Review on activities with babies

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't done a post in a while, mammy duties took over. My beautiful daughter Hallie Ann was born on 09/02/2015 and weighed 6lbs 1oz, she is now 7 weeks and 5 days.

I have been really enjoying my time off work and have been spending my maternity leave doing lots of fun activities with Hallie. I know some people may think that she is little for baby activities, but I think it's very important to dedicate time to playing with them and taking them out around other children from a young age.

Two of the things I have tried so far are sensory play and baby massage, so I'm just going to explain and do a short review on each.

Sensory play:

I took Hallie and my cousin lyla (who is 6 months) to sensory play on Wednesday. I had never been in a sensory room before and it really entrigued me to see what it was like. Hallie was sleeping when I first took her in the room, when she woke up she was amazed at all the lights and was looking all around the room at the pretty colours. Lyla enjoyed playing with the soft toys in the room and took a particular liking to the butterfly below. During the sensory play the room had a calming scent of lavender, this is a feature that I really liked! I would recommend anyone with little ones to take them into a sensory room, Hallie who's 7 weeks and Lyla who's 6 months both really enjoyed it! I also found it really calming and relaxing for myself too. 

Baby massage:

I took Hallie to baby massage on Monday with my friend Naomi and her little girl Monroe. It was our first time for us to try baby massage and didn't know what to expect, but I had heard great things about the classes. When we got there, there was a circle of changing mats all set up ready for the babies with some extra virgin olive oil next to the mat. They use this oil because it's the most natural moisturising oil to use on their skin. During baby massage you leave the babies with just a nappy on and lay them on a changing mat with a towel underneath them. A nursery nurse then holds the class and demonstrates on a doll the different massage techniques and the benefits that they have for the babies. An example of the benefits of baby massage are there are ones done on the tummy which are good for wind and prevention of colic. During baby massage Hallie was really relaxed and made all cute cooing noises whilst in the class, showing that she did like it and she even had a few cheeky smiles. She particularly liked the back and the tummy massage, but she wasn't too fussed on her arms being massaged. After the class, the nursery nurses gave an option for the babies to be weighed afterwards. I thought this was a great feature of the class. After the class both babies had a sleep and we think it really relaxed them. A benefit of any baby class is it gives you an opportunity to chat with other mammy's and for babies to play together. Overall me, Naomi and both babies really enjoyed the class and we are going to make a weekly thing of taking them. 

I hope you enjoyed this review, from now on this blog will have lots of mammy features and I will try to blog as much as I can. Thanks for reading, bye xxx