Parents of babies want only the best for them. It doesn’t stop at just what we feed them, it extends to their bed linen, clothing, bath goods and what products we use to transport them around in.
manduca Baby Carrier
Currently pregnant with baby #4, I am a huge fan of baby carrying and realise that it is going to be an absolute lifesaver. I thought it was when Poppet was a baby so with an extra child it could not be more needed. The benefits of parenting-facing baby carriers are not only ideal for convenience, but they are also great for baby. The parent-facing manduca baby carrier works to maximise bonding between Mum/Dad and baby through constant, direct speech and eye contact.
If that is not reason enough, manduca is also the only baby carrier endorsed by the Australia Physiotherapy Association. This makes it ergonomically correct for both carrier & baby (meaning in the long term, both the carrier and baby will be very comfortable!).
After having a baby; many women do not feel fantastic about themselves physically, however we should be proud of what we have achieved. We should feel beautiful and with the help of Seed and Oi Oi we can confidently step out with our baby feeling confident and on top of the world.
As mentioned before, we only want the best for our babies so it is only right that they are kept snuggled and cozy with some 100% cotton goodies from Country Road. Your little bundle of joy will be embracing a day out with mum and dad in style.
If you know someone who is expecting a baby, pregnant yourself, or perhaps not long had a baby, ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY!
This amazing prize pack will pave the way for a great day out with baby.
Prize Includes: 1x Country Road Unisex Spliced Bunny Cream (RRP $19.95), 1x Country Road Terry Blanket Grey (RRP $44.95), 1x Seed grey scarf (RRP $60), 1x Oi Oi Bag – red print (RRP $179.00), 1x organic Manduca Baby Carrier – Navy (RRP $169.95), Postage for metro NSW, QLD, VIC & WA only (RRP $100). Total Prize Pool: $573.85.
**As the winners are chosen based on skill and not chance; you will be sharing for 0 extra entries however I’d love you to share the giveaway with friends and family. Sharing is caring and karma loves kind people. **
Please note: Prize will be delivered to Metro NSW, QLD, VIC & WA only.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Terms & Conditions:
1. Australian residents only.
2. Judges decisions is final
3. Winners must make contact within 72 hours.
4. This is a game of skill. Chance plays no part!
Therefore no extra points are given for sharing however it is good karma!!
5. All Mum Said is not responsible for delivery of prize.
NOT endorsed by or have anything to do with facebook.
If you want to enter more giveaways click over here.
Disclosure: I received the above pack as a thank you for offering mums this incredible giveaway.
Gaining the extra weight which was difficult to lose and get back to my original weight. Struggled with it for quite some time , though eventually did lose most of it .
great prize
Losing the baby weight is by far the hardest thing for me! If you have any tips, please share! I’d love to win this and maybe carrying my baby in the Manduca will help me shed those kilos!
Getting out and about and juggling sleeping and feeding times! Think I’ve almost got the hang of it…bubs will probably change the game again now
The thing I struggle with most after just having had bub no. 3 is getting out the door for kinder drop off and various other weekday commitments that all start at 9am! Getting the 5 year old, 18 months old and 6 week old ready, fed, kinder lunch and bag packed and breastfeed bubs, plus get myself ready can sometimes be a challenge.
After the birth of my first bub I had major trouble handling not being able to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Obviously I hadn’t thought the whole parenting thing through much.
Some beautiful things! I love my baby carrier, makes ducking in to shops for a few bits easier and lots of extra kisses on his forehead too
SLEEP DEPRIVATION! I love my sleep and need at least 8 hours to function as a human! So the lack of sleep really got to me! Now, whenever I talk to a pregnant woman I tell them to cherish every moment of sleep they can!
I am pregnant with #4 too! I found that trying to have too much stuff made things more difficult, Prams and bags loaded with unnecessary stuff made things complicated to manouveur around! Babywearing simplifies this and keeps bub calm allowing you to get more done!
I struggled with backing myself. With all the noise coming at you about how to do this and when to do that, it takes a big leap of faith to trust your own instincts and look after your baby the way that you feel is right.
On top of sleep deprivation and having a screaming colic bub, I struggled most with HUGE muscle separation, hip dislocation and pubic symphysis from the pregnancy resulting in frequent visits to the physiotherapist for treatment and finding time to do my pelvic floor exercises ..sigh, can it get any worse?
That breastfeeding wasn’t instinctive and natural and that I actually had to work at it and learn new skills. Also, the sleep deprivation. I totally wasn’t prepared for that!
The hardest thing I struggled with was the loss of an arm. The baby was colicky and grumpy and suddenly I had to do everything one handed.
Lack of sleep in the first weeks I was fully aware I’d get very little but when reality of it actually hit it was hard especially when I was filling out the birth certificate I couldn’t remember dates…..by the second baby I was a pro!
Alone time, me and my wife. She had our bub and our sex life vanished. Don’t get me wrong, love her to bits for all the right reasons, but boy do I miss our ‘energizer bunny’ moments as she calls it!
That I couldn’t just pick up and go, where I wanted, when I wanted, free as a bird (so to speak). The spontaneity in our lives vanished. And as much as I love being a Mum I struggled with having my wings clipped so to speak. It’s hard to put into words, the saga of leaving home for the simplest of errands or the quickest visit meant packing the entire house. Baby wasn’t like a cat or dog, that I could confidently leave behind for five minutes while I ducked out, he had to come along ‘just in case’. I had, and still have, a huge support network that I could have asked to drop by and babysit for 20 minutes or an hour, but I didn’t want to burden anyone with my child, my responsibility. I think responsibility was ultimately my struggle back then.
My mother-in-law because she was always wanting to come over but she had no idea what she was doing!
So love this prize
Great prizes! Have shared this on my blog for more mums to see and enter
I struggled to find my confidence in my choices. I spent a lot of time pre-birth reading and thinking about how I wanted to nurture and care for my baby. By the time he came, I had formed some pretty rock solid ideas of how I wanted to approach his care yet I still felt the sway of public opinion and all the advice that I was getting. It’s taken me 8 months to trust my instincts and find my voice to parent the way I believe is best for my baby and our family.
There are 4 major things that I am struggling with since having my 2nd newborn son who is now 11 weeks old.
1. I struggle with cleaning my house, cooking and doing laundry as my newborn doesn’t like to nap in his cot and wants to be cuddled to sleep. I don’t have free hands to get things done at home.
2. I also struggle to keep up with my older son who also wants my attention and time but I’m always carrying and comforting the little baby. By the end of the day, my arms are so tired and sore from all the carrying my 2nd son.
3. I struggle getting out of the house. It’s a huge effort and going out starts to be a daunting task. I can’t just get up and go in a light and easy manner. I need to carry so much things and push a bulky pram around.
Looking at the above, it looks like the biggest struggle for me is not having my hands to get house work done and holding my older son when we go out as my hands are holding the pram to navigate without hitting into people and things. Being hands free is starting to be a luxury to me.
4. Last but not least, the struggle of using the bathroom and toilet in peace and own sweet time. I’ve not had a peaceful time taking a shower or using the toilet and always in a rush since my eldest son was born, and now with the 2nd one, it’s gotten more challenging.
Although I face these struggles, I cherish and feel thankful to have my sons and take thinge one at a time. I appreciate help to make life easier now and then.
Grocery Shopping is what I struggle with most, lets face it it has to be done it is a mundane task and with a baby I find it takes a lot of planning. First how am I going to take baby? If I take the pram I will be back at the shops in 2 days. If I don’t take the pram then I need to put bubs in one of those baby seats or in a trolley which is bound to have already been slobbered all over and my baby will now happily add to this ( I silently pray-please don’t get sick, please don’t get sick). Second if we go shopping I sacrifice my mid morning outing time, the only time we get out and that means my coffee. Ah, you say get a take-away, well 2 problems with this- it is really hard to steer a trolley with a cuppa coffee (and somewhat dangerous with a baby) and if god forbid I need to pee (a typical post caffeine respone) how do I do that? Has anyone else noticed that in several shopping centres that have parents rooms they don’t have toilets you can’t wheel a trolley into…. I know this sounds stupid but where do I put the baby? Or now that I am a mum I should be able to pee and hold a baby at the same time?. Third getting the shopping home, so many times I have done a big shop and got to the car and found -Shoot -the pram is still in the boot-where am I going to stuff all of this? Also unloading the car and the baby (who by now is hungry and /or tired) it is difficult enough getting the bags out of the car holding a child (why are they always packed to overfull? Can you not see I have a baby?????), but then once you do get the bags inside and decide to quickly unpack and put away the cold things, you find that despite meticulously loading the checkout, all of these items somehow are magically scattered through basically every bag. Yep it is tough and I HATE grocery shopping, no home delivery service here
Everything! I’m pregnant with our first and everything seems scary. To me the struggle is with the unknown. Child birth, breastfeeding, sleepless nights, housework etc, it’s a whole other world to me right now. Nonetheless, I cannot wait
Sleep! I was and still am a big sleep lover. These days i manage to get a quick nap when my lo does, but some days are hard!
After baby #2 I found it so hard to give Miss 3 enough time and attention. I had so many ideas on what to do with her for special mum and her time. But Baby #2 isn’t much of a day sleeper so it’s hard (hence I need a good carrier!)
One thing being a mum has taught me (apart from how difficult grocery shopping can be) is just how un disabled friendly our world is. Sure I complain about struggling with doors and a pram and people without children parking in pram parks. But you know what, I have it pretty good in comparison to other people. After the comment i posted yesterday about one of the hardest things as a new parent I lay in bed thinking just how very lucky I am last night and just had to write this today.
I most struggled with the massive change from working full timein the medical field where I felt like I was contributing a lot to suddenly being a home with a baby that depended on me for everything (and whose only form of feedback was crying or not crying). Wow what a shock and she made me reconsider what was important, a very different job and and changed my sense of identity but of much more value and importance than anything I’d ever done before!
Having my first baby this groovy pack would certainly help embrace our mother and baby bond!
Everyone was helpful, everyone was nice…
But they all gave so much conflicting advice!
One suggested this while others suggested that;
I never had a clue where I was at…
Whose advice to take, whose advice to ignore…
That part of motherhood, I’ve never struggled more!
I found isolation was such a killer for me. With my husband working so many hours, no family or friends close by, I was alone almost all the time. And having a baby who rarely slept made everything so much worse. I don’t know how I would have managed without the internet and reading about other mums’ experiences. Knowing that there are other mums going through similar situations helped a lot. There were so many other things I struggled with, but isolation was definitely the top of my list.
Breastfeeding! It took ages for both of us to get the hang of it. Once I got a lactation consultant and began to gain confidence it luckily all fell into place.
Wrapping! Finding somewhere to perch baby while I unravelled metres of cloth only to tangle it around myself and end up with a floppy pouch on my front. Safe to say, next baby would prefer a Manduca
I’m not sure I’m supposed to answer this one but I thought I’d give the perspective of a dad who’s so new to the game that he’s still looking for the instructions in the box. What I found hardest may seem silly, but it was all the extra stuff that needed to have a place found for it. Now, I’ve gotten used to the idea that an unsupervised wife might (with a decent internet connection and an hour to spare) manage to fill up half a room with makeup, shoes or handbags. I’ve made my peace with that and know how to get these things squared away. But when my son arrived on the scene, I had to ask myself a lot of new questions. Where should nappies go? How many toys do a baby and his mother need (to keep from going crazy)? Why do we need onesies as well as shirts and pants? Is there enough of a difference between a dribble bib and a feeder that we should need to have some of both? The answers meant having new things and putting them somewhere. And putting them somewhere meant letting go of handbags or shoes or makeup; or letting go of dad’s old computer games, or having to put his tools out in the shed or giving away bottles to a good home. Letting go of these things was like letting go of sleep-ins and time spent by myself mucking around on my phone or being first on the list for my wife’s kisses. Letting go of *those* things meant having space for smiles because my beard feels good to pull, having a warm bundle always ready to crawl into my lap or the feel of an exhausted head finally giving up and resting against my shoulder because my son just figured out he wants to fall asleep in my arms.
So. Making space was the hardest thing about having a baby come into my life … but a close second is that internet connection and a wife who’s already buying next year’s nappies because they’re on special now
I struggled with going from doing what I want when I want and only caring for myself to having someones whole life in my hands….great struggle but a tough one for me
Having no family close by for support, I just wanted someone to make me a cup of tea.
I struggled with the lack of sleep.
Being a first time mother, the most challenging part was in handling such a fragile, small little baby! It was a mix of “am I doing it right?” + “am I hurting the baby?” that got my head in for those first 6 months. Thankfully I had a good network of family and friends who supported me, gave me great advice and saw me through it. Now, 3 kids on, I can look back and feel thankful that it’s over! Haha!
Pelvic floor issues and lifting/carrying baby. Do your kegels everyone!
I know they meant well but all of the relatives coming around to see the baby, picking it up and not letting my wife get her rest
The thing I struggled with the most was definitely snapping Into the new reality of not being able to do all the things that I used to in the same time frame! Everything takes so much longer with a new baby especially because I didn’t have any family support near me so I really struggled getting used to being up all night with minimal sleep and the getting up even earlier than I normally would of pre-kids just so that I can have everything organised and ready to start the day whether it be going to work, the shops or for check ups! It took me a while to get used to the energy sucking, mess making, laundry flooding, opera singing (screaming), sleep depriving clinginess of my new bubba (I mean that in the nicest possible way and I’m grateful everyday for all of my children!)
I got a PUPPS related rash all over my body for the first two weeks after my 2nd was born. The itching was unbearable. I got scars all over my body. I couldn’t sleep at night and resorted to lying in a cold bath from midnight on, just for respite. Eventually a doctor prescribed me some oral steroids which calmed the rash down. Those first two weeks with my daughter were a blur but I’m SO thankful for a supportive husband who did EVERYTHING apart from breast feeding!
Struggle sleeping and eating also breastfeeding can be difficult
As a first time mum,the thing i struggle with the most is the fear of failing my wonderfully, amazing daughter. Sometimes it feels like I’m fudging my way through each day with absolutely no idea what I’m doing. I’m just hoping that whatever I’m doing is helping her feel happy, safe and secure. We’ve made it to 4 months . I’m in awe of her and of how much she has developed. I only hope that i do her justice as her mother and when she becomes an adult she can look back at her childhood with fondness and joy.
Sleep deprivation and not having as much free time to relax plus do all of the tasks required!