Post your top tips for surviving Christmas with a baby here.

[OliviaMumsnet]

We have some more tips from Vicki Scott, Philips AVENT'S first baby feeding and wellbeing advisor. This time, Vicki's covering surviving Christmas with a baby which you can read here but we'd also love to get your top tips on how you coped with your first few Christmasses.

Everyone who sends a tip will be entered into a prize draw to win a Philips SENSEO Pod Coffee Maker (RRP £50) and a Philips Aluminum Juicer (RRP £100).
Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

you learn something new every day! Didnt know you could drink and BF!

Christmas is looking better for me already! Dont think ive had a drink since LAST christmas!

Top tip - GET OUT THE HOUSE! Even if its jsut a walk around the block.... fresh air is needed!

alcohol AND BFing????????? you can do both????????????????

they couldn't have said that when I WAS BFing could they!!

Twinklemegan on Thu 06-Dec-07 23:35:36
I have to say to Mumsnet Towers that you're quite possibly shooting yourselves in both feet with this one. I always thought Mumsnet was aimed at the thinking woman, the woman who didn't need to be a slave to so-called experts.

Sadly this Vicki/Vicky rubbish brings in hard cash for Mumsnet. But considering how much money is involved I am suprised at the number of simple mistakes made by this 'expert' I'm impressed though I now now the companies name 'Philip Avent' it is now on the list of companies I will NEVER buy from, I don't reward stupidity.

I knew the pump and dump thing was wrong plus point 6 suggests the need for a routine for breastfeeding i.e. Do stuff so.."feeding pattern will more likely be preserved" But ALL the experts say demand feeding is by far the best way to go.

Plus I am not locking myself away from the fun times with all the family, just to breastfeed

Don't spend time and money getting your little one loads of toys like I did first time around only to find that he spent most of the day playing with the wrapping paper and boxes.

One of the loveliest Christmases we have had was when my ds was three weeks old. But then all Christmases are lovely when your children are little. (I use the word "lovely" as it is most appropriate). Of course you will be tired but the joy of Christmas will take over.

"7. If you are breastfeeding but looking forward to letting your hair down a bit over Christmas and know you?ll be tempted to overindulge in festive drinks, take along a store of frozen breast milk for the odd feed or two. You?ll need to express your milk and throw it away rather than breastfeed while alcohol is still in your system."

Or you could stop handing out ridiculous, undermining po-faced shit advice and get on with being a midwife and mum to Poppy.

Stop polluting MN with your absurdity, Vicki.

Simply expect to enjoy it and you will. Relax and go with the flow.

If you think it will be awful and stressful, then guess waht, it will be!

It never crossed my mind to worry about surviving Christmas - indeed I looked forward to it even more 'cos ds was 3.5 months old, I had got into a routine with him and I was off work, so could get well prepared. In fact it was one of my least stressful Christmases ever - no wait of expectation and more time to get ready and a lovely baby to enjoy.

Ninebabiesdancing: "I don't reward stupidity."

SPOT ON

FFS

Stupid competition, stupid premise, stupid stupid stupid idea to have this pile of cack from Philips Avent in the first sodding place.

surviving xmas?

Heck we are enjoying xmas this year, for the last 3 xmas's we have been praying that peter survived long enough to enjoy the next one.

my top tip? sign up to the donor register and maybe give someone else the gift of life.

I vote for FairyTaleOfNewYork to win the prize for that tip! Yes, I know it's supposed to be random, but some tips just deserve recognition.

I second prettybird!

really don't agree with this one

1. Do whatever it takes to avoid hosting a family Christmas at your house if your baby is very small. Even taking a journey into account, being at someone else?s home means you?re not worrying about whether you?ve done all the shopping and whether everyone?s having a good time!

no. do whatever it takes to do what will be easiest for you. in many cases it'll be stay put so you don;t have to remember a load of stuff to pack (knowing that asking, let alone relying on friends to get you stuff is ludicrous) and making sure t'other half cooks

PETERS top tip for surviving christmas is:

Make sure i take my pills morning and night and that I dont run out of them.

lol!

Yes Hatwoman, I thought the bit about buying things for you was daft! Imagine if you are going to someone else's house for Xmas and you ask your hostess to add your baby things to her already hugely long shopping list! Don't think it would go down too well.

it's all very disappointing, this... [po-faced]

i'm taking dd off to christmas at her aunt's. she's hosting because she WANTS to, because her baby will be three months old and she WANTS her child's first christmas to be surrounded by her family in her own home. we'll all bring a course as usual and it will all come together beautifully and an hour later than intended. (also as usual).

if Vicki was a twentysomething childless hackette asked to knock something up for Practical Parenting in twenty minutes i could understand this... but isn't she supposed to know more about this stuff than us? Isn't that The Whole Point of Vicki?

What drives me crazy is that some of the innaccurate facts posted on the philip avent advert microsite can be easily researched online.

I would expect any 'expert' to either know this stuff already or at the very least check the facts are correct before publishing online.

there was a new dad on another thread asking how tiktok could possibly be contradicting the MN Avent site info on storing EBM.

he was very nice about it but it was clear that as a new person to MN he felt that the Avent site advice was endorsed by MNHQ and that Tiktok was the one being cavalier. she put him right, of course, but i was disappointed for him that this had been his first experience of MN.

ninebabies... i wonder if she even wrote it? could have been the mkting dept and she signed it off? who is she, really? we don't know her from adam.

Hey but i thought you were not suppost to drink & breastfeed so caz your tip is out

I would say -

1. Get someone else to cook, while you sit on your bum.

2. Organise everything the night before.

3. Make the most of it because the year after no dounbt the baby will be jumping all over the place, pulling the chritmas tree down & spreading food up the walls, while they can't move there bliss.

It doesn't matter who wrote it. Surely it is in all parents interest that these type of mistakes be corrected as soon as possible.

For the sake of the new parents (like the dad you mentioned Aitch)

Many mums have been pointing out the errors in the Philip Avent adverts. Yet weeks later, none of these errors have been corrected.

Leaving articles up with errors in them, makes a fool out of 'Philip Avent', Vicky herself (even if she doesn't write it) and sadly Mumsnet.

WulfricTheRedNosedReindeer - that's was the strategy I took both while pregnat and bf! (with the docotr's approval!).

The ds is now 7 and demands a wee glass every time we have wine, so that he can "taste" it too. So far, he tells us it tastes/smells "grape-y" or "wine-y" or "hot"

Tie your tree by the trunk to a door handle or something close by so they can't pull it over

Do not expect your children to like sprouts or to fight about over christmas dinner.

Drink plenty of sparkly stuff while opening the presents so putting together Lego city becomes a bit of a blur and you don;t get too cross.

Never let your children have a sip of alcohol - it really is totally unnecessary.

Have fun!

sorry prettybird - just read your post!

If it?s your baby?s first Christmas, create a books wish list. At this age they won?t really know it?s Christmas and they certainly won?t be demanding the latest branded toy, so take this opportunity to build up a little library to take you through the next few years. Make the list really long so that relatives and friends still get the fun of choosing something. Amazon has a fantastic facility for creating a wish list and inviting people to look at it.