Bringing Up Baby

My little boy was 6 months old when we finally got a call to say that we had a space at a special pool that specialises in baby swimming and sensory. I was so excited to embark on this new adventure with my baby! After I had bought him his swimming nappies and the special requirement over nappy I dug out my old swimsuit! I realised with horror that my swimming costume didn’t fit my post baby body! I did what all mums do! I made do, feeling a little uncomfortable and embarrassed I quickly scooted into the pool in the hope all eyes would be on the giggling splashing babies! I promised myself I would lose the baby weight and it would be fine but that is not a quick solution and frankly being a mum has done nothing for my waistline.  So when I was offered the opportunity to review a product from   UK Swimwear  it was like my prayers had been answered! As I browsed the extensive designer swimwear collection I was spoilt for choice!  But the costume I chose came in ...

It is 2am and the baby is awake, that is not unusual for babies!  But this is the start of my little boy waking himself up every hour until morning.  He is 6 1/2 months old now and he has never slept through, he has never really slept more than 4 hours and that is just how it is.  When I bought him home, my perfect little bundle of joy, I quickly became concerned there was something wrong with him. He never was still!  His arms waved up and down continuously and it looked so bizarre I was worried he was having some kind of seizure or that they were involuntary movements. I saw a health visitor and she agreed he was very active, we had a Neonatal behavioural assessment to help me read his cues as he just wouldn't sleep.  I felt like it was my fault bit I was reassured all was well.  The assessment was really useful we looked at his cues and how to read his behavioural states.  The newborn  has 6 behavioural states and understanding and noticing th...

I have bipolar, I have suffered with it since I was a teenager.  Like many I wasn't diagnosed until I was in my twenties.  By the time I was diagnosed my life had effectively stopped.  I couldn't leave the house, I was frightened of everyone and everything.  It started out with a bit of paranoia, that the person across the street was looking at me, that everyone was judging me, that people were talking about me.  It grew and grew into something that was out of control.  I started to think people were bugging my house; listening to me, recording my conversations, that there were people following me, watching my every move, they wanted to hurt me.  Looking at it now with the knowledge about mental health that I know have I can see that my anxiety was causing my mind to have these glitches, moments of irrational fear,  But at the time it was so overpowering and I was so alone that it just kept growing until I could hear and see things other people co...

As I sit here writing this blog, I have my baby monitor next to me.  On the screen is a little baby boy on the edge of sleep.  He is what you would call drowsy but awake.  Yes! Drowsy but awake - the state those sleep gurus tell you is important in teaching your little one to self soothe and sleep on their own.  And the fact that I am sat downstairs watching him drift off is one of my greatest achievements as a mum to date.  In fact today has gifted me with this great achievement twice as I also had a drowsy but awake baby in the pram this morning.  By the time I had got half way around the block with the dog, my drowsy baby had fallen to sleep. Hurrah! But as I sit here sharing my moment of glory there is actually a growing unease in me; because although this is an achievement it is tainted by one small fact.  You see, I have a confession to make:  I can only get my baby to sleep in a swaddle.  He is 5 months old on Saturday and yet he w...

Shopping with a baby is not as easy as it used to be before your little one arrived. In fact it can be an expedition! As a new mum I found that some shops are just not that pram friendly!  You will probably only find this out as you catch your wheels on a rack or shelving display as your sleek new pram starts to feel like a hummer trying to drive down the backstreet alleys!  A similar fate may also await you if you fail to choose a pram friendly cafe.  Numerous times I have found a quiet discreet table in a cafe where I can have a relaxed feed for Charlie while I sip a coffee; only to have failed to consider whether I could get out again if more customers arrived.  So the relaxed half hour is instantly cancelled out as I have to start shuffling chairs, tables and fellow customers to get me, baby and pram out. I also have found in some department stores finding the lift is not always easy. Me and Charlie have walked around and around following signs that seem ...

Motherhood has led to a variety of life changes but there are several things I now do that I never thought I would: 1) Sniffing baby's bum to determine if the nappy is dirty. Yes it's rank but totally effective and a trip to a baby group will show you this is a universal mummy skill! 2) I can remix a nursery rhyme like a boss! Not knowing the words to all time favourites has led to some rather bizzare versions! I just hope Charlie doesn't remember them! 3) Move like a ninja! I can move around a sleeping baby with skills that even Jackie Chan would envy! 4) One handed everything: make up, eating, dressing (zips are especially challenging!), cleaning, feeding dog and husband! You name it I can probably do it! 5) Peeing with a baby on my knee... sometimes nature calls at inconvenient times at and needs must! 6) Spend my time chasing the dog who has knicked Sophie the Giraffe again! 7) I can make animal noises for any animal you throw at me.... puffins f...

Maybe I am just being overly sensitive but I really took a flippant remark to heart this weekend.  I feel I need to address it even if it is just to try and keep my vulnerable new mum confidence in tact. As a first time mum I worry about everything and I work tirelessly like all mummy's to make sure I am doing the best for my baby so when I was told by a family member that 'I didn't know how lucky I was' that Charlie was such a 'good baby and I am lucky he sleeps so well' it took me by surprise. The comment itself seems so harmless but has actually affected me and left me feeling a little angry. In some respects I agree, there is an element of luck in having a Baby. I am lucky I was blessed to get pregnant and to have Charlie. I also agree Charlie is wonderful (I am biased of course); he is a very sociable, happy little boy most of the time! But to describe me as lucky because he is good has left me feeling like the achievements I have accomplished with Ch...

This blog is not an easy one to write because it bears a part of my personality that sometimes others can't accept or understand.  I have bipolar disorde r and have had that diagnosis for several years and although I am good with that when I made the decision to have a baby it caused me such inner turmoil.  On the one hand I felt my husband and I had so much love to give a child and that we were ready to start a family and my natural mother instinct was making me broodier by the day!  On the other hand I was crippled with fear; what if I couldn't cope with a baby? What if I got ill and they take my baby away from me? What if my child grew up resenting me for the illness that sometimes darkened my world? What if my child had bipolar too? Could I forgive myself if they felt the depths of depression like me? The truth was nobody could answer these questions and so I had to do some soul searching and I decided rightly or wrongly that to live a life of what if's was ...

My birth experience was not what I had wanted it to be. As a first time mum I had hoped for the natural birth I had imagined while writing a birth plan. Alas it was not to be!  I was under a consultant for the entire pregnancy and through regular monitoring it had been picked up that I had low amniotic fluid. In the end it dropped again and it was decided I should be induced at 37 weeks. I was terrified - I had two sweeps the week before and I walked miles and miles in the hope to get things going naturally but my little one was not done cooking and so made no moves at all! The induction started early on a drizzly Monday morning in January. And within 2 hours I started having contractions which quickly settled into a steady pattern of every 2 minutes.  I went on like that from 11am through the day until early evening and I wasn't sure what was happening if baby was on his way or not! All I knew was it hurt like hell and was getting stronger and stronger. I barely saw the ...

I have always been shy and easily embarrassed. I was one of those teenagers that liked to keep things covered up not on display so breastfeeding in public was not just something that worried me it was a real fear.  For me breastfeeding had got off to a bad start anyway as my little one had a tongue tie , meaning he couldn't latch and feed without the use of nipple shields. Well my friends if you have tried nipple shields the slippery little blighters are enough of a challenge in your own home let alone in a public place!  So my first public breastfeeding was a planned affair - I had a walk round my local town with the pram and then headed to a relatively quiet cafe to feed.  I decided not to try and fit the shield in public and pottered off to the toilets to fit them.  As I left the toilets looking like Madonna with my two pointy nipples I felt the embarrassment blush creeping up my neck. I was looking to see who was looking and to my horror they were all lookin...

I see the gorgeous Beyonce bump pictures and see so many people tweeting they can't wait to see her post pregnancy body. It makes me look a little gingerly at my own slightly wobbly tummy and wonder if I will ever have the body I used to again. What I am almost certain of is that Beyonce will look Fab! Not only because she is stunning but she can afford to hire nutritionists and personal trainers to help her get back on track and a photographer who knows how to flatter The figure. The annoying thing about this fascination of celebrity post pregnancy bodies is that it opens the door to body shaming at a time when a woman really shouldn't be worried about her weight. Especially if you are breastfeeding as dieting can affect your milk and as a breastfeeding mum one of my measures of success is my little ones growth and weight gain. But from the celebrity magazines it also trickles down to give us all impossible targets as we look to our idols and try to emulate them.  This i...

As a new mum amongst all the cooing and admiration you will be asked 'Is he/she a good Baby?'. In order to help you determine, if indeed your baby is good, I have put together a list that may help! Was your baby less than 2ft tall (approx 70cm) at birth? If yes then you very likely have a good baby. Babies are generally small humans and so this is a good indicator. Incidently the longest baby recorded in the Guinness world records was 71cm and born in America. Can your newborn baby speak in full sentences? No - then you have a good Baby! Who wants a newborn shouting 'Mummy give me your boob immediately!' in the middle of a crowded supermarket. Most good babies do this in a code form which consists of crying noises - in time mummy will know what baby is asking for while the wider public will not! Does your baby produce plenty of wet and dirty nappies? Yes - then your baby is nailing this newborn malarkey! And if the occasional nappy explosion occurs all up th...

We were eagerly anticipating the arrival of our bundle of joy and were looking for our little ones moses basket when we stumbled across a new concept in mamas and papas ; the side sleeping cots which allowed co-sleeping with safety.  There were two options available in-store the Snuz Pod and the Chicco Next 2 Me .  Both offer the benefits of the baby sleeping close to mum with a drop down side and larger bassinets than the moses baskets. Initially I liked the more stylish shape of the Snuz Pod with the wooden frame, and its ability to rock certainly would have come in handy. However, one of its selling points was the ability to remove the bassinet and use it round the house - something that I didn't intend to do as I had already purchased a pram with a bassinet that could be used downstairs. The Chicco had the advantage of being easily collapsable so it could be used as a travel cot too. The Chicco Next 2 me had straps to secure the base to the bed and to me ...