HOW TO KEEP YOUR BABY ENTERTAINED ALL DAY.

Spending all day everyday with our gorgeous baby boy, Eric, has, for me, been an absolute dream come true. I feel like I’ve actually found my true self since becoming a mummy and I love that I get to spend my time nurturing Eric.

But don’t get me wrong, becoming a mum during lockdown has come with its fair share of challenges.

Being born in lockdown has meant that Eric has - until now - missed out on various baby groups, classes, swimming and lots more. Which has been a real shame.

But it’s also meant that I’ve had to be extra creative when it comes to keeping him engaged and entertained.

So, how have I done it? And how do you keep your baby entertained all day? 

For this blog post I thought I’d come to you all with everything you need to know when it comes to keeping baby engaged all day. Spoiler alert: you can keep your baby entertained all day, I promise!

Let’s get into it... 

How to keep your baby busy and engaged all day 

 

1. Make a timetable 

First things first, my advice would be to make a timetable of your day. This might sound a little strange, but honestly, this has genuinely worked so well for me. 

In making a timetable for myself and Eric, I have been able to entertain him in lots of different ways throughout the day. This has meant he has stayed busy & engaged from the moment he has woken up in the morning, right until his first nap and beyond. 

I like knowing that Eric is learning and playing in lots of different ways, as this encourages his development and of course, keeps him super happy - which is the most important thing of all. 

I do switch up our routine every now and again so that things don’t become too regimented, but the things I focus on doing with Eric every day are as follows: 

2. Read to your baby

Some of our most valuable time is spent reading - Eric loves it and so do I. I feel like reading really does bring the best of both worlds - it’s so good for mental development,  but it’s great for introducing a little bit of downtime, too. We’ve picked up some really wonderful baby books in Aldi and right now Eric is particularly loving all of the ‘That’s Not My...’ book collection. Touch and feel books are great for helping advance all of those sensory skills as well as language. 

3. Sing nursery rhymes!

Eric is so receptive to music and singing (even mine, which is really saying something haha!) as soon as he hears music, he bops his head and has a little shake - which is so lovely to see! 

I play lots of nursery rhymes through our echo dot throughout the day whilst we are playing (quietly, of course) - but I dedicate time specifically to nursery rhymes, too. And during this time, I will sit Eric on my lap facing me and sing lots of different nursery rhymes to him. His favourite nursery rhyme at the moment is ‘Five Little Monkeys.’

4. Make the most of bath time

Sometimes I bath Eric twice a day just because he loves it so much! He absolutely loves splashing around in the water and he is fascinated by our Greek sponge. I love how much fun Eric has whilst in the bath, and his baby bath toys allow us to really make the most of this time. I’d highly recommend both Tommee Tippee and Nuby for bath toys for babies.  

5. Invest in a jumperoo

Eric absolutely loves to jump, so it’s a good job he has a jumperoo as my arms are constantly aching from bouncing him all the time! 

There are lots of different baby bouncers / baby jumperoos available to pick from. The one we have is the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo and it’s very brightly coloured with lots of things to touch and feel. It also makes sounds, which is fab. 

If you prefer neutral coloured baby toys, rather than those that are vivid in colour, be sure to head back to my blog soon, when I'll be doing a round-up of the best neutral coloured baby toys. 

6. Involve your baby when you're cooking

When I’m preparing food in the kitchen, I bring Eric in with me, pop him in his high chair and talk him through what I’m doing. I’ll pass different items to him and tell him what they are - foodie bits, wooden spoons, spatulas - a basically anything that’s safe for him to hold & to chew on. He loves it! 

7. Take your baby for walks in their pram

I take Eric out in the pram every day when I'm walking Elvis, and we are usually out for about an hour. 

When he was tiny, he would fall asleep pretty much as soon as we started moving, but now, he likes to sit up and see what’s going on - looking at what's around him (trees, flowers, grass, people etc.) And of course, he loves to watch Elvis & Buddy (Buddy is my parent's dog, and Elvis' brother, for those that don't already know.)

We’ve got some lovely places to walk where we live, which has meant Eric has been able to see lots of different farm animals when we go out walking - he even gets to see reindeer, too!

8. Do lots of play time!

Eric has lots and lots of toys - some traditional wooden toys (my favourite as they look pretty) and some really cool, contemporary interactive toys. We will play with lots of different toys every day but the stacking cups Marc and I bought him from Hanley’s always come up trumps and they were so affordable.

There are lots of really expensive baby toys on the market, and some are amazing, but I do honestly believe that some of the best baby toys are the simple, purse-friendly ones. 

9. Encourage play time with your dog

I love the fact that Eric is already such a dog person - it’s amazing! 

Eric thinks Elvis and buddy are hilarious, and he loves playing ball with Elvis in the garden. So, if like me, you have a pet dog, be sure to encourage play time with your dog and of course, always involve your baby. 

I love the bond that is growing between Eric & Elvis, and play time really helps tighten that bond and build a trust between them. 

10. A little bit of Baby TV is okay!

I was terrified to let Eric watch any TV at all at first after reading one thread on Mumsnet. The mums in the thread were talking about how bad TV is for babies - how it hinders their development and can even cause autism. Just what every new mum needs to hear (not!)

But what I’ve learned is that people are always going to find the negative in everything and for some reason, scare-mongering new mums seems to be the norm. 

I still prefer to keep Eric’s time watching TV to a minimum, but he really loves watching baby sensory on YouTube, and I can’t see the great harm in allowing my baby to watch 15 minutes of television a day. So, if Eric is a little grouchy or over-tired and nothing will settle him, I pop on his favourite YouTube channel - Hey Bear - and let him watch his beloved dancing fruits and vegetables. Mums out there, if you know, you know! And mums out there that don’t already know about this channel, get to know it. It’s fantastic!

11. Baby massage is wonderful

After Eric’s evening bath, I always give him a little baby massage with his baby oil to help relax him and soothe him before bed time. Eric really enjoys his massages, and to help make everything more relaxing, I ask our Google Nest Mini to play baby lullabies quietly in the background. Once we’ve finished with our baby massage, I get Eric changed into a fresh baby vest and a sleepsuit before we read again.

For those interested, we have tried a few different baby oils (including some organic baby oils, vegan baby oils, fragrance-free baby oils and more.) I am going to put a full blog post together all about the best baby oils, so stay tuned for that. But for now, a couple I would recommend off the top of my head are the classic Johnson’s Baby Oil and the Child’s Farm Baby Oil (the tangerine flavour of this one is lovely & it's suitable for even the most sensitive skin.)

And that’s just about all I can think of right now! If I think of anything else, I'll come back and edit this post later on.

The biggest and most important thing to me is that Eric is involved in absolutely everything. Even if I am emptying the washing machine or hanging things on the washing line, I bring Eric along and talk to him the whole time. 

I think some mums - including myself, in the beginning - feel as though they can’t possibly get on with any everyday tasks as their baby will find it boring. But in actual fact, I have found the complete opposite. Eric loves watching me wash the pots and placing things on the clothes horse as I talk to him the entire time. He loves being talked to and being given different things to mind whilst I’m doing chores!

I really hope that you all found this blog post useful and I’d just like to take this opportunity to reassure all new mums in particular that you’re doing an amazing job! If you’re anything like me and you’re piling the pressure on yourself to be a constant source of entertainment, please stop being so hard on yourself. As long as your baby is in your company, you’re engaging with your baby and they are doing different things throughout the day, then that’s great.

I will be sharing lots more baby blog posts on here with you all very soon so be sure to keep up with my Mummy Life section.

I can’t wait to be back with more content soon.

Until next time, lovely mama’s!

Lots of love,

Grace x

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