This month our Raise a Bundle campaign turned 2 years old We celebrated together with the Raise a Bundle families who also had children turning 2

We had a chat with Hayley Thirkell mother of 4 children with her youngest being Jake who is associated with the Raise a Bundle Plunket campaign Hayley shares that it gets easier the more children you have and that Plunket has supported her hugely over the past 9 years

Jake was born 4th October 2016 and has since been following our Raise a Bundle RAB campaign Read below to find our more about the first 2 years of Jakes life

How have the first 2 years been for you and your family

Hayley Its been pretty easy and smooth for us as Jake is our 4th child and slotted into our family very nicely Jake is a very content and easy child compared to our first 3 girls so it was really nice It was very different having a little boy after 3 girls and we were concerned as there is quite a big age gap between our oldest child and Jake 7 years But Jake loves the girls and the girls look after him and mother him they also love having some boys toys around Its a great relationship between them all and they get along really well

Jake has just turned 2 years old what was special about being involved in Plunkets Raise a Bundle 2nd Birthday video

Hayley For us it was a really great way to give back to Plunket after their support over the last 9 years With Jake using Plunket was more about getting that reassurance where we needed it and keeping up with his milestones as we more or less knew what to expect after 3 children already

For you what has been the biggest value of having a Plunket available to you

Hayley We have used a variety of Plunket services over our 9 years having young children but as we were pretty confident parents by the time Jake was born we havent used their services as much for him Its great to have PlunketLine for anytime as we have called in about fevers in the middle of the night its great to have advice and reassurance from their teams We used Plunket a lot when we had our first child as it was great to have people to bounce ideas and questions off and knowing if your child is developing normally

One tip from parent to parent you would see as the most valuable thing to pass onto

Hayley Definitely go with your gut feeling There is so much advice out there and everyone wants to tell you their opinion but you know your child more than anyone Other peoples advice is not always relevant to your child and thats where it was really great having Plunket nurses advice We knew Plunket was giving uptodate and professional advice which was super helpful