The recent news that Russian air-raids purposely targeted health centres with maternity wards breaks our hearts and we're more determined than ever to do what we can to help.
We're immensely grateful for the other female founders who helped us set up and run this auction and so this blog is to tell a little more about these incredible women. Their brands, products and who they are as women.
If you'd like to take part you can find all the products and services on offer here.
Ring sling brand Moon is founded by 2 mothers, Claire & Olivia, from opposite sides of the world who came together in Amsterdam.
Both women share the fundamental belief that there’s no better way to hold your little one than heart to heart with ring slings, the unsung heroes of baby wearing.
With Moon, they not only take care of mothers and their babies. They also take good care of mother nature. Each Moon sling is made from carefully-considered and sourced materials, including 100% linen fabric from the Netherlands.
Jewelry brand Mayli is founded by Nhi. Born and raised in The Netherlands, Nhi is a creative individual, a designer, and a fun loving mom of two!
MAYLI originated even before she finished her Fashion Branding & Marketing studies in Denmark. Nhi started to travel the world firsthand on sourcing the materials she had imagined for her designs. While traveling not only for work but also adventures she would get inspired for Mayli, the Jewelry brand known for its simplicity, fine and conscious creations.
Our favorites are the personalized Mayli birthstone necklaces and amber baby bracelets.
Beautiful France brand Prélude is created by Clémence after the birth of her daughter. Along with beautiful moments, Clémence found the loneliness and difficulty of the first months after birth challeging. She was definitely not the only one with these feelings and created a podcast of testimonies (in French) called Prélude, to give future parents concrete examples of daily life with a newborn.
After 6 months Céline joined Prélude and together they bring helpful products and beauty in everyday parentlife. Prélude has reinvented textile accessories to really please parents, such as their stunning baby bag including a changing mattress.
Their products are made in France and Portugal, in family-run workshops with a great savoir-faire.
Conchita has two kids with her great love and their goal is to make every day a party. After a career in events and advertising, Conchita dared to jump in the deep with her own design of the Baby Towel. Invented 5 years ago when she was bumbling with her newborn. It now is the maternity gift for many.
At Palais de l'eau, sustainability is a priority. The Raw Cotton collection and Recycled Denim capsule collection are both amazing.
Lauranza and her husband founded Summer Gray, the home of beautiful wallpapers which have been carefully handpicked for you. Their goal is to help people create magic in their homes through beautiful, eco friendly and sustainable wall coverings.
They specialise in curating and selecting the most beautiful wallpapers, wall murals and wall art, helping people to create their dream rooms through visually inspiring products. Elevate your nursery with their marvelous wall art.
1-on-1 coaching - balancing your new role in motherhood with your career
Mies is a professional management coach and she worked herself through the same transition as you as a mother (to be) are going through. (Re)evaluating her motivations when becoming a mom helped her get her priorities straight, while living up to her values. Making choices and acting on them, either in her career or in her personal life, is a breeze for Mies now. It’s the foundation of living her professional life, as well as her personal life, in flow.
Mari created the Minu wraps as a result of her own interest for healthy and natural baby development, with the intent of creating style and comfort that both babies and parents could appreciate.
Babywearing became a passion of Mari shortly after her daughter was born. She got to her first wrap by chance, when she found a really long piece of fabric in her closet and she Googled how to make a home-made one.
After managing to get her daughter in the wrap, the little girl quickly fell asleep and calmed down. It felt as if Mari managed to soothe her daughter with own hands and body. Since then, carrying has become their favourite activity. Mari's passion is to create this for new parents too with the stunning super soft Baby wraps.
Most of our favourite prints are designed by Garbo & Friends. Based in Stockholm, Sweden and founded in 2012 by illustrator and designer Susann.
Garbo&Friends is originally created for the little ones in the family. They want to design products that are beautiful, sustainable and inspirational. Products that stands the test of time, both in terms of style and quality, essentially enabling their products to be handed forward to a new generation. Their best sustainability advice is to use and re-use the items you love.
For the auction we have selected two charities with years of experience saving and supporting mothers and children from all over the world, who now use all their knowledge and expertise to help the children and women of Ukraine.
UNFPA - Focus on women and girls living in crisis situations in a world full of conflicts.
Save the Children. - Help vulnerable children all over the world who are often the biggest victims of crises, conflict and war.
]]>Help protecting women and children around the world to not only survive but thrive by placing your bid here.
These Holidays are a perfect time to start creating Christmas traditions with your new family.
When this is your baby's first Christmas it is a perfect time to start new traditions with your family. Children love iteration and predictability. Especially in these busy and perhaps somewhat chaotic times around the holidays, traditions that return every year can offer them a feeling of peace and comfort. It doesn't have to be big festivities, even reading the same Christmassy book each year around this time can be a tradition. By reading on you can have a sneak peek in our team's special Christmas moments. Who knows, you might even get inspired by them.
The best thing about Christmas is seeing family, we often see them apart from each other but on Christmas we get to spend time with all of us together (if allowed). And of course the food, drinks, music and festive energy!
Elise's favourite Christmas tradition: We actually don’t really have Christmas traditions yet, apart from the kids picking a new ornament every year. But now that the eldest two are getting bigger I think I will start a new tradition this year: watch a Christmas movie together under blankets in our pyjama’s while drinking hot chocolate :-)). The youngest won’t be interested yet but I’m sure he’ll love the vibe.
Anne's favourite Christmas tradition: Traditions are always changing, that’s what I love. I always let myself be surprised, and see what happens. Usually that means I end up with family on Christmas Day anyway, but it takes the pressure off the whole Christmas preparation. Oh I do love my tradition of watching, what in my opinion is the funniest dutch movie ever made, “Alles is liefde” around Christmas time.
For us, Christmas is all about being with the people we love the most. Normally the entire month of December we draw in more trying to escape a little from the outside world. But this year we want to go out and enjoy time with our family and friends. Since we will be celebrating with everyone separately this year, instead of being with the whole group together. Our two Christmas days will be extended to an entire Christmas Week. Which would frighten me normally. But this year I am really ready for a lot of extra fun, laughter, and chatter. In the safest way possible.
Aricia's favourite Christmas tradition: Each year our kids handpick their own Christmas ball and we hang them in the tree together. The balls serve as a keepsake for the memories of that particular Christmas. Now every year we look at the balls of the previous years and we reminisce about the previous Christmas together. Then we make new memories for this year, to always remember by looking at the Christmas balls the kids picked out this year.
Elisha's favourite Christmas tradition: Our favourite Christmas tradition is decorating the house with the tree, lights and gingerbread houses, while watching Christmas films and listening to Christmas music.
Alex's favourite Christmas tradition: We don't really have any Christmas traditions, we tend to have a very different Christmas every year. We are never usually at home for Christmas, we spend the holidays with family and or friends. One thing I suppose you could call tradition is that we always have a great Christmas wherever we are celebrating.
I love the twinkling lights and cozy feeling that the December Holidays bring us every year! Snuggling up together on the couch with a Christmas movie, warm drink in hand and not to forget our cat Jane lying so cozy between us.
Naomi's favourite Christmas tradition: Decorating our home together, with Christmas songs playing in the background. Nothing gets me in a better Holiday-spirit! This year will be extra special with our daughter Skyler, who was born in March 2021! Can’t wait to see her little face light up when seeing all the pretty decorations!
As it is also my birthday in December, I have always looked forward to this month. It is just my favorite time of the year, as all my favorite people come together for big celebrations, very cliche but so true. So hopefully we can go back to a normal festive season next year.
Esther's favourite Christmas tradition: Growing up in Germany, Christmas Eve has always been the most exciting day of the year. We always celebrated it in Germany at my parent’s house, spent time with family, friends, Lebkuchen and Glühwein. We had a nice Christmas dinner and presents underneath the Christmas tree that we always bought with our dad on the last possible day, when only the 'ugly' things were left. Since becoming a mum, we have slowed down the traveling and traditions have changed slightly as we or my sister and her husband now host Christmas in The Netherlands.
For a long time, I had a difficult time with the month of December, struggling with surgeries, hospital visits and moving. But this year, I finally feel the Christmas magic coming back. Our house is decorated with twinkling lights, a Christmas tree, and we have lovely plans for Christmas.
Sandra's favourite Christmas tradition: This year we chose our Christmas tree as a family, our son Aiden fell in love with all the Christmas ornaments.Our tree really symbolises each of our personalities. We let him choose his favorite Christmas balls, a big twinkling reindeer with a sleigh, and a snowman that are now in our garden. We will continue to let him choose a Christmas ball every year, and decorate the house together. With him dancing around to Christmas music. We will enjoy our Christmas days with family, having dinner, gifts and most of all sharing beautiful memories of the past year and creating new memories together. I can not wait to have my Christmas spirit back every year.
Being English, Christmas starts for us on the 1st of December. I don't know anyone who loves Christmas more than my husband, for the last 14 years, the morning of the 1st. I've woken up to the year's Christmas playlist he's made. I love the whole month, the songs, the decorating, the baking, eating, drinking, dancing and general spirit.
Olivia's favourite Christmas tradition: As a child we did Sinterklaas on a very small scale (my grandma was Dutch) but since moving to Amsterdam and especially since having Bo, Sinterklaas had become a bigger part and we now hold off putting up our tree until he's sailed off. Besides the Christmas songs my favorite tradition is picking and putting up the tree. We always get a real tree and my husband loves the giant ones. This year we had to chop off the top to get it to fit in our house. It's almost as big as the one we have in store! Over the years we've collected tons of Christmas tree decorations, from a craft market at William Morris's house by our old house in London to sewn hearts from our trip to Budapest when we were 21. We also have some of Bo's great grandma's from the 50's. I love history and stories so getting them out each year and telling him small anicdotes about our past is a real joy. We also encourage him to choose one or two each year, each with their story we can tell him in future years.
I love Christmas, we sing jingle bells throughout the year anyway but when December arrives the song gets lots more meaning, love, and togetherness. I get butterflies in my stomach as we sing the songs extra loud or have the songs play in the background while doing my things. Also spending more time with family and friends during the holiday season makes me feel extra lucky to have them near me.
Nhi's favourite Christmas tradition: My parents would always make a festive dinner on Christmas eve after we come home from Church, just the 4 of us with candle lights. Having my own family now I’d like to make our own traditions. We bought our very first big tree this year in our new home! As the kids grow more aware (2 and 4 y/o) I’d like this to be our tradition. Picking out our real-tree and decorating it together with my partner doing the peek while playing Christmas songs. It may get chaotic and me being afraid that the ornaments break, but that’s also the funny part.
Have you seen our cosy (online) Christmas market yet?
Looking for inspiration for beautiful, sustainable gifts for under the Christmas tree? Check out our Gift Guide here.
The company was founded by me, Hannah, a fashion and textile designer and a mom of two young boys. I own and run the company together with Ilan, an old friend, who is an entrepreneur and also a father of two boys.
We are based in Uppsala - a very old city located 40 minutes north of Stockholm. The university is the oldest in Scandinavia, founded in 1477, so the city is buzzing with students. Uppsala is also the home of some very interesting people throughout the history, Ingmar Bergman to name one!
Tell us about your products and what makes them so special?
We specialize in printed bed sheets. We believe sheets are the underdog of bedding, literally! It’s so often neglected compared to bed sets, while really, it’s the most important thing in your bed. It’s the base of it all, it’s the piece of fabric that we sleep on and have most contact with our skin. Especially for kids who kick the duvet in their sleep.
Our goal is to create very high quality bed sheets with the least impact on the environment, but still make it affordable.
Our sheets are made of 100% organic cotton percale and they are both Oeko-tex and GOTS certified, which means that the entire process - from picking the cotton down to the glue in the packaging - is being controlled and certified based on the most strict rules in the textile industry today.
Since we started our company from scratch we wanted to make it the best as we can. We chose to produce in Portugal, partly because they are the best in making bedding but also because we wanted to produce in Europe and to be able to visit the factory regularly.
We only use digital print on our sheets because not only it results in a higher quality and softer finish but it is also better for the environment because it requires much less power and water compared to traditional methods of printing.
Another focus of ours - other than the quality and the environment - is of course the design. Scandinavian, minimalistic yet playful and timeless design that will not go out of fashion is what we stand for. We want to encourage people to slow down, buy less and invest in quality that will last for years and kids to come!
What inspired you to start Swedish Linens?
I remember when I first became a mother I got overwhelmed by the lack of sleep and how our life suddenly revolved around sleep. My oldest would only sleep in our arms and would wake up as soon as we put him down in his crib.
18 months later my second boy was born and he wasn’t very fond of the crib either. That really made me think a lot about how I could turn their beds into something more inviting, somewhere they want to be and that makes them feel safe. For myself I always choose organic percale sheets because I like how soft it becomes over time and the crispy cool feeling. But finding pretty, organic and high quality sheets for the kids was just impossible, and that’s how it all started.
What are your plans for the future?
We face a huge challenge since most people don’t care about bed sheets. We want to show the advantages and the importance of sheets, and make it affordable enough for people to be able to start using high quality sheets on a daily basis.
Many people focus just on the duvet cover and pillowcase because that’s what is visible once the bed is made. But we want to turn it all around! It’s actually much better to leave the bed unmade and let it air (which is a good idea especially if you want to minimize dust mites in the bed). We encourage less focus on the bed set and more focus on the bed sheet. Let it be the center of the bed and a part of the room decor as a whole.
In terms of new products we are currently working on new designs to be released later this year. And we are also going to release sheets for double beds which we are really excited about!
You can shop our Swedish Linens collection here
]]>Whilst it’s said no pregnancy is the same, the same can be said for delivery and beyond. Everyone I’ve met or spoken to has wildly different stories to tell, some pretty standard, some lovely, some beyond belief and some I wouldn’t wish on anyone ever. But ultimately everyone got through it. Women are warriors you know!
So just what can you do?
Labour scares the s**t out of me!
Hypnobirthing courses are a great way to remove the fear associated with birth. It’s a well known fact that if you fear and expect pain then you’ll feel it more than if you embrace it. Despite what some crazy people say labour does fricking hurt, but fearing the pain for months before your due date isn’t going to help anyone.
I personally found hypnobirthing as a great way to eliminate any fear I had around labour and the birth (and trust me there was a lot! I spent weeks panicking and researching all pain relief available). I opted for a 1 day course with Inbal from ISIS Hypnobirthing in Amsterdam which completely transformed my pregnancy. Within a few hours I went from being petrified to excited, I couldn’t wait to experience the surges that would bring my baby to me.
There is quite a lot of homework and prep beyond the course which to be honest I didn’t really do, so I could have benefited even more than I did.
I have no idea what I’d going to do!
I did a Birthlite yoga workshop with Corine from Yoga Yatra towards the end of my pregnancy which I found brilliant and really practical. We again covered the science of how babies are born but also lots of techniques to get through each of the surges/contractions.
The workshop covered breathing techniques, specific postures and movements for contractions, different massages partners can do to help, at one point Corine even pinches your arm to simulate what a contraction feels like and how to breath through it.
I loved this course and so did Ben, we ended up using most of the techniques practiced in the class, right through to the final birth position… Don't worry I don't go into details in this post :)
But what about tearing!
Ok so this was what I feared most, surely it hurts like hell if you tear during childbirth? Well quite frankly you don’t even notice, seriously, it got me pretty bad and I didn’t notice at all.
As it was something I was worried about though I did lots of research and bought an Epi-No online. It’s widely used in Germany and is proved to significantly reduce your chances of tearing.
It’s not pretty and doesn’t feel amazing to do but it really does work! I’ll not go into details but have a read through the description and some reviews to see if it’s right for you.
Ok but what pain relief is out there??
So as we’re in the Netherlands most of your labour will be at home so we won’t talk hard drugs here…
The courses above will teach you about natural forms of pain relief, massage etc but in addition to that there are things you can do at home.
Water, yep it’s on everyone’s list because it works. Back labour pain isn’t fun but standing under a nice strong shower directed at your back can do wonders. Water can really get you through a lot of the early labour pains pretty easily. If you're lucky enough to have a bath and your waters haven't broken, jump right in! (Just not too hot or for long periods of time, I got a little dehydrated late in the labour for this reason).
A TENs machine can be your best friend during labour. I had both back and front labour pains so this only helped with the back but nethertheless it was still super effective. Both as pain relief but also giving me something to focus on. Mine was specific for labour and so tracked the duration and frequency of my contractions. I had that thing strapped to my back for a good 14 hours!
Depending on your insurance you can also claim back any costs for this so it's really worth a try.
Moving, sitting or laying. It’s different for everyone. I found my contractions were stronger when I walked around so I didn’t move as much as I’d wanted to. In hindsight I bit of pacing may have sped up my 23 hour labour.
Anything else?
Yes talk to your friends, midwives, anyone who is aligned to you. I had some very unhelpful comments about labour, some telling me it hurt like hell, people telling it's not so bad. You'll know what you need to hear so just avoid talking about it with others.
Also:
Finally, stay positive, birth is a wild experience but it's really a very short space of time and you will get through it.
Tags
Birth, new mums, pregnancy, birth tips, baby, labour, courses, Amsterdam, Netherlands
]]>It was my first trip back to the UK since getting pregnant, 5 months gone at a wedding chatting to a friend of a friend about what else… babies, when I was given what would turn out to be the best piece of advice ever!
I’ve had a lot of ‘advice’ shared with me, both asked for and unsolicited, from the moment I announced I was pregnant right through to today. Some proved helpful however most just threw me off my game, made me feel compelled to try something I wasn’t comfortable with and in almost all cases failed.
Who knew a semi drunken conversation (not me obviously) could turn out to be so pivotal in the early months of motherhood. And yes I’m sure to anyone who already has children it’s pretty obvious but when delving into the scary unknown of first time motherhood it really proved to be a revelation.
It’s just a phase...
I didn’t really get it at the time, oh so my baby will be lovely one day and not the other, ok I can deal with that, teething will happen but it’ll pass, there might be a period where the baby decides to stop sleeping, ok seems pretty standard.
What you don’t realise is there are sooooo many phases! Every week is different…
The first few weeks Bo would only sleep on our chest, I was told this would spoil him and I should stop so instead of enjoying this lovely time I spent it worrying I was doing something that would make my baby a terrible sleeper and justifying his chest sleeping to both myself and anyone who would listen - It was just a phase, one that was way too short and that I should have just embraced. I long for those snuggly sleepy cuddles and know I won’t be getting them again for a while….
After sleeping like a baby for the first 3 weeks Bo then decided he was scared of the dark and didn’t like being asleep at night, we spent hours walking him up and down trying to figure out how we could get him back to himself, going over everything we had done wrong that had made this happen, considered every solution under the sun including changing feeding, sleeping position and even bedroom….. it was just a phase, within 3 days I was back to normal.
Just last month our 8 month sleeping baby decided he hated going to bed, screamed for a good hour and a half at bedtime then every hour in the night until it was time to get up. We were at our wits end, what have we done? Did we ruin him by letting him sleep on our chest as a newborn, does his floor bed give him too much freedom (yep we were told he had too much room and that’s why he didn’t sleep!) Are we feeding him the wrong food causing him to have tummy ache all night, does he actually hate us now? Nope, it was just a bloody phase. I very testing one that lasted a bit longer than the others but we held fast, adapted to make him as happy as he could be around bedtime and 3 weeks later he is now completely back to normal. This was possibly the worst phase yet but as with all the other it came and passed.
Some of the other phases we encountered over the last 9 months:
The list is endless and there will be many more I’m sure! As parents we need to be adaptable but not over react to every little change, if we took on all the advice that’s given to us our babies wouldn’t have a clue if they were coming and going.
So follow your instincts, make changes when you feel you need to but don’t be afraid to just breathe and accept that babies change and if they’re being particularly testing 9 times out of 10 it’s just a bloody phase, there will be a new one in no time :)
]]>So today we're testing a new nursery layout.
Our house is lovely but there isn't a straight line in sight upstairs. Walls, floors, windows and doors all have that 'Amsterdam charm', slightly precarious. Conventional furniture is pretty impossible so we either have to eat into floor space or try to think outside the box.
This along with my new found hatred for small baby cribs has lead to a new thing to test, a floor bed.
Like so many things I judged when preparing for Bo, floor beds have done a complete 180 for me, for now at least... Not because I want to follow the Montessori way of bringing up my child (although the more I look into it the more it's starting to resonate with me), but because I'm bloody exhausted from the middle of the night screams when arms, legs and heads get banged on the bars.
I've tried breathable bumpers, lining the cot with soft toys, rolled up towels but the short of it is my not so little 7 month old needs more space, and conventional cribs just don't offer this.
My original thought way about a round mattress, which in theory meant no corners for him to get stuck in, in reality however it seems they just aren't so practical.
Normal kids mattresses just aren't wide enough, a cot is 60cm so if that's too small for a fidgety baby an extra 10am wasn't going to cut it. My initial reaction was to get a grown up mattress and cut it down in length so as not to take up the whole room. We even had this in mind as we loaded our camper van ready for a big trip to Ikea. Cheap grown up mattresses it turns out are terrible quality.
After a quick search through the kids section we found the VYSSA VACKERT for their extending bed range. Starting at 80x130cm it was almost perfect and meant we has 2 extra sections which are currently making up a nice padded headboard and side section which will hopefully prevent rolling out of bed in the middle of the night.
So this is what it's currently looking like... I'm sure I'll change it as the weeks go on but for now everyone seems pretty pleased. Bo even just took his first nap in it, slept like a baby for 2 hours.
This could be the start of good things...
Some of the products used:
Blanket by Moon Monsters
For more information on Montessori floor beds and Montessori in general this site is a great resource providing honest and informed views.
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