paternity-leave-interview

A husband’s view of paternity leave and returning to work

Going back a couple of generations, looking after the home and children was very much thought of as “women’s work”. However, with the rise of stay-at-home dads and dads seeming to be more hands-on in general, I wondered what my husband’s thoughts were. He’s wonderfully hands on with Autumn and has expressed in the past that he is worried about missing her doing different things like crawling and walking for the first time. I thought I’d do a little interview with him about his thoughts on paternity leave and working, leaving his baby at home.

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5 ways to help an early teether

Collaborative Links¦ Autumn has been teething since just before Christmas, when she was 3 months old. I felt sorry for her, even more so as she didn’t quite have the coordination of babies who are of average teething age (around 6 months) to hold teething toys in her mouth herself.

Here are my top tips for helping a little one that is teething and lacks the coordination to help themselves very much:

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5 reasons you should have a 4D baby scan

When I was pregnant with Autumn, Dave and I were umming and ahing over whether or not to have a 4D scan. When my Mum said she’d found a voucher for Window to the Womb in Bexleyheath on Groupon and that she’d pay half of it, we decided to go for it. We booked it it when I was 32 weeks + 2 days pregnant and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Here are five reasons why you should have one done:

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How to make a cast of your baby bump

When I was pregnant with Autumn, I saw lots of photos on the internet of women who had made plaster casts of their pregnant bellies. I thought it would be a lovely reminder of my bump and thought it would be amusing to wear in the future to see how big my bump was, (it was HUGE, I can barely believe it when I place it against myself now). Lots of women online also paint beautiful designs on theirs. Mine is still just plain at the moment, but I’d like to do something with it in the future.

Lots of places online sell kits for doing this and they often retail at around £15, but you can do it much more cheaply! All you need to do is buy some plaster of paris bandage rolls and some petroleum jelly. We managed to get these rolls from our local craft shop for a little over £1 each roll. I’m petite and two rolls just about made a cast of my bump, so for most women I’d probably recommend getting three rolls – you’ve still probably saved about £10!

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