The lovely Lisa Clegg sent a public tweet asking if any
mums/mums-to-be would be interested in reviewing her new book, The Blissful
Baby Expert. Being a first time mum, I raised my hand high! I downloaded the
eBook and loved every single word of it.
Lisa is a maternity nurse and mum of three children so she’s
gotta know what she’s talking about, right? The testimonials at the beginning
of the book completely supported that. They all praised her work so I couldn’t
wait to get through it myself.
Before I had C, I never read any parenting books. I think
this was partly because I didn’t want to overwhelm myself and partly because I
thought if I read the baby books, it became ‘real’. As C was in NICU/SCBU for
17 days, the nurses taught me how to look after a newborn properly, from changing
a nappy to cleaning his face, but once he got a little older and more awake and
alert during the day I felt as though I was thrown in at the deep end. What do
I do with him? How do I keep him entertained?
As we’re a young couple, we do have suggestions on how to
parent C thrown as us left, right and centre. After reading this book I am much
more determined to do this as I see fit.
CHAPTER 1 – BEFORE BABY IS BORN
“Your hospital bag should be packed and ready from around 32
weeks.” No one told me this! I had C at 33 weeks +2 days. I had no bag packed
and had only just bought my new hospital towels and pyjamas two days before!
Cue a very stressed and worried Chris trying to find everything that I might
need!
Equipment to buy – these are very handily put into three
headings of “essential”, “helpful” and “not needed”. I REALLY recommend reading
this part as I bought quite a few things that we never used and are taking up
space. I spent months writing lists of what I thought we needed to buy,
consulting numerous websites and here it all is in one convenient place!
The British Safety Standard guidelines are mentioned which
are great as I had no idea on what to look out for when purchasing baby items.
BPA-free is another. I knew that everything we bought had to be BPA-free but I
had no idea why! This really opened my eyes.
CHAPTER 2 – GOING INTO HOSPITAL
I spent around three months compiling a list of what I
needed to pack in my hospital bag. It gave me many headaches and it felt as
though I was going round in circles. I consulted lots of sites which all say
that you need different things but I would definitely recommend new mums-to-be
to take a look at this list.
I love the information given about writing a birth plan. At
33 weeks, I still didn’t have one written (not that I even needed one anyway as
I ended up having an emergency Caesarean section!) The reason why I didn’t have
one written was because I simply didn’t know how!
I fell pregnant at a young age so everything was very new to
me. I didn’t know much about pregnancy and delivery (and I was still none the
wiser before reading this!) Now I know all the jargon from ventouse to forceps!
If I’d read this before delivering C, I think I would have been much more
relaxed. As I previously mentioned, I had a Caesarean but even as I lay on the
operating table, I didn’t know the ins and outs of it.
You’re also given information about the various tests that
are performed on your baby after delivery. After reading through I realised
that some tests were done on C that I didn’t even know about! It’s nice to know
what happening so you can ask if you have any questions.
CHAPTER 3 – COMING HOME
This is the main part where I’m shouting inwardly “Why
didn’t I read this when C was just a newborn!?”
I love how everything isn’t angled towards breastfeeding.
You’re reassured that bottle feeding is okay too. If you’d spoken to me whilst
I was pregnant, you would have known that I was dead set on breastfeeding and
the thought of not being able to broke my heart. I thought it would be easy.
After the delivery, I wasn’t able to see C for 2 days but I
still had midwives in trying to get colostrum from me. Any milk after that was
put into a little syringe. It didn’t look like much but it’s all he needed. He
only had 1ml every hour.
When I was more mobile, I tried expressing with my manual
pump. I tried for well over a week but I could never get anything more than
10ml (from both breasts combined) in any one session. He was continually being
topped up with formula and thriving. I remember once, in the middle of the
night, bringing my expressed milk to the NICU in tears because I felt I’d
failed my son. I was reassured that I’d had a tough time of it and he was happy
enough on the formula. I didn’t need to feel guilty (I think I always will
though!).
We move on then to bathing. There’s a detailed ‘how to’
which is fab. We were never show how to bath C so we just went with what worked
best for us.
CHAPTER 4 – FEEDING
Even now, I sometimes think “ooh, should I be giving him
more milk?” and here we have a feeding routine. I wish I’d had this when C was
discharged (I’m actually modifying it slightly for C who, at six months, is
embarrassingly still not in a routine).
Lots of different people gave me different advice on how to
prepare a bottle feed. Here, a concise list is given so you can choose which is
best for you and what will make your life easier.
This chapter really goes into detail about everything you
may need to know. It really is the perfect manual for first-time mums.
The advice on how to breastfeed is my particular favourite
area. I feel as though I should have pushed harder for help. If I ever have a
second child, this book will be my go-to.
The visual aids for how to feed and wind are great. C was
terrible for getting his wind up and we had to try to many different positions
to get it up.
Many people think that babies, for the first few months
anyway, behave in a textbook manner (myself included) but for every item in
this book you are given what may happen for different babies.
In this chapter we are told about reflux. When C was around
4 months old, he was continually being sick after each bottle. Not bringing up
milk, but a thick, yoghurt-y substance. Our GP prescribed Carobel and said he
had reflux and that was all we were told. After reading this we now know what
causes it.
There is an easy guide on how to make the transition from
breastfeeding to bottle feeding which is great for women who are going back to
work.
CHAPTER 5 – SLEEP
Reading about cot death still scares the life out of me. Six
months after having C and we still don’t have a baby monitor so I don’t let him
sleep in a different room from where we are. Maybe because he was premature, I
don’t want to let him out of my sight. I felt the urge to skip past the ‘cot death’
part as I don’t want to read about it but it’s real. I took my time and went
through it all and I’m glad I did. I learnt some things that I didn’t
previously know (which may have worried me a bit more though!).
It’s nice to find a parenting book that tells you to trust
your instincts when it comes to sleeping rather than telling you outright what
to do.
The sleep association advice is great. C gets very grouchy
when we try to put him to bed and he’ll moan and groan for around half an hour
before eventually falling to sleep on his own.
The signs of tiredness given have really helped us. You’re
told to put your baby to sleep before they get overtired. We could never tell
when to do this.
C’s feeds and naps weren’t in a structured routine before I
read this book. We’ve implemented the advice given and now we know when he’s
due a feed and nap and life is so much easier for us now. It is brilliant for
sleep training babies.
CHAPTER 6 – WEANING
There is so much confusion surrounding weaning. Guidelines
are changing all the time and you’re constantly being told different things.
As we’ve just reached the weaning stage, this book was
perfect for me right now. Beforehand I was confused about the whole situation
and it felt as though we were going in blindly but I have taken so much advice
from this book. There is some brilliant advice on both baby-led weaning and
spoon fed weaning. I found myself writing down the guide given to use myself. It
tells me what to feed and when.
There is even an FAQ section which is again, very handy to
first-time parents.
CHAPTER 8 – COMMON PROBLEMS & ILLNESSES FOR MUM AND
BABY
Really good advice so that new mums aren’t rushing to the
doctors about every little thing that they think their child might have.
We took C to see a doctor as he had a sticky eye, cough and
runny nose as I had laryngitis and I hoped he hadn’t caught it. Turns out it was
just a cold and they couldn’t do anything. Cue me feeling very silly for
time-wasting!
CHAPTER 9 – DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES – IS THIS NORMAL?
I loved this as I’m always wondering whether C should be
doing more for his age than what he is doing.
All in all I’d give this book a huge 5/5. The whole way
through I was reading out excerpts to my partner saying “We need to do this”. In
my eyes it is a must-have for any expecting/new parent and I will most
definitely be recommending it to everyone.
You can buy your copy here at a discounted price of £2.06!