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Ellie May Maternity, London (2025)

17/12/2025

Gift planning for your friend or relative due a Christmas baby? Or perhaps you're pregnant and due soon and lost for ideas of useful gifts people could give you...here's an (some) idea(s) 👇

Forget more cute 3-packs of muslins or clothes in any number of too big, or too small, sizes 🙅‍♀️

Instead of think of kinds of support you could pay for/provide (or even club together with others to provide if better!) 👇

🌟 1:1 Consultations with specialists - a lactation consultant perhaps, Infant Feeding Coach, Babywearing Peer Sypporter, a session at a local Sling Library - all can be done antenatally AND after birth and are great ways to build the confidence of expectent and new parents and start preparing and filling that toolbox of skills and biological, developmentally appropriate, evidence-based information !
🌟 A list of helpful local resources you've researched and found for if the need arises e.g. local free groups (from general parent groups to infant feeding support), local private support e.g. lactation consultants and newborn care specialists, where their local sling library is and what baby classes are on locally they might enjoy!
🌟 Meals - either home-made and frozen or via a meal-delivery or ready-meal type company so the fridge is full of quick and nutritious meals for busy, often overwhelmed parents!
🌟 Your own supportiveness - whether that is regular check-in's via text or phone, offering to come and do some laundry and a tidy up when you can, offering companionship and a supportive listening ear and being respectful of what goals (e.g. breastfeeding) the parents have so you don't accidentally undermine their wishes

In summary, your support and the support of others can be the greatest gift of all 🤗

15/12/2025

Babycare (and life) top tip: If in doubt, sing it out! 🎤🎶

It's not a secret that I love singing...everywhere 🤷‍♀️

I sing a lot at work, to the babies in my care (sometimes dueting with a parent!) 🤗👶

And I also love to take singing into my days spent with the amazingly brave and strong children of and their families 🏨

This weekend gave me a special chance to join 2 of my fellow Weekend Club volunteers on their 👇 to go around the hospital singing (mainly Christmas and Disney songs!)! 🫶

Why sing? 👇
🎶 Singing is a great mood booster: triggering the release of endorphins and serotonin and lowering stress hormones like cortisol
🎶 Managing breath is a big part of singing so encourages you to slow and deepen your breathing and trigger your calm
🎶 Babies don't have the biology to be able to calm down alone, they rely on the calm of thosr around them to slow their breathing and stop crying so, singing and calming your own nervous system helps to calm theirs

One baby we saw and sang to with her mum, then became very upset when mum popped downstairs to the canteen for something to eat ❤️‍🩹 2 nurses were doing their best to calm her but it was by playing and singing a few slow and gentle songs in her doorway that she stopped crying and snuggled into the arms of the nurse holding her 🫂

I often hear parents tell me they can't sing, or they don't know any children's songs but

1. It doesn't matter how in tune or accurate you are, just the rhythm and calm of your voice can help and...
2. Any song will do! For calming, i'm a fan of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and the odd round of Eidelweiss amongst others...but also love a good Disney or Musical Theatre number to just keep the good moods flowing! ☺️

Do you like to sing? What's your current favourite thing to sing (even if just in the shower!)? 💬

12/12/2025

Christmas is a time for unsoliscited and unhelpful questions like..."is baby sleeping through the night yet?" 🙄💤

When the reality is: they themselvesare not "sleeping through" 🙅‍♀️

Evolution has cleverly designed us to wake up briefly between each sleep cycle - 40-50 mins in a baby and up to about age 3, to 90-110 minutes in an 'adult'/mature sleep cycle - to briefly check in with our body and surroundings for signs that we are safe to continue sleeping ⚠️🛌

Some people may be amazed by this as they genuinely don't recall any of these brief wakings and, in their mind therefore, they fall asleep at bedtime and wake up in the morning...🌙🌞

Me? I'm prone to waking fully several times in the night: to go for a wee, have some water, turn my light off, take my glasses off, reposition. I'm also very sensitive to the increase in cortisol levels that naturally happens in the early hours of the morning to start our bodies up for the day. If I wake more fully between cycles (more than just to sip some water or adjust the duvet), I often find it harder to resettle as my brain and busy thoughts are starting up for the day 🤯

When babies rouse between cycles, depending on how sensitive their temperament is, they may call out for any number of reasons (nappy change, hungry, need a cuddle, a bit cold, too hot etc. Etc.) Or they may happily resettle back into the next cycle 🤷‍♀️

With time, and the experience of their needs repeatedly being heard and responded to, and as their independence (physical and emotional) grows, they will need to call out less, whether this takes months or years 📉

However, no matter how old they are when they no longer need to signal for you so much, this is your gentle reminder that they are not sleeping through the night 🤗

Do you remember your wake ups? Or are you someone who feels like you "sleep through" ? 👇💬

10/12/2025

Just your Wednesday reminder that your baby doesn't need lots of toys and big, expensive outings this Christmas 👶🎄

Your baby's top item on their Christmas list is you...you and boobs...but you in general too 👩‍🍼

You may notice your baby feeding more over the festive period, with shorter gaps and sometimes just for much shorter periods as they seek comfort, familiarity and regulation from you in a time of visitors, visiting, routine changes and sensory overload! 🙉

Finding a quiet spot to escape to with baby, or popping them in a sling so they can snuggle into you while you still have your hands to eat and be merry (however that looks to you) are good ways of giving baby and/or you a break when you need 🤗🧘‍♀️

Have you got plans, ideas or suggestions for coping with the Christmas chaos with a baby? 💬👇

09/12/2025

It being Birthday week and all, and exactly 10 years since making the best decision i could have done for myself....it felt only right to jump on the bandwagon 🥹

10 years ago I was finally packing my room after a miserable term of giving the traditional university route a go and mainly spending it with crippling anxiety, crying and not sleeping 🤗

From here came another half "gap year" working out next steps: working on managing my anxiety (with medication and therapy), making the brilliant decision to join my singing family and my volunteer family at the start of 2016, getting onto my Montessori 2-year foundation degree that started in that September and led to my wonderful nanny family of 4 years from 2019-2023, using a global pandemic to do my Post-natal Maternity Care training (the start of many further courses to up-skill!) and then setting up my own business at the start of 2023 to focus on supporting families with newborns and taking every opportunity to study and learn more about the things that actually interest me and help the families I work with 👶

I never regret "dropping out" of university (twice if you count the time I started my BA top-up year post-Montessori in Early Childhood studies and left after 3 weeks to start with my nanny family instead...👀🌟

I love where my less traditional, super-windy, tad bumpy path has taken me and am very proud of the almost-20-year old who took the brave first step she needed to get here 🥰

08/12/2025

Christmas can be busy and overwhelming for even us grown-ups, so it's understandable if your little baby seems a bit (or a lot) unsettled over the festive season 😢🤯🎄

Here are some ways that may help bring some calm (there's a more detailed version on my blog in my bio) 👇

🌟 Swaddling (if your baby isn't rolling yet and responds to it well as some babies just don't) or just being tightly held
🌟 Side or tummy settling (safely against you not unsupervised) to mimic the position they were in in the womb
🌟 Shhhing to mimic the sounds from the womb - your heartbeat and the blood rushing around your body
🌟 Swinging (or other motion), rocking and patting as in-utero, they were largely rocked to sleep so movement can often help trigger calm (babywearing is a great tool to do this hands free)
🌟 Sucking - whether nutrative i.e. at the bottle or breast) or not e.g. with a dummy, their hands or at the breast but not actively feeding (much) reduces stress and triggers pain-relieving chemicals in the brain as well as encouraging sleep...
🌟 Holding - humans are carry mammals so our babies will often find calm in the arms of a caregiver (whether in a carrier, a contact nap, some skin-to-skin time)
🌟 Movement/a change of scene - perhaps a good excuse to go and buy yourself a hot chocolate or some cake
🌟 Bathing in a warm bath (with or without you too) and a muslin covering their exposed tummy

Feel free to add your own baby-calming strategies below to help others build their toolbox! 🧰 👇

04/12/2025

"I slept like a baby" is such a strange phrase... It's supposed to refer to a deep, quiet sleep but new-born babies are far from quiet! 🤫

Take a baby, with their under-developed digestive system, frequent eating (and thus digesting), narrow airways, and the evolutionary way they spend at least 50% of their sleep in REM sleep as their brain is busy growing, and you get a roommate who is far from silent 👶

Sometimes your baby may even cry in their sleep but, if you give them a second before rushing to pick them up, their furrowed brow relaxes and they settle back into a quiet slumber 💤

Examples of noises that you may hear include 👇:

😙 Whistling as they breathe through their nose
🐷 Snorting due to possible congestion
👩‍🍼 Hiccupping (if perhaps they've taken in air during a last feed)
😢 Whimpering or crying can happen when transitioning from one sleep state to another
💨 Gassy sounds due to their immature digestive system hard at work

⚠️ If a noise is really concerning you or is accompanied by other signs you're worried about, don't feel daft for reaching out to someone for support.

I remember my first overnight working with a baby, I didn't sleep a wink. He was 4 weeks old and made so many noises I wasn't prepared for, I was constantly checking if he was awake and hungry....It took a few nights but I eventually got used to his little squeaks and squirms 🙉

02/12/2025

Don't wait too long to ask (Santa) for the support you want and need with your infant feeding journey 👩‍🍼

🌟 If you haven't sought any antenatal breastfeeding education (or even if you have), seek professional infant feeding support AFTER birth, to optimise positioning and attachment and troubleshoot 🌟

PLUS

At busy social times like Christmas, everyone wants baby cuddles and to encourage you to rest. They advise you to let others bottle-feed baby, give a night-time formula bottle or perhaps keep you so busy and distracted that you miss feeds...🍼

So here's some messages to send to those family and friends, visitors and hosts, in advance or just things to remember as mantras for yourself 👇

👶 "If I'm struggling with breastfeeding (because it's a new skill baby and I are both learning), please don't tell me that 'fed is best' and to just give formula. Ask what I need and help me get the support I need while cheering me on and telling me I CAN do it!"

👶 "Please don't tell me I'm holding my baby too much. I'm his safe space and all he's known. I can't spoil him by holding him. If you're holding him and I ask for him back, please don't argue"

👶 "New borns expect to feed frequently and on demand so if it seems I'm feeding my baby a lot, I'm simply responding to his needs"

👶 "Yes, I'm tired and perhaps i will go for a nap when baby is sleeping but please don't suggest I look like I need sleep. The more awake time I spend with baby, able to feed on demand, the better for us both! Perhaps I'll take advantage of this holiday period and spend hours in bed with baby skin-to-skin"

👶 "If you're under the weather, please avoid getting close to my baby. She's not got a strong immune system yet"

What else would you like to tell friends and family? 💬👇

28/11/2025

The choices are schedules, with feeds and naps at specific time etc. etc. Or babyled, with the day following baby from beginning to end...right? 🤷‍♀️

What if you were told there could be a middle ground? Where you "control" when the day begins and ends but, between those points, you folllw your baby 🤗

This is what one of my current families have done since the early weeks (and they don't have an older child providing this basic structure due to a nursery or school run! ⏰️

By routinely starting the day at 7:00/7:30, opening the curtains, greeting baby cheerily, turning lights on etc. since baby was small, and then winding down with a bedtime bath/top and tail and feed from 6pm, their days have had a pretty predictable pattern emerging and evolving over the last 3 months ☀️🌛

Lasting roughly 1.5hr awake between sleeps now, it is possible to note those early sleep cues at roughly the same times and feed when showing hunger signs when awake 👩‍🍼

Currently, on the 2 days i'm helping out, a day looks like:
⏰️ I arrive 8:30/9, and a nap normally happens shortly after - in the pram bassinet at home...currently lasting 30-40 mins! Wakes happy
⏰️ Play, mum breastfeeds when hunger signs showm, bit more play
⏰️ 11ish tired again - often a contact nap for another 30-40 mins (today was 50 mins!)
⏰️ More playing, breastfeeds etc
⏰️ 1/1:30ish starts to get tired again so i take baby out in the pram....currently wiĺl sleep 30-40mins, wake yawning and quietly content for 20mins then resettle for 1hr or often more!
⏰️ Feeds eagerly after waking and plays...
⏰️ Possibly another 30-40min nap before last wake period before up for bath/wash at 6!

This approach has been working great for this particular family. Do you do this? Would you try it? Let's discuss below 💬

Ellie May Maternity

17/12/2025

15/12/2025

12/12/2025

10/12/2025

09/12/2025

08/12/2025

04/12/2025

02/12/2025

28/11/2025

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