How to enjoy baby's first year!

We're super excited to team up with world-renowned childcare expert Rachel Waddilove, of Rachel’s Babies maternity consulting. 

Rachel, who has appeared on TV shows such as This Morning has written three renowned books ‘The Baby Book – How to Enjoy Year One’, ‘The Toddler Book – How to Enjoy Your Growing Child’ and ‘Sleep Solutions – Quiet Nights for You and Your Child’.   

She has also advised celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Minnie Driver on all things parenting. 

Here she shares some top tips for the first year: 

The tips I’m going to give you may seem very much related to newborn babies, but if you are able to have a good start with your baby and put in a loving, gentle, flexible routine then you will find that, in general, you will have a very happy contented toddler.

Coming home from hospital 

This can be a wonderful experience, and you may feel very settled and happy with your delivery and the care you’ve been given. However, it’s not always like this and you may feel completely overwhelmed and wonder why this little person you’ve bought home continues to cry and be unsettled - and you’re not sure what to do! 

You may be feeling shattered, weepy and uncertain. So, my advice to you is to get as much help as you can in hospital before you leave to go home. Ask for help and advice with feeding, whether breast or bottle feeding, as well as help with your baby’s general care. 

Prepare food for yourselves and put it in the freezer, before you have your baby, so you don’t have to cook when you get home. Encourage friends and family to come and help so that you get as much rest as you can, and ask them to bring already prepared food instead of flowers! You need to remember that you’ve just had a baby, and your body has been through huge changes.

Feeding

You may have already decided how you want to feed your baby. Some mothers find breast feeding really difficult to establish and others take to it quickly. Please don’t feel under any pressure to breast feed if you don’t wish to do it, or you can’t manage it. 

Breast feeding is wonderful if you are able to, but there’s a lot of pressure on mums to breast feed. If you wish to bottle feed, then that’s absolutely fine and it’s your choice. If you’re breast feeding, make sure you have plenty of help before you leave hospital.

As your baby grows you will be feeding him solid food as well as milk. This is another milestone in his development. Introducing solid food and watching your baby enjoy food is so important and there’s such satisfaction for you as parents to enjoy meals with your baby as well.

Sleeping

Having a baby/child who is a good sleeper is essential! Babies who learn to self-settle and sleep well in those early months of life go on to be good sleepers as toddlers and children. 

As we all know, there are times when babies and toddlers don’t sleep so well for all sorts of reasons for example, teething, illness, development, time zone changes and many other reasons too. 

Once life has settled down again a baby or child who has slept well will very quickly return to his good patterns of sleeping. It’s so important to begin a gentle routine as soon as possible so that you create good sleep habits from the start and then it’s a very easy and natural process to get him sleeping and napping well.

Baby groups

Joining a good mums' and baby group is a real help to stop any feelings of isolation. Often those friendships you make in the early days will last a lifetime. Other groups such as yoga, music or swimming groups are also great places to make new friends and good socialising time for your baby/toddler.

Looking after you

It’s really important to make time for yourself and be able to rest in the early days. Time with your partner, family and friends, with or without your little one, is important for you as a mum and as a couple. 

Going out to do the things you love to do from time to time is also really good for you. Finding a good babysitter if you don’t have family around, is really important so that you can have a few hours to yourself.

I hope these few tips help you to enjoy your baby’s first year!

More information: 

1-1 consultations with Rachel are available via phone or video call and if you are looking for a maternity nurse please contact Rachel’s Babies agency as we have a wonderful team of hand-picked and highly experienced nurses. Visit www.rachelsbabies.com