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)

Good news week comes to an end

Well it's Friday and it's the end of Pop N Grows good news week, I've really enjoyed reading your stories and sharing your good news.

We have time to share 3 more stories with you before Good news week comes to a close, several of you share stories of personal achievements, Kelly told us 'My good news is that after I had my baby 6 weeks ago I
was diagnosed with post natal depression, today I got up and saw my
other two beautiful boys off to school and for me that's something I
have been looking forward to doing for ages. Hopefully one day I will
be able to take them and pick them up but for now I'm proud of myself'
we wish you all the best for the future Kelly. And Emma told us 'my
good news is that I have survived going back to work after my lovely
six months off, I am a nurse and work 12hr days and was terrified about getting her ready, getting me ready and getting her to nursery and me into work for 7am. I imagined her crying and rubbing her eyes all the way to work for being woken up so early, turns out with a bit of planning the night before she's fine with it yay!! All those sleepless nights for nothing lol'

The last story is Pop N Grows you may have seen on the main page that we asked what you thought about us looking at supplying our grows in bigger sizes and also what you thought about us supplying incubator vests for tiny babies between 2 and 4lbs (to be supplied to hospitals free of charge of course) and the overwhelming response was positive so watch this space for developments very soon.

Don't forget to keep an eye out tomorrow for the announcement of the goodie bag winner xx

Pop N Grow Facebook page

Pop N Grow Good news - Reps special

You may or may not know that we have a hardworking group of local reps here at Pop N Grow, each one represents their local hospital, they are spread out across the country from Scotland to the South of England with many in between.

All of our reps work extremely hard fundraising and raising awareness of Pop N Grow so today it's a reps good news special.

Rep Teresa's good news is 'My son's school choir have got through to the finals of the Cheshire East Primary schools choir of the year competition which is to be held at the Royal Northern School of music. Some of them are as young as 7 and we are very proud of them and hope they have a fantastic day there.' Lovely news Teresa and we wish them the best of luck.


Rep Matt was happy that he had nearly scored a hole in one, what makes it special is it was Matt's first game of golf since having spinal surgery, well done Matt and better luck next time.

Rep Steph told us 'My happiness for today is waking up next to my little boy and seeing his first smile of the day and my other happiness is knowing that us reps are able do our work to make all those little babies happy'.

Thank you reps for doing such a good job your hard work, support and loyalty are what makes us all at Pop N Grow HQ smile.

Pop N Grow Facebook page

Today our good news starts with a birthday, Crystal told us that her son is going to be celebrating his 4th birthday on the 3rd February, that is an excellent day to have a birthday, but then I'm a little bit biased as that is my number 2 sons birthday too and he will be 6.
All at Pop N Grow wish your little boy a very happy birthday Crystal and we are drawing our goodie bag winner on Friday so who knows may be a little birthday luck may be in the air.

Did you read today's earlier blog post? If you have then you will know that one of our local reps is expecting a baby in August, one of our supporters Chery is also expecting the pitter patter of tiny feet and her good news was that she is expecting a 'healthy and perfect little girl' congratulations Chery.

Pop N Grow rep Helen has been working very very hard for Pop N Grow and her good news was 'I have a meeting tomorrow with Asda to try and secure funding for Pop'n'grow!' now that is excellent news.

Don't forget there is still time to share your own good news over on the main page and one lucky liker will win a goodie bag.

Pop N Grow Facebook main page

Please vote for Oliver

Please help Oliver to help Pop N Grow

Oliver was born prematurely and was cared for in the Special care baby unit of the Royal Gwent, Newport.  Now Oliver is trying to help Pop N Grow raise more money so that more hospitals can receive free Pop N Grow baby grows and more special care babies can be helped.

Oliver has entered a cute baby competition on Facebook and if he wins he will donate the baby hamper prize to Pop N Grow for their February auction.

If you use Facebook you can help Oliver by following this link VOTE FOR OLIVER and click like under Oliver's photo, the photo is the one on this post.

For more information about Pop N Grow please visit our main Facebook page Pop N Grow Facebook page or our website Pop N Grow website

Thank you xx

Pop N Grow is having a baby ........

It's good news week here at Pop N Grow and yesterday we heard the really lovely news that one of our local reps will be having a new addition to their family in August!

Big congratulations from all at Pop N Grow we are all very excited, can we all be virtual Aunties (and one virtual Uncle!)?