I NEED information!!

Being from the UK, I was totally unfamiliar with anything to do with children here in Aus. Actually, not that I knew a whole lot about the UK either, but at least I had more friends over there with children. Here, we are the first in our immediate group of friends to have a baby, so not many people to ask questions.

That being said, there are ways to find out a variety of information, IF you look hard enough! For some reason Australia doesn't seem to have as much available easily on the internet as I am used to - it's available, but you have to dig a bit to find it! 

I'm one of those people who totally overloads on information, until it confuses me lol, so there were a few 'key' things that I NEEDED to find sources of information for:

* Pregnancy related info - milestones, week by week etc

The excitement of first baby leads you into wanting to know about every little thing going on inside your body, and about the changes that bub is going through day by day. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this - I was amazed at what I was reading each week, and it was nice to be able to share this with Jay as the weeks went by.

My main sources for this info were a couple of books that I was recommended - Mayo Clinic's 'Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy, and that ever popular 'What to Expect When You're Expecting'. Mayo Clinic is a very practical factual book, but what I like about WTEWYE was that there are different versions for different countries. There are only slight variations in them, but at least you know that each chapter is relevant, rather than having to miss out whole chunks because it doesn't apply to your medical system for example. More than this though, I love how aside from the week by week lowdown, it addresses real questions that you may be wondering about. Aside from anything else, it enables you to feel a little bit less stupid for asking a question that you are sure is a stupid question to ask - if it's in the book, at least another person has also asked the same thing! 

* What to buy / Where to buy things

This is the one that bugged me the most! Being from the UK, you know that if all else fails and you can't find something you need, Mothercare or Mamas and Papas will be your backup plan!

Here in Sydney there are some big baby stores, such as Baby Kingdom and Baby Bunting, but they are miles away from where we live (they have to be as they are so big!), and to be honest, very over priced. I guess it's the usual story of the convenience of being able to get everything under one roof, and paying the price for it. With the expense that goes with having a new baby, I just couldn't help feel the need to shop around for better deals - enter skills with google and online shopping and promo code searches! Okay it got a bit obsessive lol, but on the upside, I can pretty much find anything cheaper now if I'm given the challenge :-)

I found that there were a couple of pharmacies that carried much of the feeding supplies, for a lot cheaper than the usual stores. I wouldn't have expected this. Try www.amcal.com.au or www.pharmacyonline.com.au

For clothes, apart from the usual Seed, Zara, Target etc, there are many online boutique stores, which I found through Facebook. Once you 'like' a couple, you are given other suggestions, and from there, it's hard to stop them coming through! One thing I did find however was the usual problem of delivery to Aus - it can be very expensive, so what I did was to choose my favourite couple of stores and do a bulk order rather than an item or two only from each different boutique ('bulk order' translates to horror for the husband!)

The obvious Ebay! There are soooo many gorgeous handmade items than people are selling on Ebay, but as always, Aus delivery can be an issue. I was lucky enough to be having people visit from the UK, so took advantage of the fact and asked them to bring things over for me. I know thats' cheating but where there is a will there is a way :-)

* Product reviews

Okay so I'm a VERY cautious buyer! Apart from clothes, if I'm looking to buy something, I will pretty much always be looking for a review first, to make sure I have the right thing, and to get honest opinions from like around a million people about what they like/dislike, and what works/doesn't work. Does this lengthen the buying process? It sure does! Does it drive my husband crazy? It sure does! For baby though, who doesn't want to make the right choice?!

The best places for reviews I found were Amazon, MadeforMums, and NetMums. I also utilised being on a few Facebook groups to ask for advice (discuss later).

I would have been lost without these reviews, for everything from my pram to my sterliser and bottles. looking at these sources not only gives you an idea about the products you are looking for, but also gives you a nudge on items you may not have even thought you needed. Yes, it can get a bit crazy with soooo much stuff, but with a bit of self control, these sites can be very useful to make informed purchases. 

* Facebook Groups

Before falling pregnant, I didn't even know these group existed. I'm not sure why - there are facebook groups for EVERYTHNIG, and what better way to connect random people to discuss anything to do with pregnancy/babies, asking the same questions and going through the same emotions/problems. I found you could literally ask anything, from advice on products (great because people are giving you their first-hand experience), to sympathy for pregnancy related issues. There's no better support than people going through what you are going through at the same time - it just makes it feel a bit less scary and lonely to know that you aren't the only one having these weird pains that you know are probably normal but feel like they are completely abnormal!

One example - towards the end of my pregnancy, I had extremely itchy feet, and I mean EXTREMELY! It would wake me up in the night and I would have to go and stand on the cool kitchen floor to stop it driving me crazy! I put it down to the heat in Sydney given that it was December and the start of Summer. I put a message on one of my groups asking if anyone could recommend a good cream to 'cool' my feet. I got lots of responses back saying that need to go and see the doc as it could be related to a liver condition called Cholestasis, a common liver disease that only happens in pregnancy. I was shocked - who would have thought that itchy feet was a pregnancy thing, that could in the worst case scenario cause stillbirth :-(. Anyway, I went and got everything checked out, and all was fine, but my point is that the facebook group was the trigger to go and get checked out, otherwise I may have never know it was a thing!

The groups I am with include Mini Asian (UK), North Shore Mums (Sydney), Mums the Word - Aus, Northshore (Sydney) Daycare.

*Mother's Group

I will talk about this in my next post, but basically, a great source of info for any first-time mum! I have found my group to be invaluable for info and support, so really glad I gave it a go, even though I was a bit weary about it. 

That's enough of the essay - I could go on with all of the specifics, but won't! If anyone would like to know more, just contact me through the form and I will be happy to help.