5 things I'll do differently next time

With Squidge now being a year old, I find myself reflecting a lot on how his first year was, not just for him, but for us.  And what his first days and weeks were as a newborn (gosh I miss those days!). 

It’s no secret that we’re dying to start trying for baby #2, and will be fairly soon, and if and when we manage to have another baby, there’s a few things I’d do differently.

Make more effort to breastfeed

Squidge just didn’t take to it, he screamed and screamed and screamed and I cried because he was screaming.  It just didn’t happen.  I’d try every day, but to no avail.  Just hearing him cry/scream was super stressful – we’d never had a baby before and the last thing you want to hear is your baby crying.  Well, I’m a bit more accustomed to it now and feel more confident dealing with a crying baby.  So for baby #2, I would definitely try on many more occasions to get them to breastfeed (assuming they struggle in the same way Squidge did), instead of a couple times a day, I'd make sure I try and every single feed.  On reflection, I could have made more effort with this with Squidge, and should have.

Wear them more

I’m a big fan of baby wearing and we still put Squidge in a sling fairly regularly.  He likes it and we love it.  Something I didn’t really do though was to wear Squidge around the house when he was a newborn because at that stage we didn’t have a sling.  We didn’t buy one until he was about 2 months old.  Well, for baby #2 I’ll be wearing them from the first few days for the extra bonding and closeness.

Baby led weaning (BLW)

We haven't quite managed it with Squidge, we've done a bit of a combined approach; spoon feeding him purée's and giving him finger food to feed himself.  But with the next baby, I'd love to really give baby led weaning a proper go from day one, and ideally wait until they're 6 months old.  With Squidge we started weaning him at 17 weeks as that's when he seemed ready, but I would like to try and hold out for him to be more developed and able to feed himself for BLW to be a success.  Aside to this, I'd also like to try and refrain from giving them any jar food, and make the effort to give them only homemade food.  At the moment, most of Squidge's food is homemade (poached salmon with veg etc), but I still rely on jars when I'm out and about or if he's being fussy.

Get a co-sleeper

We moved Squidge into his own room earlier than planned as his Daddy got the flu when he was about 3.5 months old and it was keeping both of us awake.  I made the decision to move Squidge to his own room so he could sleep a bit better and it went really well, but oh my god did we miss having him in our room, waking up and seeing his smiling little face.  Next time I'll get a ridid co-sleeper to keep next to the bed that'll sleep them for up to 6 months.

Print, file and frame photos

Something we haven't really done is print photo's of Squidge.  I really want for him to have his own photo album to look back at when he's older.  Until mine was lost, I loved being able to go and look at all my old baby photo's; I'm not sure any exist of me any more :(  If not a photo album, they maybe something like project life - I know it all takes effort, but it's still something I'd love to make the effort to do.  Also, just as a little extra, I'd definitely get Milestone Cards, I think it's lovely being able to glance back and see them at these little milestones.

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