Tell us something you wish you knew when you became a new parent - £200 Boots voucher to be won

[MaddyMumsnet]

We totally get that raising a little one can be a roller-coaster. Ever wish you had a secret guide to navigate this adventure? We want to know what you wish you knew earlier, whether it be your go to products or life changing tips…

• Post your products/stories/challenges/tips in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw
• One lucky MNer will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice.

Here’s what Boots has to say: “The new parent & baby event is back at Boots! Welcome yourself to parenthood with incredible offers and expert advice. Whether you’re restocking your changing bag, looking for a new car seat or trying to get your little one to sleep, Boots has products and advice to support you along your journey. You can also enjoy 8 Advantage Card points for every £1 spent on Baby when you join Boots Parenting Club*

*T&Cs apply. For full terms and condition, please visit here”

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

Insight T&Cs apply

Never be ashamed to ask for help (both from your friends, family and from professionals). Ultimately, though, your decision is final. Oh, and always have a pot of sudocrem in your bag. It soothes nappy rash, sunburn, spots, bites, allsorts. My household now swear by it since a health visitor advised me to use it when I asked how to get rid of my firstborn's nappy rash 25 years ago (I was only 19, lucky I had a few sample pots to hand from a bounty pack).

A perineal massage - after having a horrendous tear, stitches and another repair

a Jumperooo is your best friend!

How hard it is to conceive, it can take years, how common miscarriages are, how unsuccessful IVF actually is and how heartbreaking and traumatising miscarriages are - and how little health professionals or society cares about them.

I second this. Hope it all worked out for you in the end ❤️

It's probably been said already but I really wish I'd known earlier about baby vests being able to be pulled down to remove!

Just how much your life changes, you have met the love of your life BUT you have significantly less sleep/money/time to yourself - you don't know how you cope - but you do - you need resilience, patience, supporting partner and relatives

You are now going to be innundated with conflicting advice like never before.
You will be relentlessly targeted by advertising praying on every insecurity or question you could possibly imagine.

Ignore pretty much everything. Go back to basics. Buy 10% or less of what you are told you need to buy.

There will be challenges - as soon as you nail them there will be changes and more challenges.

Go with the flow. Do your best. Sometimes your best will be bare basics and that it OK.

spend all those Boots points you are collecting on YOURSELF!

Cherish every moment as you never know when it will all be taken away from you. Hard to remember when you’re having a bad day but now I’m in the situation I’m in, I’ll never take for granted just having all my children with me every day.

Don't be too proud to ask for help if you are struggling emotionally - please

I wish someone had told me that being a parent is IS HARD!! I knew it wouldn't be easy - but I hadn't prepared myself for quite how hard it would be/how hard I would find it! I'm not sure how much of this was impacted by PND, & I do wonder about this - but I didn't have a second child, so no basis for comparison. I do know that I set myself incredibly high standards & I wish hadn't done this & had been more relaxed.. taken it a day at a time, an hour at a time if needed - because the tough times DO pass!!

That you can still have a career and social life after kids. I put having children off for so long waiting to be “ready” to sacrifice the things I loved once I had kids. Yes your life changes, but you’re still a person with goals and interests that you can accomplish, albeit it with some compromises. But the love for your children make it pretty easy to embrace those adjustments and once the baby and toddler years pass, you’re you again!

Don't eat crap - try and cook healthy meals - I know you won't always feel like chopping and boiling - buy a slow cooker put in your chopped veggies - make a soup or stew - I lived of biscuits and mars bars - or it felt like it - and was breast feeding -

To have confidence that I can supply enough breast milk for baby and don't need to swap to the bottle at 6 weeks

Sleep when baby sleeps - housework CAN wait - they wil sleep longer at night, and you can enjoy the time with them instead of being exhausted

That everything is just a phase- waking up every hour won't last forever.

How boring it would be in the day. Thank goodness for baby groups. At least we got a couple of months of them before the pandemic closed them all down.

Don't wear white when feeding pureed carrot ! One sneeze and it's game over

Your breast milk IS enough - treasure these times - even if it is 2am and you have work the next day - hold your baby and create this amazing bond

For me this is an easy one, I wish someone had told me earlier that my child was in fact a human! Sounds mad, but I read all the books and knew what they should be doing and when, how much food and sleep they should be getting etc and when my child didn't do those things it was upsetting and I was constantly trying to figure out why. Then it hit me one day, some days you're just grumpy, some days you're really hungry, some days your not, when I realised that my baby was in fact a small person who had good days and bad, it was a whole new world!

I wish i knew that SMA had formula for low weight babies.

To sign as you speak to your baby so they can communicate through actions and save the frustration of trying to get their views across and being frustrated - just simple signs, not full on sign language - my friend did this with her baby and the results were so amazing

However you give birth and however you feed, your body has done something truly amazing. Give yourself time to recover, avoid the scales and allow yourself to burst with pride when you stare at the tiny little being you created.

Newborns can eat a lot. Just because you fed them recently does not mean that their angry cries can't possibly be hunger. Always offer some milk! We spent a few early evenings thinking our little one had terrible colic and going through all sorts of shushing and swaying routines when really they were just a hungry baby and instantly settled after some more milk.

Invest in a carrier / sling. It seems to be an off switch for lots of babies. You won't be able to do everything whilst wearing the baby but being able to muddle through some household tasks or drink a cold drink over the baby's head is certainly better than being nap trapped all day or listening to them screaming.

Don't ever feel guilty about accepting help or letting someone else hold the baby for a bit. There is no reward for doing it all on your own and passing the sleeping baby to someone else whilst you have a long, hot shower will definitely not ruin your bond (as I thought in the early days ...)

Try and get out and about early, even if just for a short walk. It's good to help your little one set their body clock and also good for you to get some fresh air and reassurance that, even when you're trapped inside in the middle of the night wondering what on earth you've done to your life, the world really does keep turning and things will get better.

Newborns are portable so make the most of coffees, shopping etc. Having said that, always bring more nappies and outfit changes (and bottles etc if formula feeding) than you think you'll need. Some days you will end up needing an outfit change for yourself as well ...

Reach out to other mums from parenting groups, antenatal class etc. You will never be the only one feeling like you do. Share the good bits but share the bad bits too.

If the baby has two parents, use them both. You shouldn't be the default parent. Make sure your partner is doing at least 50% (preferably more when you're recovering). It can be hard if breast feeding but there's plenty else to be done. This includes the mental load - remembering appointments, remembering to check if the baby is warm or cold enough, remembering to make sure there are enough clean outfits and nappies etc. Keep in touch regularly about how you are feeling, what you are finding easy and what you are finding hard.

To get baby into a pram and go for a walk in the fresh air - and listen to the world outside your home - I did not go anywhere due to pure exhaustion for 6 weeks - but think I would have coped much better with getting outdoors and listening to something other than baby crying and the white noise of the TV