Tell us a bit about yourself? My name is Andrea, I’m 32 and mom to a beautiful boy called Nico who is 6months and a half now. My partner and I have been living in Canberra for 7years where we started our business 5yrs ago and now our small family.

What were you doing before babies?

24/7 working in the business. Before Covid we were on every event happening in Canberra, plus the shop we have in Gungahlin. So for us the nonstop working, long days and waking up at 5am were a great training for us lol.

How did you come to be a mum?

It pretty much happened. We were not trying not to get pregnant and it happened pretty quick . Looking back I think it was perfect timing, if it were to happen a couple weeks after, my dad would’ve never meet Nico at least through pictures and video calls.

What has your feeding journey been like?

It was very hard, I had to have an emergency C-section with general anaesthetic, so milk really didn’t come through the first couple of days. Once it seemed that I was getting the hang of it we were notified that we had to move out the house we were living at. So when Nico was 2 weeks old I had to start packing the house down while still recovering. We only have my brother living here in Australia but the rest of the family are overseas. We had great help from friends and family to give me a hand with Nico while I took a 2h nap or while I packed the house but it was exhausting.

My partner had to keep working- we couldn’t really take any time off ( since Nico was born he would still have to open the shop and be there at 5am and wouldn’t be back until late afternoon) We managed to keep the business afloat but it required a lot of sacrifice and work.

I was super tired so continued mix-feeding, which was working quite well. Right before we moved houses my dad was admitted into ICU because of Covid back in Ecuador so you can imagine how my hormones were acting up and of course milk supply went down again.

Unfortunately a month after this he passed away and by then, because of my supply, we were feeding Nico mostly with formula.

By 5 months Nico wouldn’t want to feed from the boob because he knew there was not enough there to fill him up lol. I tried everything you can imagine to try to bring my supply back up but I never got enough to feed my hungry baby boy.

Nico is a happy, healthy and growing boy and we started solids a couple weeks ago but still formula feeding.

What has sleep been like in your house?

It’s been good as a matter of fact, he’s in bed by 6-7 and starts his day around 5-6am (just in time to wake up dad for work) of course he wakes up at night a couple of times but he eats and goes straight back to sleeping -this is the average, we’ve definitely also had those horrific nights everyone tries not to talk about when you’re waking up every hour or so .

The hardest bits…

Not being able to have family come visit (specially grandmas and granddad) Nico is the first grandkid on both sides of the family and I think my dad was prob the most excited and happy one to become a grandfather. When we found out we were pregnant we thought “by April 2021 it should be fine and at least our parents will be able to come”. We’ve had so much love and help from out friends here (which really ends up being the family you create when you are away from your blood family), however it is still not the same.

The best bits…

All the joy and love Nico has given us. A simple smile or jiggle from him makes it all worth it.

How do you make time for you?

My partner sometimes stays with Nico or my brother and sister in law take him out and spoil him for a couple of hours

What’s next for you and your family?

Can’t wait to have the grandmas here and hopefully in not such a far future being able to go visit our home country so Nico can meet his family.

A piece of advice for our readers?

You’re not supposed to do this alone. Asking for help or accepting the help those around you offer can make such a difference. You are allowed to rest and recover.