6 weeks on...

We seem to have made it through 6 weeks with Penny and she’s still in one piece. Am not going to lie, it’s been seriously hard. The baby-moon period of sleep/feed/sleep/feed was over after the first 2 weeks and we were then presented with a baby who was much more fussy, likes to wake up when our dinner is ready, has an insane pair of lungs on her and was no exception to the ‘witching hours’ of 5-10pm. However, Penny doesn’t cry at night when she wakes up (and she wakes up a lot), she isn’t fussy with what she drinks be it cold, warm, formula or breast milk. She is, however, still not great with breastfeeding and loves to feed with the bottle so she can guzzle as fast as humanly possible. Obviously gets this from both Mike and me. We do still practice breastfeeding but it hasn’t come particularly easy to either of us. Penny’s pretty weighty and has put on more than the average 1 month baby and as such, resembles a neckless turtle much of the time. She is yet to smile, although often we think she is but then it turns out ot be a poo or just wind. She now is able to last 7 whole beautiful minutes on the baby bouncer before erupting into screams and no matter how many toys and various other ‘educational’ rattles we dangle in front of her face, she has an obsession with ‘Nighthawks’ painting by Edward Hopper on the wall and often won’t look at anything else. The other night, Penny treated us to a sleep stretch of 4 whole hours. It was beautiful. We thought ‘she’s changed’! The next night she reverted back to waking every 90 minutes- 2 hours. Shame. Still, at least we know she can do it if she wants!

Bouncing away!

One of the few quiet moments...

The thing we have definitely found since having her is how much money we are willing to burn just to have a few more minutes of quiet time. Anything to make life just that little bit easier. As such, I thought I would ask some of my wonderful Mumma friends, most who have recently just had babies as well and make for great conversations at the 3am feeding on WhatsApp, some who have babies who are now a few months old, a few who have toddlers raging around, and some who are on their second baby and have therefore done it all before, what their top 3 most favourite buys were for either Baby or themselves just to make life a little easier. Hope it helps!!

Meeting the grand parents

Meeting the grand parents

Meeting the grand parents

For Mum:

• Nippe cream- Mama- Mio (organic) and Lanisoh
• Big comfortable pants that you don’t mind throwing away after a few wears!
• Nice toiletries- that first shower that you get to have after giving birth is the best and it’s awesome having your favourite luxury shower items
• Hospital grade breast pump
• Electric steriliser- SUCH a time saver
• Perfect Prep Machine- A gem for formula use; takes 2 minutes and is the correct temperature
• Book: Your Baby: Week by Week- the closest thing to an instruction manual!
• Night-light- the specific one recommended by two people is portable, dims, can change colour and there is a little flashing blue light on it so you can find it easily in the middle of the night
• Black out blinds- to help Baby decipher between day and night
• Breastfeeding “basket” - specifically one that is an easy to carry basket with a flat bottom that can sit on the sofa/in bed and not tip over and that you can fill with all the essentials (phone, portable charger, remote controls, book, kindle, healthy snacks, sports cap water bottle, etc.)
• If you’re pumping regularly, a hands-free bra… OR a bra with holes cut out!
• A water bottle with a straw/ travel coffee mug for keeping drinks warm. I’d also add a thermos here- we don’t leave the house without one just in case there’s a food emergency!
• Loose clothes for breastfeeding comfortably
• Grocery deliveries with pre-cut veggies and meat
• This awesome, very simple to use ‘bum-gun’- Happypo Po-dusche! So much nicer than using toilet paper when you first come out of hospital!
• Dermaplast or Earth Mama called Herbal Perineal “Take Care Down There” Spray, also great for the time when everything’s still healing.

My little family

Exploring Vienna's vineyards

For Baby:

• Gro-snug rather than Gro-bag- basically gro-bag but swaddles without the complication. Can have arms in or out- game changer for us.
• Avantek white noise machine/Ewan the Sheep that also has a red light on it and attaches to the cot.
• Angel Care monitor with apnoea mat (2)
  
• Bouncy chair so you can actually get shit done- two people recommended the Baby Bjorn bouncer.
• Sleepyhead/Purflo- I honestly don’t know what Penny would sleep in if it wasn’t for this! We have it on the sofa, in bed, in her cot, etc.
• Skip hop travel nappy change mat- You can get around the shops without lugging large change bag.
• Giant muslins- we swaddle with them in the summer heat, tie two ends in a knot and make a breastfeeding cover, spit up rag, comfort blanket… they’re amazing!
• Angelcare bath support- great for 2 babies
• Inotyol nappy cream
• Ergo baby carrier
• Floor blankets- easily washable ones that you can take and place anywhere for Baby to play on/be changed on/sleep on, etc.
• Swaddler- If the faff of swaddling with a blanket is too time consuming, the SwaddleMe has been a game-changer for us. Takes 2 seconds and Penny is wrapped up keeping those pesky arms and their relexes down!
• Hairdryer for white noise
• Co-sleeper- easy to scoop them out to feed at night without ever having to leave the bed.
• Boppy Pillow
• Pampers baby dry nappies- no leakage here
• Windi (fridababy gas relief)- for gassy babies, this was a lifesaver!
• Disposable changing mats- ok, so not great for the environment but you don’t have to throw them out every time and they’re great for when Penny hasn’t quite finished the business yet!
• Burts Bees Baby bath soak- really relaxing smell and calms Penny right down
• Snot sucker- Penny got a cold within the first month and this was amazing. It’s not as gross as it sounds and worked a treat at night when she was finding it hard to breathe.