Radhika Patil talking on her own cradle journey to invent cradlewise
Radhika Patil is a mum who saw an opportunity in her own motherhood phase and turned to becoming an entrepreneur on a baby product.
With the phase of motherhood, comes the routine and trials and errors of feeding the baby the right way and putting the baby to sleep the right way.
Radhika got into the venture of bringing a cradle that could diminish many fears of putting the baby into sound sleep.
She shares with Mums and Stories, “I am a mother to 2 beautiful kids – daughter(4.7y) and son (1.6y). When I was expecting my first baby, it was tough. The journey was new. I used to rely on my cousin sister for information and discuss health issues. The first six months were tough with full time job and morning sickness. Later in the 4th month I was diagnosed with low placenta and was on bed rest for 2 months. Thankfully my office offered me a work from home option. But after the 7th month, things settled. I could resume back to work. At 33rd week of my pregnancy, I went to my hometown, Pune. Since, it was my first time, I was sure I would require some experienced person with me who could guide me and help me with the baby.
As a first time mother, I did not know much about lactation and how to feed the baby. It took us a while to adjust and setup lactation. As a new mum, I came to realize how important lactation and sleep is for our sanity and the baby’s too.
We do know that mother’s milk is the best, but whenever the baby had colic, caught cold, had a stomach upset or fever due to vaccination, my pediatrician always prescribed one solution – “Feed the baby”. Second important learning was about – sleep.
All my schedule revolved around baby sleep.
Sleep defined baby’s mood, feeding, growth. If baby slept well – all was well. Baby woke up in a good mood. I could sleep well too and spend quality time when the baby was awake. I was more happy and energetic for baby care.
Now this was the time when we had built a very homegrown version of a cradle. The hammock based cradle was the reason she slept well. When I had to join back office my daughter was just 5 months old. I was so worried. We were a nuclear family and had to hire a nanny. The next big question I had was – How can my nanny put the baby to sleep ? But with the cradle it was so easy. Nanny could also use her time effectively and take care of the baby well. The baby slept well and I was not welcomed home from office by a cranky baby.
