Flying to any destination is possibly every parent’s worst nightmare.
You don’t want your little one in pain so you hope their ears will handle the altitude changes, and you’re hoping they will be cool, calm and collected on the plane ride itself. The unforgiving stares and audible complaints we parents get from baby-less passengers is always fun to look forward to.
My tips for flying with baby? Read on!
I’m always looking for new and exciting activities to entertain Anastasia with. I am a firm believer in exposing children to all sorts of events, broadening their horizons and expanding their minds.
Future Park, an interactive techy theme-park like sort of venture, was a prime example of this for me. We took The Star to experience this limited time event, which has seemingly been experienced by millions of children across the world.
Dear First-Time Mom (and all others on this blog post)
You’re probably reading this because you’re at the end of your wits waiting to go into labour… but no matter how much pineapple you eat or how often you drink castor oil (please, don’t do this) your little human is sitting quite comfortably in your belly and is not showing any sign of budging, thank you very much.
During those last weeks of my first pregnancy, I did not want to rush things. In fact, I was pretty happy for my baby to stay right where it was for the rest of my life… but after my last check-up in my 39th week, my Midwife mentioned the dreaded word “Induce” to me, and I panicked.
Induction was NOT an option, and I turned to age old remedies to ‘try’ to bring labour on as naturally as possible. After a few days of stressing, I stopped and reflected on what I was doing… although I was drinking raspberry tea and walking around the block as often as I could, I was doing that which I did not want to do… induce labour. So – I stopped. I meditated and prayed, and accepted that my baby would come when SHE was ready, and not when I, or my midwife, wanted her to come.
The very next day, on her due date, I went into labour. Coincidence? Perhaps… perhaps not… either way, below are a few of MY tips for dealing with those last few days before baby decides to arrive.
Firstly, STOP clock watching!
Your due date is merely an educated guess as to when abouts your baby will arrive. This is NOT an exact science, and so many people stress about the date unnecessarily and sometimes end up making rushed decisions around their birthing experience because of it. Unless your baby is in distress, there is no need to watch that clock and try to bring baby sooner. You will only drive yourself crazy in doing that! If your baby decides to come earlier, awesome. If not, don’t worry about it. Often first pregnancies are generally later than earlier, so use this time to rest, relax and nest. You’ll thank yourself after the baby arrives that you did. You won’t stay pregnant forever, I promise you.
Take Care of Yourself
It’s easy to get frustrated in these last few weeks, and attempt to do some wacky things to bring labour on. Remember that you are in a very vulnerable position at the moment, and no amount of wishing for labour should overtake your health. Continue to feed your body, and baby, with nutritional fruits and veggies. Take those pregnancy supplements and remain active. Practice your birthing training and meditate. Relax and sleep. Get ready for one of the most stressful journeys you and your baby will ever take in life – birth.
Stay Calm and Positive
This is possibly one of the most important things to remember… Stress is the mother of all killers, and being stressed out is not good for you or baby. It’s easy to complain about things in life, especially when you’re 39 weeks pregnant with swollen feet, a huge belly and very little patience. But please, Mother, I urge you to seek serenity and positivity. Modern society trains us to complain daily, but that does not mean we should not guard against it in any situation. God teaches us that we should ‘do all things without complaining or arguing…’ (Philippians 2:14) and being pregnant is a gift from God. When we complain in pregnancy, we do so for ourselves, and we are not serving our child selflessly.
We wish for others to feel sorry for us, to lament with us over our discomfort. Remember, negativity breeds further negativity, and you are not attracting the right energy into your home or into your pregnancy. You don’t want to attract this into your life, so please dear Mother, by all means let others know that you are in discomfort, that you need help or discuss how you feel, but do so with a spirit of positivity and gratitude. Your entire outlook and circumstance will change for the better.
Distract Yourself
Turn your phone off and ignore all the messages from friends and family asking “Are you in labour yet?”. These calls and messages, although coming from a good place, are not good for you. It adds unnecessary frustration and anxiety into your life, and you don’t need them reminding you that you have not gone into labour yet (as if your entire pregnant body wasn’t reminder enough).
Rather, distract your thoughts by reading a book, drawing, watching TV, going on coffee dates or dates with your spouse… do what you enjoy doing, relax and pamper yourself. Go for a Mani or Pedi (or BOTH) or just sit outside and enjoy nature. Your life is about to change forever, so use these last few moments to reconnect with your Self and with that which you enjoy doing. Trust me, it’s going to be a LONG time before you get to read that novel in bed all day again.
Cheer-lead Yourself
Nobody will be your biggest supporter over yourself. If you haven’t done so already, write daily affirmations down which you can look at and recite every day. Talk to your body and tell it how well its doing, what an important job it’s undertaking and how proud you are of yourself for coming this far. Talk to your baby and tell her how much you love her, how excited you are to meet her and how birth is going to be a wonderful experience for you both. Search for a few great talks or daily affirmations on pregnancy and choose your favourite. Remember to be your own Cheerleader
Lastly, this is a passing Chapter
No matter how you feel right now, the time is almost upon you to birth your baby into this world. Pregnancy, as I said earlier, is not forever. In fact, it’s for a mere 40ish weeks of your life, some of which you didn’t even know you were pregnant. This chapter in your life has almost passed, and in a few weeks’ time you’ll look back at it thinking ‘It flew by’. A philosopher at heart, I debate that time is a man-made construct. When we’re having ‘fun’, it flies by, right? When we are in pain or bored, it ‘drags’, yes? This alone shows how time is merely relative. It may be dragging at this moment for you, because you so desperately wish you had already given birth… or it may be ticking by quickly, because you don’t want it to end. Whatever your emotions at this moment, this period in your life will be ending soon.
So, my final words to you are to enjoy the last few moments with just you and baby, and then just you and your spouse (and maybe other children should you have them). Once baby arrives, everything changes, as cliché as that sounds. It will never again be just you and baby, you’ll have to share her with the rest of the world. You take a back seat as baby becomes the center of attention, and your life in general will change to suit her needs and wants. Before turning that last page in this chapter called pregnancy, take a moment to bask in your own glory and pat yourself on the back. You’ve done so well and come this far – what’s a few more days? Enjoy it as much as possible and take it ALL in.
Good Luck.
Pray and Slay
#MotherMuses
Welcome to the new year, Mother Muses Fam! It’s been a while since I last blogged, but for good reason.
We went on an amazing holiday to Florida and (of course) Disney World (our happy place). We arrived back just before Christmas, so you can only imagine the chaos that reigned in our lives for practically the entire month of December, and then for the new year of 2018! Anyhow, I am back and ready to rumble!
I have some great content for you around travelling with baby, so keep a close watch to this space over the next few weeks. I’ll be chatting about travelling on a plane, planning a vacation, food choices, health and safety, packing, and of course creating a schedule that allows both you and baby to enjoy the vacation to the max!
I’ll be covering a bunch of other stuff too, so don’t worry if Travel Tips aren’t your thing. All I can say is “Stay Tuned!”.
Until next time,
Pray and Slay
#MotherMuses
Before I even fell pregnant I knew what I wanted in a Diaper Bag – something stylish, totally different, very practical (read between the lines: LOTS of pockets) and something that would stand out from the usual. I envisioned my Diaper Bag sitting comfortably and smugly on a lonesome stool with sunlight drifting down upon it, in a sort of hazy, frosted image you would get on a post-card for Christmas.
Little did I know that finding such a bag was near right impossible, especially in the price range I had in mind. Baby Expo after Baby Expo, online store after baby boutique, I couldn’t find what I wanted. The bags that were affordable were cute, but…. nothing more than that. The ones I found which were amazeballs cost about the same as my undergraduate degree. What to do, what to do…
My husband, of all people, was gifted a baby bag from his boss for me. When he arrived home and presented this lime green sack, I glared at him the way a cat owner would look at their beloved feline for bringing in a rat he just caught. I’ll be honest, the bag did not speak to me right away.
In fact, I put it in the baby room without another thought. Out of pure desperation did I eventually decide to look at it 4 weeks before Anastasia was born. I slid it out of the plastic bag it came in, felt the sleek leather-ish plastic-ish lime green honeycomb covering, ran my fingers over the red trimmings and zips, then finally circled the logo on the front pocket.
Lou Harvey.
We were invited to attend the DSTv Delicious Festival. We were VIP guests of Kaya FM and couldn’t be thankful enough for the generosity they bestowed upon us!
It must be said that this was Anastasia’s first festival. I was a little skeptical at bringing her along, but I bit the bullet and packed her nappy bag all the same. She had a snooze in the car on our way there, and when we finally got through security check she was bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Father Muses held her tightly as we passed the festival lawns, music pumping from the stage. I eyed the beer tents with apprehension and second guessed myself… maybe bringing an 18-month old to an international Food and Music festival was not the best idea after all. Worst case scenario, we would have to leave the festivities early… but she did so well. In fact, she loved it! And apart from that, everyone loved HER (of course).
This is the Mother Muses Blog!
Firstly, I want to thank you for taking the time out of your super busy day to visit my blog. Secondly, I want to express just how excited I really am to start this journey with you!
As some of you know, I am Mother Muses… The Mommy. The Wife. The Working Mom. The Author. The Editor. The Foodie. The Mermaid. The Digital Matrix. The-you-name-it-that’s-me (super) woman behind the post. My gorgeous baby girl (and the reason I started Mother Muses) is Anastasia – The light of my life! She is the single reason why I am writing this and the only reason I am interested in “Mom Life”.
So what is Mother Muses? And why should you subscribe to our blog?
