New things...

Now I'm starting to feel a bit more confident about changing and feeding Zachary out and about, I think it's about time that I got out to try and meet some more mums. I am in an enviable position with L working from home in that I'm not starved of adult company or conversation (well...you could beg to differ with the two of us!) during the day, but I think it would be good for me to meet other mums who are going through the same kind of things, and talk to them about breastfeeding, nights, and all the changes he's going through.

There are two children's centres within walking distance of home - the Wellington Centre, which is just round the corner (literally - about 2 minutes away) and the Meredith Centre which is further away, taking about 20 minutes to walk to. Both of them run a daily schedule of activities for parents and children, taking them up to about school age. I've been to a couple of the Health Visitor drop in sessions in order to get the lad weighed, and there's a baby massage class I'm interested in which I'll hopefully get on when it comes round again (it runs in 5-week sessions). I was also recommended to the breastfeeding drop-in which was this morning running from 10-12. Just a chance to meet other breastfeeding mums and chat about experiences - hopefully a bit less scary than talking to the health visitor!

The first challenge was to not only get myself and Z up and ready before 11, but also to get out of the house by then as well!. It was going really well - managed to get us dressed and ready to go, popped him in the carry cot while I went to get his coat, but on my return found he'd sicked up all on his cot sheet, down his face and in his hair! Nice. And I'd washed his hair specially today!

So a quick change later and we were ready to go. Really lovely weather today so I enjoyed the walk and the drop-in group was great. There were two mums there 'leading' it (in the loosest possible sense) and one other mum whose first time it was as well. Was there for about an hour, had a cup of tea and a really good chat. Very affirming. They also told me about the "Nought til they Walk" groups at the centres - they sounded great, again a chance to meet mums and apparently there are also activities and games for the babies and children, printing, making cards and other good stuff. I'm looking forward to it - next Monday is the next one.

We also talked about places in town which are good for breastfeeding mums. There are more than I thought and Debenhams and M&S both got rave reviews. The usual problem though is that even though rooms are provided for feeding mums, they are away from main cafe areas so you can't eat together as a family. There seems to be a need for some kind of breastfeeding cafe? I think such things exist but couldn't find one in Ipswich...