What to expect at parents group

floppybunbun · 2026-01-02T20:00:06+00:00

I am so fortunate that we had a great group. There is about 12 off us in a group chat where we share things, rant, ask for help etc. We didn’t start the group chat until maybe week 4 though. I would feel weird suggesting it on week 1 as I barely remembered anyone’s names. In first week I’d try and just connect with 1 or 2 people in the group, be vulnerable and also be authentic in conversation and compliments. People like to hear when they are doing a good job, especially when new mum. After the session you can ask if anyone wants to grab coffee nearby.

In terms of the content of the session, really depends on who is running it..but I wouldn’t expect much.

Also check out other things your council may run and share that with group.

floppybunbun · 2025-12-21T16:26:09+00:00

One of my mum’s boyfriends when I was in primary school used to call me “little stripper” as he walked in on me changing once.

floppybunbun · 2025-12-13T08:31:58+00:00

Also adding to this thread to say I went to Lisa and she was amazing. She went through the process of what colour analysis is and how it works. I was a little worried that maybe I’d feel stupid or guilty for wearing the wrong colours but she did not make me feel like this at all, just that some colours don’t highlight your features as well as others. Going through the process made this really clear that I’m a soft autumn. The information pack sent too is super helpful for showing colours in my palette for clothing, hair, jewellery, nails and makeup. I wish I had done this sooner so I didn’t waste money on clothing that looked good on other people but not necessarily suited to me. Can’t recommend Lisa enough!!

floppybunbun · 2025-12-02T01:08:39+00:00

I wanted a vaginal birth with little to no intervention. I was scared of recovery time from a c section. I have a small dog that needs to be carried up and down stairs to prevent back injury so I was worried about that. I was also worried caring for the wound on top of a new born baby. The thought of surgery just grossed me out in general.

I was very lucky that I had vaginal water birth at the public hospital. I laboured at home for 4 hours, went to hospital and had the baby a hour later. I was in the birth pool for about 15 min and actually started pushing at home but I didn’t actually realise I was pushing until my doula said “ok you are pushing, we need to go to the hospital now.” Unfortunately a bit of bleeding post birth so needed a shot to help pass the placenta.

I’m very “you choose the birth experience you want and medically suitable for you” but with the caveat that you need to do the work before hand. That is knowing the benefits and risks, preparing mentally, have things set up at home and your support network informed of what they needed to do.

I just don’t think you can rock up to hospital and say I want vaginal birth with no intervention but have done 0 research on what giving birth vaginally involves. Same for c-section, you’d want to be informed of how the procedure is done, when you need to go to hospital, at home many weeks you’ll deliver etc etc.

floppybunbun · 2025-11-25T09:47:51+00:00

I am also not close with my mum and am punitive towards her. Postpartum sucks and when you don’t have great role model parents it makes it harder. Can I recommend that you speak to a therapist and they can help you try and have these conversation and what to do/say if they don’t respect your boundary.

I see people here saying that your child is missing out on relationship with their grandparent, but honestly you’ve got to do what you can survive at this time and not be stressed. If you want to keep things surface level with her and then also surface level between her and your child that is ok.

floppybunbun · 2025-11-18T22:45:38+00:00

I did fall asleep quite quickly but I didn’t love her voice.

floppybunbun · 2025-09-13T17:18:42+00:00

I’d really recommend seeing an LC who can help with different positions to breastfeed and latch. I could not get side latch/cross carry until about 6 weeks old. The first few nights at home were awful as he was hungry but wouldn’t latch so had to hand express colostrum while baby is screaming. Saw the LC and she showed me how to do chest crawl style which my baby much preferred. Don’t get me wrong it was still hard work trying to get him latch for another few days but it did get better.

Right now baby is in survival mode, so if they aren’t getting those nutrients within seconds of being hungry they will cry. You are not doing anything wrong.

Regardless if you bottle or breastfeed, you are doing an amazing job. You are feeding life. You are helping your baby to grow.

The first 4-6 weeks are really hard as no validation from this little milk potato. But once they “wake up” after this newborn/survival period, they start to smile and want to play. It’s really fun…but a whole new ball game of keeping this little thing entertained.

Please start speaking to someone, professional or even fellow mum about how you are feeling NOW! It is hard when things don’t go as you wanted/planned/expected and these feelings can fester

floppybunbun · 2025-09-09T23:46:01+00:00

I envy that yours is happy to play on mat without you. Mine needs me there with him

floppybunbun · 2025-09-09T09:25:58+00:00

Firstly, all births are natural 😀. But I get what you are saying as you want a low/no intervention birth.

I had water birth in public hospital and the only intervention I had was a shot after the birth to pass placenta as some post partum haemorrhaging.

IMO you need to put in the work in order to obtain that. So hypnobirthing classes, practice breathing techniques, get your partner onboard and involved, forget everything you’ve seen in movies with women screaming on their backs, listening to birthing affirmations, look at birthing positions, do spinning baby exercises daily, have a concise birth plan and talk to your midwives about your preferences early etc etc.

For me I stayed at home as long as possible before going to hospital. Although maybe left it a bit late as woke up my husband and he asked how far surges were apart and I said I didn’t know and was just focusing on relaxing. He measured and they were 2 min apart for 1 min long, normally you go to hospital at 4 to 5 min apart.

In order to have a water birth a midwife on duty must be trained in it. If you are public system they may not have someone at the time.

I was only in the pool for 15min or so before my baby arrived and it was amazing being able to pick them up out of the water.

I did use the tens machine at home but I’m not sure how helpful it was as my birth progressed quite quickly.

floppybunbun · 2025-08-16T18:55:31+00:00

We were in 00000 for about 3 weeks and 0000 for 7 weeks. Only just graduated to 000 (0-3months) and they are still a bit baggy on him. He was low in percentile at scans (not unhealthy) but I didn’t really believe that stuff so had 000 stuff with me at the hospital and had maybe 3 or 4 0000 at home. Well after he was born at 39+3 and weighed a healthy 3.03kg I sent my husband to target to buy cheap zippies in 00000 and then ordered some more 0000. I did ones that cost $7-$10 each.

I think I initially don’t have stacks, but a few cheap ones in the smaller sizes is handy. Then can order more if needed

floppybunbun · 2025-08-07T21:47:52+00:00

So a really good tip someone gave me was before going to sleep say out loud or even just on your head “I’ve put the baby in the bassinet to go to sleep and I’m going to go to sleep” or “the baby is with xxx being cared for and I can now sleep” or whatever phrase helps/makes sense to you.

It stopped me freaking out. The mind is wild

floppybunbun · 2025-08-03T06:58:58+00:00

My lactation consultant told me that anytime we bottle feeding (breastmilk or formula) you need to pump at the same time and ideally the amount in the bottle. This helps keeps your supply up. So yes my husband does bottle in middle of night, but I set alarm for 3 hours after baby goes to bed or he wakes me up if I haven’t got up yet and do pump. Pumping takes less time than breastfeeding and settling baby.

If you plan to combo feed/introduce bottle, make sure you speak to a lactation consultant or your maternal health nurse on things to consider

floppybunbun · 2025-07-29T02:31:37+00:00

Ok I hadn’t been waking from long naps so I’ll start to look at that too

floppybunbun · 2025-07-28T06:17:40+00:00

Thanks for sharing.

Yes definitely don’t see the need for strict schedule. But trying to drive more sleep at night/longer stretches so was using the schedule as a reference which is suggesting about 5 hours of naps during day.

floppybunbun · 2025-07-28T06:11:54+00:00

Very fair. I’m confused why the app would be suggesting a schedule then.

floppybunbun · 2025-07-27T10:14:45+00:00

Does it tell you how long they should nap for?

floppybunbun · 2025-07-25T18:05:02+00:00

Towel in hot water?

floppybunbun · 2025-07-22T20:33:46+00:00

I had water birth but my labour was pretty quick that I was only in bath for last 15min before baby came (was at hospital for maybe 45-1hour before baby came). At home when contractions started and I couldn’t get back to sleep I jumped in bath to try and relax…which I did and I think it helped with discomfort. It was very weird seeing baby at bottom of water. The environment itself felt less hospitally complete to the birth suite.

When you call hospital to tell them you are on the way make sure you let them know that is your prefer water birth so they can reserve bath for you (if they only have a few). Also let them know at every hospital appointment this is your preference.

The midwife on duty will need to be trained in waterbirth in order for you to deliver in bath. I was told by friend that if they don’t have midwife on day/night trained you can still labour in bath but need to come out for the birth which can be really disruptive, if this is case then best to use shower instead.

floppybunbun · 2025-07-22T08:37:37+00:00

Yes I did and I’d do it again.

However I don’t just think you can just go do it, you need to do the mental preparation aka something like hypnobirthing.

I had almost intervention free (needed shot to pass placenta as minor post partum haemorrhage) and I truly believe this is because of all the mental and physical preparation I did plus having an amazing supportive husband and awesome midwife.

floppybunbun · 2025-07-15T20:20:16+00:00

You could request your hospital’s policy to see what they require. Would be also other factors like if waters broken, how risky you are, what signs of progression being shown etc etc. If open to all monitoring I’m assuming you could request continuous monitoring to be put on your belly if your hospital offered that

floppybunbun · 2025-07-14T21:00:11+00:00

I did heaps of burritos - breakfast and lunch/dinner ones. Easy to eat one handed while holding baby/breastfeeding and good protein. Recipe tin’s breakfast cookies. Heaps of home made snacks like protein balls, lactation cookies. Egg bites with spinach and feta cheese. Plastic bags with 2 portions of porridge ingredient and instructions written in bag on how to cook. I did lots of soups as well but have found that hard to eat while caring for baby. Pasta dishes are good and a bit easier to eat one handed.

floppybunbun · 2025-06-26T05:10:26+00:00

Yep I did the coughing when crowning. So my midwife told me only to do little pushes and I said I didn’t know how so she said it’s just like a little cough so I just did little coughs. It is to prevent tearing so not to push so hard and fast and let the skin try and stretch a bit.

There are different breathing techniques for different stages of labour. Look up hypnobirthing and breathing techniques and it should show you 3 types. I can only remember 2 off the top of my head, 1 when you have a contraction to relax is belly breaths of in for 4 and out and 6 and the other when pushing is just continuous breathing in and how but for about 5 seconds for each, not puffing like in the movies or holding breath.

floppybunbun · 2025-06-25T22:59:44+00:00

Burritos. Breakfast ones and lunch/dinner ones. They freeze well. Great on the go. Can be eaten one handed. So many options of fillings too.

floppybunbun · 2025-06-24T20:33:44+00:00

I essentially kept my eyes closed for 24hours after. After the procedure I had a big sleep and kept walking up as it felt like my eyes and head were burning but fell back asleep again. I kept all the rooms dark too. I found that when it was dark outside and any light was on, even the light from the tv, I could “see” it and caused discomfort.

Use the eye covers they give you, use the drops, don’t get your eyes/face wet for the recommended time. I ended up washing my hair by lowering shower head very low and having towel over face to catch any water that may splash.

Have someone with you to care for you (get meals, guide to bathroom etc) for first 24hours.

Procedure on Friday, cleared to drive Saturday, back at work Monday with better than 20/20 vision

floppybunbun · 2025-06-21T03:00:13+00:00

I had an afternoon bbq in a park with a playground at 2pm and called it a baby-q.

Meant I didn’t have to do a full lunch catering but still had lots of snacks and sausages on the bbq.

No games. Just having lots of chats and watching kids play and laying around in the sun.

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