Boobies for everyone!!

Breastfeeding - it's an emotive subject. Some women cannot breastfeed, some choose not to, some struggle and some take to it like a duck to water.

I was very lucky. During my pregnancy I really wanted to at least try breastfeeding. I saw it as the holy grail of motherhood and I HAD to do it no matter how many hideous stories I heard about thrush, mastitis and bleeding nipples. Shortly after giving birth, I was rushed to theatre for hours and was terrified at the time that they'd give her a bottle in my absence. Luckily, they didn't and we had a lovely midwife on the acute care ward show us how it's done. Apart from a bit of soreness at the beginning, physically breastfeeding has been a perfect, harmonious journey and its blissful having such a special and unique bond with my girl knowing that my body exclusively nourished her until six months when we started weaning onto solids and continues to do so now.

My problems with breastfeeding have been mainly emotional ones. In the first few days of Tilly's life when she was nursing frequently and I was very ill and tired. I dreaded her getting hungry as I just wanted to go to sleep and being the sole provider was incredibly overwhelming. 

Next came public feeds... I spent the first week running back to nurse in the car! Luckily, I had a baptism of fire whilst visiting my brother at university when Tilly wanted feeding all day in various cafes and restaurants where there was nowhere to hide.

Now, I'm happy to feed Tilly anywhere. I've never had a negative reaction or made to feel uncomfortable in public and simply avoid eye contact. I'm fairly sure my friends have now seen my nipples more than they ever did in my drunken heyday ;)

I do still struggle with feeling "trapped" by my boobs. I sometimes panic a little as I can't just leave Tilly, I have to plan weeks in advance to express enough milk for her and have to deal with the discomfort if we're apart for too long.

This said, I love breastfeeding, I think it's absolutely wonderful and the most magic stuff in the world. I'd love to help more women do it!!

I plan to breastfeed Tilly until she self weans but hope that will be around the age of two. I never thought I'd want to go longer than a year at the very most but now it would feel strange to give up and I'd rather it was Tilly's decision rather than mine to give it up. 

In summary, breastfeeding is amazing. 

"Natural" mama

So, as it turns out, I'm a bit of a hippy! Yes! me! The woman with an addiction to costa and who will spend £50 on eyeshadow! Tilly is what's called a "cloth bummed baby" and proudly flashes her "fluff" by this I mean she wears reusable nappies!

Gone are folded terry towelling nappies! Now you can get all sorts of pretty nappies in all sorts of styles. You can even design your own (for a price  $$ ) 

Mainly she wears totsbots easyfits, close pop ins and for night times she wears a mama knows velour with a little lamb wrap.

At first I was sceptical that id get on with washing nappies and getting quite so intimate with Tilly's poos... But it's no bother at all! I find stuffing her nappies back together after washing extremely therapeutic and they're just so god damn adorable!! Plus, we save about £50 a month not having to buy disposable nappies and can reuse them for another baby or just sell them on for about 2/3 of the original price. Preloved nappies are popular :)

Another hippy thing we do... Baby wearing! There is nothing more lovely than carrying your baby around (comfortably) at a height that they are "close enough to kiss" and it makes the weekly shop much easier with a baby that refuses to sit in the trolley. We use a rose and rebellion carrier which is rather gorgeous and so easy to use. It's just two buckles and you're in! I've been sorely tempted by a beautiful woven wrap by kokadi called ela in wunderland but at roughly £150 for some fabric... It's not gonna happen! Plus, I'm far too lazy to wrap!

Hippy thing number three! Shh - don't tell the health visitor!! We part time co sleep. Co sleeping has got us through some exhausting growth spurts and I treasure all the sleepy morning cuddles! Tilly usually does the longest stretch of the night in her cot then comes and sleeps in my arms - absolute bliss.

Other hippy things I follow/believe in: 

NOT leaving Tilly alone to cry. I think crying it out and controlled crying are cruel things to do to your baby and will never leave my girl crying for me. Everything else can wait, if my girl needs a cuddle, she gets one!

Positive parenting: this is something I want to introduce as Tilly grows. I don't agree with punishments, time outs, voice raising or smacking. 

Baby led weaning: I desperately wanted to follow baby led weaning but unfortunately due to Tilly's weight issues it wasn't possible. Hopefully I'll have more success with baby number two :)

I think I'll do a separate post on breastfeeding as its a big passion of mine and deserves its own spot light! 

Welcome to my new blog

Hello one and all!

It has been eight months since I last blogged. In that time, I have had my beautiful (ginger - yay!) daughter miss Tilly Elizabeth Young, she was born on the 9th of November 2012 at 6:30am and nearly killed me in the process. She was 8lb9 and absolutely gorgeous!

Being Tilly's mum has been a wonderful experience and so has getting to know the cheeky little pickle chops. There have been some hard times such as the three months she decided that sleep is for the weak! And we have had a lot of issues with her gaining weight (more about that later) and reflux. 

We have been going for a 'natural' parenting approach including breast feeding, baby wearing, part time co sleeping and cloth nappies. I will talk about all these things more later too :)

Other things that have gone on this year include a big house move to the lovely alverstoke and the wedding planning is in full swing (two months tomorrow!)