It’s been a long, long, long five weeks since little Miss put in an appearance, made up of a little crafting (literally, a few rows of crochet and stitching the edges on a duvet cover), a few tantrums (the Boy – we expected it during the hellish ‘adjusting-to-my-new-sibling’ period) and an awful lot of crying (everyone concerned…..).
The period following Daisy’s birth did not go according to plan – during my pregnancy we bought cloth nappies, and eco-disposables, completely blanked the bottle and milk section during shopping, and I stocked up on breastfeeding friendly clothes. After having a complete breastfeeding fail with the Boy, I was adamant that this time I’d succeed, and my conscience meant that I didn’t for a second consider using ordinary, shop bought disposables.
When she arrived, the little lady decided she wanted to feed, and subsequently be changed, every two hours – suffice to say the cloth nappies have never seen the light of day. We tried two different brands of eco-disposables, and discovered that both leaked terribly. I spent more time scrubbing clothes than anything else during the first few days of her life. We are now using (and I hang my head in shame when I say this, but I think it’s important to be honest on a blog) Asda own-brand disposables. They’re reliable, and more importantly, cheap – and any fellow Mamas who have had to budget for a family of four on one wage and maternity pay, will know the importance of saving money where possible.
Breastfeeding, once again, did not pan out how I’d imagined – she seemed to find it near on impossible to latch on, and once she did, it was agonisingly painful. During the first month of her life, we had no midwife appointments at all due to someone making an administration error (they basically didn’t bother to make me an appointment at all), and it wasn’t until my own midwife rang me after she returned from holiday that I discovered she had tongue tie. This explained the latching problems, and after being told that it was unlikely to improve (and that it wasn’t severe enough to justify the operation to fix it), I decided to formula feed her after all.
Despite things not working out how I so desperately wanted, we’re all starting to relax and enjoy our newly expanded family. The Boy is far happier now I have more time to spend with him, as I’m not permanently feeding Daisy, I’m happier now I’m not constantly in pain, and the little lady is happier as she’s not always hungry. And the Husband is happier because finally, nobody is crying!
There were some really lovely moments amongst all the difficult times, which I managed to capture and share on Instagram. I decided to dedicate a post to them, as not everyone has access to it, and I thought it would just be a nice way to return to the blogging world after my brief hiatus!
Plenty of sleeping, naps and snoozing…..
Popping out and about when the weather allowed (which wasn’t very often)…..
Those gorgeous, precious first smiles…..
Crafty-ness plans and homewares galore…..
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| Start ’em young |
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| Country Living and copious amounts of tea – my sanity saver |
First outfits (we were donated so many lovely clothes that she’s going to have to have celebrity-style costume changes every day just to wear everything)…..
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| Planning world domination |
Daisy looks so much like you. Utterly scrumptious. xxx
She is beautiful! The first few weeks are such a whirlwind, looks like you've all settled into motherhood again rather nicely!
So glad things have settled down. What a beautiful family you have, Daisy looks an absolute treasure. Love her wardrobe – jealous x
What a cutie. Congratulations.
it is a bit tough in the beginning, yeah? i'm so glad that all is looking up. 🙂 she is oh so precious! i love the world domination photo…hilarious.
Really pleased to hear that things are settling down a bit now hun. Please don't beat yourself up about the breast feeding though..you did it for the first few weeks and that's better than brilliant. She got the best start possible and you only have to look at those photos to see that she's thriving. You're clearly doing an awesome job. XXX
She's so beautiful! She looks so much like you as well, especially in the red polka dot cardigan picture. I will be visiting sooooooon x
Best laid plans, eh? Boo to the eco options not being up to scratch :(Glorious pic 😉
Oh such a treat to see these pics! I was wondering how you were getting on. Please don't worry or feel in any way bad about the eco nappy & breast feeding thing. A friend of mine gave me the best advice for how to handle having two kids. She said "you just have to lower your standards"! My standards are pretty low right now but we are all happy and okay. Daisy is such a cutie! You must be in heaven. Your son will come around and get used to Daisy. It has taken Max 4 months, but he is proud as punch now. Much love. xxx
Victoria, It is VERY cool of you to post this. There is NO SHAME in using disposables, and bottle feeding is nutritious too. Thank's for the pictures of your wee bun too – she grows and becomes more alert in each picture.:)
She's absolutely gorgeous, a true addition to your family xxx
Well I think you're doing brilliantly! Okay some things may not work out as planned but I agree with an earlier comment – it's all about lowering your standards! Well being flexible and doing what feels right for you and baby. Happy mummy is just as important as happy baby! Had to laugh at the line about your husband being finally happy too because noone was crying. This is exactly how I anticipate life at mine will be soon: everyone having a bit of a cry and my husband soldiering on making tea :-)You should be very proud of your gorgeous family and if you're also getting a smidgeon of crafting in then you are definitely winning!!!Thanks for sharing such gorgeous photos – I really want to get my little 'un here now.Take care xx