5+

Would I recommend it? I already do, and 2 friends have since purchased Maclaren’s on my recommendation.

My review of phil and teds sport with doubles kit

Phil and teds sport with doubles kit.

I purchased the phil and teds sport with double kit whilst expecting my second baby. Eva was 1 and a half at the time, so I thought I would use the pushchair as a single until the new arrival came along.

The pushchair is such a joy to push, it’s so light, and easy to manoeuvre. Eva loved it, and once in often refused to get out, or could be found sitting in it at home if I hadn’t got round to folding it down.

With multiple seat positions, it was perfect. I found the best way of reclining it when Eva dropped off was to undo the zips that are in the seat unit, which doesn’t lay the pushchair completely flat, just reclines it, enough so that she was comfy, and was really easy to then just zip them back up when she woke up.

When Jack came along we had purchased the cocoon, but he only used it a handful of times as it was may when he was born, and it was so hot, that he would have overheated in it, but the times he did use it he looked so comfy and snug, that I would definitely recommend it for a autumn/winter/spring baby. Instead we put a head hugger into the main seat of the pushchair which was laid completely flat.

With the double seat on top, it kept him nice and sheltered from the weather, even more so when we put the wind shield on, without it being too enclosed. I also loved the fact that I only had to look down and could see him, and check he was ok.

The easiest way for us to get him in and out was to take the doubles seat off, because we weren’t using the cocoon, but with a cocoon you wouldn’t need to, as it slides in and out so easily, without disturbing sleeping babies.

Eva had plenty of room in the double seat(now aged 2) and loved being up high, and also the fact that people would always talk to her first before looking around confused before spotting/or me pointing out where jack was.

Everywhere we’ve been people have always commented on what a fabulous idea the pushchair is, and also how nice it looks at the same time.

When we changed it round, to have the double seat underneath, I had the double seat reclined, using the head hugger I had used whilst Jack was lying flat, to give him that extra bit of support. Jack loved it being in the double seat underneath; as I hung some little dangly toys underneath for him.

With Eva older now, she rarely dropped off, but when she did I still used to recline her back using the zips again, which still left jack with enough room.

When it got to the point that Eva was wanting to walk, and could understand she had to hold my hand and not to run off, I would put jack in the top, with the doubles seat at the bottom, so that when Eva decided she was tired of walking, she could jump into the underneath seat, meaning that when just jack was in it, it was more evenly balanced. Because of having one handle it is so easy to push one handed, whilst holding onto Eva with the other one.

When Jack was newborn I used to hang my changing bag on the handle bar, with the actual bag sitting just underneath where he lay. Then when using it with the doubles seat underneath I used to find it really easy to put it in the basket. I used to put it in with the zip facing up, meaning easy access if I just needed to grab something out (usually a snack for Eva) but I never had any trouble with getting the whole bag in and out with either child in there. Jacks legs were short enough to pull it out, and Eva would just move her legs to the side for me.

Questions I was asked.

• Oh I wouldn’t like the baby being underneath, not able to see what’s going on.

-     Actually Jack really loved being underneath batting his toys about. And in my opinion it’s only the same as a tandem pushchair where they can see out the sides.

• I bet its heavy to push.

-     No actually it’s really lovely and light to push. The weight is evenly distributed and I never found it heavier to push then a single pushchair. With the added bonus of it not being a wide side by side double, so you can get it anywhere you can get a single, and not as long as a tandem, which I tried in shops when we were first looking, and they were so heavy and hard to manoeuvre.

• I bet it’s really big folded, I don’t think it would go in my boot.

-     I’ve got a Citroen Picasso, so size wasn’t an issue to me, but having tried it in other boots, when folded it is quite slim, and with its quick release rear wheels I don’t think you would have a problem getting it into most boots.

 So now Eva walks everywhere I’m back to using it as a single pushchair, a year and a half on and I can honestly say it looks almost as good as the day we got it.

I’m not planning on anymore, so will probably sell it on when Jack wants to walk everywhere, but for know I am definitely not ready to part with this amazing pushchair. We often walk my mom’s dog, and going over grass and rough terrain is not a problem with this pushchair, even with both children in, I have never struggled with pushing it off road, whereas with my stroller I always really struggle, and that’s with just 1 child in.

I would recommend this pushchair and for me it’s a 5/5 rating.

New to blogging

Well i've decided to bite the bullet and open a blog. I will be running competitions every now and then for lorens little lovelys on here, aswell as doing product reviews and general updates on what i'm getting up to :-D