Breasts as weapons can be dangerous.....

I know what the experts say - breast is best. I agree, it's natural, sort of (they seem to forget to mention how hard it is in the very beginning) and it's cheap. I'm a tight arse from way back so if my body is capable of producing "perfect" milk at no cost then I'm going to go with it.

I have one small problem with breastfeeding and that is that it is too handy. You don't need to pack formula, store boiled water or sterilise bottles; you just have to unclasp your unflattering yet super comfy nursing bra. Because you have milk "on tap" I've found myself in situations where I have used them as weapons. Baby has a clean nappy, has just had a sleep, temperature is fine and has a full tummy of milk but you're out and they're really whingey and your friends are looking at you sympathetically but secretly cursing you and your crying baby so you lay them across your lap (the baby, not your friend) and "pop a nog out" and give your baby a feed because you know that if one thing is going to silence your baby it is mums boob.
Problem is, if this is happening too often it becomes something the baby expects. I had this same problem with my daughter and her dummy.

Second time around I thought I knew what mistakes I made with my daughter and did what I could to avoid it happening again. Problem is, I didn't foresee our 3 night stay at the grandparents house turning into 2 weeks. I have adapted, that's what adults do but my kids are struggling. They love their grandparents to bits but they can't understand why we aren't sleeping in our own beds.
My daughters tamtrums are returning (grrrr....) and my son has taken to waking up regularly during the night. Too regularly. So what do I do when my son wakes up during the night making a fuss? I breastfeed. It silences him and makes him drowsy enough to go back to sleep. It works a charm but my too handy solution has meant that he is now waking up demanding a breastfeed in order to go back to sleep. And here I am, making the same mistake I made with my daughter 2 years ago. Using a tool to help the baby sleep instead of letting them do it by themselves.

Our floors will be finished soon and we will be able to move back home and then mummy is going to have to commit to some tough love to get blue eyed child back to self settling.

I wonder if parents with enough kids to form a soccer team ever correct their mistakes and have the perfect youngest child.....

ErgoCocoon - where have you been my whole mummy life????

I have only recently discovered the ErgoCocoon and I am kicking myself for not looking into this further with my first born.

I had friends tell me about the swaddles they had for their babies where the baby sleeps with his hands up near his head but that they're very secure and stop those newborn startle reflexes.
To be honest, my daughter was such a Houdini that I just couldn't image anything that would stop the little arm that would pop out the top of a wrap - no matter how tight and "perfect" you thought you'd done it.

Well, where were those mothers instincts when I needed them years back? The ErgoCocoon is no doubt in my mind THE BEST investment for your baby.
My son is long. As of Wednesday he is 67cm which means most baby wraps are wide enough to go around him but too short to be folded up and secured around him. We have one big wrap by L'il Fraser Collection which is wide enough, long enough and stretchy enough to do the whole baby swaddle thing but still at some point in the night sweet childs arm will pop out the top and it may not wake him straight away but at some point he will startle and wake himself up. You know what i'm talking about right?

Well. I discovered the website www.wrigglepot.com.au
They have almost anything you can think of for babies AND they offer free postage that shows up in just a couple of days so why would you bother packing a nappy bag, putting the pram in the car, cleaning breakfast off kids faces and juggling your handbag and keys while trying to put the kids in the car when you can go online and order something anytime!
So, I purchased an ErgoCocoon 0.2 TOG Zip Up Baby Swaddle. It's made from pure organic cotton so it's super gentle on babies skin. The zip opens from both ends so changing is easy and it helps if you want to put little one in the car without taking them out of their "cocoon". This model has studs on the arms so when you're ready to let your little ones arms wave freely you can undo the studs and it becomes a sleeping bag.
The other swaddle I purchased was a No Zip Air ErgoCocoon. It's just like the bamboo wraps I have (funny that seen as it's made of bamboo!)  but instead of being a wrap it's shaped like a pantyhose. You just slip the "cocoon" up over the babies body and press the studs at the neck so that no little arms can escape.
Both are summer swaddles but I've seen winter ones for season opposites.  

If it weren't for the fact I've already bought baby gifts for my three friends about to have their babies, I would definitely have bought more of these as gifts. They're worth every cent and I would feel as worshiped as Ellen DeGeneres if I were to pass this wisdom of mine onto a new mother.

2 of my favourite sayings

Adorable 2 year old has been so well behaved lately I'm worried I've finally done something right. And then I  worry that I'm going to get too comfortable and she's going to rip the "I have an adorable 2 year old" rug right out from underneath me. Because things are going so smoothly I don't have anything to get off my chest - I'm sure this will change but enjoy the peace while it lasts right?

4 month old is now the proud owner of 1 pearly white chomper and within the next day or two he will be able to brag that he has 2 pearly whites. He's scooting around in his walker, babbling like he's had one too many drinks and smiling at anyone who shows him attention.

Because things are going so smoothly, I've had some quiet time - I've been able to put my feet up and not get summonsed to make a sandwich, wipe a bottom or create a masterpiece with playdoh.
I've been googling. Very addictive. One thing leads to another and next thing you're reading up on the lives of the teen mom cast and wondering if you should get foxtel so that you can see new episodes...

Anyway. One of my favourite sayings I have come across in a long time happens to be tattooed to the back of one of these teen moms. Go figure.....
"To the world you are one person - to one person you are the world"

My other favourite quote is courtesy of Winnie the Pooh - "Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart"

Just thought I'd share!

2 days of work and a 4 month old at home

Last week I went to work for 2 days. Not just to my office that is 2 minutes from home, but to the other side of the city, where breastfed baby is too far away to be able to duck home to feed.
Daddy was playing primary carer for 2 days and had a freezer full of milk that I had been stashing away for weeks.

So what does one do when returning to work and still breastfeeding?
Apparently arrange with your employer for a private room where you can take regular breaks to express milk then store the fresh dairy in a cooler bag in the fridge, clearly marked so thirsty workmate doesn't help himself to it, and taxied home asap to be stored in the fridge for babies feed the following day.

I was at a training day so my regular break was my lunch break, my private room was the toilet cubicle and the fridge was the sink where the milk I worked so hard at producing was tipped because I didn't have anywhere to store it.

So after 2 days, my boobs were sore, a toilet cubicle became more than just the place where you make pee-pee and I become the working mum that I never thought I could be.
I don't encourage it, for me it was way too soon to be something that I do weekly but it earned me a sticker on my proud chart. I may have been the person making the strange sucking noise in the toilet cubicle next to you but I was doing it with a big proud smile on my face.

Rice cereal please, hold the carrot and apples

The day I introduced solids to my son was the first night in weeks that he had a good nights sleep - that I had a good sleep. 

The blue under my eyes wasn't makeup my daughter had painted on me during play time, they were 100% natural - the result of constant interruptions to my sleep, the sleep I so desperately want to last for a full 8 hours. The sleep that went from being blocks of 3-4 hours to anywhere between 1 to 2 hours. 

Hungry son didn't wake during the night and want to be settled, he wanted food; milk. This I could give him cause I'm a walking milk machine but it was time for him to try something else. Something that would sit in his tummy a little longer. 

Day one hungry son had a whole 2 teaspoons of rice cereal and breastmilk. It went in, came out and eventually went back in again. 

On Day 4 steamed carrot was on the menu. Not so much a fan of this. 

On Day 7 steamed pink lady apple was on offer. It went down better than the carrot but 1 tablespoon was enough to satisfy the hunger.

Today, Day 8 we went back to rice cereal and hungry son polished off his bowl (2-3 tablespoons). 

Each night we've been waking once for a feed anywhere between 2 and 4. Can we do a 5am feed this time or will this blog be the curse of the night wakings........

Solids - I'm confused....

When my daughter was a baby, all the nurses and doctors I spoke to about "solids" were very insistent that this should not be started until 6 months. Just the thought of starting my daughter earlier because I thought she was ready made me feel a stab of guilt for even considering this.
Even my mum (who works with early childhood nurses so was always sitting on their side of the fence anyway) gave a raised eyebrow when I mentioned that I might start my daughter on solids at 5 months. I thought she was ready and I had read alot about mothers intuition and knowing when the right time would be but guilt got the better of me. Obviously these people weren't just saying this to annoy me, they were saying it because there was written evidence that babies should be exclusively breastfed/bottlefed for the first 6 months of their life.

I had read a few books (including my dismissed bible - Save our Sleep) that were all pro-early solids. The consensus seemed to be around 4.5 months.

Fast forward 2 and a bit years and alot of those nurses and doctors are telling me solids is ok to start at 4 months. Apparently now there is new written evidence that introducing babies to solids earlier doesn't really harm them and can actually prove quite beneficial for them! So as I did 2 years ago, I googled it - and now I'm confused again because some baby websites are telling me to wait till 6 months, others say 17 weeks. The World Health Organisation tells me to wait till 6 months. Farex, Heinz, Macro Organic, Nestle Cerelac and Raffertys on the other hand market their foods suitable for 4+ months.

The one thing everyone is consistent with is that your baby should:
- show an interest in food
- have an increased appetite
- open their mouth when offered a spoon
- have good head and neck control

4 month old ticked all these boxes weeks ago (around about the time when he started waking every 1-2 hours during the night!) but while I may seem impatient to start my baby on solids and enter a new chapter of his young life - I want whats best for him and understand the importance of waiting until at the very least, his tummy can handle something other than breastmilk.

So this week we will take the leap and introduce growing child to Rice Cereal (or recycled cardboard. I''m sure it's the same thing just branded differently).
The pressure is on to not screw this up and ensure that giggly tot is slowly introduced to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in an attempt to to instill a healthy interest in whole foods.
Easy......

Sponge brain - please remember that before you swear in front of my daughter

I swear. Not alot, but sometimes it will slip out. Other times it adds a degree of passion and funniness to my story. I don't see anything wrong with it. Well I didn't. But now my daughter occasionally blurts out "sh!t" if she drops something and while my first reaction is to grin (then work very hard to hide it) my main reaction is to be mortified that I may have said this word far too many times and now my daughter sees it as an acceptable word to throw out there whenever she feels necessary.

The straw that broke the camels back was when my daughter used the word, far too rightly in a sentence the other day.
Upon dropping something that broke in the fall, she announces to her dad and I "Is that sh!t or what".
I grinned - how could my daughter be so clever as to use this word in a sentence that was more suited to an 18 year old mouth and not that of a 2 year old. My husband gasped and stared in astonishment at me.
Before my daughter could catch my grin and my husbands look of amusement, we stupidly asked "what did you just say?" to which foul mouthed 2 year old replies "I said sh!t" in her proud yet very innocent voice.

Daddy took the reigns on this one and stared very seriously into 2 year old's eyes and said calmly and sternly "that word is very rude. If you have heard someone say it, they were being rude and you are not to use that word again" to which 2 year old with too much courage replied "you're a sh!t dad"!

She's still on the naughty step accepting regular refreshments......