Cambridge Baby Blog

I’m writing this a little early because of Christmas so technically Molly isn’t 11 months old for another week yet but it’s close enough, eh? I can’t believe that she’s almost a year old already. Where, oh where has that time gone? 

Pointing - This is one of my favourite new skills that she has learnt. I love how she can now point at things that she wants or where she wants to go. And I’m actually amazed that she can point to things that we ask about. How on Earth does she know what things are called at this wee age? 

Laughing - She’ll have a full on proper giggle about things now and it’s absolutely adorable. Not to mention side splitting. It’s too funny.

Tantrums - She’s discovered her temper. She knows exactly what she wants and when she doesn’t get it she certainly shows us how upset she is about it. I thought temper tantrums were saved for the terrible twos!?

Bravery - She’s becoming a lot braver and will venture a lot further away from me now when we’re at our baby groups. She always has to keep checking I’m still around but she’ll quite happily crawl over to the toys and other babies by herself and sometimes doesn’t even want to come back to me. 

She’s still not saying proper words or looking like she’s taking steps any time soon but that’s okay. She’s developing in her own time and I already think she’s a genius for her age anyway. I’m happy with where she is right now. It’s a lovely age but I do see her becoming a lot more of a toddler now rather than a baby which is a little sad. I’m very excited to have our first Christmas together with her at this age - I think it’s going to be great. 

Well, it seems that winter is now in full swing even though it’s actually not yet officially winter. It’s gotten so cold hasn’t it? The hat, scarf and gloves are out and it now takes even longer to leave the house! And we have a lot more stuff to take with us - I didn’t even know that was possible.

Wool has been a game changer when dressing Molly. I can take her out in the cold weather knowing she’s going to stay warm and comfortable. I love the outer layers the most because they can go over her normal outfit and I know she’ll stay warm while we’re out and I can take it off if we go inside somewhere. I know wool has properties that keep you cool as well as warm, but I can’t help getting paranoid when we’re indoors somewhere warm so I like being able to remove her wool layers. 

Here are some of mine and Molly’s winter favourites that are getting us through the cold weather:

New Style Sturdy Wool Coat with Cuffs by Disana - I love this coat. It’s super warm and cosy without being too bulky. Especially because Molly is quite petite. The coat is a little too big for her but it doesn’t bulk up and the cuffs mean that the sleeves stay up on her wrists even though the arms are too long. 

Organic Boiled Wool Baby Pants with Cuffs by Disana - These pants are absolutely brilliant for the winter. When Molly is in her stroller I have a tendency to lose her blankets so I love putting these trousers over her normal outfit to keep her legs warm. It means I can use less blankets and it doesn’t matter if it keeps falling off because I know her legs are kept nice and warm. They’re lovely and soft, again not being too bulky. 

Childs Beanie Hat in Organic Merino Wool by Disana - This hat is great. It’s soft, stretchy and the style means it will fit her for a long time. She’ll barely keep a hat on but when she does she looks adorable in it. 

Knitted  Organic Merino Wool Scarf by Disana - This scarf is super soft and the perfect size for little ones. 

Dungarees in Organic Merino Wool by Disana - These are my absolute favourite item of baby clothing that exists. Molly wore them when she was little and now we’re in the next size up and I still love them. They’re super versatile, they can be worn with absolutely anything. They’re so soft and very flexible so you can be sure that your baby is comfortable in them. The sizes are very generous so will last for a decent amount of time. Molly was wearing these last week when she had a terrible poop explosion while sitting in her car seat. The wool dungarees contained this completely protecting her car seat which I was amazed at and so grateful for. I put the dungarees in the washing machine on a wool cycle with wool detergent and they came out clean and smelling fresh. 

Baby Jumper in Organic Merino Wool Melange by Disana - I love this jumper for the same reason as the dungarees. The material is super soft and flexible and I absolutely love the colours they come in. 

Delicate Wool Blanket by Disana in Organic Merino Wool - The delicate blanket is an absolutely gorgeous baby blanket that is super soft and perfect for little newborns as well as older babies.

Last week I wrote about 12 things I wanted to do with Molly before she turned 1. Not included in that list, however, was to have the whole family knocked for six by a rather persistent sickness bug. That’s what happened to me, Sam and Molly this week and I can quite easily say that it’s been one of the worst and most difficult weeks we’ve experienced this year. 

The whole thing started last Thursday evening when we were up with Molly who spent half of the night vomiting. Poor baby. It was so heartbreaking to watch her go through that. The next couple of days were fine though, she was just a bit more sleepy than usual so we thought that was that. Then we were all hit with it on Sunday. It lasted then until yesterday so it's been a rough few days.

Looking after a baby, or rather, trying to look after a baby while you’re poorly yourself is an arduous task. When that baby is a needy, whingy, poorly baby, it makes things a whole lot harder. Luckily (I think) Sam and I hit our worst points at different times so there was always one of us available to care for her. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. My hat goes off to all those single parents out there. I genuinely have no idea how you manage!

Every time we thought we were all getting better there’d be something else - a new symptom or the revisit of an old one. It didn’t help that I had a few appointments this week too. I had to take the car for its MOT yesterday and I thought we were all over the worst so I decided not to cancel. I loaded Molly into the car and off we went. We hadn’t been in the car 2 minutes when it was filled with the most awful smell and the sound of Molly’s cry. I couldn’t take it anymore. I broke down in tears while I was stuck in the Cambridge morning traffic. This illness has been relentless. It has completely taken it out of me and I’m so glad it’s almost over. Thankfully, after my cry I’d gotten some of my resilience back because after I changed her at the MOT garage she instantly pooped again so I had to drive her home to Sam before taking the car back to the garage. 

I think the end is in sight now. I really hope it is anyway. I just want to look forward to and get ready for our first Christmas together instead of spending all of my hours doing endless amounts of extra laundry or in my rubber gloves disinfecting everything that could possibly have been infected with the virus. I may have gone a little overboard but I just don’t want to repeat what we’ve just been through. It does seem like Molly has developed an awful cough now though. It just never ends, does it? How many days until summer?!

At Cambridge baby we pride ourselves in choosing natural breathable clothing that children love to wear. We love the expression on children's faces when they try wearing wool for the first time and feel how comfortable it is.  We were looking for photo's that capture the joy and ease children feel when they are comfortable. Seeing our shout out for models photographer Helen Alderton offered to help us. Helen specialises in taking portraits of children & families in a natural environment (she's excellent at studio photography too but its the natural backdrops she loves.  To find out more about what she does see http://www.haphotography.co.uk/

We think she's captured the essence of Cambridge Baby. Here are a few of our favourites the children and the mother are all wearing wool from Smalls, Engel, Cosilana  Disana and Living Crafts with Organic cotton Dungarees from Iiobio.

It's soggy here in Cambridge!

Even when we are soaked through our merino base layers are still keeping us comfortable. Here's how.....

Wool is able to soak up to 30 percent of its own weight in moisture without feeling wet, hence it's ability to keep you warm even in the rain.The natural crimp of the fibres helps to wick moisture away from the body. Getting this moisture off your skin helps you feel warm and comfortable in wet conditions, but the complex make up of the fibres have still more ways of keeping you comfortable.The crimp in the wool fibre means that they trap tiny air pockets between them when they are next to each other. Air pockets act as insulators -- keeping you both warm and cool. Air can move heat by convection -- When air is contained in small pockets, it can't circulate easily, and the heat or cool is retained.

There's also some chemistry at work here. Wool fibres are made up of three layers. The first, keratin, is a moisture-loving protein that all animal hair has. It is designed to maintain a stable body temperature. Think how useful this is to babies, athletes and your own day-to-day living. The second layer is the cuticle a scaly covering. The overlapping scales are tiny, but as they rub against each other they push off the dirt. So it is self-cleaning, as anyone who's put their baby in wool knows. The third layer is a filmy skin the epicuticle which keeps the rain out. Wool is quite water-resistant, as duffel-coat wearers and sheep can testify. Now, the two outer layers have tiny pores which allow moisture to pass through to the keratin core, which absorbs it. The hydrogen bond of water, H2O, is broken, creating a chemical reaction within the fibre molecules to generate heat when it has taken on a lot of moisture. But because the air pockets allow moisture to evaporate from your skin, you won't overheat when you sweat.

So, you can see it's not just sheep who can enjoy being out in the rain in their woolly coats.

I'm not a fan of  crackly waterproofs so when it's raining  I prefer  to wear the following for running/ walking in the rain. I'm not totally dry, but I feel warm and comfortable.

Merino Leggings- 

Merino Tank Top

Merino Fleece

Wool base layers are also the perfect layer under a waterproof as they wick the sweat away from your body.

Below is a letter Helen wrote to a customer who was concerned about animal welfare and the ethics of wearing wool.

Dear xxxx,

Thank you for your email and it is always good to know our customers are concerned about ethics and better ways to live.

I share your concerns about the issues raised in the article regarding animal welfare. First of all, the majority of our wool is certified organic. This is not simply about avoiding potentially toxic chemical and hormonal sheep treatments but also about raising sheep in a humane way, and about holistic management practices. Secondly, none of our wool comes from farms that practise mulesing - we specifically check this with every supplier. Thirdly, at present none of our wool comes from the USA or Australia which do have histories of poor management practices, although I believe they are improving in response to lobbying which is good news. Most of our existing suppliers are small companies also concerned about the ethics running through their supply chains and we are confident that they act on their principles, and we ask for an ethical statement from new suppliers which includes questions about animal welfare as well as social issues (working conditions) and ecological issues (environmental footprint, organic/eco status etc).

While I think it's great that organisations such as PETA campaign for animal welfare, I don't think it's good to take a blanket approach. It is better to support those farms and farmers that engage in good practices and boycott those who don't. In terms of ecology, we know that are many parts of our moors and mountains that benefit ecologically from managed grazing which increases biodiversity, both here and in New Zealand and South America, for example, whereas monocultures can be exceedingly environmentally damaging as highlighted recently by theWWF and Greenpeace.

I take issue with the article stating that

"With so many humane fabrics, including rayon, cotton, hemp, acrylic, nylon and microfibre..."

as these may only be humane at one level - the use of petrochemicals in the unnatural production of man-made fibres is in my opinion disastrous - not only is it polluting, it is unsustainable and also these things are not biodegradable - who would want their old skirt or t-shirt knocking around our planet in 1000 years time? The production of acrylic and nylon is highly chemicalised and damages our planet and therefore the animals within it - not only this, but it uses an number of carcinogens and a recent study found that women working in acrylic factories were seven times more likely to develop breast cancer. I know it is hard to make good ethical decisions because there is so much to look into - but it should be looked into by organisations like PETA if they are promoting alternatives as ethical which clearly aren't.

While hemp may be ecological, cotton isn't on the whole. We stock organic cotton because of the damage caused to people's health in the use of chemicals on cotton - this is widely documented, and to call cotton humane when it kills human beings and causes ill-health in children in developing countries is very narrow minded. Furthermore the high levels of pesticides used in conventionally grown cotton must, if they are causing death and hospitalisation of humans, be exceedingly toxic to animals too. Even organic cotton is troublesome in that it does require a lot of water, problematic in many countries. But we still feel at Cambridge Baby that we want to support organic cotton and organic agriculture generally.

Finally, microfibre... what can I say? The sea is swimming in microfibre fleece particles as they are not filtered out from your washing machine and end up as minuscule ubiquitous pollutants in landfill and in our oceans. FAR better to have a wool vest, wool top, wool fleece...

Wool is unarguably sustainable, natural, and it bio-degrades naturally. It is healthy for the skin as it is designed to clothe mammals and therefore needs less processing, and organic rearing of sheep is humane, does not pollute the ground, sea or other animals, and is of no danger to farmers and their families.

Clearly everyone has different values but for me there is no question, I strongly advocate using wool over the alternatives - but yes in doing so making sure that the wool is organic if animal welfare is your overriding concern.

I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes,
Helen

PS we are currently looking into hemp again and may be stocking it in the future.

> Cambridge Baby Team

> Cambridge Baby - discover natural, organic clothing for your little explorers (aged 0-100).