What a Diamond… Disney’s Bambi in HD!

Bambi Diamond Edition

Disney need no introductions! Their stunningly beautiful films have been keeping us all entertained for decades. Old or

young, there’s a film for everyone.

A couple of weeks ago, Disney re-released one of their all time classics, Bambi. A special Diamond edition has been digitally restored in HD and is now available in Blu Ray with some great bonus features. These include Walt Disney’s Story Meetings and a ‘DisneyPedia: Bambi’s Forest Friends’.

Surprisingly, I am one of the very *very* few people that hadn’t seen Bambi previously, so watching this film for the first  time in HD a real joy. Filled full of adventure, love and tradegy, this film will have you going through almost every emotion possible. A must have addition to any household and certainly worth paying a little bit extra for the quality.

Bambi Diamond Edition is available now at a RRP of 19.99. We have however found the Diamond edition at £13.99 at play.com.

Exercise & Pregnancy

Meet Anthony Mayatt, owner of Breathe Fitness. Anthony is our resident Fitness Guru and will be bringing you some great fitness tips on a monthly basis. If you have any questions, please email fitness@bumpsnbubs.co.uk

Welcome to my first article here based on exercise and pregnancy. What I do want to stress first is that I would recommend hiring a qualified pre and post natal trainer if you are pregnant or just given birth so that you know you are in safe hands. There is safe exercise you can do on your own but if entering a gym then I would recommend having that trainer with you.

Benefits

These are the list of benefits to exercising during pregnancy

• Labour is perceived to be less painful (not proven)
• Improves circulation
• Reduces swelling
• Less weight gain
• Improves balance and posture
• Reduces cramps, aches and joint soreness
• Improves aerobic and muscular fitness
• Reduces post natal belly fat
• More rapid return to pre-pregnancy weight and strength

I am sure you are reading those benefits and thinking yes without a doubt I must exercise now I am pregnant. Before you do though you must follow these guidlines as you cannot just exercise the same way as everybody else due to physiological changes happening within your body.

• Try to exercise at least 3 x per week.
• Don’t exercise laying on your back after the first trimester (after 3 months)
• Don’t do exercises that mean a sudden change of direction.
• Avoid exercises that put trauma on the abdominal region i.e. crunches
• Try not to overheat and make sure you replace all lost fluids
• Warm up and cool down every single session.
• Consume enough calories roughly 300 additional calories a day to maintain metabolic homeostasis.
• Also do not hold your breath during exercises, if you havn’t exercised before then start very slowly and progress over time.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY consult your doctor regularly to make sure everything is progressing safely.

If you was to notice any small change in your body physiologically then stop exercise all together and seek advice of a doctor. This could be as small as a headache to bloody discharge. That is obviously a very severe problem and is very unlikely to happen but make sure you listen to your own body.

I am not going to post any actual exercises you can do as I feel it would be better to seek advice from a professional in person. It wouldn’t feel right to give you an exercise that you could preform wrongly by yourself and cause a problem.

Post natal

Ok so once you have given birth the main question I am always asked is how long should I wait before I can start exercising again. There really is no general time frame as it depends how healthy you were leading into the pregnancy. If you exercised during pregnancy then you can start immediately whereas if you stopped during pregnancy then it is best to start back very slowly and progress. Everyone should be able to do lower abdominal and pelvic floor exercises immediately to help to start strengthening up the core muscles. Aim to get out and walk more so that you can improve your cardio fitness and over time pick up your training even more. Over time you will notice your strength return then you will be able to do more with your exercise regime.

I hope this blog gave you some useful info away from the usual exercise list as I felt it was important for people to know a different side to when and how to exercise during and after pregnancy.

See you all soon for another blog!

Anthony Mayatt, Personal Trainer and Sports Scientist (BSc Hons)
www.breathefitness.uk.com

Follow on Twitter – @breathefit

Dreamgenii pregnancy support and feeding pillow.

Welcome to Bumps n Bubs, a new preganancy and parenting website for parents and parents to be everywhere! We’re kicking off with a review of the Dreamgenii Pregnancy support and feeding Pillow.

Sleeping can be a real pain during pregnancy – sometimes literally. The further along you get, the more uncomfortable and frustrated things can become – especially if, like me, you sleep on your front out of choice.

After the 12 week scan, everything became a lot more ‘real’ to me and although I wasn’t showing or feeling anything yet, I was petrified I was crushing my baby.

There are many different types of pregnancy pillows out there to choose from, however, the shape and length of the Dreamgenii appealed more to me. Up until I tried the DreamGenii, I was sleeping with a pillow lengthways under my belly and between my legs. Obviously, this wasn’t long enough by any means and most nights it would end up on the floor.

So, enter the DreamGenii…

Before I get into the official spiel, I’d like to start by sharing my personal experience with you on the Dreamgenii.

It comes neatly packaged in a plastic zip up carry bag, which makes it so much easier to carry around with you should you travel a fair bit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the smallest of packages, but it’s light and if you become as reliant on the pillow as I have, you’ll find this very useful.

The pillow comes with a plain white pillow case, but you can get some beautiful patterened ones from the website - I love the cherry one! The Dreamgenii has a short pillow to support your back and a long pillow to support your belly and fit comfortably between your legs, giving you extra comfort when sleeping. For those of you that normally sleep on your front, or right hand side, it really does help you sleep comfortably on your left (which is advised by doctors and midwives). This doesn’t mean you don’t have the ability to move or turn over in the night though. I started using the pillow at around 19 weeks and am currently at the 24 week stage, and can say hand on heart, the Dreamgenii has improved my sleep a great deal.

It does take some getting used to and when sharing your bed with your husband/ parner, it can take a bit of practice to snuggle up with eachother. Once we figured it out, it really didn’t get in the way.

So now the more medical explinations as to why the Dreamgenii is such a great addition.

Recommended by midvives across the UK, the Dreamgenii is the only specifically designed maternity pillow that will ‘adequately support back, bump and knees at the same time without taking up all of the room in the bed.’ Using the Dreamgenii from 20 weeks onwards encourages your baby to ‘adopt the optimal birth position which can mean a shorter and less painful labour.’

As if that wasn’t enough, once you’ve given birth to your little bundle of joy, the pillow can be used as a breastfeeding support pillow, giving you much needed support during feeding. Overall, I would highly recommend the Dreamgenii. In fact, I think I’m probably going to find it hard to give up even once I give birth! An easy full marks from me.

They’re available from their website, priced £45.99. For our US readers, you can buy one from www.dreamgeniiusa.com
priced at $69.95

Bumps n Bubs Launching soon…

From the founder of award winning tech review site, Girls n Gadgets, comes the new Mother and Baby review site for parents across the UK, Bumps n Bubs.

Bumps and Bubs will provide you with honest, up to date information and reviews from leading parenting manufacturers, as well as advice on pregnancy and parenting from industry professional.

We will be launching Mid-February 2011. If you have a product you feel is suitable for our audience or would be interested in advertising on our site please contact leila@bumpsnbubs.co.uk