Breastfeeding or formula feeding dilema

It never occurred to me that here in UK people make such a big fuss about breastfeeding. In Czech you just breastfeed and if it doesn't work for you, you have option to choose formula. Nobody will get you bad looks if you feed your baby with bottle in public. Maybe some other mum will start discussion with you as how much it cost for bottle feed and that she is sad that breastfeeding didn't work for her. End of discussion.

Breastfeeding is the standard and as a new mum on maternity leave you try to save money where you can. Formula feeding is expensive. Even more than here in UK.

Weaning with Sami

We started with weaning when our baby boy was just over 5 months. H was born on 42 weeks +2 days so he was more than ready to start with solids. First we tried cooked & liquidised apples and he loved it. He couldn't get enough of them. Then we introduced baby rice and he wasn't very impressed by it. We mixed it with different fruits and it was the winner.

Sami's first taste of solid food

Review: Aldi Mamia nappies

When pregnant I have received a sample pack of  newborn Pampers nappies (from my mother-in-law) and also we bought some Aldi Mamia nappies. I read some really good reviews about them so we gave it a try.

Sami is very happy in Aldi Mamia nappy

The lies new mum tells

When becoming a new mum I had to tell a few lies. I am not proud of myself, but there was no option to act differently. When our friends and family asked how are you, the only answer is: we are good. Anything else will seams as A: you are incompetent as new parent and B: you are d**k. I didn't want to be either of them so I lied. Once you start then there is no going back. It is as big snow ball and you have to roll it as you go.

Unfortunately I was actually making everything even worst. As a new mum you are tired, overwhelmed and simply in too much pain. So when I lied and said that everything is great and pink and then I was invited to party or to visit I had no way out.

On 2 hours of broken sleep without any food as crying baby will not let you to put him down you drag yourself to bathroom and in 3 minutes flat shower, brush your teeth, slap some make up on and put one of three outfits on (which still thankfully fit you) and show yourself in mentioned party. How can be legal to drive a car (not to think to care for newborn baby) on no sleep is beyond me.

I did all of that and with put on smile was lying through my teeth about how becoming a new mum is great and how proud we are to have such a beautiful little boy. Nobody would guess that I was on the bring of collapse (deprivation of sleep is a form of torture) and I was in lots of pain just standing. For goodness sake I had stitches, infection, being on 2 sets of antibiotics, our baby had severe reflux and will not sleep. No sleep for baby means no sleep for mummy.

We visited all family and friends those first 4 weeks. I did get some visitors and a few offered some help (Thank you Jackie for your company!),but mostly I was on my own. I will say, that it was taught and I cried, but we pulled through. Now after 6 months our baby boy doesn't have any reflux and he sleeps all night. He is happy child and all that cry is forgotten. I just wish I could forget about our first weeks as new parents. I also wish that we were not pushed to show our little bundle. It would be much easier if we just stayed at home and only got visits from friends or family who want to help.  I am a little bit sad that we couldn't really enjoy our time with newborn baby, but there is always the second time! :-)

7 most useless baby purchases

After a lots of consideration and hours of looking through Internet we still ended up buying some baby stuff which proved completely useless. So this is our list of no needed stuff.

10 things I though about babies (before having one)

1. Maternity will be really nice break from work. Imagine all the time! Baby sleeping and house cleaned. I could just take the baby and go for shopping and for walks. Maybe could buy one of those running pushchairs and do some running. Hmm, that was before baby. At the moment I work 24 hours a day on No sleep and covered in all baby fluids.

7 most usefull DIY baby stuff

I went a little bit crazy when pregnant with all that DIY baby stuff. Some was really helpful some stuff didn't work out.

The most useful was:

10 most helpful baby stuff

To have the baby bath or not to have? How many clothes? Do we need baby travel system?
Yes, we all went through a lot of decisions about baby stuff. It is in the end all quite pricey.

In our experience the most helpful  baby stuff for us was:

What I wish I have known before having baby

Looking back on my before baby time & months of pregnancy I wish I have known number of things.
Especially with a first pregnancy, you are in big unknown territory. Midwifes are giving advices which are contradicting with pregnancy books! Your friends with children are telling you their stories about baby sleeping by week 8 and how they enjoyed their time with their newborn. Unfortunately nothing prepared us for very unhappy baby boy who did not sleep more than 5 minutes in one go, refused to be put down (anywhere), hated his cot and was basically screaming the whole first 3 months. It got better - the screaming, but not the sleeping. I am still very upset, that we really did not enjoy the newborn baby and I am worried that my husband is scared for life. He didn't even want to hold our Sami as he taught that he hates him!

I wish

7 months update

I can't believe that my last post was in March. So much happened in Home in Surrey! We have this little monkey boy. Born on 29/03/15. Only 16 days overdue!

Sami (Samuel) wasn't easy baby. He had really bad silent reflux and poor boy couldn't sleep properly. Luckily he grow up from it and now for first time in 6 months we all got good sleep. He can go now from 18:30 to 6:30.
It was long journey with sleepless nights, but all good now and hopefully I will have more time for Home in Surrey blog.