The newborn phase

Well we did it, This little Pickle is 3 months old and we’re out of the “Forth Trimester”. I learnt a lot in these past 3 months, more than i’ve ever learnt in 3 months time before. It was a crazy, tiring, amazing, life changing time. I’m so glad we found a Newborn photographer to capture this special period. I didn’t really know what to expect with a baby, but that didn’t scare me. I knew that when I had my own I would just feel right and what I didn’t know I would quickly learn. Nonetheless, I’m so grateful I stumbled across this blog post about 4 month sleep regression last night! Any expectant mother would benefit from being aware of this phase in their baby’s development because a failure to combat it can result in a lot of sleepless nights. My best advice is to research it well in advance so that you are ready and prepared! Without further ado, here are a few of the things I found helpful…

-You do not need as much as you think you do. It’s really fun and exciting to get everything set up when your waiting for that little one to arrive, and I love having all the stuff we will eventually need. But in these first three months the essentials were

• blankets
• diapers (obviously)
• sleepers
• washcloths
• bassinet
• soother
• swing
• noise machine
• Wrap

These things will really help you in the few first months of motherhood and I know that I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. One of the best essentials I had was the best baby swing. It rocked the baby so gently that she dozed off instantly or she was able to be entertained whilst I just nipped to the loo, so in my eyes, that’s a must.

-Feed as much as you can during the day, If she showed interest I fed her. This ended being about every 2 hours (from the start of a feed). If she didn’t wake up for it (in the first few weeks when they just sleep constantly) I would wake her up to feed, even if I had to put cold hands on her repeatedly for 40 minutes trying to keep her alert enough to eat. In the last three hours before bed I feed her every hour, This helps keep Poppy full until morning.

-The book Happiest Baby on the Block lists 5 S’s: Swaddle, Swaying, Side, Sucking, Shushing. These truly help to sooth a baby. I still do this everytime I put her down for a nap. Swaddle her tight, put in her soother, hold her on her side, sway, and turn on the noise machine. It helps her go down quick and easy.

-Establishing a schedule makes life happy. Eat, Wake, Sleep is the Baby Wise way, and It works for us so well. We do that in a 2 hour cycle from morning to night. She Eats, stays awake for an hour, then sleeps for an hour, repeat. As soon as she was old enough to stay awake long enough I started doing this and that is when she started sleep though the night.

-Don’t be afraid to ask for help. You’ve probably just gone through the most physically and emotionally exhausting time in your life and now you going to come home and work harder than you ever have trying to figure out this new human while you can barely seperate you legs far enough to take a full step. When someone offers to come and hold them while you sleep, or bring you a meal, take it! If they don’t offer the ask.

-For those nights when I was walking around the house in the middle of the night crying just as hard as my newborn, Gripe Water (all natural, alcohol free) usually worked.

A few favourite products so far:

–Woombie – I found swaddling to be a bit of a pain in the butt. I couldn’t get the swaddles to stay tight enough without using two blankets, and then she was always getting to warm. So when a friend gave me this, It changed my life! With a newborn when your changing diapers a lot in the night you can just unzip the bottom half without having to unswaddle and wake them up everytime.

–Sleep Sheep – Or any white noise machine really.

–NoseFrida – for that tiny little stuffy nose.

–Solly Wrap – For the first 6 weeks Poppy spent the majority of her time on my chest. This brand is super light weight and breathable, Poppy would overheat really easily in a heavier one I had at first. Solly also has super cute colours.

–Nature Charm Sleepers – The cutest and softest simple organic sleepers.

–Nipple Balm – They’re gonna hurt. It gets better.

–The Baby Book – So much knowwwleddgeee.

–Ready, Set, Baby! App – super helpful, especially when your jut twiddling your thumbs waiting for that baby to come out.