This is what life looks like....in Leighland...

Thursday 21 February 2013

The Most Terrifying of Night Terrors.....Ever Wanted To Go Into The Light????

OMG!!!!!  Please, please comment on this post if you have any experience, advice, thoughts.....

Well, I've been experimenting with more mug cakes this week - chocolate brownie mug cakes to be precise but in typical Leighland fashion, my phone was on charge while I was playing in the kitchen so I couldn't take any photos.  This is not necessarily a bad thing though as they looked delicious and tasted delicious...to begin with!  About 3/4 of the way in we decided one more bite would make us sick!!  It's not like me or the B to put a desert down but there was no way we could finish it!

So I was sitting here trying to think of something interesting to write about instead, when all of a sudden the dreaded screaming began.  We usually encounter these episodes 2-3 times a month, but this is the second night in a row!!



For the benefit of anyone who has never witnessed an attack, it is truly one of the most terrifying things you will ever see.  It's not uncommon for your child to sit bolt upright and point at something only they can 'see' while screaming and thrashing around.  Often, they do not recognise you and any attempts to soothe them will usually make the attack worse.  You feel like the worst parent in the world and it is hideous.


Lola is quite the little Mummy's girl, when ever she is poorly, upset or if her sleep is disturbed for any other reason, she only wants me.  Although she usually wants Daddy in the room, she will generally want to snuggle into me.  When attacks strike, she lays on her back, eyes wide open, pointing at something near the ceiling with both arms and both legs, screaming bloody murder.  I'm never sure if she knows its me or not, but she screams for me to get off her, leave her alone and go away.  She screams and screams for Daddy, but often when he gets she won't let him near her either:-(

Last night, I made a conscious effort not to touch her or soothe her in anyway shape of form.  It seemed to do the trick, because I wasn't interfering,  I wasn't making anything worse.  I was eventually able to decipher some of the screams and what I heard shook me to my core.

Anyone who has ever witnessed a night terror is sure to have Googled it.  They are also sure to have not been brought much comfort from the fact that their little loved one is blissfully unaware that anything is even happening and there is very rarely anything to worry about.  In fact, the biggest danger with a night terror is that the child may hurt themselves with all of the thrashing about.  This is something I have grown accustomed to.  While Lola has never actually hurt herself, I often get kicked or hit in the face and chest and we recently had to drill into her bed and bolt it back together after if eventually gave up the fight and fell to bits!

During last nights attack, I was able to make out that Lola was upset about not being able to go somewhere. This struck me as a little odd as night terrors occur shortly before you begin dreaming.  This is how a night terror differs from a nightmare.  Nightmares happen during the dream phase, also known as REM sleep.  A child suffering from nightmares will generally wake up distressed as a result of their bad dream and depending on age, they are able to describe the dream whereas with a night terror, there is no dream so there is nothing to recollect.  So why was Lola talking about going somewhere?  Using a slightly louder and firmer voice than is normal for me, I asked her.  It took a few goes, but she eventually told me she wanted to go 'into the light'.

As soon as she said it (ok, screamed it!) all I could think of was when people talk about Near Death Experiences and they describe dead loved ones coming to take them into the light.  I panicked and told her 'No, you can not go into the light, you have to stay here with Mummy'.  She did not like this at all and quickly became more distressed.  As usual, she wanted me to get of, leave her alone and go away.  She hysterically screaming that she wanted to go with 'them' because 'I like it'.  I couldn't get her to say who 'they' were but eventually managed to distract her by asking her to say with Daddy.  She began screaming for Daddy, as she typically does in these situations, and seemed to quickly forget about 'the light'.  By the time Daddy got to her room she had pretty much settled down again into a deep sleep.  We heard the occasional whimper through out the rest of the night, but every time I checked on her she was sound asleep.

I'm sure there'll be a really good forum out there for families who are affected by night terrors, but so far I haven't been able to find it.  With the exception of my best friend, who witnessed one of Lola's attacks during a weekend away, none of our friends or family have experienced anything like this before.  Lola had her 4 year checks a few weeks ago and the health visitor was unable to offer any kind of advice at all so right now, the B and I are feeling completely alone in this.  The only saving grace is that Lola has no idea anything is even happening.  The worst part is that if Google tells us there are no dreams involved in night terrors, then I have no idea how normal (or abnormal!!!!!!) it is for Lola to want to go 'into the light'.  I don't know how worried to be about it!!!   I feel like the worst mother in the world :'-(

Fortunately, tonight's attack was pretty calm in comparison - to the extent that at first I thought she was having an attack of growing pains (oh yes, night time in our house is fuuuuuuuuunnnn!!!!).

Apparently only about 6% of children are affected by night terrors, is your kid one of them??  How do you cope?

Saturday 16 February 2013

Mmmmmore mug cakes for muggins!

Yep, I definitely think I'm on a roll with these mug cakes!!

A recipe caught my eye just after the chocolate chip cookie mug cakes, cake batter ice cream from the delightful Chocolate Covered Katie.  Not only is it cake batter flavour, but its a teeny tiny 40 kcals per serving!!!!!!!!  Well holy cow, I had to have a go of that right?!

Well, only in Leighland could I think something like this would work for me.  As nomlicious as it looks in Katie's photos, I didn't turn out quite the same for me :-(  I've decided it's down to the rather expensive gadget she uses, the vita-mix.  I blended by hand and instead of this:
Image borrowed from www.chocolatecoveredkatie.com

I got this...

 
...kinda sucks in comparison huh?!

But the idea for cake batter flavoured yumminess was stuck in my head so I did the one thing I do best...I scoured pintrest for more recipes!!  

After a few more typical Leighland attempts, I struck gold!!  I found a recipe for funfetti mug cake from Wendy See Wendy Do.  I made 2 small changes with the ingredients et voila...

Ingredients:

2 tbsp plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp almond milk 
3/4 tbsp coconut oil (melted in the micro first)
2 drops vanilla extract
pinch of salt
sprinkle of sprinkles!!


All you need to do to master this delicious, light and fluffy sponge is mix all of your dry ingredients (except the sprinkles!) in your mug, then add the wet ingredients, stir with a fork until its nicely mixed then just as you're about to bung it in the microwave mix in the sprinkles and off you go on high for 70-80 seconds (850w)

I halved all of the quantities from Wendy's recipe and changed the milk out for almond milk and the oil for coconut oil that I melted in the microwave first. Almond milk really helps to enhance the 'cake' flavour and the Alpro almond milk that I is 48 kcals per 200mls and has 2.2g fat where as the full fat milk I used to use has 128 kcals per 200mls and 7.2g fat!!!  And the health benefits from coconut oil deserve a blog post all of their own! 

The only thing the cake is really missing is a bad boy topping so tell me, what would you finish it off with?





Friday 8 February 2013

Mug cakes?? I must have died and gone to heaven!!

What a week!!

So the diet hasn't gone to plan - I've started physio again, am on more new tablets and basically in need of some serious cheering up.

I'd normally just bake a cake, but a big cake between 2 means eating 1/2 a cake in a very short space of time :-(  So I started thinking about how the Hubs has maintained his recent weight loss with portion control. I was of course, browsing Pintrest while I was thinking about it and by some strange twist of fate, I almost immediately came across a 'mug cake' recipe!!  I then searched 'mug cake' and just about fell into desert heaven!!

I scrolled through a few different recipes until I found one from Sophie at My Happy Place.

Ingredients
1/4 cup plain flour
1 tbsp white granulated sugar
1bg tbsp brown sugar
25g melted butter
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tbsp chocolate chips
few drops of vanilla extract.

The original recipe calls for 15g melted butter but I found the mix to be to crumbly so added another 10g to get it right.

Melt the butter in the microwave (20sec should be enough, then swill the mug for a few more seconds until the rest of the butter has melted) then add a few drops of vanilla extract.  Stir in the 2 sugars with a fork and add the egg yolk.  I mixed the chocolate chips with my flour then added them to the mix. (this is where I found the mix to be too dry and added the extra butter).  Nuke in the microwave for 40-120 seconds (the time will vary depending on the power of your microwave, mine is 850 and I needed just under 120 secs)....et voila...Single serving Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Mug!!!  


Amazing!!  The cake was soooooooo yummy, I can't wait to find and try out more 1 portion deserts recipes tomorrow

Moral of the story - while still using full fat/calorie ingredients, a 1 portion mix is exactly that - 1 portion - so that's all you eat as opposed to having a full cake or biscuit batch that can't possibly be thrown away....GENIUS!!!!  

Don't forget to leave any comments below!  Have you found healthy, low fat and tasty deserts?  Leave your recipes below!  What is your favorite 'big cake'??