We're back, baby!

Welcome to Inky Thoughts - our brand-new blog, and welcome to our new website! For those of you who are new to the brand, I’m Jen, the owner of Inky in the Wild and I’m so excited to be back! We’ve been closed since the arrival of our daughter Mila in December 2021 and the past 10 months have certainly been… interesting! So, grab a cuppa and read about our journey getting to grips with the small business, small baby juggle, plus we reveal our top 5 life hack baby products for new parents.

Hello baby, goodbye life as we know it

Wow. Those first 3 months were definitely not easy for us. No blissful newborn baby bubble over here! Our little one was not a fan of this new world she’d been yanked into, and certainly let us know about it. We knew it was going to be a challenge having a newborn, but the continuous hours of screaming day and night were definitely out of the ordinary. We still can’t quite pin down what the problem was, but we think it was a delightful mix of colic (whatever that means), silent reflux (ironic name!) and her being overtired from not sleeping enough in the day. Two words for new parents - wake windows. Google it and try your best to get your little one to sleep within those times - a lot easier said than done, but some babies need to be taught when to sleep in the day, something no one told us! I’m very conscious about not giving too much advice in this post as every baby is so different and something that works for one, will definitely not work for another. We had weeks of trying everything we could, from infant Gaviscon, to seeing a Cranial Osteopath. And in the end, the only thing that seemed to work was the fact that she grew out of it, whatever it was. So, if you’re in a similar “4th trimester” from hell, hang in there. I know how annoying it is when people say it gets easier, especially when you’re in the thick of it, but it does. Just keep going. To hopefully make things a little easier, here’s a list of some of our favourite baby things that we couldn’t live without.

 5 life hack baby products for new parents:

1. Baby timer app - baby brain is a real thing. This app is amazing for tracking feeds, nappies, sleep and medication. We still use it now, and honestly might until she’s 15
2. Rapid cool flask - once we switched from breastfeeding to bottle, we realised how stressful it was to make a perfect temp bottle on demand when out and about. This flask cools down milk to the perfect temp in a couple of minutes - a life saver when on the move and the screaming starts!
3. White noise machine - we’ve used this to block out everything from a wedding party to a pneumatic drill! It also has other noises such as music and nature sounds
4. Baby sensory videos - when you just need 5 minutes, forget all your ‘no screen’ rules and whack this on YouTube. You can thank me later
5. Baby kettle - it keeps water at 70 degrees (the temp needed to sterilise formula) for 24 hours. Saves you boiling the kettle every time and also means less time to wait for the bottle to cool

The small baby, small business juggle

Being self-employed with a new baby is strange. For me, there wasn’t really maternity leave as such. My shop may have been closed but my brain was always whirring with what I should be working on for the reopening. It was a constant battle between thinking I should be devoting every minute to the baby, but also that I can’t let the business crash and burn either. The initial plan was to take 3 or 4 months off, but those first few months were so intense, I decided to keep things closed for longer. I didn’t want to regret missing those new baby moments and I needed time to take a step back and look at the business without the pressure of fulfilling orders. I also took an unplanned break from social media, so unplanned that I just stopped posting one day… for 7 months! I’ve missed connecting with you guys there, but at the time, I needed to focus more on my new role of being a Mum. I’m excited to be back now, so if you aren't already, come and follow us on Instagram where you’ll see what we’re getting up to in the studio, and sneak peeks of new products. We’ve also been working on a pretty awesome email subscription club, packed with lots of goodies, exclusives, and guaranteed to be spam free. If you haven’t signed up already, now’s your chance! You’ll even get a sneaky discount code as a thank you. You can subscribe here.

So, what have we been up to?

The majority of our time has been spent watching our tiny human go from a little baby shaped blob that made noises like a porcupine, to a super-speed crawling ball of energy who’s inexplicably obsessed with door hinges. But alongside that, we’ve also been working super hard on our new website, so make sure you have a good snoop around and let us know what you think! And we have some fun new products - perfect for, dare we say it…Christmas! Take a look below for a few of our favourites.

New in

What’s next?

Officially reopening has felt like a big step, the same I guess for any parent going back to work, regardless of whether it’s back in the office, or working from home with your little one crawling all over you. But I’m so excited to see where we go from here. Working the business into nap times, evenings and weekends is full on, but it means I get to spend as much time with Mila as I can, and also do something I love, so it’s totally worth it. We have lots of big plans for the future and look forward to sharing the next chapter with you.