Create Your Village

Gather your friends - create a group chat for those 11pm - 3am time slots where you JUST CAN’T anymore, you smell like milk and everything else and you need a quick shoutout for help - be it right now, or a 6am coffee drop or just to vent. 

The fourth trimester

12-week postpartum period immediately after you've given birth and yet not a lot of people talk about it and not one of my healthcare team used this term. 

Products I loved..

Gifted and second hand items -
Accept everything!

You can always pass it on if you don’t use it.

Essentials that worked for me

Food delivery - I created a “baby” list of regular items
(frozen meals included) to help me in the first weeks so I didn’t have to remember what to order. I also craved fresh food which I hadn’t planned on so making up snack boxes (get your village people to do this for you!) so I had cut up cheese, veg sticks, mini dips etc. ready to grab and eat while feeding, burping, settling. 
Disposable underwear. - These were so helpful in hospital for the first few days and then I switched to ​Bare pads. 

Bras , I was already a HH - Wear Nala, Cake maternity, Hotmilk were my favourites during pregnancy and breastfeeding and cater for bigger busts too. 

​A trolley to wheel from room to room really helped with all the things “feeding” and also included snacks and drink bottles for me. 

​Don’t underestimate the craziness of things in every room - water bottles, changing stations - it’s not always easy to move around.

​

The fourth trimester

Your Blue book - has a few health numbers and I found the Australian Breastfeeding Association so helpful. 
Breastfeeding Helpline: 1800 mum 2 mum | 1800 686 268
This helpline is free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and I used it quite a few times in those early weeks. 

In fact Master 3 weeks old would settle to the calming hold menu before I got to the attendant and by that time I would have a sleeping settle baby within seconds. 
Cluster feeding hit for me day 3/4- why they don’t tell you about this is beyond me. Feeding very often (even every 10 mins) to train your body to bring in milk and can happen over weeks of growth spurts. Be prepared with nipple balms, shields, cold and hot compresses just to get you through. The ABA listed above has great information and the consultants are fantastic at calming you in the midst of these sessions. 


Sleep when the baby sleeps
​THIS IS EVERYTHING - those 10-15 min mini naps when you are sleep deprived are priceless and the washing, dishes or cleaning is SO NOT WORTH missing sleep over. 

​Create Your Village

 Week 5 I reached out to my village prior to vaccination week (and for us a tongue tie release) to pick a day and time to come be a cuddle buddy so I can rest, shower, pee, eat alone! Also had a hair appointment I refused to cancel! 
​
This worked so well - instantly I had people "booked in" for almost everyday and it gave me a sense of relief I wasn't doing this alone.  

Products I love

Bedside handle
Grabber - best $8 you'll spend. This is great the help pick up anything you can't reach. 
Hydramama hydration drink - I found this when I was suffering mild morning sickness. I continued to use it after the birth to keep up my hydration. 
Marsupial carrier - my baby decided to be a koala so we had to find a carrier early on that was easy to use (as I'm a solo mum it needed to be able to be put on without a second person). 

​
Melvory 
ABA App and subscription
Ikea light controls
Heatermate

Old phone - for music. You can buy any of the white noise machines 

​​