Those First Three Months and The Everyday Essentials
The first three months with a baby are hard. The fourth trimester is all about sleep deprivation, establishing feeding (whichever way you wish) and routines, and healing from birth; whether it’s baby number one or baby number five.
It’s also about getting used to having someone highly unpredictable around, who is entirely dependent on you 24/7.
Alas, juggling twenty tasks constantly throughout the day on minimal sleep and an encroaching caffeine addiction may seem like the only viable option that springs to mind!
I always find it fascinating looking back on those first three months with both children.
The Bepanthen mummies have come together to share their personal experiences with breastfeeding for their first few months of their babies' lives.
Michelle slept through the night for the first time at around 10 days old. She didn’t sleep through every night, but generally she let us have a few decent snooze catch ups! She was a ‘sicky’ baby (which I now think was possibly active reflux), but she was happy. She gained weight well. And she was independent – even as a baby!
Mark didn’t sleep through the night until we introduced a dummy at 10 months! The biggest chunk of sleep I had in that period of time was 3 hours, so (as you can imagine) by 10 months, I was ready to try anything. He suffered from silent reflux and was diagnosed with a cow’s milk allergy and soya allergy. He didn’t gain weight well. And he was everything but independent!
With Rachel, (sadly!) I had read every book under the sun about ‘clingy’ babies, so I was eager for her to be passed around lots for cuddles. With Shaun, I was desperate to establish breastfeeding, so I therefore enforced a sort of ‘babymoon’, where we holed up for a couple of weeks at home without any real routine and I fed on demand while we got to know each other, without too many interruptions.
One thing that I found worked with both children was creating a grab pouch for leaving the house – in fact, I found it so useful that I still use it now; just with less things in! It’s such a handy size to fit in whichever bag I choose and I always have it ready to go – full of nappies, a travel changing mat, nappy bags and nappy ointment.
We used baby nappy ointment at every nappy change as it protects against the causes of nappy rash. Nappy rash ointment can help in reducing this difficult experience for both mum and baby, so it’s important to protect against nappy rash occurring, rather than just treating when it arises.
Being equipped with all these essentials are guaranteed to make your simpler, as you are always ready to go if you need to leave the house quickly.
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