All posts tagged: #tynesideparents

Loneliness of Motherhood

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Having young children is not all about coffee shops and idle chatter. It is not a holiday. It can be one of the toughest times in a woman’s life. The loneliness can be torture. With your first child, the learning curve is steep – learning to keep a baby settled, soothed and alive while recovering from pregnancy, birth and unrealistic expectations of how motherhood would be. We are often sleep deprived, in need of supportive mum friends and it can feel like we are on our own with the day-to-day responsibilities of looking after our baby. In our society mothers are often judged, with unreal expectations stacked against them and their children. It can be a hard slog. When you become a mother it doesn’t matter what job you do, how old you are or how much you spent in Mothercare preparing for your baby’s arrival – you have a baby to look after and it can knock your confidence when they cry, need a poo, won’t sleep and won’t settle anywhere but in your …

baby newcastle and tyneside

Can I Cuddle My Baby?

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The question Can I Cuddle My Baby? comes up a lot especially from new mums with a baby who just wants to cling. My aim with this post is to provide good information about baby development, our parenting instincts, what’s normal and why cuddling our babies and children is not just lovely it’s crucial. In our society babies can be seen as creatures to control and to train, and parents are encouraged to make their babies independent and self soothing. Any parent who cuddles and carries and soothes their babies can be seen as giving in, as failing, as making a rod for their own back. So, if you are asking Can I Cuddle My Baby? Here’s what the research tell us… When your baby is born  he has approximately 200 billion brain cells but there are very few connections in his higher brain – these connections are mainly responsible for  emotional and social intelligence. 90% of brain growth takes place in the first five years of life Early stress (prolonged crying) can create negative changes in  baby’s …

Your Guide To Baby and Child Car Seats

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Helping you to choose the right baby or child car seat

Managing Stress

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Life’s busy with life, with juggling, with work, with worrying, with stressing, with just being busy and I’m a bit sick of it. It’s making me stressed, over-stretched and ill – I’ve been tired and anxious, with a need to relax and slow-down. So it’s time to focus on managing stress and whinging less. My loves in life are my family, my friends and my work – I’m really lucky because work never feels like work, I love what I do and who I work with. But the stress comes from trying to do too much, trying to fit too much in and when I’m stressed and tired, I can be whingy and everything feels like a chore. I don’t want to live my life this, yearning for holidays when I can just stop, I want to achieve better balance to be happy and to enjoy all the things I love day to day. The last 10 years have involved so much loss and grief and I want my happy, positive self back. The last few weeks have been …

Making a rod for my back

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I have teenage daughters and I have been reflecting on life as a mother and on those early days, weeks and months with my babies when I felt a bit lost, like I was doing it wrong and being told I was making a rod for my back. Becoming a mother was a huge transition – as it is for most of us. I became more selfless and able and I learnt to trust my instincts. Before I became a mum I was never interested in breastfeeding or co-sleeping – in fact I mocked it when I went to antenatal classes..  When I was pregnant, I started reading and talking to friends who were mothers and they spoke positively – although fairly realistically – about birth and feeding and my thoughts started to change. I read well – Sheila Kitzinger and Ina May Gaskin – and I started listening to my instincts. I booked a homebirth with a birthing pool and I planned to breastfeed – still wasn’t convinced by the co-sleeping though! Armed with good …