Cate's Baby Shower x

 

Hello and come on in. Give me coat and please come sit down. Looking forward to some fun today as we throw a blog shower for the lovely Cate.  As Cate lives in Oz but has loads of blogfriends across the world Deb thought it would be fun to hold a virtual shower.

Please help yourselves to some drinks and nibbles, we have hot and cold drinks, and lots of non-alcoholic beverages for those pregnant ladies amongst us.

For this shower, I thought I would share some sage knowledge from my time as a neonatal nurse. I did this job in a variety of neonatal intensive care units for about 12 years looking after both premature and sick full term babies so I think I know a couple of helpful tips for baby care.

My first tip is to make sure you eat something mum. Often in the throws of new motherhood and the excitement of visitors, gifts and the joy of feeding, changing and lack of sleep, the health of the mother gets completely overlooked. If friends and family offer food parcels then say YES. They are certainly a life saver when you least expect it. On the friends and family, get them to make their own tea/coffee and serve you. I swear it is a bonus.

For baby tip number two, is buy babygros without feet in them. For some reason, the manufacturers make the main bodies oversized and the legs and feet too short. If you have a baby who is long and thin it is far easier to put socks on them, by the way socks are great because if their legs do outgrow the babygro then you can cut off the feet and put socks on their lil feet.


Third tip, if you have a baby who hates being bathed wrap them in a spare towel and lower them in wrapped up, once they get used to it, gradually open up the towel and let them have a splash.

Fourth, is a sleepy one. Put your baby into bed a little bit awake. Babies have to learn to go off to sleep and their circadian rhythmns are different to ours. They wake more frequently, so in the night when they wake up they have to learn to get back off to sleep. Each baby is of course very different, but try to go up to their room for their last food, make it calm and quiet, darken the room if you want to or have a small nightlight on. Over stimulate baby and when you lay them in their cot, try and wake them a little by patting their back. They will then learn where they are and what is ''normal'' at bedtime. It is good to try and get a bedtime routine if you can.

It was really hard finding a baby picture of a baby sleeping on 

it's back for this, I am scared now for parents bombarded with inaccurate images.

Fifth, have loads of different ways of burping them during feeds. I think I know about 8 so far.

Sixth, learn to sing some cool nursery rhymes.

Round and round the garden

Round and round the garden
Little Teddy bear
One step
Two steps
Tickle you under there!

My personal favourite is Five lil speckled frogs, I used to sing it to a 6 month old premmie when he was bored and he always smiled..................




Seventh, read books to you baby from the word go. Babies learn to communicate by listening to our voices and reading to babies is the perfect way to spend me time and for them to learn and develop lots of amazing brain connections.

Eight, when someone offers to babysit, say YES!!!!!!!