Motherhood: Willow at 3 Months

Height/Weight: At her 12 Week clinic appointment, Willow weighed 12lb 5oz and is just around the 50th Centile. Her height hasn’t been measured since 6 weeks, but everyone comments on how long she is!

Routine & Sleeping: We still don’t have a strict routine for Willow, as this is what works for us and for her; especially as from 10 weeks she started sleeping through the night all by herself! At first I kept waking up to check she was alive haha but now she sleeps through from whenever she goes to bed (usually about 7:30pm and latest about 9:30pm) until 5am. We still start our day officially at 8am and she has various naps throughout the day.  We always do the same bedtime routine of feed, bath time, chill and bed (occasionally another feed if needed). I’m trying not to get used to the sleeping through the night though as we’re not far off the dreaded 4 month sleep regression.  Now that Willow is 3 months old and is having bottles, I’ll try to have a bit more structure throughout the day where I can.  But right now, what we are doing works and it means that Willow is super content and flexible when we are out and about.

Eating/Feeding: Unfortunately from 11 weeks I have been unable to exclusively breastfeed.  From about 9 1/2 weeks, Willow would get very distressed when feeding, I did lots of research and reached out to support groups who suggested a ‘growth spurt’ or baby encouraging my supply but this was going on for a while and it was very distressing for myself and most importantly for poor Willow.  I also noticed a drop in how ‘full’ my breasts would feel and I was struggling to express enough for the emergency situations when Willow wouldn’t feed from me and only a bottle.  In the end from 11 weeks, I decided to combination feed (with the support of our Health Visitor); it’s working really well for us at the moment and I plan to do a whole post dedicated to this… as when I researched, there is hardly anything out there on this!

 Sizes: Willow is now comfortably wearing her 0-3 month clothing, although some pieces are still rather large on her and she is still wearing the odd newborn vest and ‘up to 1 month’ outfit.  Her legs are rather long, so I may break into her 3-6 month leggings soon. We have hardly any 3-6 month clothing (apart from holiday appropriate pieces for Spain), so I’m excited to build up this section of her wardrobe which will see us through Autumn to Christmas!!!

Milestones: Willow honestly is so smiley, I love it! She’s making lots more sounds and I feel like she is so close to laughing… I cannot wait. Her head/neck are really strong but she hates tummy time… so I’m working on this and using some other ways to strengthen this for her, so that she can start to develop and hit milestones like rolling over. As I mentioned before, Willow also slept through the night and is continuing to do so. Another skill is that she now grasps things and has lots of fun playing with the plastic rings/links and her dummy (she now takes it out with her hand haha!).  She plays with her hands a lot and is always trying (and sometimes succeeding) to suck her thumb and attempts to shove her whole fist in her mouth.

Loves: I wanted to add this category as this month I’ve definitely begun to notice Willow has certain preferences and I want to always remember these.

Watching TV (particularly Waybuloo, In the Night Garden and the Tinkerbell movies), sitting in her rocker, lying on our tummies for cuddles, playing with her hands and sucking her fingers/thumb (she prefers it to a dummy when she’s awake but a dummy definitely soothes her to sleep when she is tired), being rocked to sleep, baths, dancing/kicking around naked in the morning on her changing mat haha!

My Body: I’m still gradually losing weight, and still really need to tone up; I’m taking much more care with my diet and trying to walk everyday. Stopping exclusively breastfeeding was hard but I know I made the best decision for Willow. My hormones are still quite up and down, and I have had the WORST skin particularly on my back but there is nothing I can take whilst I’m breastfeeding… so diet and skincare is my focus at the moment.

Baby: Newborn (0-3 Month) Top Products

I always find these kind of posts/videos useful and I know I researched a lot during my pregnancy. I won’t list the obvious things, like a crib, pram/carseat, nappies etc but everyday things that have really helped my first 3 months as a Mummy.

Here are 15 things we’ve loved…

Coconut Oil

I used Coconut Oil for everything myself before pregnancy/becoming a mum and I was  very keen to use natural products on Willow as a newborn. My sister recommended Coconut Oil after she had been using it on her baby Elodie (10 weeks older than Willow). Willow has LOTS of hair, so I often use it on this to keep it super baby soft. I also use it on her skin after baths and it helped lots with the baby acne she had in the first couple of weeks and also some dry skin she had on her forehead. She also hardly ever suffers from nappy rash, and I’m sure putting this on every night helps!

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Burts Bee’s Hair & Body Wash

As I mentioned previously, I was keen to use as natural and gentle products on Willow as a newborn; this product smells divine and we have had no problems with her skin & hair whilst using it. Everyone always comments how good she smells! It also never overpowered that amazing newborn smell, nothing beats that.

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Angelcare Bath Support

Giving your baby their first bath is so exciting but also SO scary!!! This support not only looks great but is generally fantastic and Willow LOVES her baths. With this support she’s free to kick around and splash and I know that she is safe. I’ve also been known to pop her in it around the house instead of carrying her (Giant) rocker around!

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MAM Dummies/Soothers

We gave Willow a dummy in her first week, she took to it really well and they really helped to soothe her through things she previously screamed through, like nappy changes! We bought lots of different branded dummies whilst I was pregnant, I tried MAM first and never looked back! We tried to give her Tomee Tippee and Avent and she rejected both of those, so now we stick to MAM.  They have great designs and come in a handy steriliser box.

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Nappy Bag

In particular, the Baby Beau Nappy Bag that we use. I have to say I struggled enormously with finding a nappy bag, I’m fussy about my normal handbags and this carried through to Nappy Bags. I really didn’t want the classic ‘Laptop Bag’ look and a lot of the designs were very ‘Mumsie’ (Cupcakes, flowers, butterflies… totally not me) and I did fid some beautiful leather ones but they came with a £200+ price tag; which I couldn’t justify with so many other large baby purchases to make!

In the end we ordered this Baby Beau Isabelle Tote one, it’s canvas and I think faux leather. It has a cool black & white striped interior and leather look accessories. There is plenty of room for everything I need, it goes with everything and it’s not too girly that Wayne can’t carry it too.

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Slumber Buddies Bed Light

Another recommendation from my sister who has the Sheep version, we have the little Elephant but there are lots of variations! The light has 3 colours (Red, Blue, Green) that project stars onto the ceiling and the 5 different sound settings (including a heartbeat). White noise was really helpful at the beginning when Willow didn’t sleep much at night and now the lights are perfect for her to look at whilst falling asleep.

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Gro Egg

We’ve had some really warm nights so far this summer and having a newborn you are constantly worrying about what their temperature is and if they are too hot or too warm.  The Gro Egg sets your mind at rest, as you are aware of the temperature and can sort your baby out accordingly!

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Sleepyhead Deluxe

Willow was nocturnal when she was born and for the first couple of weeks, I don’t think I got more than an hours sleep at a time, unless she was sleeping on one of us! One early morning at about 3am I ordered the Sleepy Head from John Lewis; it is expensive for what it is. However, it worked wonders with Willow immediately and at 10 weeks she started sleeping through the night! Even though she had a small bedside crib, I think it was still too big and open for her and she kept rolling on her side. The Sleepyhead keeps her nice and cocooned but still able to move around a bit. When you split the cost per night… it’s a bargain!

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4Moms Rock-a-Roo

We initially wanted the MamaRoo but again it is SO expensive and so originally we purchased the Nuna Leaf, which was slightly cheaper. But after reading some reviews, we found this was super heavy and didn’t rock on it’s own for very long, so we exchanged it for the Rock-a-Roo.  It has varying speeds and can play music through the chair (we’re yet to use this feature and are still only using speed one). Willow loves being in her rocker to sleep, watch some TV or just chill out and look around/look at the mobile. To be honest, she also likes the super cheap bouncer chair that she has at her grandparents too, so I think it’s more the position and the ability to kick about by herself.  So I wouldn’t say you MUST by the Rock-a-Roo (even though we love it, she loves it and it’s a great design) but a rocker/bouncer chair is definitely a must-have!

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Perfect Prep Machine

Now I’ve only been using this for a couple of weeks, but I would be lost without it. I had NEVER made a bottle before having Willow but as we are now combination feeding, I’m learning as I go. This little machine has saved so much time and is SO useful!

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Electric Breast Pump

I am no longer using this, however, for the first 3 months I was using this constantly. I have the Tommee Tippee one as we already had all the Tommee Tippee bottles and things at home. However, I have heard really good things about Avent and Medela! Having this meant that I could go out a lot more and feel confident about feeding Willow (I was never 100% confident feeding in public and only ever did if I needed to or didn’t have time to express beforehand).  It also helped in those first few days when your milk comes in and they are so painful and engorged. This is definitely a must-have if you are Breastfeeding!

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The Best Baby Tracker App

I initially downloaded this in the first couple of days after searching “Breastfeeding App” as I kept forgetting what side Willow had fed from last. You can record all sorts of things such as nappy changes, sleeping, feeding, height, weight etc! I use it at the moment just for feeding, to manage what side she fed from last and how long she fed; I also now record when she had formula and how much. I’m guessing that once I start weaning, I’ll record this on there too.

The Wonder Weeks App

This is based on babies Leap Weeks, it has a handy scheduled and condensed guide (from the Books) on each Leap, when your baby will have their Leap weeks and what to expect. It’s super useful to understand your babies development and nice to know sometimes it’s nothing you are doing… your baby is being super difficult because they are going through a leap!!!

Swaddle Muslins

Every parent knows how useful Muslins are for everything… we have millions dotted around our house now! However, I invested in these big Summer Infant ‘swaddle’ muslins and they are amazing for lots of uses; covering for breastfeeding, blankets, creating shade/darkness etc. I wanted some Aden&Anais ones but bought these ones from Mothercare and they are lovely.

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Gripe Water

Willow suffered from mild colic in her first few weeks, luckily by about 10 weeks this was much improved! In the v. early weeks we used infacol but we didn’t seem to see much relief for her, by 4 weeks we switched to Gripe Water which definitely really helped through those difficult times of painful wind for her!

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