Tag: baby

Recipe Rifle goes shopping: BABY ESSENTIALS

When it comes to baby kit, especially with your first baby, I say get everything. EVERYTHING. A tummy tub? Why not. An £8,000 buggy? Go for it. Fourteen different kinds of dummy? Great!

Because all babies are different and they like, weirdly, different things. And some things might work for you, others not. Both Kitty and Sam for example like Avent bottles and dummies and immediately spat out any dummy that was not made by Avent.

Avent’s anti-colic bottles do, I think, work in reducing what is known in my family as “squirty tummy” in newborns. ALL BABIES have “squirty tummy” to varying degrees, whether you use an anti-colic system or not because they are new and rubbish at everything and their stomachs don’t work for ages, resulting in “squirtiness”, which is an unspecified gas/digestion problem that makes them screw their faces up and go “meerrggghgh” or even “WWAWAAAHHAHHAHHAHAH!!!” I like to try to avoid this.

So I also use Infacol, which is an orangey-tasting liquid that helps babies bring up their wind. You can give it to babies from birth, but I find that wind problems only emerge at about 3 weeks onwards. You give them a little dropper of it before a feed and then they bring up lovely rich, orangey burps and sleep like logs and are less “squirty”. Kitty lived on it for about 3 months.

I also believe, with swivel-eyed evangelism, in swaddling. This, for the uninitiated, is when you wrap a newborn up very tightly in a long strip of cloth to replicate the squashed-in feeling of being in the womb. There are some cloths specially designed for swaddling called Grobag, which are very good

and also the terrific giant muslins from Aden + Anais, which used to be very niche and hippy when I had Kitty, but now everyone uses them. They are absolutely brilliant for all sorts of things, from swaddling to using as a blanket, a sunshade, rolling it up into a sausage to wedge newborn into sleeping on its side if you feel a bit neurotic that the baby is going to puke in its sleep and choke on it, (but are too scared to put it down on its tummy), using as a vomit sheet to stretch over the bottom sheet of a cot belonging to a child with noro – you get the idea. They are quite expensive but they will last you for years.

There are millions of swaddling tutorials on YouTube – I urge you to look them up if you are about to have your first. Just do it before every naptime until they are about… I dunno… six weeks old.

Chloramphenicol antibiotic eye drops.

Available over the counter at any pharmacy. If your baby’s umbilical cord is taking its sweet time to come off and is starting to stink, slosh this over it to prevent any infection. It is mild enough to go in your eye, so it’s perfectly okay to use on a tummy button.

Lansinoh cracked skin balm

This will rescue your nipples if you are breastfeeding – put it on every time you breastfeed or any time you express, or any time you remember to. Buy one for every room in your house so you are never without it. You can never have too much because it has a million other uses – it mends cracked heels overnight, works as a basic but effective night eye cream and is officially the world’s best lip balm (second only to Lanolips – available at Waitrose).

Gap make the only socks that babies will not kick off.

Seraphine make very nice nursing bras. They have one that comes in a small, medium and large and another that comes in traditional bra sizes. I’d say that the one that comes in traditional sizes is better.

I’ve got this bra in a size 1 million. And also some others that I had specially made… BY NASA

Aptamil formula. I fed Kitty a combination of formula and breastmilk from pretty much day 1 and have done the same with Sam. My personal attitude to breastfeeding is this: I do not like hearing babies cry and if I don’t have to, I don’t want to. So if my child is crying or unsettled because it is hungry, and I do not have enough breastmilk to sort it out, I give them formula. I partly breastfed Kitty for about six weeks and will probably do the same with Sam, unless with two children in tow breastfeeding and expressing becomes completely impractical, in which case I will stop sooner.

For expressing, I use a Medela Swing, which is about 10 years old, but gets the job done. Muy sexy, no?

I must also give a plug to a company called notsobig.com, which sent me a lot of babygros for Sam. They couldn’t possibly have forseen that babygros with slogans on the front are my least favourite thing ever, but it was a kind and thoughtful gift. And one with LOL on the front, did make me smile, although I cannot guarantee that Sam will wear it. Looking at their website, they have all sorts of terrific things on there without hideous slogans, so do give it a go.

Little Clothes Mouse – littleclothesmouse.co.uk – sent me some excellent newborn stuff for Sam, including a Petit Bateau hat that actually fit his weeny head (he was not born small – 7.5lb – but 0-3 month stuff was HUGE on him). In general, the website sells discounted designer childrens’ clothes and is a small company run by a very nice lady, so I heartily direct your business to her. She has also kindly and generously offered Rifle Readers a 10% discount at checkout with the code RIFLE. Use it or lose it ladies (and germs).

Recipe Rifle goes shopping: JEWELLERY

Everyone said “The second baby will be so much easier” and I prayed they were right and I knew they would be. And so far, they are.

I mean, in my experience the fun, (and when I say fun I mean nightmare), doesn’t really start with babies until they are 3 weeks old and don’t do that thing anymore where they’ll just sleep any on any old warm, stable surface for most of the day.

But for now, while Sam is doing this lovely thing that newborns do, I can actually genuinely appreciate it because I know it changes. And, unless I experience a serious rush of blood to the head, Sam will be my last child, which I now – released from the horrors of pregnancy – feel sad about, but in a good way. If that makes sense.

Kitty, (poor, poor Kitty), when she was born, signified the end of my life as I knew it. Sam is the beginning of my future; he is the first day of the rest of my life. Yes, I’ve got a newborn again, but I have never felt so free. I never left the house with Kitty when she was small because I couldn’t quite believe the hassle of it and there were all those what ifs – what if she’s sick, or screams, or does a poo? What then?? Easier to stay at home, thanks. Sam and I are out all the time: we take buses, we sit in cafes. Why did I not do this with Kitty? What was my problem?

And it turns out that I have remembered some valuable lessons about babies it took me months to learn first time:

1) if you put a baby down for a sleep and you know it is not hungry or cold or ill, it will eventually nod off, even if it squeaks and grunts and squirms or, even, emits the occasional bloodcurdling yelp.

2) if it’s not crying, it’s probably ok. Leave it alone.

3) give it a break, it’s only a baby. Even if you are a total routine freak like me, deviations here and there – or entire days when absolutely everything goes tits up, don’t matter. You have to just write the day off as a fucking disaster and start again tomorrow. Babies and small children respond best to persistence. It has taken an entire year to teach Kitty to say Please. Thank You she had no trouble with, but we’ve had to hammer Please into her just by saying it over and over and over and over again. Babies and little children are stupid, you need to repeat the things you want them to do, like, a billion times.

4) tiny babies do not get bored.

5) it’s probably not meningitis.

Anyway, what OF Kitty? I have been asked over again what she thinks of Sam, how is she taking it? And I reply with what I always say about Kitty, which is that she doesn’t give much of a fuck about anything, except the whereabouts of Rabbit, her blanket, Mr Tumble and the availability of biscuits.

She understands Sam is a baby, she gives him kisses, she only tries to jump on his head out of sheer exuberance, rather than malice, and knows that he doesn’t like having his nappy changed. Other than that, she’s unbothered. I think problems of jealousy and anger come later.

In the meantime, life for Kitty is simply super: her Daddy is around a lot on two weeks’ paternity leave and they disappear together, scampering across London all day having an awesome time pointing at animals and eating chips. And most days a present turns up for her at the house, in commiseration for her having this “brudder”. So in all, it’s pretty nice for Kitty right now.

Me? I got jewellery. I don’t understand especially the recent fashion for presenting one’s wife with an expensive gift for having a baby. You are only fulfilling a biological imperative and it’s not like a pregnancy isn’t utterly miserable for fathers, too. (I bought Giles a pair of £140 sunglasses from Zadig & Voltaire to acknowledge this.) But still, I’m not one to pass up an opportunity to direct my husband and his Amex to Selfridges, so I requested this Anina Vogel charm necklace that was quite astoundingly expensive. It did for a birthday, wedding anniversary AND “baby” present, it was that pricey. I love it.

Here it is. You buy a naked necklace and then fill it with charms. Giles chose these – the Star of David is his idea of a joke (he is Jewish). The others are a cat (Kitty) and frying pan (cooking) a pistol (there were no rifles) a moses basket (new baby) and a typewriter (obvious).

GILES BOUGHT THIS FOR ME WITH HIS OWN MONEY

And from lovely Babes With Babies I got THIS little beauty, which I really love. At £158, not as ruinously expensive as the Anina Vogel and if I was on a slightly tighter budget I would have requested this from my husband instead, you can have up to 20 characters engraved on it and Posh Spice has got one.

GOT SENT THIS FOR FREE

My readers get a 10% discount at Babes With Babies by typing RIFLE in at checkout. Don’t say I never give you anything.

Recipe Rifle goes shopping: CLOTHES BAGS AND SHOES

I spent so long during my pregnancy longing for it to be over that towards the end I suddenly developed a terrible fear that once I was no longer pregnant I would STILL be fat and miserable with aching feet, reflux and getting up 80 million times in the night to wee.

“What if…” I would fret during the long dark insomniac hours of the night “I have the baby and life is still shit? What if… all those clothes I have bought for myself to celebrate not being this incredibly weird shape never fit?”

But you have a baby – especially your second – and life improves immeasurably. Night feeds are a piece of piss once you can get in and out of bed reasonably easily. And, second time round, a bit of broken sleep is nothing. NOTHING. When you had your first baby you didn’t understand what it meant to be tired and it freaked you out. Now, being a little bit tired is normal. Having too much sleep is weird.

Anyway, so although I can’t fit into all of my new threads quite yet, I quite often open my cupboard and stroke them lovingly, as I channel daydreams about my future through them.

We’ll start with my favourite thing ever, which is actually a handbag. I bought FOUR new handbags in the darkest hours of my pregnancy, because they are a thing you can use no matter how fat you are. This is from Kate Spade and it’s the first “expensive” handbag that I’ve ever had – I say “expensive” because it was not wildly so – it was not £500, it was £178 in a 25% off sale.

Anyway I LOVE IT. If I had been braver, I would have got it in green. I still might. This will be irritating for my readers who are not in London, but you cannot buy this online – only in one of two Kate Spade stores – one in Westfield and one in Sloane Square. I think this is incredibly childish of Kate, but she’s from New York and they don’t half think they’re special over there.

BOUGHT THIS WITH MY OWN MONEY – it is called a “Little Curtis”

Next, my obsession with Hush, a sort of upmarket Gap I suppose. It’s a catalogue-based company and they really work that catalogue – it’s just really nice, I totally fancy all the models.

I bought a scarf from there, which is really brilliant – called the “Leo” and it’s neon pink-and-orange leopard print and even if you’re in your pyjamas it makes you look quite “current”. A note: it is huge, so when it arrived I cut it in half with the kitchen scissors as it arrives with artfully frayed edges anyway. So now I have TWO and very pleased with them both I am.

Here is a link to the scarf – I’m just waiting for a press image from Hush – I’d take a photo of it for you, but my photo will be bad and won’t make you want to buy it.

So scarf here: http://www.hush-uk.com/daywear/weekend/leo-scarf-orange.html

Another thing I have bought from Hush are these “New Vanessa Trousers”. I cannot vouch for them as I am still to big to get into them. But I love the look of them and desperately hope they “work” on me.

They are here: http://www.hush-uk.com/new-vanessa-trousers-concrete.html

I love these neon trainers from New Balance. If you feel like doing a sports-chic thing, wear these with ankle-length black leggings (mine are from this darling little place called Hennes) a coral or grey sweatshirt and a jazzy scarf. I saw next-eldest sister work this look a few weeks ago, (though her trainers were not New Balance, they were similar), and it looked AMAZING.

This “Lady Penelope” dress is just so terrific. A lovely girl at a preggy clothes website called Babes With Babies sent it to me. I can’t quite wear it now, as it’s quite clingy, but I tried it on – manically – during my last three days with a bump and it’s very, very good for anyone pregnant up until about 7.5 months I’d say, (if you’re doing a thing where you are wearing tight things – “I’M PREGNANT NOT FAT”). It is not cheap, but it is very nice – it has a slit roughly to the knee up one side, which is very chic and not slutty. Excellent 3/4 sleeves, too.

GOT SENT THIS FOR FREE

Babes with Babies is, generally, a very nice website. I don’t mean to knock Isabella Oliver or Seraphine, but their websites occasionally feel a bit… draughty and abandoned, if you know what I mean. Anyway, have a look.

THIS denim dress from Mango is just ace – the fabric is really lovely – sort of slithery and flippy. There is probably a name for it that I don’t know. A problem with wearing full denim is that it can be a bit stiff and uncomfortable, but this is silky and lovely but doesn’t crease especially badly. It works as a kind of throw-over while pregnant and also later as a VERY “now” denim dress with a belt and your new neon Leo scarf (see what I’m doing here?)

BOUGHT THIS WITH MY OWN MONEY FROM MANGO

Ok this is technically not clothes, but I am in love with this nail varnish from Mavala. I won’t show it to you on my fingers because I have the ugliest hands in England and it will put you off buying it. And nothing ought to put you off buying it – it’s terrific.

BOUGHT THIS WITH MY OWN MONEY

The jury is still out on these lime green asymmetric sandals from Zara because my feet are still a bit fat for them, but I like the IDEA of them very much. Generally-speaking, I like the idea of this “brights” thing a lot, because it means you can accessorize quite boring clothes like mad, meaning that you don’t have to freak yourself out buying neon trousers, or yellow dresses.

BOUGHT THESE WITH MY OWN MONEY

And that concludes this post on clothes, bags and shoes. Coming soon: jewellery and baby essentials (not in the same post).