Newborn baby routine – week 2

Well what a week week 2 was! My gorgeous little boy had decided he was a ‘sleep all day and party all night’ little man which ensured mum and dad were continuously zombified!  He had also decided that cot sleeping was so last year and the only way to sleep was while lying in mum or dads arms which meant doing anything was nearly impossible without setting off a ten minute wailing session – but ‘they’ do say the first couple of weeks are the toughest- so we clung to that hope and tried every trick in the google suggestions to get him to sleep solo(which he did do half way through week 2).
Getting into a routine was a common advice theme but I was struggling with getting him into a routine but the one I tried focussed on feeding a lot in the day (supposedly to give him all the nutrients so he woke up in the night less), bathing him in the evening (which he HATED and acted like it was torture and I am now giving up on the bathing in the evening as it just worked him up too much) and then changing his nappy, feeding him and cuddling him for half an hour until he fell into a deep sleep – then into the cot and fingers crossed!!
For 4 days in a row this worked a dream and he slept from 10pm to 3.30am and we made sure we slept at this time too – but for the past 2 nights he has gone back to partying all night again so am thinking the 10-3.30 may have been a fluke…… Coupled with the sleep deprivation in week 2 was my other little boy (my gorgeous little Jack Russell dog) getting fleas and we finding them on him at 10.30pm at night which then had me scrubbing, hoovering and cleaning our apartment until 2.00am as well as googling “what happens if my newborn is exposed to fleas?”. Luckily fleas are not damaging to a baby – only to the mental state of the mum!!

Something I can thoroughly recommend is a good electric express pump. This helped me with breastfeeding enormously and made let me express lots of milk into bottles which my hubby could feed our baby with instead of it being my sole responsibility – which helped my back, my nipples and my exhaustion immensely.
This also helped my milk supply and I expressed in between feeds whenever I could (My tip is Avent is the better expresser – I also bought a Tommee Tippee one which broke and I went to the shop to get a replacement which broke as well and I had a total pain with that then breaking too and was eventually told to go away – at which point I bought the Avent which has worked like a dream).
So in between the bouts of exhaustion I had some energetic moments and I seized them with both hands! I couldn’t wait to get moving again so one morning I strapped on my ankle weights (my ones were 1 kg weight on each leg from Rebel Sports and cost approx $30) and I walked to my local shops to get some fruit and veg. It felt so good to be able to work my legs again and feel the burn. It also felt so good to be able to see my feet and be able to move around freely without having to think about my bump and being super cautious about what you can and can’t do in pregnancy.
So I power walked to the shops and it was a 40 minute round trip – never has exercise felt so good and I smiled all the way! I also did lots of stretching at home to get my body waking up again too and remind it of it’s muscles.
My next focus was my nutrition to ensure my milk supply was boosted and so that my body could start functioning in the best way possible. So I bought lots of fruit and veggies and made sure I started every day with one of the YUMMY Lose Baby Weight smoothies. I found that making double the amounts of smoothie worked a treat as I kept half the jug in the fridge which gave me a quick food and nutritional fix whenever I needed it and it didn’t take any time and when I was hitting the wall it was a perfect pick me up.
My favourite to make was using frozen raspberries, a banana, 2 tbsp of smoothie mix  flaxseeds, rice milk, lots of ice and psyllium hulks – all blended together into a thick and delicious smoothie. I then made sure I had easy snacks to eat during the day such as chopped up carrots, cottage cheese, apples and nuts – and I drank 2 litres of water a day too which really helped my milk – you can see more recipes too by clicking here
Week 2 also saw me testing out a new shoe called the ‘fit flop’ which I will do a full review for over the next few weeks, but the idea behind the fit flops is that it works your legs and bum harder when you walk than if you were just wearing normal shoes. And I must say from the two times I have worn them so far when I have got home I can definitely feel my bum having been worked! So having survived week two and it being infinitely better than week 1 I very much am looking forward to week 3 and watching my beautiful little boy develop even more and his eyes get even wider!!!
Hope everyone is having a great Christmas break and have a fantastic New Years Eve planned x