Product Review: MaterniCare Pre & Post Natal Nourishing Cream

Stretch marks!!

Yet another glamourous side of pregnancy.

During pregnancy your skin has to stretch something silly like two feet to make room for your expanding bump can you believe it? And that's not including any other expansion due to all the ice cream and chocolate you suddenly crave *cough* want *cough*! All that stretching has to give at some point and if you're unlucky you can end up with stretch marks. Luckily, however, there are lots of products out there designed to help either prevent or reduce the appearance of these angry, red tiger stripes.

One such product is MaterniCare Pre & Post Natal Nourishing Cream. I'm rather happy to say that the lovely people over at MaterniCare have sent me a tube of their nourishing cream to try out after noticing I was pregnant over on Twitter. I've now been using it for around two weeks and have to say I really like it!



I'm not the biggest fan of the smell of cocoa butter and many of the other stretch mark solutions out there seem to have this as a base ingredient, this doesn't (point 1 to MaterniCare). The ingredients in this cream include almond, avocado and grapeseed oils as well as vitamin E and calendula oil. They're top ingredient - Pro-Vitamin B5 is packed full of benefits for the prevention and treatment of stretchmarks as well as being excellent for moisturising the rest of your skin and keeping it hydrated and smooth. This pro-vitamin helps to reduce water loss, prevent itching and redness, helps to heal the skin and is excellent at increasing the elasticity of your skin - essential in stretch mark prevention (point 2 to MaterniCare). The scent of the cream is lightweight and refreshing, although I can't put my finger exactly on what the fragrance is I would compare it to after sun lotion - this is a good thing! It's not sickly sweet, not overpowering and feels cool and refreshing on the skin (point 3 to MaterniCare).

Oh and lets not forget it's hypoallergenic (point 4 to MaterniCare!) this stuff is brilliant!

A major factor in the prevention and treatment of stretch marks, as far as I'm concerned, is stimulating the skin to repair itself. As well as using a product that will nourish the skin you need to massage the skin as well. A lot of products out there are either absorbed too quickly or leave the skin feeling sticky and hot after application. This lightweight formula works very well for massage, it melts onto the skin quickly and isn't absorbed so quickly that you can't get a good massage. My advice would be to use it in sections, don't slather it all over your body and start massaging as you could be left with a little bit too much on the skin and get that sticky, oil-cream slick that we don't like. Apply in sections and massage until absorbed and you won't have a problem - even better get your other half to do it for you! It's a great bonding experience for you both and the baby and you get a free massage (point 1 to mummy!)

MaterniCare Pre & Post Natal Nourishing Cream will continue to be useful after the birth of your child(ren). The hydrating and repairing features will continue to aid your skins elasticity as it (hopefully - slightly worried about this!) reduces back after birth. It will continue to treat your stretchmarks and hopefully reduce them from their angry red to sliver and beyond as well as being super gentle on your skin.

Priced at £14.99 for 200ml this product isn't the cheapest out there but I do believe it's worth it. At 36 weeks pregnant I so far (touch wood, spit, cross your fingers, grab a rabbit's foot and spin around 3 times) have no new stretch marks and have just noticed some old ones (from previous weight gain) starting to look a little red. After using the nourishing cream for two weeks these haven't gotten any worse - Final point to MaterniCare!!

I'll be continuing to use this product for the rest of my pregnancy and afterwards - this being a yummy mummy malarky is hard work!





Disclaimer - The lovely people at MaterniCare sent me this product free of charge, this has not influenced my opinion of their product and all words and opinions in this blog post are my own.

Time Flies!

Where has the time gone?! Remember a little while ago I was announcing that we're having a baby? Well look at this!



9 weeks! Well, actually we're closer to 8 now but I don't look quite as pretty this morning and didn't fancy scaring you all off!

I honestly cannot believe that in just over 2 months we will be welcoming our little bundle of joy into the world. I feel like I'm walking (or waddling) around in a bit of a daze. One minute I'm feeling blissfull and relaxed and just can't wait for all the happy times to come, the next I'm a whirlwind of panic with baby vests, sleepsuits and blankets that must all be washed RIGHT NOW!! And don't get me started on the cleaning of the pram - I thought all parts were machine washable but they're not and now I need to find a way to clean them and make sure they're perfect and and and....relax!! Can you feel the panic there? Can you? Yep the panic is setting in. Apart from those blissfull relaxed moments - pregnancy is weird right?!

Now, I've been a bad blogger again haven't I? I have the best intentions but they just don't seem to pan out. In my defense...I'm having a baby!! I've been busy, not only with the preparations of having a baby but I've been backwards and forwards to the hospital with appointments, check ups and tear filled almost emergency trips with lots of pain and fear. Everything is fine. Don't worry. The only time you need to worry is if you dare mutter the words 'you're having a baby, you're not sick' within a 5 mile radius of me - YES I'm having a baby, but I'm also SICK! So pardon me if I need to rest a little bit more than normal or if I run away mid conversation to chuck my guts up.

Pregnancy is such a glamourous time isn't it?

So short but sweet today (just like me *wink*)but hopefully I'll be back again soon! To all those pregnant women who stroll around, carrying on as normal, juggling two toddlers, a job, a blog AND a baby in their belly...I salute you!! But darn you, why couldn't you give me the magic formula for being so wonderful 7 months ago?!

It's a.....!!

So I think I may have slightly underestimated how sick I was in my last post.

I expected to be back to 'normal' within a week and making, baking and nesting like a maniac for the next few months. The truth is I've been stuck on my backside feeling sorry for myself, struggling to find food I can keep down and becoming exhausted after even the smallest of tasks. I was ordered a week of bedrest by my fiance when I came out of hospital but that has pretty much turned into a months worth. I've been out of the house probably a grand total of 5 times and have started to need naps.

I know people say 'you're pregnant, not sick' but in my case...I'm both!

Anyway, this wasn't a moaning post, I do have some news! One of those times out of the house included another trip to the hospital, this time not because I felt like I was about to keel over but for my 20 week scan!

I was absolutely terrified before the scan. I was certain that me being sick so much, becoming so dehydrated and losing weight instead of gaining was going to have done something terrible to the baby, but I needn't have worried. The baby looked great! The sonographer was lovely and explained everything she was looking at and why and what it meant. She found nothing unusual and all of the measurements came up within the 'normal' ranges for a baby of 20+4.

Now, some of you may know that a 20 week scan is your opportunity to find out what sex the baby is. From the beginning my fiance and I had been adamant we wanted to know, until a week before the scan! We started wondering if a surprise would be better? Would we regret knowing? Hmmm, hard to say really. So we came up with a slightly unusual plan.

Instead of having the sonographer tell us at the scan, we asked her to write down the sex in my diary so that we could find out at home, snuggled up with a cup of tea (well, hot chocolate in my case) in a nice, relaxed and homely environment :) So... in caseyou're wondering (and haven't found out via twitter/facebook yet!)...take a look at the picture and see!



Isn't SHE beautiful?! I know, I know, everyone thinks that their scan looks amazing and most look the same, but look at her little nose! Tell me that isn't the cutest nose? I'm so excited to be having a little girl! I think I would have been just as excited to be having a boy but I cannot stop smiling whenever I think of her. She already has a name but we're keeping that to ourselves for now.

So that was a couple of weeks ago :) The bump is growing so fast now that my coat is struggling to stay done up! Not good in the snow (Snow in April - still not impressed!)!

Here's a little pic of the bump at 22 weeks :) I've stopped losing weight now which is great too :D



Right! That's enough rambling! Time to start planning all the pretty pink things we want to buy and make for our little girl!