Thinking back to the first few days and weeks after having your baby, how did you feel. Ecstatic, overjoyed, overflowing with happiness like a true earth mother? Although no doubt we all had moments like this when we could count our little bundle’s eyelashes and feel at peace, the time after welcoming a new baby into your life can often be very different to how we expected. Many of us can feel very low, depressed and anxious. In turn this can lead to feelings of guilt that we’re not having the right reaction to motherhood, which only exacerbates the problem. Having a baby can create so many dramatic changes to our lifestyle and our relationships that it’s no wonder it’s...
What is parental burnout?Parental burnout is what happens when you’re working too hard for too long at being a good parent and it all becomes too much. It is a lack of balance between demands and rewards of parenting. Parental burnout has three features; 1) Physical and emotional exhaustion, 2) Feeling emotional distance from your children due to the exhaustion and therefore only interacting on a functional level and 3) Feeling that you are not doing a good job of being a parent. These are all things that can happen to us all for short periods but the problem is when it becomes a long term issue. Why does parental burnout happen?You might expect that income, number of children and...
Mere days or even hours after hearing those initial cries of your firstborn and it inevitably begins. Someone’s baby is “easiest”, sleepiest, biggest, the best feeder. There’s nothing like hearing other new mums around you discuss their 6 week old sleeping through the night to make you feel like a failure. One mother feels she is accused of making a rod for her own back by co-sleeping while eyebrows are raised as another is viewed as heartless for pursuing a strict routine. The competitive parenting can begin from day one and is such a shock for new parents who until this moment have gone about their daily lives without constant judgment and evaluation. Social evaluation in this highly personal but...
When I was pregnant with my first child I had so many ideas of what life as a mother would be like. 3 children later it’s not quite as I imagined…… Expectations for sleep My baby would sleep and if not I’d read a book and do some effective sleep training and they’d sleep through early. Reality Nope. I’ve not even read a single parenting book. Surely the answer is on Mumsnet? Nope. Turns out there is no answer. Only survival. Some of mine slept, one didn’t, and I treated them all the same. Expectations for feeding They’d all be breastfed but happily take bottles too so I’d be able to get my freedom back pretty fast. Reality I've...
With the recent news about teething gels being withdrawn from supermarket shelves and the potential for ill effects we thought it would be useful to give you all a few of our favourite natural, chemical fee suggestions to help your baby through teething. Keep sticks of cucumber in the fridge for your baby to chomp on. They're cool to chew on and as they consist mostly of water they're generally-considered ok before weaning. If your baby is weaning they may love harder foods such as pineapple, apples, carrots, crusts of bread. Try massaging your baby’s gum with your finger (watch our if they already have teeth though and of course wah your hands before and after). If your partially-weaned baby...
