Hey everyone!
Welcome to my latest blog, for those visiting for the first time, my name is Laura, I am 29 and married to Chris. We have 2 lovely children, Harry (2yrs 7 months) and Matilda (6 weeks!)
I have been blogging since August 2017, still fairly new to me, but loving the journey so far and have met so many lovely followers, supporters and fellow mummies! I blog about motherhood, beauty and lifestyle!
So Matilda is almost approaching 6 weeks old, and its been full on since she's arrived, keeping routine for our 2 year old, and still trying to spend as much one on one time with him has been such a priority for me. So I haven't been as blogging as much as I would like but all you mummies with 2 or more kiddies will know exactly what its like.
Below are my tips for breast feeding a baby with a toddler on your hands! - I hope you find them helpful :)
Leave the potty out! So Harry has been dry in the day time the month after he turned 2 (I have another post on this so if you want to know how we got him dry at 2 years then head over and have a read!) and dry at night time 6 months after we got him dry in the day. As you can imagine I need to help him get his trousers down especially when wearing a belt, and even funnier, wipe his bum once he's done a poo! So we have a infant mini seat downstairs which when Chris is home or if I am free we will lift him and pop him on there, but if I'm home alone or breast feeding Matilda I will tell Harry to go upstairs and use the potty. (You could bring it downstairs if you want too but I just keep ours upstairs as when Harry wakes in the morning he goes straight on the potty) Also make life easier and ensure you have access to everything you need I.e. Spare pants if they don't make it in time, wipes etc So you can get toilet time done quickly and get back to the baby if need be!
Once you have established a rough idea of how often your newborn feeds, or if you know baby is on a cluster feed, then I try and plan ahead in regards to play times with my toddler. So for example if I know Matilda is going to need a feed or routing I will quickly say to Harry Right! What are we playing with now.. Shall we play downstairs? In your bedroom upstairs? And try and guide them in choosing what they want to play with as I know a 'new' interest will give me plenty of time to feed. For me if I didn't have this approach with Harry, I can guarantee I would get comfy ready to feed Matilda and Harry would start to say play mummy play mummy, bedroom mummy and then the mum guilt would kick in as I can't feed standing or kneeling/walking so I would have to keep saying in a minute!!! So I really found suggesting he choose where he was wanting to play and also changing up what he was playing with to something new so a puzzle, or colouring books, cars etc before I fed made my feeding time so much easier.
Any spare time I get, I play with him and get down to his level, the house work can wait. I find this really works for us in him understanding that mummy has to share her time with him and his baby sister. Once Matilda wakes and needs a feed, I explain I have to see Matilda now and he seems to go with the flow! And trust me, don't think I am full of energy in getting down to his level and playing with fireman sam and all else boyish... I am not! But it makes my day much easier with them both. For example right now Matilda is sleeping and as I am writing this blog I am in his bedroom with him and he is building a den, as I am typing I am also going through a line of bears asking them have they seen our torch! Lol!!!!!
When you have hubby at home feed elsewhere; so when Chris is home, I will often take Matilda up stairs and feed her, I don't have too. But 1) Harry doesn't see or feel what he may think that I am always feeding and 2) He gets time with daddy just them two! When Matilda and I come back downstairs he can't wait to tell us what he's been doing.. Even though its only been 20 minutes lol!
Offer them food before you sit down to feed! Quick Snacks!!! Fruit, crackers, yogurts, raisens anything thats going to be quick for you to grab. I explain Harry mummy is going to feed Matilda her food now, do you want some food too? 9 times out of 10... Its a YES! He eats as I feed, it works for us!
Sing song time! Finally another good one that works for me is putting Harry's songs on, I use youtube thats linked to our TV in the living room, it comes with little interactive videos and will have everything from wheels on the bus to Johnny Johnny! We sing along and he still feels he gets all my time whilst I am feeding.
Lots of Love x
