I Should Have Called the Midwife First.


Yesterday began with another one of those picture perfect mornings.  The kind where the sun bathes everything in the suburbs of Sydney with rays of light that bring a smile to everyone’s faces.

It didn’t matter if you were spending your Saturday kicking back at a cafe or hard at work, you just knew that the day was going to be just that little bit easier with the benefit of having witnessed such a glorious weekend opening ceremony.

Saturday was equal parts kicking back and working hard for Mr SSG and I.  We had our last antenatal class at the hospital and this class, with its focus on the early weeks for new parents, was the session we found most useful.  I was designated note taker whilst Mr SSG was the legs of our partnership and hot footed it down the road at morning tea for team sustenance supplies at Luxe Bakery.

We figured that we’d have plenty of opportunity to get stuck into hospital biscuits come December so why peak too early?  Which is a round about way of saying that the current NSW Health biscuit contractor ain’t Arnotts….  Back in the Dark Ages, when I was a student in Perth, Arnotts provided a superior biscuit service to hospitals.  Twin packs of biscuits came in at least 3 different varieties – Milk Coffee and Nice, choc chip cookies and something else I didn’t like (which is why I can’t remember what they were now) and a cream filled variety featuring Shortbread Creams.  The private establishments and veterans hospital also had Walker’s Shortbread in the waiting room because their cliental had quite specific tastes.

Sandwiches have also suffered a similar fate…  They were never flash but they were honest.  Cheese and tomato, beef and mustard, chicken and mayo.  Hand made and sliced onto china plates before being double glad wrapped with a date sticker whacked on the top.  No one is quite sure now where the sandwiches come from  because they all look identical, it’s hard to know what’s in them from looking at them and they come in plastic snap lock boxes.

I’m sure I had something else to write about, as fascinating as that potted history is.

Ah yes, the notebook.  Remember several months ago when I started writing about baby experts and their books and my apprehension at reading them?  And how many of you advised that just going with the flow, getting to know your baby and trusting your own instincts served you far better than say page 143 of Save Our Sleep ever did?  Well, thank you because you speak the truth.  Not that I didn’t think this at the time but I think that reading the books was a comforting exercise at the time and I had to read them to put things into perspective.

I have 12 pages of notes from yesterday’s all day class (versus at least a couple of thousand pages of the closely printed text of the baby experts’ tomes).  The bulk of my bullet points dwell on how to interpret a baby’s behavioural cues and a list of things to work through in order to find an answer (if one exists).  There was no talk of 4 hourly routines from week 2 of a baby’s life, no discussion about fore milk and hind milk but rather some very down to earth advice.  The essence of which is that:

  • the first 6 – 8 weeks as new parents is going to be tough and that the only realistic routine will be to do things in the same order at whatever time they need to be done
  • the best kind of expectations of yourself at this time are low expectations because they can always easily exceeded
  • that you cannot spoil a newborn and that you’ve got until about 10 months of age before a baby can be ‘accused’ of his consciously having his parents wrapped around his pudgy little fingers.

Something tells me that I’ll be referring to my little note book more often than the books (if I return to them at all).

It looks as if Baby SSG’s set of wheels are just about ready to roll.  Don’t ask about his parents’ set of wheels.  Car shopping is my least favourite activity in the whole world.  We’ve possibly left it too late and the current plan is to decide on one model from one brand and go to one dealer and do a deal on one Saturday morning.  Before going off to Chatswood for dumplings at New Shanghai.  Our collective parents are not to be told about the fact that ‘shopping around’ does not feature in our strategy.

Anyway, the Bugaboo is now road ready with a cup holder and a pair of bag hooks from Babychic.

www.babychic.com.au

The hooks are plastic and do not ‘close off’ like the metal ones that look like camping accessories.  The maximum weight per hook is 2 kgs and a pair retails for $13.  They attach to the handle of your pram via sturdy velcro straps.

www.zappos.com

The pram now features a bona fide baby bag.  A real one that comes with a change mat.  That doesn’t look like a baby bag.  It’s the Marc by Marc Jacobs Preppy Nylon Eliz-A-Baby bag and I have Blithely Unaware, baby shopping genius to thank for bringing it to my attention.  We are now baby bag twins and it could well be impossible to tell us or our baby boys apart should you see us both in the same spot.

The MJ is worth considering if you’re in the market for something light weight and roomy with lots of internal and external pockets, the top zips shut.  The bulk of the bag is wipe clean nylon and the trims are synthetic.  The straps are comfortable to hold and the shoulder strap is removable.  It does retail for $350 at Shopbop and other American sites.  I was lucky enough to have a 20% off code from Vogue’s Fashion Night Out last month which took a great deal of the sting out of the price.  It’s also smart enough to double as a work satchel in the longer term.


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