Your Pregnancy, Birth & Baby by @tammi.tmb

INTRODUCTION
Tell us about your life growing up – where you grew up, how many siblings, home life, etc.
I grew up in Adelaide, I have 1 sibling (brother) he is 6 years older than me. I haven’t spoken about this much at all, but I actually had a pretty rough teenage life. My parents divorced and split up when I was quite young at which I found I actually coped quite well but once I had hit high school my mother remarried an abusive and extremely manipulative man, divorced him and went bankrupt. It was a really challenging time in my family’s life which I don’t think I truly acknowledged to the extent of how much it affected me until I grew up at which it all made me grow up really fast.

What’s your life like now – family, work, lifestyle
My life, my mindset and self-worth has basically done a 360 and I am really proud of myself from learning from the life lesson’s early on in life, I cherish my family (fiancé and daughters) so much and I am extremely grateful that I work for myself now running The Milk Boutique (TMB) and live a flexible lifestyle.

YOUR PREGNANCY
Was your pregnancy planned or a surprise?
Ruby (4-year-old) was planned, it took between 5-6 months to fall pregnant with her but Sav (Savannah) who is now 1.5 was an absolute surprise, the best surprise! I am still extremely curious on how on earth I conceived her! Haha! Our little miracle girl.

How did you find out you were pregnant?
With Ruby I remember I was obsessed with testing I did so many and finally got the positive we had been hoping for but Sav, I just knew something was different. My period was late then I randomly purchased a pregnancy test and was extremely surprised.

What were your initial emotions?
For both, the biggest mixed sick feeling of nervous and excited! It’s the craziest feeling!

Did you feel ready to become a mum?
Ruby, yes!! Savannah, probably not initially, I questioned and doubted my ability to cope as a mum of two and especially handle another pregnancy this time while raising a toddler with Ruby only being 2.

Do you believe you were prepared enough and knew what to do and where to source information or did you walk in flying blind?
With Ruby I definitely went in blind! Completely unexpected how much my life would change, I had a really good support system at the time, so I wasn’t overly worried, but I had completely underestimated the leaps, the teething, the sleepless nights and the sicknesses!

Did you have an easy pregnancy or had some struggles?
I had really straight forward and easy and similar pregnancies with both of the girls. I was really lucky, but I did suffer with the worst pregnancy acne/break outs second time around, it was horrible!

Did you find out the gender?
Yes!! I honestly don’t know how people wait. We loved finding out for both the girls.

YOUR BIRTH
Did you have a Birth plan, if so, what was your plan A
For Ruby’s pregnancy I had intentions of a natural birth with no drug intervention but that quickly changed when I arrived at hospital and asked (yelled) for an epidural at 2.5cm dilated. I had no major issues with the epidural, it allowed me to have a really laid back and fairly peaceful birth and so for Sav I knew I would end up needing it again and I did, I waited a little longer (7.5cm dilated) and the experience was even better. I was still able to push both girls out in 5 minutes with no tearing or cutting or medical instruments!

Please provide a brief synopsis of your birth.
First labor experience (Ruby) went for quite a long time 24hours from waters breaking, they broke 6am on the 18th May (my birthday!) and she was delivered at 5.25am on the 19th may. For Savannah’s birth I was just over 1 week over-due, and I had to be induced. The day before I was induced the hospital did a really painful stretch and sweep that caused bleeding and irregular contractions all night until I arrived at hospital at 8am the following morning to have my waters broken and she was born at 1:50pm that afternoon.

How was your birth experience different to what you have expected?
I honestly expected tearing/stitches or more trauma that I would need to deal with “down-stairs” afterwards but I got extremely lucky both times!!

YOUR BABY
Explain the moment you met your baby for the first time.
For me it was as if they had been here all along, I feel like my brain and heart couldn’t possibly process the information that I had just created and birthed life! Haha it’s the most unique emotional rollercoaster in the world!

What was your baby’s weight and length?
Both girls were 8 pounds and around 50cm.

How did you decide your baby’s name?
We had Ruby’s name chosen before pregnancy so as soon as we found out we were having a girl it was easy to use the name we already grown to love but with Sav, we couldn’t decide until the final trimester and even then we were 100% on Savannah until she was born.

Explain what the first 6 weeks were like with your new baby?
With Ruby it was a huge shift! She was the worst sleeper for the first 2-3 weeks, she would cry all night and now that I look back I think I had heaps of anxiety lingering within me, I remember as the sun went down my anxiety levels would rise as I knew the night ahead of sleeplessness was coming but as everything, it’s just a phase. It’s temporary and it ends. For Sav, we went straight to bed sharing from the experience of Ruby, she fit in like a breeze.

How was your birth recovery?
Extremely straight forward. The after-birth pains were a shock, no one told me about them, and they were worse with Savannah. It felt nearly as worse as birth!

TIPS
What is your top 5 items you needed/used during your pregnancy, birth and with your baby?

Pregnancy: My TMB (The Milk Boutique) nursing friendly crops, leggings and loose fitting/comfortable clothes + a pregnancy pillow.

For Ruby: A bassinet and love to dream swaddles, for the first 6-7 months of her life she slept extremely well wrapped or in swaddles.

For Savannah: We absolutely loved and used our Bubnest a lot! She would sleep in it in my office while I worked. We got a lot of use out of it.

For both girls we used our icandy peach 2019 (double seat) pram which I could attach savannah’s car seat capsule (britax safe n sound) to easily and Ruby being 3 at the time sav’s was born would fit really well in the second seat.

Any advice or tips for new mums?
You can’t anticipate the unpredictable future of your pregnancy, birth and baby. Don’t compare your experiences to others, trust your gut and do what feels right for you and your baby even if that means bed sharing/co sleeping/rocking or feeding to sleep. Go easy on yourself because the days may seem long, but the years are so short and they are only little babies for so long, you literally blink, and they are no longer so dependent on you anymore.

Follow Tammi on Instagram @tammi.tmb