With 20 year’s experience of working with babies and children, and almost 7 year’s coaching families through their parenting difficulties, there could be the assumption that having a second baby will be a walk in the park for me. My lovely husband truly believes that he has nothing to worry about because he’s married to The Sleep Fairy! The problem is, I know how hormones and lack of sleep can turn the most relaxed and rational women into crazies!
For this reason, I have decided to write about my rational intentions for sleep and feeding when our “bundle of joy” arrives some time in the next 2 months, and over the coming year or so. I am then planning (moments of clarity permitting), to update it with the reality!
Birth
Like most pregnant women, I am hoping for a smooth, natural birth! We’ve had Ellie and Caira, the lovely midwives from Natal Know How, in helping us to understand pretty much everything that could happen during birth, I’ve been swatting up on hypno-birthing and breathing, I’ve read Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, my husband has read (and understood) Birthing for Blokes by Mark Harris and I am finally cracking “relaxing”! However, I know that when it comes to giving birth, sometimes things don’t go the way we hope/plan, so we have made a Birthing Wish List, thanks to Ellie and Caira, and we will take it all in our stride.
The First Few Weeks
I’ve always said that this is the time for muddling through. I would like to breastfeed, but I struggled with my first as she was premature and spent time in special care and intensive care, so I will try my hardest to feed, as and when my baby calls for it, hoping that when my milk comes in, my baby latches well and feeds! However, if like many women I meet, I struggle with breastfeeding and end up bottle feeding, I am hoping to not beat myself up about it!
We will have a crib by the bed and a Moses basket downstairs, where our little man may or may not sleep. As we have a memory foam mattress, we can’t have him in our bed (not that it’s something I want to do, or recommend) as it is way too dangerous – memory foam is too hot and makes it even harder for a baby to control their body temperature, which is why infant mattresses aren’t made of memory foam. I definitely won’t be getting a co-sleeping cot or anything similar as I see the fall-out of these on a weekly basis!
So we will muddle through, feeding on demand, sleeping as and when, and hopefully not entertaining too many visitors – mother-in-law and best buddies excepted.
I am also planning to get stuck into my placenta smoothies! Apparently they help the milk come in, help avoid the emotional crash that often strikes a few day after giving birth, speeds up healing and cuts the potential weeks of bleeding down to days. Sounds too good to be true, although it does require turning into a cannibal and eating one of my own organs – yum!