From the editor

All of a sudden it is raining babies in my life again. My friend Denise had her first, my friend Lucia had a second daughter, and old friend Brendan, best man at my wedding, added a daughter to his family too. I know they’re all fielding jokes about their lockdown activities, but seriously, these three babies were always on the cards, pandemic or not. It is frustrating not to be able to meet the brandnew little humans in person yet, but obviously we’re all being as cautious as we can. On the one hand, I feel such sympathy for everyone dealing with pregnancy and birth while Covid adds complications to all our plans, no matter how straightforward and simple. On the other hand, I envy new parents during this time, because they have the absolute best excuse in the whole world to just stay home and nest. No pressure to get out there with baby and face the world, and no urgency to get a “normal” life back. By now we’ve all forgotten what normal looks like and, anyway, after a baby, you never truly get it back. Everything is forever changed.

So, indulge in the exquisite slowing down and refocusing of matching your senses to a new baby’s rhythm. Order in, stay in your pyjamas, hang out in bed or on the couch, have tea in the garden. Coddle yourselves – it is what new babies need the most.

We hope that our regular supplement, Your Essential Newborn Guide 2021, will provide you with answers to the many, many questions you no doubt have about your little one. We like to think of it as the manual that babies should come with, but don’t. Thank you to our sponsor Reuterina for making the guide possible again this year.

If Baby hasn’t arrived yet, enjoy our hugely popular 40-week pregnancy calendar, sponsored by Bio-Oil. Use the stickers to mark all the milestones, and then save the calender as a keepsake for your child forever. And a big thank you to Bio-Oil for spoiling all our readers with a sample of their amazing product, bagged for free with this issue.

As the days get shorter and colder, and all SA’s lovely holidays let you take time off officially, please stay as fit and healthy as you can using all the information in our magazine, from recipes to exercises. Just maybe – when, a few years down the line, we look back at this time – we’ll remember it as a luxury to be stuck at home.

Keep nesting,