Monday 29 June 2015

Preparing for Jelly Bean's arrival - Caboodle Bags.

Caboodle Bags - Fun & Funky Baby Changing Bag first impressions.

As Jelly Bean’s due date creeps ever closer…..eeek only a matter of a few weeks to go……I have been busy getting everything ready for Jelly Bean’s arrival. I’ve been busy washing baby clothes, freshening up cloth nappies and making my own homemade wrap for babywearing to mention a few of my pre-baby preparations.

As well as the above, plus a whole lot more, I have also been on the hunt for a changing bag that both Lee and I can happily use and which suits our needs of being able to hold baby essentials and cloth nappies as well occasionally carrying a few things for our busy pre-schooler Bug on family days out.

Thanks to Caboodle Bags I think we may have found the perfect changing bag for us.

Caboodle Bags’ new range for 2015 is the Fun & Funky Baby Changing Bag.

We were kindly sent the Fun & Funky Baby Changing Bag in the Mink Stars design ready for when Jelly Bean decides to make their grand entrance into the world.


Whilst we have yet to be able to properly test drive the changing bag with our new baby I wanted to share our first impressions of the bag as we await the arrival of Jelly Bean.

Design/Style
I love the star design of the bag as does Lee. The mink background and white stars colour scheme is a unique colour combination that is very stylish. Lee especially loves the contrasting orange zip with yellow Caboodle pull tab.


Whilst the colour appeals to both Lee and I, secretly I am in love with the Grey Stars design especially as I am going through a fascination with grey and stars at the moment……perhaps it is a pregnancy craving not food related!

Size
At 42xm wide, 33.5cm high and 16.5cm deep the Fun & Funky Baby Changing Bag is a lot larger than most changing bags, in fact it is the largest changing bag we have ever had. As the bag is a large size I think it will be perfect for us, being big enough for all our baby essentials including cloth nappies which can hog space a little in comparison to disposable nappies. Thankfully the larger size of the bag will mean that we won’t have to compromise on what we take with us as it should fit everything we need and want……only time and testing will tell for sure but the bag is so super roomy I think it will adequately hold a lot! Plus as the bag is so roomy it will also happily hold bits and bobs for Bug too when we go on family days out saving us from having to lug around another bag.

Key features
The Caboodle Fun & Funky Baby Changing Bag has many features that appeal to us that I think will help make parenting a little easier.

Material
Thanks to being made of oil cloth with easy wipe clean coating we can easily keep the bag clean from any spills or messes that inevitably happen when you have a baby or young child. The material also looks very durable and that along with the fact that the bag is very well made means that it should hopefully last us a long time and withstand daily family use.

Storage
Not only is the bag large in size with plenty of room for all essentials it also features a number of compartments so that you can store things separately making it easier to grab what you need without  having to rifle through the entire bag. The bag has an impressive 5 internal pockets including a mum’s zipped pocket with phone pouch plus another 2 external pockets!


Having separate storage pockets is a big plus to me and I hope they come in handy to keep everything organised within the bag once we are using the changing bag when Jelly Bean is here.

Extras
The bag also features useful and practical extras including adjustable shoulder strap, changing mat, insulated bottle bag and grubby stuff bag. Whilst the insulated bottle bag may not come in handy for us for Jelly Bean as I plan to exclusively breastfeed I think it is a great addition and very useful. The extras I personally appreciate the most are the changing mat (great for helping you change on the go) and the grubby stuff bag (super useful for keeping items that have been spoilt from getting everything else in the bag dirty).


Overall
I love the look of this bag and how roomy it is, I especially love the fact that it has a lot of compartments. Whilst we have yet to put it to the test on a daily basis I think it is the right bag for us to hold all the essentials we need for Jelly Bean, being especially ideal for cloth nappies. The only thing I am a tad cautious about is that as the bag is so big will it be very heavy to carry around when filled to its capacity, however only time and use will tell and I will just have to be mindful not to over pack with non-essential essentials (and not pack everything plus the kitchen sink) even if I have the room to do so.

I hope that when we begin using the bag for real with Jelly Bean that it lives up to my expectations of being a changing bag that is high quality, durable, versatile and ideal for holding all baby essentials including cloth nappies.

Whilst Jelly Bean has yet to arrive and will hopefully stay put for these last few weeks, as the bag is such a great size it is also perfect for my hospital bag so I will be putting it to the test when packing my hospital bag ready for when labour kicks off.



* Keep an eye out for how I got on with the Caboodle Fun & Funky Baby Changing Bag as a hospital bad and then how we like the changing bag when Jelly Bean is here *

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