- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
In today's video, I'm going to be sharing with you
my 10 top tips for new moms.
And this video is in collaboration with JOHNSON'S.
They have a TOP-TO-TOE baby range,
and Welcome to the World campaign,
and they have asked me to be on the welcoming committee,
so I will be welcoming parents into the crazy world
of parenting.
I think on my channel, I come across as knowing
what I'm talking about when I talk about babies,
but if I had vlogged when I had my first son, Fraser,
you would have seen a far more anxious mother
who was quite unsure of herself, quite scared
a lot of the time, and didn't really have a clue.
What you see now, the way I am and the way I parent,
is something that has definitely developed over time.
Becoming a mom is like getting a brand-new job,
but that job happens to be the hardest,
the most emotional, and the most rewarding job
that you will ever have.
So I really hope that some of these tips will get to
those new moms out there that are feeling
a little bit anxious or a little bit unsure.
So I'm gonna go through my tips, and I'm also gonna
introduce you to some of the new TOP-TO-TOE range
and the two products that we love the most.
Right, the first product that I wanted to show you
is the JOHNSON'S TOP-TO-TOE baby bath.
This is great because newborn skin is so delicate,
it's quite hard to know what is safe to use on their skin
and what isn't, but this is so pure that you can use it
in their first-ever bath.
It's hypoallergenic, it is very mild, it's pH-neutral,
and it has no tears.
I also wanted to show you the JOHNSON'S
Extra Sensitive Baby Wipes.
Baby wipes are something you're gonna have to
get very familiar with.
The average baby goes through 12 and a half thousand
baby wipes in the first two years of life.
So you're gonna be buying a lot of these.
You wanna know what you're putting on their skin.
These ones, again, are suitable from birth,
so you could pack these in your baby's hospital bag
when you're having your baby.
They are 97% water, the wipes are very soft
and they're very nice wetness. (laughs)
So yeah, I really, really like these,
and I happily use this on my baby.
One last thing as well, the little door,
it's so easy to access these wipes, and it always reseals,
and I know that's a really small thing,
but a big difference to me. (laughs)
And again, it's supported by midwives.
Now into my tips, and my first tip is one
that you've probably heard but may not have done,
I know I wasn't very good at doing this
when I became a new mother, and that is to sleep
when your baby is sleeping.
Sleep deprivation is the worst.
I used to get so emotional when I was tired,
and everything seemed harder because I was so tired.
And newborns actually sleep 14 to 16 hours a day,
so that's good news.
But the only bad news is, they do that in two-hour stints,
so for an adult, it's quite hard for us to go to sleep,
get to sleep, and then be woken up again.
So if someone can help you, then that would be amazing
for you to just get a solid little bit of sleep.
I found if I could get six hours in a day,
then I would feel like a new woman.
Housework can wait, visitors can wait,
you've just had a baby, and you need to heal.
My next tip is to listen to yourself
and do what you want to do.
When you become a new mother, so many people
all of a sudden have opinions
about how you should raise that baby.
Whether it be your neighbor or your mother
or your grandmother, so many people wanna offer you advice.
But what I found was really good,
rather than debating with people
or saying, that actually wouldn't work with my baby,
rather than getting into all of that,
just smile and nod and be like, oh okay, yup,
mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yup, yup, and then literally walk away
and do exactly what you want to do
and what you know is right for your baby.
No one knows your baby as well as you do,
and I think, as a new mother, I didn't even realize that.
But they were inside you, they spent every second of the day
with you, you know that they don't like to sit a certain way
or they don't like their milk a certain way,
you know it, no one else does, so go with your instinct.
My next tip is to make like-minded friends.
Support is so key when you have a baby, and for me,
all of my family live abroad, so when I had my baby,
I did feel quite isolated and quite lonely.
Some days, once Matt had gone back to work,
were very, very long days.
So if you can make some friends at a playgroup,
or I had an NCT group, and that was really nice,
because I had friends that all had babies
at the exact same stage as my baby,
so you could compare things.
But I also think that you should hang out with people
that make you feel good and that maybe have
similar parenting styles to yourself.
There were some people that I met when I had my first son
that I would walk away from after hanging out with them
and feel a bit bad about myself, or bad about my parenting.
So I think, if there's people that are in your life
or that you know like that, just try and avoid them.
And make real friends that just, you'll know,
you'll get each other, but making friends
and actually putting yourself out there,
if it's not a natural thing for you to go out and socialize,
it can make motherhood so much easier.
My next tip is don't worry about your body or your figure.
I spent way too much time worrying about that
when I had a very small baby.
You will lose the weight, you will be back to normal
by the time your baby is one,
and I would give yourself that whole year.
If you're not back by then,
maybe then do something about it,
but honestly, do not put pressure on yourself
when you have a very small young baby,
your body has just been through so much.
They say, nine months to make a baby,
nine months to get back and lose the weight.
Next tip is to have one-to-one time with your baby
so that you can bond.
I think it's so exciting when someone has a new baby,
especially if it's the first baby in the family.
So so many people want to come around and visit
and see that baby, but it's also really important
that you to cuddle your baby and spend time with your baby.
My mom helped us for the first two or three weeks
of all of my children's lives, and I remember
on the third or fourth day, she was staying with us,
but she said that she had to go out,
she had to go to a meeting.
And I remember thinking, oh my gosh, don't leave me,
don't leave me alone with this small human,
I don't know if I can do it, kind of thing.
And her actually leaving that day and leaving me alone
with my baby was such a good thing,
because not only did I grow in confidence,
and I was kind of like, do you know what?
I got this, I can do this, it was just really nice
to actually bond and just lay there and sleep with my baby
and I think it's actually so important
to have one-to-one time.
My next tip is to have a sense of humor
and to make light of as many situations as you can.
I know things like poo-namis are pretty horrendous,
but you can change a top, you can change a nappy,
quicker than you can change your mood.
So if you can make light of those situations,
or if your baby vomits, you know,
oh, I guess you didn't want that.
My next tip is so cliche, and that is to
enjoy every second of it, take too many photos.
I don't think you realize until they're older
how much they change in those early days.
They change every single day, they change so much.
So take too many photos, lay with them,
let the washing pile up, enjoy them, sniff their head,
just, you will miss it so much.
And you, it's so cliche,
but you cannot believe how quick it goes.
My next tip is to allow yourself extra time.
It is not just you who cannot get out of the house.
I remember it taking me an hour to two hours
to get out of the house and get the baby into the car seat.
In those early days, I just felt like I would feed him,
which would make him poo, and then we would bath him,
and then we would change him, and then he would want
another feed, and then he would poo, and it was like,
oh my gosh, I can't even get out of the house.
And so just allow yourself extra time.
Next thing I wanted to say is that I promise you,
it will get easier.
Come 12 weeks, they will be in a routine,
they will be sleeping for a bit more,
they'll have a good stint of sleep,
and I promise you, it will get so much easier.
You'll get in the flow of it, and so will they.
So although it might be really hard at those early days,
it will get so much easier.
I've had three of them,
so that just shows you it can't be that bad.
And my last point isn't so much a tip,
but I just wanted to say that you are doing an amazing job.
No one really gives you enough praise when you're a mom,
everything is kind of expected.
But you are doing an amazing job,
and it's really, really hard sometimes.
But I promise you that it will be so, so worth it.
So yeah, I just wanted to say that.
And yeah, I hope you guys liked this video,
I hope you took something from it.
I will put the links down below of the products
that I showed at the beginning, and yeah,
I'll see you in my next one.
Bye guys.