Moms and Social Media

When I found out I was pregnant most of my friends were either single or getting engaged, and I could count on my one hand the amount of babies I've held in my arms before. I knew nothing. I had no close friends to ask for advice or share the experience with.

Luckily a Twitter friend announced her pregnancy a few weeks after mine and through her I linked up with a few other young first time moms to be till I eventually gathered a nice little possy. Together we shared scans, baby shopping, the amount of chocolate we ate, not being able to sleep and where to buy comfy stretch pants.

One by one we had our babies and shared the excitement as they made their Twitter and Instagram debuts. Together we struggled through breastfeeding, extreme exhaustion and post pregnancy hormones. These girls were my people. They guided me through that first few months of the unknown. Sitting on the rocking chair in the nursery during the freezing hours of winter nights breastfeeding my baby there would always be one of them on Twitter to keep me company. Together we celebrate milestones, together we suffer through teething. They are always there for advice or a quick pep talk.

Most of these girls I have never seen in 'real' life. I only know them from social media. So when the invite for a Mommy Blogger Meetup arrived and I saw some of them would be attending I was beyond excited. Cindy Alfino is the master mind behind the CTmeetups and she does such a great job at organizing them. The meetup was hosted by Graze Restaurant in Kenilworth and it was such a perfect venue with amazing food. Their kids menu is also pretty awesome.

Nikki Lincoln a fellow mom, blogger and digital food editor at Woolworths did a great talk on blogging and the tools all bloggers should be using. And then there was the goodie bags. Such an amazing bonus to what was already a pretty perfect morning.

Stationery sponsored by Gumtree

 

Mr Price fashion went above and beyond by sponsoring each mom with a beautifully wrapped gift as well as a voucher to spend online. I also got a R250 voucher to give away, but more on that later.

 

Ben's MR Price gift. Love that bowtie.

 

It really was so great to have a face to face chat with these awesome girls who have shared so much of this amazing motherhood wild ride with me. I really do appreciate all your support and kind words. Also how did mothers survive before social media.

 

*Thanks also to Wakaberry, Kin Shop, Oh So Heavenly, Ella's kitchen, Reusable Pouches, Tangled Tree, Baby Group, Optiphi, Wellness Warehouse, Almay, Mitchum, Beatiful Earth, Adventure Bootcamp and Galileo Cinema for contributing to the amazing goodie bag. You guys Rock!



We'll learn as we go

We are part of a VERY small group of parents-to-be who decided not to attend Pre Natal classes even though we were ideal candidates as we knew VERY little about babies.  We decided to give the classes a miss as I was getting more and more panicky with each baby book I read. I felt SO overwhelmed by all the info. Husband probably knew my head would explode if I had to sit in a class while the process of giving birth was explained to me in full detail. So we ventured into the world of parenting with a ‘we’ll learn as we go’ attitude.

Roll on to 13 August 2013.  

The first morning in hospital as brand new parents to a gorgeous baby boy we had to attend a demonstration on how to bath your baby. I sat there deer in headlights trying to take in as much as I possibly could of what seemed like an impossible task. The next morning we had to do it ourselves.  I did not sleep at all that night. I walked the hall to the nursery like someone on death row. A terrified nervous wreck.  I couldn’t remember a thing the nurse said the previous day. I filled up the little baby bath with a sense of dread while they rolled my teeny tiny human over. It took me forever to undress him as I was petrified of breaking him. It took me even longer to bath him as I used a new cotton ball on every tiny part of his body worried about spreading infection. While washing his hair I honestly thought I was going to pass out from all the anxiety. This very long and very careful bath routine carried on for about 2 weeks. Now I cannot even believe bath time was such a terrifying experience as I plop my baby in the bath and wipe everything with the same wash cloth without even giving it a second thought.

 

Same goes for changing a diaper.  I made husband change the first 3 diapers in hospital as I just could not handle that kind of pressure in my fragile state. Now I change the diaper of a screaming baby trying to crawl off the changing table while banging the Sterimar bottle on the pretty porcelain bunny next to the change matt in seconds without even breaking a sweat.

The moral of the story is that yes being a parent can be scary, there will be tears, there will be moments of thinking ‘I can’t do this’ but you will adapt, you will learn, and soon it becomes second nature.  I now laugh at scared new mom me who took 20mins to top and tail her baby. What frightened me so is now my favourite time of day as I watch my baby splash in the bath and chew on a rubber ducky.

My favourite Pregnancy product

You get two kinds of women: The one's that love being pregnant and then those who hate every sweaty, uncomfortable, swollen minute of it. I am the first kind.

I loved being pregnant and I adored my baby bump. I felt healthy, pretty and for the first time ever I actually liked my body. That pregnancy glow they talk about, I don't know if I looked it but I definitely felt it.

Yes there were sleepless nights where I just couldn't take one more minute of sleeping on my side. There were the extreme exhaustion of the first trimester where every minute not spent at work was used for sleeping. That whole December and January is just one big tired blur.

Second trimester I had a few horrible-head-about-to-explode headaches but all in all it was a pretty good morning sickness free pregnancy. I was also pretty mobile right up to the end. I actually played swing ball at 37 weeks pregnant. Sure the low balls was a no go, but I still rocked that game.

Except for being tired the only other thing that bothered me was the itchy tummy.  I looked like a flea ridden dog. I would just scratch and scratch and scratch.  Eventually I heard about Mama Mio's Tummy Rub.

Mama Mio is a pregnancy skincare product that protects against stretch marks and itchy tummies by increasing skin elasticity.

 Image: I am mumalicious

It's a little more that what I usually spend on beauty products but it is so worth it. I just adore this product. It's feels soft and creamy on your skin and the smell is glorious. I use to love rubbing my belly after baths. My skin felt healthy, soft and I had no more itchy skin issues.

Best part is I went through nine months of pregnancy with not one stretch mark. That in my book makes this the best thing since slice bread.

Mama Mio is imported and distributes in South Africa by POISE Brands. Have a look at their website for the list of stockist. Also check out Boob Tube. Another amazing pregnancy must have.