Holly Willoughby - Truly Happy Baby ... It Worked for Me - A practical parenting guide from a mum you can trust

Thorsons

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

This edition published by Thorsons 2016

FIRST EDITION

Text © Holly Willoughby 2016

Photographs © Ellis Parrinder 2016 except where indicated

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Cover photograph © Ellis Parrinder

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Holly Willoughby asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

While the author of this book has made every effort to ensure that the information contained in this book reflects NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) and NHS guidelines at the time of publication, medical knowledge is constantly changing and the application of it to particular circumstances depends on many factors. This book is intended as a reference volume only, not as a medical manual. The information given here is designed to help you make informed decisions about you and your baby, and it should be used to supplement rather than replace the advice of your doctor or other trained health professionals. Therefore it is recommended that a qualified medical specialist is always consulted for advice. The author and publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors and omissions that may be found in the text, or any actions that may be taken by a reader as a result of any reliance on the information contained in the text.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Source ISBN 9780008172527

Ebook Edition © June 2016 ISBN: 9780008172534

Version: 2016-06-24

CONTENTS

COVER

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: FEEDING

01 The need-to-knows and the know-hows

02 Milestones and routines

03 Feeding solutions

CHAPTER TWO: SLEEPING

01 Making the nest

02 Milestones and routines

03 Sleep solutions

CHAPTER THREE: WELLBEING

01 Your newborn’s wellbeing

02 Caring for your baby

03 Growth spurts and developmental milestones

CHAPTER FOUR: LIFESTYLE

01 The serious stuff

02 Development and play

03 What to do with your days

CHAPTER FIVE: LOOKING AFTER YOU

01 What’s going on with you?!

02 Life after having a baby

03 Support for you and your new baby

SOME EXTRA ADVICE

INDEX OF SEARCHABLE TERMS

THANK YOUS

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

I knew I would write this book when I had my first son, Harry. I couldn’t believe how many times I thought – and indeed heard fellow parents say – ‘Why didn’t anybody tell me about this?!’ There’s no two ways about it, becoming a new mum or dad can be incredibly daunting. There’s no other job on the planet this important where you wouldn’t be given first-class training to prepare you, but as babies don’t arrive with an instruction manual, this is me passing on all the things that I found worked for me, in the hope they might help you too. I’ve been blessed with three very different babies, so whilst I don’t profess to have any official childcare qualifications (although all the advice in this book has been checked by a medical professional), I have had a lot of varied experience, coping with, and getting to know, each of my children. In this book I’ll share all the best bits I’ve learnt along the way for how to look after my family.

The best piece of advice I can give you, and which you should try and keep at the forefront of your mind, is YOU KNOW BEST! Albert Einstein himself said, ‘The only really valuable thing is intuition,’ and who are we to argue with a genius?! Listen to intuition, switch off fear. When you first have a baby, you might feel bombarded with advice from friends, family and medical professionals, and some of that advice can be conflicting. This is when you have to sift through what you’ve been told, and then listen to you. I’m going to be really honest with you throughout this book about the decisions I made for my babies and my reasons for making them, but I can’t stress enough how important it is that you go through your own thought processes, filter all the information and make the decisions that are right for you and your baby. Don’t just do things because I’m saying that’s what I did, and don’t avoid doing things because someone else tells you not to. No one knows your child better than you, and the sooner you learn to trust and follow your gut, the more empowered, confident, relaxed and happy you will become as a parent. And, remember, no parent on the planet gets it right all the time. I certainly didn’t, and more often than not the questionable decisions I made were not my own.

In this book, I’ve tried to give the best overview I can of the first year of your baby’s life. Hopefully you’ll find the more baby-led chapters such as Feeding, Sleeping and Wellbeing a really helpful but gentle guide for how to care for your baby, full of the tips that particularly worked for me. Then I’ve talked about Lifestyle and the changes for you and your new family, and what things you can do to make the transition smooth and the outcome even better than before. Lastly, I’ve tried to be as honest as I can in the Looking After You chapter, as at a time when life is so completely different, so are you, and this can feel utterly overwhelming sometimes.

It’s important to say here that this isn’t a rule book. One size most definitely doesn’t fit all when it comes to babies so you need to spend time getting to know your baby to find out what works for you both. You might have to go through ten different soothing methods before you find one your baby likes, for example, and even then it’ll probably be one you made up – see, I told you to listen to your gut! If you’re at that point where nothing seems to be working and you’re at your lowest ebb and most exhausted, try to remember that nothing lasts forever! You’ll be in a completely different place in a month or so – just hang in there.