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Mama Monday- Meet Demi

Meet Demi, a lovely local mama and business owner. All of you pregnant and breastfeeding mamas will want to check out her page for some beautiful maternity wear x

Could you tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do:

I’m Demi, I’ve just turned 27 and I am a mama to a beautiful boy Cooper who is 19 months. I own Patten Collection; a breastfeeding/maternity wear company. I started out making kids clothing way back in 2014 and when I had Cooper started making clothes to feed in, I was a weird shape after I gave birth so it was really hard to find clothes that were flattering. I started selling them on a made by mum page and they really took off. Patten has grown to the point where I have a small company of six people helping with the sewing. Everything is made in New Zealand and it’s really cool to be able to support other small businesses.

Age when you had your first baby:

I was 24 when I found out I was pregnant and 25 when I had him.

What has been your biggest challenge with running a business and being a mama at the same time?

Being super busy and feeling guilty that I was spending too much time on the business. Cooper has started daycare two mornings a week which thankfully he loves and it gives me uninterrupted time to smash out a lot of work then I can give him all my attention in the afternoons.

How do you balance home and work life? (any tips/tricks to share?)

I’m lucky my office is at our house so I can get household jobs done during the day as I need to but i’m also a freak about being organised and writing lists, I have a notebook which I write everything down from household jobs, work stuff and appointments in and tick things off over the day. I find writing lists also ready good to clear your head to so you can work better.

Best piece of advice you were given about parenting:

To read about sleep regressions and cluster feeding haha! To be honest you get advice coming at you from all angles and you just have to take it all on board and see what happens. You will know your baby and what works best for you.

I wish someone had told me this… Don’t compare your baby with others. If everyone else’s babies are sleeping through at four weeks old that doesn’t mean yours should be or that you are doing something wrong! Cooper didn’t sleep through till he was 16 months and I literally went mental trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. (Sleep deprivation makes you crazyyyy!!!)

What would you do if you weren’t doing your current job/running your business?

Before I had Cooper I worked as a vet nurse which I loved so I would have probably gone back to that.

What was your reaction when you found out you were pregnant?

We were both super excited but a little bit terrified at the same time haha.

Have you met any challenges being a mama in your 20s?

Trying to start a business as a young mum was a challenge, financially, time-wise and trying to get people to take you seriously.

What has been your biggest challenge in your 20s (non-parenting related)?

Trying to find my way in life and figure out what I wanted to do career-wise. There is a lot of pressure to go onto tertiary education when you leave school but I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I ended up taking a few years off to work and figure that out before I started studying. In that time most of my friends had already started university and were into their degrees and I felt like I was on the back foot a bit.

If you could give one piece of advice to twenty-something’s pre kids what would it be?

Slow down! You don’t need to have everything figured out just yet.


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