A couple of sanity savers in the early weeks...

It dawned on me last night that as I am 15 weeks into new-mummyhood there are some things that were an absolute godsend in those first couple of months that I probably don't use or don't use as much now and thus deserve a retrospective mention.

In the days when Little M's daytime napping was all over the place and my back was still aching from the pregnancy, labour and the fact that we got Little M used to be walked around/ rocked to sleep (the eradication of that habit is a whole other blog-worthy story), I couldn't live without my wrap.

In fact, when I lost my first wrap somewhere along Rose Lane I seriously thought that was the end of the freedom I had begun to enjoy! It used to send Little M to sleep in minutes and I could nip out to the shop with him without lugging the pram up and down the stairs of our first floor flat to get out. Also it just feels so nice having him all snuggled up to me. You do get the occasional funny look but it's more than worth it and lots of people come up and comment on what a great idea it is. Both my original and replacement wraps were by Moby and cost me a bit of a bomb, but that's because I'm impatient and didn't bother to look for a second hand one online. I don't use it as much because Little M will actually sleep in his pram now but I'm still glad to know it's there if I need it. In fact, I'm going to get the booklet out and learn a new hold now that Little M can support his head so that I can use it more often.

The other product that I thought was absolutely brilliant in the first few months was the Swaddleme by Kiddopotamus. We got a couple from TK Maxx and it made bedtime a lot easier as Little M was, and still is, partial to smacking himself in the face while he's falling asleep. Whenever I tried to swaddle him myself he'd wriggle his way out of it pretty easily but I don't think he ever managed to Houdini his way out of the Swaddleme. He did look a bit weird in it like! Like a disembodied head. Or like he was in a straightjacket. But we got past that.

Both products were recommended to me by my friend and fellow mummy M.