Thank you for being our friend ...................

February proved to be an excellent month for Pop N Grow and with the help of all you wonderful supporters we have managed to fill up a lot more of our totaliser, to cover all 209 neonatal units in the U.K we need to raise £21000 and with £5000 raised to date we are nearly a quarter of the way there xx

I have been neglecting the blog ......

I'm afraid I have been neglecting the blog lately, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day anymore, what happened? Where does all the time go?

Time has flown for me over the past six months, six months ago I had just come home from the hospital with my precious little boy Oliver, all the worry and heartache of the previous couple of months was over and the future lay ahead of us.

Little did I know what the future would hold because you see this thing came along, this thing called Pop N Grow, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine where pressing the 'like' button on the Pop N Grow page was going to take me, that place has become a huge part of my life, it has bought me lots of new friends and some very very special friends at that.

It has given me the opportunity to give a little back to the people who helped us the most and I can try and make things a little better for babies like Oliver.

I'm not perfect, I don't pretend to be, my house is rather messy and my to do list is so long I fear I will have to live till I'm 120 to reach the end of it, may be I can't change the whole world in one go but do you know what it doesn't matter that there's dust on the shelf or that I forgot to pay my phone bill (sorry Orange!)  what matters is that with all my fellow Pop N Growers beside me we can do our best to change the world one grow at a time xx

The mystery of the baby in the box is solved .....

Pop and Grow are holding a Valentines auction on our main Facebook page next weekend the 17th to the 19th of February.

We are hoping to raise lots of money to fund lots of baby grows to keep babies warm and snug in special care.

To bid just go to our Facebook page and have a look through the auction album there are lots of lovely things from taggie blankets to cakes, from key rings to a not yet in the shops Le Crueset juicing jug!
Auction items album

Oliver, the star of the Facebook cute baby competition and South Wales local celebrity wants lots and lots of special care babies to have Pop N Grow baby grows, in fact he is so desperate to raise lots of money he dressed himself up as a teddy, climbed in a box and attempted to donate himself to the auction, unfortunately I had to refuse to take him to the post office as I would simply miss him far too much but I can't guarantee he wont try bribing the postman to take him down to the sorting office because he wants to see more items in the auction.

We are still accepting donations for the auction and if you would like to donate something please email a brief description of the item you are donating and a photo to pop.n.grow@gmail.com.

I don't want Oliver to donate himself to the auction so please help!

There you go Paula, the mystery of the baby in the box is solved, was it worth waiting for?

xx

What are you grateful for?

I'm quite new to blogging so I have been reading up about how to blog successfully and looking at what other bloggers blog about and one of the things that seems to be popular is lists, lists of things to acheive before your 30 or 40 or 50, of places you absolutely must visit, of foods you must try but the list I liked the best was a things to be grateful for list and it started me thinking about what I was grateful for so I've written my own list, some of the things are big, some of them are small, some things are obvious some aren't but anyway here it is, my list (in no particular order)

• My 3 beautiful boys
• My husband
• My home
• The staff at the Royal Gwent, Newport
• Beautiful sunsets
• Automatic washing machines
• Clean socks that actually match
• Chocolate
• More Chocolate!
• Paula, Alison, Becci and Anna my fellow Pop N Grow Admins.
• Warm sand under my feet
• Scampi flavoured fries
• The Internet
• Rainbows
• My childhood teddy bear (in fact all teddy bears, I love teddy bears more than chocolate)
• Every single one of the Pop N Grow supporters

I can't afford caviar and truffles but I can enjoy a bag of  my favourite scampi flavoured fries, I can't stop the rain but without the rain there would be no rainbows, I can't solve the problems of the world but one thing I can do is change things for neonatal babies, I can make them more comfortable and may be just may be I can make their parents lives just a tiny bit easier because once I was that parent, my baby was that baby, I look forward to the day when I can add one more thing to my list, when I can add this to my list

• That every baby in every neonatal unit in the U.K has access to a Pop N Grow baby grow, that every baby can be snug and warm.

because for that I will be truly grateful.

One Pop N Grow costs £4.73 if you would like to make a donation please visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pop.n.grow click on the donate tab towards the top left of the page and follow the on screen instructions, every penny counts.

It's G-Day at Pop N Grow

All at Pop N Grow are very very excited today as it is G-Day!  It is Grow Day, the day we have been working towards is finally here and the first boxes of  Pop N Grow baby grows will be going out to the local Reps ready to be delivered to the first 35 hospitals.

The hospitals due to get their grows are;

The locations of the first hospitals to receive grows

Raigmore Hospital, Inverness
Poole General Hospital.
St Richards Hospital, Chichester
Basingstoke Hospital
Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton
Leighton Hospital, Crewe, Cheshire
Hillingdon Hospital, Middlesex
Burnley Woman & Newborn Centre, Lancashire
Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Bucks
Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport
Luton & Dunstable Hospital, Bedfordshire
Southend University Hospital
Aberdeen
Ayrshire Maternity Unit, Crosshouse Hospital Kilmarnock
Leeds General Infirmary, Leeds
Nobles Hospital, Isle Of Man
Basildon Hospital
Hinchingbrooke, Cambs
Ipswich, Suffolk.
Gloucester Royal, Glouster
Croydon Universerty Hospital, Croydon, South London.
Ninewells Hospital, Dundee
Jessop Neonatal, Sheffield
Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, Essex
Liverpool Women's, Liverpool
Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth
Hull Royal Infirmary
Southampton
Nottingham City Hosp And Queens Medical Centre
Altnagelvin Hospital, Londonderry. Northern Ireland
Dumfries And Galloway

The grows are ready to go!

The grows are been packed by Paula and Ali in the Isle of Wight and will be setting off on their journey later today.

We have only been able to do this because of all of the generous donations we have received from our supporters so thank you everyone.

Now it's time to look forward to the next batch of hospitals :0)

To make a donation please visit our Facebook page
Pop N Grow Facebook page and click on the donate tab.

Pop N Grow has Auction fever

The auction starts next Saturday 11th Feb

Two lovely ladies, Bev and Joanne are holding an auction on their Facebook page next weekend 11th to 12th of Feb

Bev is the local rep for Nobles Hospital on the Isle of Man and every penny raised from the auction will be going to fund Pop N Grow baby grows for special care babies.

There are some lovely items on offer, including a gorgeous knitted elephant, the sweetest little baby shoes, a lovely Hungry caterpillar dress and bib plus much more.


Just a small selection of the items due to be auctioned.

To see all that is on offer head over to Bev and Joannes Facebook page and have a browse but remember don't bid until next weekend.

Pop N Grow Nobles Hospital, Isle of Man you can find the auction items by clicking on the photos tab and then clicking on the auction album :o)

And the winner is .........

It's time to pick a winner of the Pop N Grow good news week goody bag and I've been experimenting with how to use video on the blog so we have a semi live winners draw, it's a bit like the The National Lottery but they have funky machines, a flashy studio and Scott Mills while I have a knitted reindeer hat, my living room and number one son!.
To find out if you are the winner, just watch the video (I'm afraid the sound is not great but it was our first go at video, we will get better with practice).

Congratulations to our winner, I will be in touch over the weekend to get your details :o)