Tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi, I’m Lauren. I’m 32 and living in Canberra with my husband Jack, our 1 month old daughter Poppy and our dog Maggie.

What were you doing before babies?

I have been building up my photography business for the last few years since we moved back to Canberra. I know it will be the perfect job for me to go back to and ease into slowly after maternity leave.

How did you come to be a mum?

I always knew I wanted to be a mum. We knew we wanted to raise a family in Canberra, but we spent a few years living in Hobart, then got married in 2018 and travelled overseas for 7 months. It wasn’t until we moved back to Canberra at the end of 2018 that we started feeling like we were ready to start a family. We decided to wait until we moved into our house, got a dog, and got our careers up and running in Canberra before we started trying. We decided we were ready at the start of 2020 and luckily it only took a couple of months to fall pregnant. My pregnancy was really enjoyable, I was lucky to only have mild nausea in the first trimester and no morning sickness. I was diagnosed with hashimotos hypothyroidism early on and needed to see a specialist to get my medication right. It meant a lot more blood tests but once my medication was right it was easy to maintain. I also had low iron, which I had issues with pre-pregnancy as well, but just took supplements to keep my iron levels up. Then at 26 weeks I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, but I was able to manage it with exercise and diet so luckily I didn’t need to go onto insulin. It was a lot of extra work to be checking my blood sugar levels 4 times a day but it made it easier knowing it was only temporary and helped me be more conscious of what I was eating. I also had a few extra scans throughout the pregnancy because my placenta was sitting so low at my 20 week scan. I had a scan at 32 weeks and it was still low, but at my last scan at 37 weeks it had completely moved out of the way so that felt like a weight had been lifted and we were really excited that we could have a natural birth. Unfortunately the birth didn’t really go to plan. It ended up being 46 hours from when my waters broke to when Poppy was born. After such a long and challenging labour, she was delivered in theatre with forceps. She was taken to NICU for half a day to be checked on due to some complications with the delivery, while I was taken to recovery. It was the best feeling when she was discharged from NICU and I was able to give her the first cuddles.

What has your feeding journey been like?

We ended up spending 2 nights in hospital, which was so helpful to start to our feeding journey. We struggled a lot at first, I couldn’t get Poppy to latch consistently no matter what we tried. The midwives were so helpful and sat with us for ages to try and work out the best way to get her to feed. Finally one of them suggested we try a nipple shield and then it just clicked for Poppy and feeding has been pretty easy since then. She was slightly underweight after our first check up so I was expressing to top up her feeds, and I have continued to express so Jack can also feed her if we need which he has really enjoyed. It’s only been a few weeks but she has been feeding well and putting on heaps of weight now!

What has sleep been like in your house?

It has definitely been an adjustment! We didn’t get off to the best start with the lack of sleep from the long labour and hospital stay, but it was amazing having Jack home for a few weeks so I could catch up on sleep during the day. Now getting up in the night isn’t as hard, but I am looking forward to when we can get her into more of a routine at night (fingers crossed!)

The hardest bits…

The hardest bit so far has been dealing with the changes to my own body. Trying to look after a newborn and also look after yourself is hard! Learning to ask for help when I need it instead of trying to do everything myself and slowing down and doing small things when I can has also been a hard adjustment.

The best bits…

Watching Jack be the amazing father I knew he would be has been the best. The way he looks at Poppy makes me fall more in love with him and he has been amazing at looking after her and also looking after me!

How do you make time for you?

I haven’t quite figured this part out yet, I think it might take a while! Just finding time for the essentials like showering, eating and brushing teeth is hard enough. But I can usually get out of the house everyday for a walk, fresh air always helps and our dog loves it too!

What’s next for you and your family?

We would eventually love to give Poppy a brother or sister, but for the meantime we are looking forward to watching Poppy grow up (hopefully not too fast!).