Here are five things I wish I had known about before becoming a mum. They are things that have become an important part of my parenting journey, I freakin love the lot of them!
They are just tools and may not be for your belt, but if you are intrigued…you are right?? Just google it!
1.Co-sleeping
I actually knew about co-sleeping thanks to my beautiful sister in law, but I had decided that it wasn’t for me. Four years later our son sleeps in the king bed with Hubby and our daughter is in the queen bed with me.
Time saver, life saver, way to transport baby. There are lots of different options; slings, wraps, soft structure carriers (my favourite). Oh and I also wish I knew that Baby Bjorns though popular really aren’t very comfy or very ergonomically correct for baby (try ergo 360 for a better forward facing option).
3. Baby Led Feeding (also known as baby led weaning)
Different approach to introducing solids, love it. Would also like to add a favourite mantra to this “It is my responsibility to prepare a range of healthy options for meals, it is my child’s responsibility to decide which to eat and how much to eat.”
I wish I had found informed support around breastfeeding from day one. Breastfeeding isn’t always easy, but with the right information and support the great majority of women can breastfeed successfully for as long as they choose.
yeah it is pretty darn beautiful snoozing with Boston
We have a family counsellor/healer that we have been seeing for the better part of ten years. Karen is a BodyTalk practitioner, what the booggily is a BodyTalk practitioner??? Well if you want the official definition try HERE I still can not entirely understand or explain the process to you, but I can say that for us it has been such an amazing tool. To greatly simplify, the treatment takes cues from muscle memory in the body, highlighting stored beliefs and areas of concern, then uses techniques to balance energies. To be honest Karen is so lovely that we would enjoy seeing her for any occasion, the subtle yet huge improvements to our wellbeing is just a bonus.
Boston is 20 months old and waking between 2 and 5 times a night. We have good weeks and bad weeks, which I have mainly accepted as typical toddler behaviour (except on those mornings where my eyes are hanging out of my head, then I would swear it was the problem of a demon from the dark depths of the planet ZAARRR). Every few weeks there seems to be a new secret to helping him sleep, but just when we get the knack the process starts again.
Yesterday Boston had a treatment with Karen, we were not focusing on anything in particular but just seeing what surfaced. This would be his third treatment, the first two were shortly after his cranio vault reconstruction surgery. When it came up that “Boston does not like sleep” I was actually a little surprised. Yes he can be sensitive, but on a whole he still has a two hour nap each day and sleeps from 7 till 7. Once a problem is identified the practitioner will go deeper, trying to find beliefs and causes. Boston’s belief around the emotion was a fear of falling into sleep, of letting go, so ingrained that he becomes distressed in between sleep cycles when he realises he has let himself fall. Why this belief? His body showed us the times he was put under anaesthetic.
The penny dropped and then a million more came crashing down. Boston has been put under anaesthetic four times! Twice for scans and twice for surgery. The first time he was only 3 months old. Unlike a lot of people who wake groggy and disorientated Boston always comes out hysterical and screaming. The sensation of the drug alone is scary enough, then add the times after surgery when he woke in pain, with swollen eyes and tubes running in and out of his body…my heart aches when I see the clear picture. Then I thought back to all those different soothing techniques we needed to help him sleep, the way he seems to fight it with arms flying, biting his comforter, smooshing into pillows, rolling over and over then jolting awake just before he manages to nod off. The countless times he wakes shaking and crying in the night (it started after surgery and still happens a few times a week). We tried sleep training at one point with a bit of improvement but after a couple of days I stopped, it didn’t feel right and the more research I did (partially covered in our friends blog HERE) the more I knew it was not for us. Now I feel so relieved that we decided to co-sleep and use gentle soothing techniques.
To some I know this will all sound far fetch, but I wanted to share because it is important to us and so will be important to some one else out there. Karen worked with Boston energetically to balance his body and we are changing bed time rituals around, attempting to bring a new more peaceful meaning of sleep to Boston’s thoughts. Wish us luck xo
Before I start waffling on I need to be clear about the intention of this list. I truly hope that there a gems within that create a spark of interest or inspiration for the parents (or contemplative parents) who are fabulous enough to be reading my blog 😉 I want you to take in the information that connects to your heart. This is a personal list. As in this is five things I wish I knew before becoming a parent and not five things everyone should embrace when they become parents…which leads me to Number 1.
The days when my body just naturally looked after our son, conscience brain needed
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1. Take a page from everyones book, then create your own – Parenting is a really personal journey. There is a lot of advice out there and a lot of opinions. I remember scrolling through online parenting forums when I felt like the clueless mother of a new born. They are mine zones!! They have a billion harsh words, opinions and attacks. I actually felt my anxiety rise every time I dared to look for information, it was so confusing and so debilitating.
Everyone has their unique set of parenting tools, it is so important to feel confident going with your gut instinct. A mantra I have taken on is ” I strive to be the best parent I can be”. For me this means being open to new ideas and taking time to investigate different approaches (it doesn’t mean I don’t swear into my pillow in the middle of the night when Boston just wants to party). There are tools I have tried along the way that were thrown by the wayside, ones that I feel guilty for considering, then others that are total gems that made me sing to the heavens. Not everyone will agree with the set of tools I use, but I now know I need to do what feels right in my heart.
2. Sleep problems may well be a perception problem – Of late I have been pondering a thought. If everyone I know has babies with sleep “problems” (night waking, unexplained change in patterns, inconsistent napping) then they are not actually problems, in fact it must be normal!! If I could have embraced this idea earlier a lot of analysis time could have been saved. In general babies are not brilliant or consistent sleepers. It is no wonder with all the huge milestones they are achieving, attachments being made and general coming to earth duties. As a sleep deprived parent this is a hard fact to accept (I am still struggling) but in my experience it does get better. I wish I had accepted that Boston just needed me, for no reason then he just did, it would have saved stress and allowed me to embrace new sleeping patterns myself…like napping with him, which I now do almost daily 🙂
Snuggled in our giant king plus cot co-sleep bed
3. Sleeping with babes – Before I became a parent I could not really see why a baby having their own bed would be a challenge. To be honest Boston was such a peaceful and consistent sleeper for the first six months that co-sleeping didn’t cross my mind. Then he had major surgery and began waking…every hour…screaming. That is when co-sleeping was added to our tool belt. I initially worried that I would be creating a bad habit “oh gosh he will never sleep alone”. My perception has changed and now I can not even see the problem, our baby wants to be close to us… that is actually awesome.
A general night for us is Boston sleeping in his bed happily till about 2am when he wakes for a feed and then snuggles with us. Then we co-sleep our daytime nap. If he is sick or teething or generally unsettled he is with us the whole night. For those who want to give it a crack there are helpful resources to achieving a safe co-sleeping environment, a quick google search will do the trick, here is one of the many links. Safe co-sleeping
4. I freakin love baby wearing – Did I know about baby wearing before I had Boston? Sort of. Did I actually consider I should embrace it and do some research? Nope, I was too busy becoming a pregnancy and birth guru (which I do not regret). So my baby wearing journey went like this. We bought a Baby Bjorn, a very well known carrier that isn’t embraced by the majority of serious baby wearers. Boston didn’t like it when he was tiny, then enjoyed it for short bursts as he grew, then about 3 months after that he was too big. Why isn’t it embraced? Well I won’t go into too much detail but Bjorns do not hold babes in an ideal position, in fact for those with a pre-disposition for hip dysplasia they’re a big no no (THIS article has good information).
We also have a MacPac carrier, one that is designed for hiking but more for older kiddies, which Boston liked a lot more. I loved going for walks with him sitting in there, especially along the beach, but this pack is a little huge for every day use. When Boston was 13 months old we met a group of mums who had an array of carriers, slings and wraps. Boston was also going through days of just wanting to be held, so my mind finally kicked over and I was like “oh ahhhhh I should probably look into this”.
Manduca in winer = snuggle bliss. He was sick this day.
We bought a Manduca a week later. Boston loves it. For the first time he actually fell asleep while out walking (an awesome miracle which has been repeated many times). It is also freakin fantastic when he is feeling cuddly or is not well. I pop him in at home and toddle around doing the dishes and laundry. I am actually at the point now when I practically never use a pram, when I do I feel really disconnected. When we are out and about at the markets, whooshing through the shops or taking a scenic walk I love knowing Boston is so close. I know instantly when he is upset and I always know he is safely attached to me as we dodge people and cross roads. So I must apologise for the rant and get to my point. I wish I had tried more carriers from the start. There are so many options to suit different people and baby wearing is now one of my favourite parenting tools.
5. It really really does take a village to raise a parent…oops I mean child – You will hear this over and over, mainly in your own head, but I just had to include it in my list. The world has become such a small place. We are instantly connected to our global community with just a few clicks of a mouse. There is endless information streaming at us at a rate faster then the speed of light (not exactly a scientific fact) and with a tap of our finger we can speak to everyone we know. But here is the messed up part…we are physically disconnected. We live in houses on streets where our neighbours are all strangers, our families are generally dotted around the country (or globe). Our village of friends all have their own lives that revolve around many commitments that are totally different to our own. And… you can not parent through a computer soooo where does that leave us. Parenting in westernised society can be very lonely.
I am really lucky to have my mum and dad so close. For the first six months we all practically lived together. When Boston was just two weeks old my gorgeous man commented “how do people do this without at least a third adult?” At the time we were blessed to be focusing all our energy on being new parents while mum cooked and cleaned. And let me tell you seeing the joy Boston brings his grandparents is priceless. But as lucky as I am I wish I also had the rest of our family close, including all our wonderful cousins who have children close to Boston’s age. How wonderful it would be to have mums and dads that I know and love all so close to us. So that every day we could share our experiences not just over facebook but over a cup of tea. This actually makes me very sad. And I have also realised I need a whole separate post to really explore this.
Children of Ima Imesine, Traditional village living in Vanuatu
So by golly if you do not have a “traditional” village around you then CREATE CREATE CREATE. I am not even close to having the village I dream of, but we’re getting there. You need people around you, to hug you, to tell you everything is okay, to babysit while you take a nap, to cook you dinner, to walk the dog, to pull you up when you feel like the poop filled diapers you are changing all too often. So yeah parents need a village, that was not really a mistake. Children need a village too. They need more then just their parents to mould their view of the world. They need the unconditional love of grandparents, the strong role model in a positive uncle, the warm hugs of a family friend who bakes delicious muffins and listens to problems without judgement. I could go on and on and this probably makes little sense because it is the tip of an iceberg, hopefully I have time to explore under the water sometime soon. __________________________________________________________________________ Sooooo this is my list. What do you think? Do you have a list of your own?
3. Baby Led Feeding (also known as baby led weaning)
nella inspired 