I spent a lot of Leo’s early life on the couch. He spent most of his day either breastfeeding, bottle-feeding or asleep on me. Jeff would leave for work and I’d be on the couch, and then he’d come home and I’d still be on the couch.
Jeff was much better at being stuck on the couch than me. He always seemed to manage to have a snack in his hand and his laptop nearby.
I always managed to be busting to go to the toilet or thirsty or hungry (or all three) but I didn’t want to move in case I woke Leo.
Looking back at photos from that time I have made an inventory of all the stuff I can see in the photos. It was like my office and I had a good set-up going on.
- Glasses of water
- Breast pump
- Bottles
- Pillows covered in blankets and towels
- Cloths for wiping up baby vomit
- Tissues
- Parenting books
- Picture books
- Motillium (to increase my milk supply)
- Laptop
- Phone (landline – didn’t have a smart phone yet)
- A toothbrush (a lactation consultant said that stimulating the breast with an electric toothbrush could help my supply)
- Vitamins
- Snacks
- A notebook and pen to write down the times of all his feeds
Memories!
For those of you who are new to our blog, the reason we are writing about all this stuff is that we have written a picture book for new parents to remind them how great they are doing. It is the book that we wish had when Leo was little. You can read more about our rough-around-the-edges look at early parenting here.
We have been working on it for years (in our heads), and actually did the writing and illustrating over the past year. The book is finished! We will be launching a crowdfunding campaign on the 2nd of August so we can print a small run of board books. We would love your support – more on that soon.
This is is one of the spreads from the book. Our brown couch from this era has a supporting role.
