Tag: motherhood

Help With Breastfeeding

| February 1, 2012

Breastfeeding isn’t easy, but it’s so worth it if you are able to. In the beginning it takes perseverance, practice and the knowledge of how to breastfeed to get it right. But even then, it doesn’t always go to plan.

I found invaluable support from fellow breastfeeding mothers, midwives and La Leche League.

If you want help with breastfeeding contact La Leche League.

La Leche League can offer help if:

  • You are expecting a baby and want to know more about breastfeeding
  • You are already breastfeeding and want help with challenges
  • You need information on starting solids or weaning
  • You want to meet other breastfeeding mums to share support and experiences
  • You are interested in reading more about breastfeeding, birth and parenting
  • You are a health professional interested in learning more about breastfeeding
  • You want to find out about peer counselling programmes
  • You want to help other breastfeeding mothers

Find out more and get support from your local branch of La Leche League.

Struggling to Find the Best Baby Names?

| January 24, 2012

Pregnancy is a doddle when compared to finding the perfect name for your baby.

My husband and I spent months, weeks, days and hours brainstorming, debating and deliberating on names.

And the craziest thing of all was that I despised the names he liked and he wouldn’t (perhaps it was out of spite for me not liking his names) agree to any of the names I came up with.

The clock was ticking and I began to envisage us in hospital, with our new baby in our arms and a blank name tag, whilst we continued to try and reach a decision.

We desperately needed some guidance.

My husband was coming up with more and more bizarre names in an effort to be the one to find the perfect name for our baby.

I feared he was close to approaching wacky celebrity baby name status where the likes of Apple, Sage Moonblood, Ocean and Blue Angel exist.

I went straight to the bookshop for some advice and can heartily recommend 60,001 Best Baby Namesby Diane Stafford and the Penguin Dictionary of First Namesby David Pickering.

It’s not easy. The name you give your baby is the name he or she will be stuck with forever (that’s if they don’t change it by deed poll)!

They say that a name can influence the life of a person, their career and even their ability to interact successfully with others. And if you’re not feeling the strains of future parenthood yet, the pressure is on you to get it right!

And if you’re wanting to know what the most popular names are for newborn boys and girls, check out Bounty who have just announced the Most Popular Baby Names for 2011.

Healthy Snacks for Insatiable Hunger

| January 3, 2012

I’ve always loved food, ever since I was a baby.

Apparently I devoured so many mashed carrots when I was a young one that my skin colour turned a shade of orange due to the amount of carotene I was ingesting!

The pediatrician had seen it before, my parents could relax knowing it was nothing serious and I would return to my normal shade of skin colour, but they were to stop feeding me such copious amounts of carrots!

I decided I wanted to breastfeed before I had my baby.

I’ve been very lucky with my baby as she took to breastfeeding straight away. What I didn’t know was that breastfeeding would zap so much energy from me and leave me absolutely ravenous for food.

Breastfeeding and nutritious food have been the best things for my post-pregnancy weight loss (and the hours of pram walking we do)!

When you’re breastfeeding your baby it’s so easy to just jump straight for pre-packaged foods to satisfy your rumbling stomach (e.g. crisps, chocolate bars, cakes). You are, after all, sat on your behind for hours as your baby suckles away. You eat these foods and you still feel hungry 5 minutes later. What was the point of that? And you haven’t provided your body with good nutrition, if any nutrition, for you or your breastfeeding baby.

Here are some of the healthy, quick and easy things I eat to provide me with a steady release of energy and to maximise the nutrients I’m putting in to my body:

  • Low-fat cottage cheese on wholegrain bread
  • Carrot sticks with hummus (or cottage cheese)
  • Celery sticks with cottage cheese (or hummus)
  • Scrambled eggs (just melt a little butter in a pan, crack 2 eggs into the pan and stir whilst cooking until fluffy) with wholegrain toast

So what do you need in your shopping bag for the above? The following ingredients can be bought for just over a fiver from your local supermarket, and will provide you with plenty of healthy and varied snacks:

  1. Low-fat cottage cheese
  2. Hummus
  3. Carrots
  4. Celery
  5. Free-range eggs
  6. Wholegrain bread
  7. Butter (you probably already have this in the fridge)!