Celebrating new arrivals and £50 for your advice!

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Newborn I still find it hard to believe that this time last year Beanie Boy was only 8 weeks old, when I see him running around the house, being the cheeky little monkey that he is and making me laugh out loud I see how far he has come in the last year and I ask myself if I will ever loose the broody feeling. I have always told people that I was born broody and I honestly think it’s the truth, for as long as I can remember I have loved children. I’m not one of these women who only loves babies, I love them in all stages and I like the idea of having a big family but obviously when they are newborn they are supercute and you just want to cuddle them all the time (well I do anyway!). At the moment I am eagerly awaiting news of a new baby, obviously not mine as I am not pregnant but my friend Karin is in hospital as I type being monitored to see if her baby is ready to make a grand entrance into the world. Karin is more than ready for her new arrival but I’m super-excited too! I’m hoping that having a new arrival to cuddle will fend off my broodiness for a little while.

I’m not the only one celebrating new arrivals at the moment though, Pampers are currently putting together a resource of information for newborn parents – as the saying goes “when a baby is born so is a Mummy/Daddy” and they want your help. What snippet of advice were you given as you embarked on parenthood and what would you share with others?

For me I found the best piece of advice was to ‘trust my instincts’. At the end of the day a newborn baby doesn’t come with a manual like most new things we have in our lives. I tried reading all the baby books before Little Bean was born and I knew exactly what I was going to do when I brought her home from hospital. The trouble was, she hadn’t read the same book as me and I became really stressed out trying to follow the timings of the baby book and I felt like I was failing before I had even started. Then I made a decision, I threw the baby book out and decided to just go with the flow. I breastfed on demand, I used nipple shields when I became sore, I introduced her to a bottle at 2 weeks so that Hubby could give an expressed feed at bedtime, I swaddled her for sleeping and it all worked fine. I went against everything that I had been told not to do and just followed my instincts. Within a week she had set herself a feeding routine which worked well for both of us. I had a beautiful happy, healthy baby girl who slept through from 8 weeks, happily moved from breast to nipple shield to bottle without confusion and the only time that things went wrong (in my mind) is when I decided to follow the books again and wait until she was 6 months old before weaning. It is so secret on Mummy Matters that Little Bean is a very poor eater and I blame this on waiting so long, she wasn’t happy accepting new textures and is still the same today. With Beanie Boy I began weaning between 4 and 5 months and his approach to food has been totally different. Some might argue that this is just because they are totally different children but I know what I think. I have actually done most things differently with Beanie Boy to how I did them with Little Bean but the one thing that didn’t change was that I still just followed my instincts.

Competition Details

So now it’s your turn! To be in with a chance of winning a £50 voucher to a spa or restaurant of your choice please leave a comment below telling me what little gem of advice would you like to share with other newborn parents and tweet “I’m in it to #win a £50 voucher for my #newmumtips”.

Competition Closes: 2nd December 2011 (when Karin’s baby will be born if they don’t get here any earlier!).

Expectant mums can also register at Pampers Village (www.pampers.co.uk) and get a FREE Baby Welcome Pack at 32 weeks filled with some first day essentials, including ten Pampers New Baby nappies, a travel pack of Pampers wipes – perfect to pop into a birthing bag – and a copy of the Pampers Village magazine. Mums can now also connect with other mums for info and advice on the Pampers UK & Ireland Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/#!/PampersUKIre) .

15 thoughts on “Celebrating new arrivals and £50 for your advice!”

  1. Ooh, I’ll try to give you as much time as possible for your comp. Bebe appears to not be ready.
    Advice…very similar to yours in that the “experts” simply don’t know everything and what works for one will not work for all. You have to do what works best for you (as Mummy), for your family and ultimately for Baby or it just won’t gel. Don’t bend to societal pressure & be confident and consistent in your decision making. Only YOU knows what’s best for YOUR baby after all. Even if you’re not totally sure!
    Can’t wait to give you baby cuddles! I know I loved mine w/ Beanie Boy!
    Love,
    Karin

  2. To get as much sleep as possible when you can and to forget about the cleaning, if there is a time to let things slip after having a baby is it 🙂

  3. My top tip would be enjoy every single minute as they grow so quick don’t stress thinking your not doing this…not doing that…do it your way lots of love hugs snuggles n kisses (don’t leave hubby out) 😉

  4. My advice is to accept help from family whenever they offer, a home cooked meal and a cuppa from your mum or babysitting from your sister so you can have a sleep/haircut/shopping. It’s hard sometimes to accept help but it’s important to look after yourself aswell as your beautiful newborn, and your family are usually only too happy to be there for you. :-))

  7. The advice I got when I had my son was so contradictory & varied that it was more stressful listening to it than it was looking after a newborn!

    My advice is: take the advice that you like & that makes sense to you, ignore everything else. No one knows your baby like you do, not your family, not his family, not midwives (who all contradict each other anyway!) & not random strangers in the Supermarket. They mean well but don’t know what works for you.

  9. Keep plenty of quick food in the house for those first hectic few weeks. Whether its making meals and freezing them in the weeks prior to the birth or having tins of things in the cupboard, you need to make sure you eat and sometimes even that can feel like a challenge!

  13. Newborns don’t have to have a full bath. Just wash with cotton wool balls and warm water (wet wipes can be too harsh at this age). You don’t have to use soap. The bottom area needs to be washed/wiped most – can leave the top half generally.
    @maisietoo have tweeted.

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