Don't wake the baby!
Unwind on sleepless nights to a wholesome mix of parenting stories, quirky humour, and cosy crafting. A fun, honest and unscripted conversation between Emma and Elliot on non-judgemental parenting life: sit with us in the blanket fort and join the discussion! We’re not here to provide answers but to share our experiences and explore how parenting has changed. A topical PodCraft, based in Yorkshire, hand-crafted by parents... Relax, enjoy, and be part of the community.
Don't wake the baby!
Bonus Episode | Parenting paraphernalia, nesting, meltdowns, baby names, routines, outtakes & more
Bloopers, tangents and more parenting stories - Join Emma and Elliot in the editing room of the Podcraft for a special, extra, bonus, silly episode, full of all the bits and bobs that got cut out. Plus interesting tangents that we physically couldn't fit into the main episodes. A little compilation to tide you over until we're back with Series 4
Thank you so much to all our listeners and those who joined us during Series 3. We appreciate your support, and hope you enjoyed it! New episodes are coming soon...
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Unwind on sleepless nights to a wholesome mix of parenting, humour, and crafting. We’re not here to provide answers but to share our experiences, explore how parenting has changed, and build an online community of parents for mutual support.
A fun, honest and unscripted conversation between Emma and Elliot on non-judgemental parenting and millennial-based topics, as we relax on an evening doing a craft or creative activity.
We are a project in partnership with The Kairos Movement and supported by The Methodist Church, of which The Kairos Movement is a part.
Welcome back to Don't Wake the Baby. You join Emma and Elliot here in the editing room of the podcast, The PodCraft. It's a special New Year episode where we're sharing lots of outtakes and bonus content, clips, stories, all the stuff that couldn't be squeezed into a podcast. a lot of the other episodes.
Many of them there's lots of tangents and a conversation that overran and didn't make it into the final cut and here is a special episode where we get to share some of that with you.
So Emma, what's our topic for today? Pregnant. I thought you said you were ready. I was ready. I was ready. I said, do you know what you're going to say? I wanted to say pregnancy, but I'm worried people think we're like getting pregnant, so I'd be like the experience of being pregnant Yeah, whatever you like I don't want people to think we're gonna give them advice on how to get pregnant.
I think that's like a different episode. Right, okay. I don't want people to think they'll have like a step by step thing.
Are you tired? I'm exhausted. That's the problem with being parents and trying to do an energetic podcast. You're trying to bring lots of energy but we're like, we're so tired. I feel like my energy's very low today because I've got a cold as well. Yeah. Power through! Every time we record I feel like, ah, my energy's low today.
Yeah. This is the problem with this. You can't, you could just wait. We'll wait till a day when we've got high energy, you know, in 20 years. I was gonna say like twice a year. I don't know, I feel energetic today.
All right, Becky, I'm gonna go because Elliot's looking ready.
You enjoy your baby sick. Bye! Righty o, let's uh, get to work. Get going. We haven't done a tester. Well, I'm doing a tester now. Oh, okay. I find it's better to record when you're not, when you don't know. When I don't know it's a tester, so I don't do my silly voice. Yeah. That's true.
And it's true, we, our attitude has changed now slightly. So like, we were holding off buying some new stuff, being like, wait till we move. Yeah. Especially because I've been in a nesting phase. Poor Elliot's out trying to stop me. So I've been like, getting new cushions for like, basically, there's lovely puffin cushions for like, the kitchen chairs.
And like, you get these little puffin, what do you call them? Table mats. Table mats. Yeah, Place mats. Place, yeah, place mats. Go with them. Like, so I've been doing more stuff where we're, we're actually like, well let's actually decorate it for how we want to live in it at the moment. Mmm. We're not doing permanent changes, but we're making more of an effort to make it I would say this phase has been rather frustrating for me.
Your nesting where, like, what's the definition of nesting? Is it like typically when pregnant women like to tidy, clutter and throw stuff out? Is that what it is? Well, From what I've seen, most people are like me and end up trying to make huge changes in the home. Oh, it's like home renovation. Yeah, but they said it's meant to be like, oh, you're getting ready for the baby, so you're cleaning everything up.
Oh, I see, it's like a mama bird that's getting her nest ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like a biological thing. Yeah. Um, but I have seen online most people like me and don't do the really useful stuff of being like, Oh, let's go through everything and chuck things out. Yeah. Although we have been doing that.
Most people seem to be like me and go, let's paint a wall or like make something. Um, yeah. And so like, we've been having for the past few months, like every day Amazon packages arrived and I go, what? What have you bought now for the house? And like, there'll be tins of paint, there'll be things for the table, there'll be like new decorations, there's these tile things for the bathroom Mama's stuck on.
Yeah, that you can just stick on the wall. Just, and my frustration is not that we're doing it, because I like doing it, but I'm quite artsy as well, and I wanted to be involved in the decision making. And like, all this stuff's just arrived, and I'm like, what have you bought now? What are you doing to the house?
It's like a compulsion. Like, I have this thing at the minute, and this is totally off topic. Um, so, above our doorway, we have like a What would you call it? Like, a bit that covers it? Now I'm gonna make a real hash of this. Is it a lintel? A gable? Uh, a porch? Something like that! All of those words. Where the guttering is.
Yeah, and it's got a bit that covers it. Just an overhang. Yeah, and it annoys me when I look up, which I know no one ever looks up, and it's not gonna change my life, but it annoys me that it looks dirty. Like, it was originally white. And I've checked, I've never been looking at the neighbours, everybody else is a dirty.
But I'm desperate to repaint it white. I've no idea how I'll do it though. And how I'd go about doing that. And I've said I'm not doing this. Yes, there's no way he's doing it. This is ridiculous. So I've been like looking at Amazon getting like really long paintbrush things. Um, and so far I've resisted.
But I can sense, um, I don't know, I don't know if it's the, the baby brain thing happening. Well it's true, last pregnancy with Lily, um, we did, we repainted our shed. We did, yeah. I don't think we had a sense at the time that this is, but it clearly maybe was part of your I maybe need just, I need like an output.
A project. Yes. Next parenting story! Yeah, how, how do you feel like generally about the whole kind of capitalist consumerism culture we live in? I just think it's very difficult. In that. From the point, basically, from the point of conceiving your child. You're kind of given lists and lists of things you need.
Which I'm not saying you don't, you do need a lot of stuff when you have a baby. But, it becomes a thing where like, oh but the best thing to have is this thing. And the best thing of this thing is this thing. And it's always like the most expensive item. And I always want to be like, well I'm sure I'll survive with the mid range to low price item of this thing.
But it's the way it's like, but if you really love your baby, You would buy the best thing, which then I think as a parent you go, Oh, but I do want the best thing for my child, you know, so it's very difficult. I personally just am very pretty anti like the whole Yeah. Capitalist and, and consumerism culture and, and things like, I get so frustrated by it all.
We've kind of met in the middle. We have. We still have disagreements sometimes. A lot of like, where I'm like, I'm just going to give this thing away. Um, and he's like, no, no, no, no, that's a good thing. And I'm like, she never plays with it, but it's a good thing. I'm like, I'm not saying it's not good. This is, I'm gonna get into the argument.
I'm just saying, she doesn't play with it. So like, I suppose this is a good example of the difference between, uh, capitalism What was it? Consumerism and materialism is I really don't like to buy stuff. No. Mostly because I'm cheap. He likes to have stuff. But I don't like to throw stuff away. Doesn't.
Anyway, um, let's go back to relating this to parenting. And you've already mentioned it. Part of the frustration is it starts so early. It does. I'd written down in my notes here how, you know, as soon as you're trying for a baby, or as soon as you have a baby or pregnant, whatever, like. I remember being, even at that point, inundated with like adverts on social media Yeah.
For various stuff. And I'm like, even then I was like, how'd you know? How'd you know ? Well, this I knew, like this is when we were trying for a baby in Amazon. I'd ordered like ovulation tests and then I kept getting sent things like there's another super duper ovulation test you could get all, there's this like, I don't know, just tons and tons of stuff that they'd be like, you'll, you'll want this and this, and I'm like.
No, I just, I just wanted one thing, actually. But now you've shown me this other thing, maybe that would help me conceive. And this is my big frustration and annoyance, is that as a new parent, it's a whole new world. You don't know a lot, you're still learning. And so they're kind of taking advantage of that.
Yeah. And offering all these things to parents. Um, It's true. And we all know it, like, when you go through it the second time and the friends we've spoken to, you all know, like, ah, you suddenly have a better idea of what stuff you actually need. Yeah. And what stuff you don't really need. Uh, and it turns out there's quite a lot of things that fall into that category of, kind of don't really need.
Yeah. Next parenting story! Aw, and she just wanted to get off the plane. Just hated it. She kept trying to find our passports, because even at one and a half she understood we, we had them to get on the plane. So she kept trying to find our passports and grab them and basically run off screaming. But the whole, the, I'm not kidding.
The flight is like an hour. The whole hour, she was hysterical. Yeah. Like And you know we talked about that rage in the car? It was like that, but more. But more. On a plane. And public. Yeah. Everybody gets to see it. She was like, I can't remember how we described it. She was like, she was possessed by a demon.
She was like, writhing all over you. It was. Like throwing herself about her face was red from from screaming. I kept thinking that she's gonna have a huge rush because she's so hot. Yeah. She's so hungry. Yeah, she'd be like clawing at the belt. Yeah. Trying to get it off. Oh. And just like, And the stuff I want to say was so, So nice.
And the passengers were nice as well. The passengers were, nobody was mean. Everybody kept going. Oh. I think also they could see we were actively going, why don't we run this sleep? Yeah. Just why don't we watch something? Yeah. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Somebody even was like the woman we could, the poor woman beside us.
Yeah, at one point she I think she ordered like three vodkas and I really felt like being like would you like me to pay For these vodkas because I feel like we've we've driven you to drink. Yeah, this can't be a pleasant experience Yeah, and I remember I kept apologizing and she kept saying it's fine, but I really think the drinking was our fault
Yeah, that was horrendous There was a lovely woman opposite us who'd been trying to help us. And it worked really good. She's very tenacious. So we've picked up this phrase now, whenever Lily's got completely lost, and we go, well, she's very tenacious. Yep. But lots of positive. Yeah, I remember when we met Becky and she said we looked like broken people.
Yeah. Like, they came to pick us up from the airport and she said me and Ellie looked really pale. Yeah. And like we'd be through like some kind of trauma. And I remember at the time going to, I don't know how we're gonna get home because I can't, I can't go through that again. Yeah. And Becky was like, What do you mean?
That's how I don't, I don't know if I can get a flight back. I don't, I don't know if I could do it. And would you know, the flight back was even worse. Even worse. I took some videos on the way back, which I did feel guilty about. You were sat there trying to do this and like I was videoing it, but There was nothing you could do.
Yeah, exactly. Like, she didn't really want me either. No. We tried, we tried switching, but she was, it, unbelievably, if you saw these videos, you wouldn't believe she could be worse, but she was worse once she was handed to Elliot. So yeah, just horrendous. Yeah. After that, I was like, we're never traveling abroad again.
Next parenting story! I found it so sweet that when we first had Lily, you'd ordered me this massive, like, cookie thing to come that said What did it say on it? It said like, thank you daddy or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, because obviously, like, leading up, I'd had a lot of health problems, so he'd actually had to be, like, really, really good from quite early on.
Um, so. That was like a thank you. Whereas this time Lily wants a cake. Yeah, again it will be a challenge to see what would be even more pushed to try and find those little moments where we can offer each other support and reassurance. But yeah, we'll have to try and muddle through. Yeah. I'm trying to do a thing now where I show it's important to Lee to say thank you to the person all the time.
Yeah. Um, cause I realised in my early pregnancy, I'd just be like, Ellie, I'm thirsty. So then I was going, please may I have, thank you ever so much. Um, just because I want her to mirror the same behaviour with just everybody. Yeah, not taking things for granted. Um, so this is what I'm trying to consciously now do.
Not just, you know, so you feel like I'm saying thank you. Yeah. So Lee knows that's what's important. It is the best behaviour to do. I don't know. I've got the hiccups now. But yeah, because I actually think, well I'll be up at night anyway. Like, if I'm breastfeeding, if I have to put milk, so, might as well hang out.
Come watch something together. Be nice. Yeah. Chat, we like to chat. I thought even we can get a late takeaway. Oh, sounds nice. Without Lily there. Yeah. Yeah. Lily's like, don't want a takeaway. Yeah. So I think it's gonna be hard again, but it's, in some ways, I think we can, we can, I'm confident because we've done it before.
I'm like, And we'll adapt. We'll work through it. It's what you always do, isn't it? It is, yeah. And I think the first few weeks, I always am just so joyful that like, the baby's out, I'm like, in a very good mental state. Where I think it's only like, normally about two months in when I'm like, oh my god, this is so hard.
Whereas like, the first few weeks, I just have, I don't know, maybe it's hormones, but I'm just in a real high from having the baby and that everybody's safe and we're all happy, like. So yeah, we'll see if that's the same this time around. But last time I remember, I was just kind of, I think it hit Elliot sooner.
You're like, you were tired earlier. Yeah, yeah. I'm hoping that I'm, like, I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm hoping I'm more adjusted that it's not such a distinct shock, but I also worry that, like, I've not had a period of good sleep before so, like, I'm going in from a lower level so it's going to be I don't know, less adjustment but equally, I'm not, I'm not fresh.
Yeah, but I also think I've got a much longer maternity this time, which, last time I think within the three month period that we were, I was back at work, so, this time around hopefully. I'm off work, so I actually can do a lot more by myself. Next parenting story! So, like, I remember sometimes he'd be just in, woken up in a really grumpy mood, and then for the rest of the day he was just, like, horrendous to be around.
Hey! Excuse me! But it was good because I'd go, Hey, you're in a really grumpy mood, and like, I'm not putting up with this today. Like, I have enough to deal with. You need to sort yourself out. And I remember he goes, I'm not in a grumpy mood. And then he'd go off and he'd come back and he'd be so much better.
Because I think he had like a self talk to himself like, maybe I'm being grumpy.
So, Emma, what's happening today? Today, we have some special guests to, uh, help us Sorry. Help us untangle the web that is parenting. I was trying to go for a bit of a Halloween theme. Oh. It probably won't come out at Halloween. Oh, yes, that's right. We'll untangle the threads of parenting. Um, and try and, like, Help advisors maybe what is like some good techniques to try and I don't know, I don't know.
I don't know. Help. Oh dear. It's your one job. I don't know.
Okay, okay, I can go. Okay. Do you want to ask your question again? So Emma, what's happening today? Uh, we have some guests who are going to help advisors and they have lots of experience with, um, toddlers about how to maybe help manage certain behaviors. Um, and also maybe just tips for ourselves, how to manage our own expectations and things.
Um, still a bit long. Oh. We could cut half of it out. Maybe. Not one, but two guests. Two guests. It's a special episode.
They're going to chat to us about their experience of fostering. With fo You could just say their experience of fostering with toddlers. Oh, okay. Right. Do you want to try again? Okay. So Emma, what are we So Emma, what's happening today? We have two guests today who, um, are going to Share with us their experience of fostering mainly toddlers, um, and hopefully we will glean any stuff out of it.
Just cut it off there, just cut it off there. I was going to be like, we'll glean some experience for them, but I don't know if glean was the right word. It's because I'm hungry, I can't think. This is going to go well.
This little project of ours is brought to you by us, Elliot and Emma, but also in partnership with the Kairos Movement. How do you think you describe the Kairos Movement? In my head, they may disagree, I dub it as Hippie Church. Okay, that's quite radical. So, like, it's a way to have some faith based things without it being in a traditional church setting.
That's true, in the sense that it's a reimagining of a different way. Yeah, kind of free, you know, do your own, explore. Having said that, if you told me Kairos was hippie church, I'm not sure I would be interested in joining, but it's very much our cup of tea of, uh, yeah. This podcast is sponsored by the Methodist Church.
If you want to save your soul, listen. Yeah, I don't think that's the idea, is it? Do you have a thing for Wesley? Come to us. We're a new podcast. Are we a podcast? A show? Something? In my head, we're a podcast, but he really likes YouTube. So we have a slight disagreement on this. I think we're a, we're a podcast who's on YouTube and for me, we're a YouTube show.
Who's a podcast. Exactly. And it's up to you to determine which we are.
You are recording. Oh yes. Yeah. Testing, testing. How are we doing? We're okay. Okay. I mean, are you going to be whispering quietly because of the baby? I think I'll probably be quite quiet with the baby. You don't, but she's, once she's asleep. She's not asleep. But then I think maybe talking loudly will help her go to sleep.
Yeah. And in the daytime, we're not going to be overly quiet. That's true. Oh it's helping, she's going. I think she'll enjoy the sound of our voices chatting away. Maybe that, maybe that's a thing. Maybe like in the middle of the night when she's struggling to go down, we should just stick on our podcast and she can listen to our voices.
That's true, it's not a bad idea you know. Because I've been like listening to things in my ears to purposely not listening to things in my ears, having my headphones in. Next parenting story! My boss gift hasn't arrived yet, but she's specifically said There is a gift in there for Lola and Lily. Yeah, which I was like, that's really nice Because it's a nice thing to go.
She's still included She's still special and it's tricky because Lily has had a lot of presents the last few weeks And she does have to understand like as the baby gets older, it will have a birthday. She won't get a present So it's getting a middle ground of middle ground You're really still special and you will get some treats and things but yeah There's going to be a lot of stuff for Lola and you're going to have to deal with that like She has received presents with Lola.
Yeah. It's just balancing that. It is. It's not, not over the top. You know, our neighbours are really kind, um, gave us a gift for the baby, but also Sent us a gift for Lily, which was like, uh, you know, they were passing on toys from their child So that could be reused and so that's really nice. That was nice.
I really liked that again like a good eco thing of Yeah, and a good middle ground of being like not a brand new thing But it's still something so that she's thought of and yeah, it was a good thing to distract. It was yeah Super good I have to say, Becky, uh, people know my sister in France did a sterling job on the family chat.
Um, because they all had like a little bet going of who could guess the name. Oh yeah, yeah. Um, and Becky was really good at saying, Oh, and then we'll wait till the baby's born and Lily's seen them. Like just to reconfirm in everybody's head what was happening. Yeah. And then once Lily's bet the baby, they'll tell us the name, we'll get a picture.
And I remember like talking to her later being like, Good. If everybody else, like we'll do this. I call them squaddies, the My Sisters Who God Reblooms. If everybody else could reconfirm with everybody that this is what is happening. Just so nobody can complain that they didn't know that they wouldn't be getting a photo and knowing their name to that point.
So I was very grateful that all the sisters kind of chimed in to make it, this is what's happening and this is what, like, you should all expect. No one guessed the name though. There were some close calls. Close calls. EZAC got really close, so Becky's little boy. And, um, my dad guessed A middle name. A middle name.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, everyone thought we were going for, uh, a flower name to match. So most people guessed it, guessed, guessed it. Guessed it. I think that's a name. Most people guessed it. Most people guessed the name Rose. Yes. Which is a nice name. I like the name Rose. But not the way we went for. Not the way we went for.
Lola is actually named after a, a flower. Um, there is a link there. There is. Um, mostly it's just because we liked it as a pairing with Lily and Lola. Yeah. We thought it was cute. We came across the name when we were on our holiday in Wales. Um, My, my headcanon, which I know you don't agree with, is of course Lily has a bit of a link back to Harry Potter, because I'm a big Harry Potter fan.
Um, and so Lola has a vague, very tenuous link, uh, back being a shortened form of Dolores. Yeah, so I had no idea it would have had any link. Um, basically any day we came up with that we liked. Yes. It wasn't the starting point, but it was the ending point where I was like, I wonder if I can find a way to link this back to Harry Potter.
Yeah. You can tell who's the bigger fan. Yeah. And not that I'm not, I just don't have that don space. Basically, we, we'd settled on, uh, a series of names around, uh, whether we wanted Luna, Lola, Layla, Lela Luna. Yeah. Um, so we had a range of names like that, and eventually we both just settled on Lola. Lola, yeah.
Which there's no, you know, no rhyme or reason really. It's not a family name or anything. No. Just, you know. Yeah. Nor Nors Lily. Nope. Um. There we go. There's an insight there. Um. Next parenting story! You know, each to their own. I know some people don't like dummies. I know, you know, you might think it's a bit early to be introducing, whatever, you know.
Yeah. I only like it mainly because it reduces SIDS. Um, which I'm always pro it in that regard. I'm just pro it because I think It helps settle them. When they want some comfort, but they're full, it helps them go to sleep a bit better. And can be quite good in that regard. Yeah. At this early stage, you have to be careful that, you know, that they're being fed properly.
Properly. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But we'll see. It may be that it's just dropped his phone. It may be that she just never takes to it. And that is something we'll just have to, you know, deal with as it comes. But yeah, you know, it's just interesting for us. She's quite different from Lily in that she actually, if, if I produce enough milk, her preference would be to breastfeed.
Um, We're not, like, graded all the time, but we've been doing some longer breastfeeding. So, whereas Lily, let me put it this way, she wouldn't latch. You'd have to pour the milk into her mouth. She had no real interest. They are different. Yeah, at the same time, they're both kind of a bit lazy. Yeah, true. They don't, like, you've got to encourage them to feed sometimes.
They do in, they do like to fall asleep and only have half a bottle. Yeah, yeah. And then it's like, what, what are you doing? When you know, because when she can drink like 90 millilitres quite quickly and easily, but she's like Lily, she'd prefer little and often.
If you're on Spotify or somewhere else, um, you can, well on Spotify, you can leave a comment or, you know, just generally rate and follow and Blah, blah, blah stuff. Uh, you know. Apple podcast, I don't know what happens over there. Who knows? I'm a Spotify gal, so. Unknown territory. Yeah, unknown entity for us.
But do the things. Yeah. That's the intro music, so it must mean it's another time for a conversation on your favourite podcast. You know what's going on, you know the deal. It's the show for sleep deprived people. It's, it's, it's the show for sleep deprived parents. Unwind. You tell him he's sleep deprived.
But I'll cut that bit out so they won't know. Unwind with us chatting about funny stories and the realities of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. Welcome to Okun's Trading Post. Sit with us in the sauna on this cold December day. That's cute. Oh, constraining pose. That's good. I was worried you were going to say it's a bit weird because in the film Frozen, they do sit in the sauna naked.
But they're all related. They're all a little family. Yeah. I mean, maybe it fits in because today we are talking about boobs. It's true. It's the main topic of conversation. It's the booby episode and not in the fun way. Lily's very into going, anytime the baby cries now, she goes, Mommy, she needs a boob. Yep.
Anyway, I'm Elliot. I'm a quarter of the Crippin clan and half your host. That is true. I'm also a quarter of the Crippin clan and half a host. Oh, that's true. It's the same. It's the same. Same as easy. Um, so the Crippin clan here is, uh, as you know, if you listened to our previous episode, we've grown to a family of four.
Um, so we have us two and we have our two daughters, Lily and Lola. We thought we'd share a little factoid as we always do about some of our nicknames. Yeah. Before we get into the many different, uh, weird and wonderful things that have, uh, I don't know, sounds, again, it's not, it's not meant to sound sexual, but we kind of have a lot of nicknames between us.
We do. Yeah. A lot of nicknames. Um, but, uh, yeah, so Lily and Lola, our daughters, uh, have ended up with little nicknames of Lil and Lo. Yeah. Yeah. And also, I call them, um, Chicken and Kitten. And I don't know why. Yeah, these aren't ones that I've adopted. Um, but whenever I'm like, Oh, come here. Lily's always Little Chicken.
Um, and because, I don't know why. I think because she moves around like a little chicken. So that's why I always call her. And with Lola, because she makes a lot of noises like a cat at the minute. I always call her Little Kitten. Right, and I think this is why Lily thinks my favorite animal is a chicken.
It isn't, but because I've called her that for probably half of her life now, she's like, well, mummy must really like chickens because that's what she calls me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and then, like, there's also, we've mentioned on the podcast in previous times, I think, although I don't know if we've ever properly explained it, um, kind of our families have a collective name, so your family as a whole is known as the Wombles.
They are. Um, And so, often we just refer to your side of the family as the Wombles. And my side of the family has had the nickname Meerkats for a long time since I met you. So we're Wombles and Meerkats. Yes, named by your family. Yes, but I'm now technically a Meerkat because I'm married to you. Yes, married in.
Um, but you know, like, obviously, like, the grandparents and things, we have, uh, your mum, who's, like, Mrs. Womble. And we have my parents, who are Mr. and Mrs. Meerkat. Yeah. Um, so And my dad's Farmer Womble, because he was a farmer. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, these names are used in, like, very much every day. And it's hard sometimes when you talk to people outside of the bubble of people who know.
Yeah, yeah. And you'll be talking, you'll be like, oh, yeah, on the Womble chat. And Womble chat? I'm like, oh yeah, my family chat. The group WhatsApp chat, the family one. Yeah, you do often bring it up in conversation, and I'm like, these people don't know what Womble means. They think you're just like, really avid Womble fans or something.
And then us personally, do we have nicknames? Oh, we definitely did before children. We did. I don't know who you are anymore. Yeah, I used to always refer to you as Wookie Cookie. Yes, and you were Will you wriggle wiggle? I've forgotten that because he moves this is gonna sound wrong But I was gonna say because he moves about in bed, but I was meaning when he's asleep.
He does not just stay one position he has to like Wriggle about yeah This is going to be the episode that's full of like, sort of weird euphemisms or, you know. When I said it, I was like, I don't know, I've got to explain that, it's not going to sound good. The other thing I thought that's coming up in uh, conversation today is, I feel like it's going to become apparent of some of our upbringings with the North and South thing with language.
Um, there's a lot of, there's a lot of A's floating about in the words today. Do you know what I'm talking about? We have, we have Formula. Formula. Formula. Do you call it? Formula? Formula, yeah. . I was trying to work, I was trying, looking through like some of the words and thinking, I wonder what the northern way to say some of this stuff is.
Uh, we've got MAM bottles. MAM bottles. So I was thinking, yeah, that's the same. I think. Well, yeah, it is. Yeah. But I was thinking, I wonder what it, like it's not exactly like ma mam bottle like doesn't work. I don't think anyone would say that. I was trying to insert a long A into all the words. Um. That, I mean, that, that might, that might be it.
I don't think there's meant like sterilize, ah, that's just not a, that's not a thing. I'm sure I thought of another one. That's right, I'm sure it'll come up a conversation then you can mention it.
You're looking very intently. Don't worry, I'm sure it'll come up and then you can go, Ah, that's the word I was thinking of. He's annoyed with himself. I can't, my poor brain, I can't, I can't think of it. Don't worry, I've told you, it'll come up in conversation. Bound to. No, breast pump doesn't have it in. Oh, again, not really quite right, but, um, I was thinking this one fits, this one goes with my, my way, as is it, um, So, S M A is definitely not S M A.
That's true, S M A, yeah. Yeah, see, there you go, it's a southern one. Yeah, but I think, I don't pronounce A as like, a thing by itself as A. Oh, okay. That makes me into a word. Anyway, all this to say, I apologise going through with, uh, you know, um, as a, we're based in Yorkshire, but my, my southerness does often slip into my language.
It crops up. If we go through and I'm alternating between weird, um, words. Ass and A's and I don't know what's going on. There we are. Yeah. I think they'll still understand you though. It's okay. I apologize. I'm a little Southerner. Well, we better crack on. Next parenting story! I was going to say, my other thing is about exclusive breastfeeding.
I've noticed it makes it's becomes a struggle later on for your partner to put the child to bed. Um, like, and I wouldn't want to have to go through that struggle necessarily. I mean, we might end up having these struggles anyway, but Lily was quite happy often for either of us to go to bed. Oh yeah, for a long time, until like, She became a stroppy toddler and she exerted her own will.
Up until about two. Yeah. She was equally happy with me or you doing everything, you know, bedtime, all sorts of stuff. So it meant that it wasn't all on you. You, you didn't always have to do those things. And, um, yeah, cause I, you know, breastfeeding is a bonding thing, isn't it? I think often You know, we maybe underestimate then just that closeness that it forges.
And it is nice, because it's a nice closeness. Um, like I know what people need. It's a really nice experience. Um, but I don't want to be like, Oh, well, she has to have a breastfeed at this time of night to go to sleep. Because then it means you've You can't put it to bed and then you're missing out on also like quite a nice moment of you know and you start reading them stories and you put them to bed and Yeah, I think you know we're straying into like a whole nother topic that we should talk about at some point Which is the whole kind of bedtime sleep um, you know how to get a Baby and toddler to sleep and all that sort of stuff like because again, we have routines and things We're very we're a routine based.
Yeah that we follow and a lot of that strays into that. It's not really You You know about breastfeeding, but also just it's about the routine of not having a bottle straight before bed And not you know, there's all sorts of things that we've done that I think we try as a whole tapestry to try and help Yeah.
You know, a baby go down and sleep through the night. Um, which we, we should, yeah, we should do an episode on at some point. I'd also love, if we ever meet a sleep expert, I'd love them to come on the podcast. I feel like we'd, I'd fall out with them. I feel like I would disagree with them. Well, the ones on TikTok I think you'd agree with.
Really? Mm, a lot of them are routine based for sleeping. Um, because there's one woman saying like, it was unpopular, but you should always have the same routine every night. Like. book, bath, bed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um. Agree with that. And like, she was quite stingent about, oh you shouldn't hug them too much when you're putting them to sleep and.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. To make it easier. Whereas I'm a, I'm a like a, I'd hug them forever to get them to sleep, wouldn't I? Um, it's just the person I am. Because I'm always like, oh, but they really like her. Yeah, it's just me over here, the unloving parent. It's not that, I think you're very practical. And you're like, if we start this, I mean, it's fine at the minute because she's a baby, but once you hit like the toddler years, you're like, Yeah.
Are we setting ourselves up? And again, so much of this, look, I feel like we learned first time round, or like things that went well first time round, I want to try and replicate. And a lot of that was implementing things very early. So, you know, not getting into bad habits that you then have to rectify.
And so for me, it's about at this stage, she might still be a baby, but it's trying to work towards implementing a lot of those good patterns of habits and behaviors that will help us in the long run. Yeah. I mean, I was going to say it hasn't terribly worked. Lily's currently in our bed. Yeah. But to be fair, she had a long time where she was completely happy going in her own bed.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and it's only really because the baby's arrived that, well, it makes sense, because why would us three be in a room and she's not in the room? Like, yeah. Right, I'm sorry, I've not been steering the conversation. We've gone off on all sorts of things again. Blah, blah, blah. Um, is there anything else we need to cover and talk about before we, we, uh, head into the final segment?
Um, Since recording this episode, our baby Lola has caught Lily's illness and is like coughing, so like six up a load of milk. So we're having fun and games with feeding that we didn't get to chat about in this episode. There's all sorts of other stuff we didn't really get to talk about. Things have gone a bit downhill because I've gone back to work.
Yeah. Things have definitely been more of a challenge. In our last episode we said, oh it's going okay, it's gonna get harder once Elliot goes back to work, once, if teething hits, if, you know, illness hits the house. Well, guess what? All three of those things have happened. Yeah. We've got teething, we've got illness, it's been a tough couple of weeks.
It has, but! Because my recovery has gone quite well, I'm doing better at doing stuff. You're able to pick up a lot of the slack. Only within the last few days, but it's getting better.
Can you say, um, like introduce the last bit and say, like, have you got any parenting stories for us? What, what do you want me to say? Like, like that. Oh. Do you have, have we, have we got any parenting stories to share? Have we got any parenting shots? Have we got any parenting stories to share? Why Emma, yes we do.
That was perfectly natural. It wasn't set in the wrong way at all because he's just been going out. Well, I feel like I introduced the segments quite a lot. You do. I need to get better at it. Come on, co host. Up your game. I had one about breastfeeding, but I think I used it last week. Um, about Nassim and Isaac giving women thumbs up.
Did I mention this? Or maybe I didn't. I can't remember, but it sounds like a long story. I'll put it in quickly. How quick can you do it? So, my sister in France, People are doing bingo. Um, I'm already, I'm already not gonna lie. My sister in France, she's currently breastfeeding. Um, and she had a big talk with her boys about how some women in public might feel like a bitch.
You know, shy or they might feel like, oh, and she was like, but they've been really brave. They've been really brave doing it. They need lots of support and She said they're out in public and her boy's literally giving thumbs up to breastfeeding women and going and her little boy Eudac was like, Courage!
Or, bravo! Um, cause they're French, obviously. And it was just so funny because Becky was like, I meant, like, be supportive and smile. Not like, give rounds of applause to breastfeeding women as we go about. Not like, single them out and draw attention to them and be like, great job, you're doing so well. She said like, a lot of the women dies as well, but she was like, that wasn't quite, I maybe over egged how much we need support and how good it is for breastfeeding in public.
But it did amuse me to like, imagine the boys really going like, good job! As they see everybody.
Next parenting story! So, as a side point, um, Becky's son Isaac has realised if he tells the other parent the other parent said it's okay, he gets to do it. Which I do worry Lily's slowly learning. Um, so I do need to start getting stricter again. So he said at one point, he was on his tablet and Becky went, Who said you can be on your tablet, and he went, oh, daddy did, and Becky thought, well, I'm having a discussion with Ive later, because he shouldn't be on his tablet right now.
Anyway, then Ive came in the room later, who let you go on that tablet? Oh, mummy said I could go on it. Same thing, he was like, oh, spit off. That night, Becky was going, why did you let him on his tablet today? He's been on it half the day. I was, I've not let him on his tablet, but he was like, he told me you did and they both realized like he's just been telling us that the other parent has said it's fine and because they want to be like a cohesive unit they're like, sure, the other parent said it's fine.
Um, so now he says something, they have to go to the one or message them if they're not a house. Did you actually say? And I feel like this is the new territory we're moving into. And this is why it's quite good having your sisters who are ahead of us with parenting. We learn a lot of tips around relationships, around parenting that are quite helpful to try and work out where we stand.
But Becky said, even gone into, um, So he was at football yesterday, and you're not allowed to walk over this green bit when you get your drink, you have to go round. Um, and he'd gone to get his drink, and the coach was shouting at him, like, Hey, remember, you're not allowed on the grass! And he was going, My mummy said, and she was like, I have not said anything!
Like, she was laughing at the coach, like, I didn't say you could go on that! So she was like, I wonder how much he uses it at school, like just randomly going like, well, my mummy said, so she said, she's going to have to have a word with it at some point. It'd be like, you can't just lie about what people have said you can do.
But once again, very clever because he's realized like grownups respect other grownups and therefore you can like kind of do that.
Thank you for listening to our bonus episode. It's been lovely having you with us. Yeah. Having, having us with you. Um, how does it work? Um, thank you for listening, having, having our little voices speak into your little ears. Anyway, it's been great being with you this series and, uh, we're very excited to come back with another series at some point soon.
New content! Yeah! New stuff, new topic. Who knows what it'll be, we haven't done it yet. Yeah, who knows? And we'll keep you posted when we're gonna appear again. Yep, pop up, appear, ba ding, hello! Oh, we haven't done Don't Wake the Baby. Don't, don't, don't wake the Don't wake the baby. If you don't have a baby, you know, don't worry, but Don't wake the teenager.
Don't, don't. Go back, go back to sleep. Have a, have a rest. Survive. Make it, make it through. You'll make, you'll make it through. Goodbye. Good farewell. So long, farewell. Happy new year. Happy new year.
