Thought I’d write something a little shorter and different! Before you become a parent the only person you have responsibilities for are yourself.

As a mom; remember…

• Everything is ok, it’s ok to be tired, it’s ok to be upset! If you feel like you’re struggling, discus your feelings with someone, either a family member or a professional.
• It’s only temporary, the sleepless nights, the stress from not knowing what your baby wants. You’ll learn what your baby wants and it’ll be a thing of the past
• The pain you feel (afterbirth) is also temporary, after a couple of weeks you’ll forget what it all feels like
• You’re still a couple! Not just a parent, you still need to be attentive to your partner.
• Be social! Just because you’ve had a baby doesn’t mean to can’t go out, have a social life!
• Embrace your body! You’ve done amazing thing, your body will be different but beautiful!
• If you want to pick up your baby, you won’t spoil them! The amount of people who will tell you that you’re spoiling them is ridiculous! You hold your baby!
• DON’T over do it! You may think now you’ve had your baby you can do anything…you can’t! I went shopping 2 weeks after in Manchester and it killed me! I was in agony!
• If you don’t want people to come round, say no! It can be stressful the amount of people that want to see your baby. Tiring too! Say no!
• Finally…if you don’t want someone to do something towards your baby. Say it! If you don’t want people to kiss your baby, or take their dummy away, say it. Your baby your decision! People need to respect that!
• Your husband/boyfriend is still working to provide for you, he will be tired from work but will still help you, ask for help!
• Enjoy it! You need to treasure these times, they grow so quickly you’ll miss them so small!

As a dad remember:

• It’s stressful, your partner will be in pain so do as much as you can to help her whilst she’s recovering

Make her feel beautiful. She’s going to be feeling not so good about herself. Boost her confidence!

They’re your child too! If you don’t want someone doing something, say something!

Remember you’re still a couple!

When you get back from work, help out. She’s up all night and all day, support her!

It’s ok to be tired, you’re allowed to be tired! Share the work!

Enjoy it! They grow so fast, you’ll miss it when they’re older!

You are a team!

There’s a great book on Amazon, that I bought my partner! It’s called “survival guide for a new dad” it’s fantastic, we both learnt so much!

Being a parent, you are aloud to be stressed. You are aloud to be tired, upset and grouchy!

The first stages of having a baby are difficult. Before your child, the only person you had to look after was yourself. When you have a baby it’s another life you have to look after, a baby you have to guess what they want!

My babies crying, is he hungry? Is he tired? Is he hurt? Is his nappy full? Is he constipated? It’s frustrating because they cannot tell you!! It’s literally a guessing game.

Start with ticking things off the list, what time did I feed him? When did I change his nappy? Is it too hot?

The most frustrating thing for me, was the lack of sleep the first couple of weeks. Before he was born I had trouble sleeping anyway due to not being able to get comfortable, but it was manageable.

The first night carter came home he slept from 12 to 6, I thought wow this is easy, if he does this every night great…wrong! After this he woke up every hour and a half for maybe…2 weeks? I was that tired I lost count of the days! Me and Georgie took it in turns, I’d stay awake from 10-2 and he would get up at 2 and stay awake until 6.

It was hard, being so tired, not going to bed at the same time! It felt like we barely spent any time together being so tired. Slowly he started to sleep longer hours and was waking up every 4 hours which felt like heaven! At 2 months he was sleeping from 10:30 to at least 5:30 which…you can’t complain at! And other than a few nights since, he has slept through since!

This is the only time I’ve ever felt truly stressed, I’m lucky because he isn’t really a baby that cries. My one worry was him crying in public and having people stare, I think he’s cried once in public, and I didn’t care what anybody else thought as long as I could soothe my son!

I thought I’d write something a little different and more personal, so I’m going to be sharing my birth story!

My due date was 9th April. On the 31st March 2019 (Mother’s Day) I woke at around 4:30 with cramps, and tried to go back to sleep, they were so minor I didn’t take notice. At 5:30 I moved to sit up and I thought I’d wet the bed…turns out it was my back waters. I didn’t even know you had 2 sets of waters!

At this point I woke Georgie up, we rang the maternity ward, and were told to come in. We got to the hospital around 7:30, where I was took to a room, had a band across my stomach to track contractions and I had a check to see if my waters had actually gone and if id started labour. I had, I was 2CM dilated, and was told if my first waters hadn’t broke by themselves by the following morning I’d be induced. They sent me home.

From the hospital, we went to Georgie’s moms house where we spent most of the day sorting through Georgie’s old baby things, where we discovered a Liverpool kit from 1997 which has been put in Carters room ready for when he’s bigger!

Around 3pm my contractions where every 7ish minutes, but they have a rule you have to have at least 3 contractions within 10 minutes before they’d let you stay, so I had a bath as the contractions were getting worse and we watched the remainder of the Liverpool match. At 7:30 we went to the hospital finally!

At the hospital they decided to keep me in, which I was relieved all I wanted was some pain relief! Unfortunately all they can offer is paracetamol at the start. At around 9:30 we got moved to a ward which at the moment was empty, I had a gym ball to sit on, a bath to relax in but I couldn’t get comfy! I just kept walking back and forth and getting Georgie to rub my back when I had a contraction!

At 1am I was allowed pethidine. I was unsure before I was in labour if I’d of had it but I’m glad I did, it made me sick nearly immediately, but it also made me feel like I was drunk but the pain was minimal, still there but minimal.

I was told at 1, that I was going to have my waters broke at 5:30, so around 4 my drugs wore off and I felt everything! I was put onto an ECG Machine as my heart rate was extremely high! I was in agony but I couldn’t have anything else yet, so I had to go until they’d broke me waters then they offered me an epidural, this was given to me about 5:45, but because of how fast my contractions were they kept having to take the needle back out so they didn’t actually fit the tubes until 6:50. (I didn’t realise that an epidural you have to release the drugs yourself with a button that takes 20 minutes to get into your system). At 6:50 I was telling the midwife I needed to push, she disagreed I told her again and she checked and I was in fact crowning!

At 7:06 our baby was here, lying on me, all swollen and puffy, more beautiful than I ever could of realised. Soon after he was put on me he was took away and put onto a machine as he wasn’t breathing properly. They thought that because he came out so quickly that It has sent him into shock! He was on the machine for a while until they were confident he could breathe properly.

My little baby was 8lb 1! So I couldn’t even imagine how big he would of been if I’d of gone full term! Georgie cried, I could barely lift my head. I had to have multiple stitches, and 3 IV drips because I was so dehydrated! As soon as I had my energy I just couldn’t stop looking at my little angel. The love I felt was unconditional!

I was in labour for what felt like forever! But it was so worth it, such an amazing experience, not only for me but to share with Georgie. He was an outstanding birthing partner, so supportive, he was amazing I couldn’t of asked for anyone better to support me!

At half 9 on the night we were discharged and aloud home. It was surreal. I was officially a mom, even now I find it crazy to say “my son” amazing!

There is such a split on people’s opinions of parents going out after they’ve had a child. For a man, people expect to meet up to “wet the babies head” but a woman is expected to stay in and look after their child.

I’ve been criticised that I should be at home looking after my child, that I shouldn’t be out in case my baby needs me.

Wrong, after being pregnant for 38 weeks, I couldn’t wait to go out with my friends and not have to worry about what I can eat or drink, how tired I’m going to be.

Although being pregnant is such a beautiful experience, watching your baby grow, kick and hearing that heartbeat…it’s also extremely difficult. Mood swings, cravings, sickness, uncomfortable all the time, seeing your friends thin and feeling like a whale. Being to tired to even hold a conversation so not bothering to go out. It’s not even the fact you can’t have a drink, because that didn’t bother me. It was the fact that even going for food with friends killed me.

I went out 5 weeks after my son was born, and I felt a whole range of emotions, I felt fear for leaving my child, I felt upset about missing him, but I also felt excited that I didn’t have a worry…even though I worried the whole time I was out, I was constantly texting my partner to see if baby was ok!

I have been out multiple times since he’s been born, the first time is always the hardest, and yet this weekend I went away for the night for a friends birthday and I found it the most difficult. He’s slept at his grandparents a few times, so I don’t know why it upset me so much. The morning he was leaving I got upset when he laughed at me because I knew I was going to miss him. I thought each time I was away from him it would get easier but it doesn’t. I worry he will miss me, cry, not settle or need Me, but he was completely fine at his grandads, my dad sent me videos of him laughing at his favourite nursery rhyme (5 little ducks) and he slept through all night. As soon as he saw me when I picked him up he was so happy, which made me extremely happy!

Happy parents, happy baby. This saying I truly do believe, I think you should have a social life and a family life, you don’t have to go out every weekend and get in a state, but you also don’t have to stay in every weekend. You’re aloud to have fun you’re still a person not just a parent!

I love spending time with my son, with my family in general. But I also love dressing up and going out and having fun!

Just because you’re a parent, doesn’t mean you are no longer aloud to have fun!

So let’s talk about baby shoes…when should they be worn? How will they effect my baby?

My opinion…I hate to see babies in shoes before they can walk! To me, they look so uncomfortable, I’ve found the disadvantages weigh out the advantages!

When a baby starts to learn to walk around your house, they should be barefoot so they can get a feel of things, and learn proper balance, Coordination and ensures a good posture. Like an adult, the only time a baby should wear shoes is outside and this is only to protect their feet.

Myself personally I haven’t put shoes on my sons feet, and won’t until he shows signs of walking. When he does show signs of walking, I will take him to get his first pair of Clarke shoes, so I know they’re fitted properly, meaning he isn’t at risk of damaging the structure of his feet or causing any other problems.

So a few weeks ago my son began teething, anybody who’s met my son knows he is not a baby who cries often, so since teething has been a lot more clingy and upset than usual.

Shortly after he began teething, we decided to go out for some food with my Nan, whilst sitting in a pub waiting for our food, our son started to get upset, by his cry I could tell he was tired, and he wanted his dummy. When I gave him his dummy I heard a heavily pregnant woman say “only lazy moms use dummies” I honestly couldn’t believe I’d heard it. She then continued to say how she would never ever give her baby a dummy, and I remember myself saying that before I had my son. I remember telling everyone I didn’t want to use a dummy but I still bought some just in case I changed my mind.

Not many people know the benefits of having a dummy, as well as the disadvantages.

Disadvantages:

• Baby’s can become dependent on the dummy and refuse to sleep without one

• You need to have multiple in case you loose one

• The later you allow your child to have a dummy the more chance they could end up effecting their teeth and the way their teeth sit in their mouth

• It can effect their speech

• Young babies cannot find and put their dummy back in if it falls out so in the night this could effect not only their sleep but yours.

Personally I find that dummies are extremely helpful, my son finds them soothing, although he gets upset if it falls out (sometimes he pulls it out on purpose) as soon as he has it in his mouth if he is stressed, upset or tired it calms him straight away. At 4 months he is quite reliable on his dummy, the recommended time to to remove a dummy is 6-8 months. As it stands I don’t think I could take it away from him just yet, but I do hope before he’s 1!

Birth is scary, labour is scary, having a baby is scary! BUT…so worth it!

Now I can only talk about my own experiences, I haven’t had a C section so I know very little about them.

There is no such thing as an easy labour! I have a friend who was in labour 4 hours before her baby arrived, myself I was in labour 36 hours!

Every labour and birth is different, and there is no way to be prepared! I packed and repacked my suitcase over and over, I felt ready, labour was going to be easy! I was wrong, labour hurts! It’s scary and feels like it’s never ending! You just want it over and done with, but honestly the best thing to do? Listen to what the nurses say! They know what they’re doing, they know how to keep you relaxed, and how to keep your baby relaxed!

My biggest fear with actually giving birth was having a heart attack, I have no idea why, it was just a paranoia I had that I was going to have a heart attack during labour, I think because I had this fear before I caused myself to have a very high heart rate and ended up on a ECG monitor, which only scared me even more. (SPOILER, I didn’t have a heart attack, I was over reacting).

My mom used to say to me, once your baby is out and in your arms there will be no pain, and I remember thinking, yeah right I’m going to die! don’t tell me it won’t hurt anymore…but surprise surprise she was right. As soon as he was out and I held him, I felt nothing but love and shock. A few short pushes and it was over, I was no longer pregnant, I was now officially a mom! I couldn’t wait for our lives to begin together and to show him off to the world!

Tips for labour:

◾️ LISTEN to what the nurses say, but listen to yourself too! I knew I needed to push and was told by nurses I didn’t! When they checked I was crowning, you know your body!!

◾️Although it feels like the end of the world, it isn’t! Only a few hours of pain, for a lifetime of happiness!

◾️Pack your suitcase sooner rather than later! (last thing you want is to be packing whilst having contractions)

◾️ Don’t listen to other people’s opinions on how you should have your baby, what drugs to have if you have any! Do what YOU want to do!

◾️Relax! As hard as it sounds, try your best. You don’t want to stress yourself or your baby, try taking a bath to help with pain!

◾️Enjoy it! As weird as that sounds to enjoy labour, it’s an amazing experience, one you will never forget! Trust me, the way you feel weeks after the birth is worse than labour!

◾️Remember, labour cannot be that bad or people wouldn’t choose to have more than 1 child!

Hi everybody, welcome to my Blog! My name is Georgia, and I am a first time mom to a beautiful little boy! This blog will be about my views, as well as my experiences! Please feel free to leave comments and opinions! Thank you for reading!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton