Kimberly Marie March11, 2024
Mom hacks, baby tips in hopes that this will help you.
Being a new mom is a very joyous moment, but also tiring dealing the stresses of a new baby and how to care for them and also caring for yourself. You are also dealing with those postpartum emotions, and trust me those emotions are no joke.
In this blog post, I am sharing some tips and hacks that helped me get through the newborn stage as well the first year.
As a mom of two, a 2 year old and a 9 month old I have definitely had my share of emotions, stresses, and trying to figure out ways to help ease the stress of being a new mom and to a toddler. This information may not work for you, but in some way I hope it does to help ease the stress and emotions for you, because I have been there and I know what it feels like.
Remember self-care is very important for you as well.
1. Newborn Sleeping
We all know sleep with a newborn isn’t easy, but not impossible. For me, I would give my newborn her nightly bottle around 7:30-8pm, put her to bed and I would pump for the night. Now if you have someone else in the home, significant other or whomever, I recommend sleeping shifts. I would sleep after putting her down for the night, then my husband would tend to her if she woke up. Then we would switch off, so he could sleep.
2. Newborn “pause”
I have made this mistake multiple times with both babies. I would hear them move around and maybe whimper a bit, thinking they were waking up. So what did I do, I got them up and picked them up. Don’t do this, when you hear the little noises, just PAUSE and wait, chances are they are still sleeping. Newborns go through active sleep in their first few weeks of life. Remember newborns will wake around 3-4hrs for feeding. Don’t worry about the “never wake a sleeping baby.” If is been over 4 hrs you need to wake them for feeding.
3. Multiple Change areas
Sure you have that nice changing table in their rooms or your room. You will definitely use it of course, but especially if you have stairs, I recommend you get a little basket and stuff it with diapers, wipes, butt cream, all the essentials you’d need for the day. I refilled ours every night. Just makes it easier. I also added in puppy pads. These are just awesome have especially during the dirty diaper jobs. Easy clean up and does not ruin the couch, changing pad or wherever you are changing baby.
4. Bedside Cooler
Some people may not like this, but me personally I LOVED it and to be honest I still do it to this day for my 9 month old. But when they were newborns I kept pumping bags near by and the pump bottles. After I pump, I would pour the milk into the bags, then place them in the cooler till morning. I did have ice packs in there of course. Some people may even get a mini fridge and put it in their room for easy access as well. I also kept already made bottles in the cooler for easy access, so I did not have to go downstairs to make them.
5. Mid of night feeds and changes.
Change before feeding and keep it all business no bright lights, no conversation. You’re feeding to get them back to sleep and yourself. When both of my babies slept in their bassinet next to my bed, I would change them each time or check the diaper, then immediately went to feeding them. I still did this when they transitioned to their crib.
6. Sleepers
Mine stayed in their sleepers all day and night, it was just easier to keep them in it. Now, I recommend the zipper sleepers, I don’t know who thought snaps would be a good idea on those sleepers, they just take up way too much time. Just keep it simple. Body suits are good to have during the summer time. Now if you did not know there is a trick to the body suits and it is VERY HELPFUL for blowouts.
7. Listen for the differences in cries
Babies have different cries for different reasons. You will learn to understand them, thanks to Priscilla Dunstan who decoded what she calls the ‘universal language of newborn babies’, which identifies 5 distinct cries or ‘words’ as follows:
- Neh = “I’m hungry”
- Eh = “I need to burp”
- Eair = “I have lower gas pain”
- Heh = “I’m experiencing discomfort”
- Owh = “I’m sleepy”
You can also listen to the cries in this video.
8. Burping
Babies are naturally gassy, so burp those little ones after every feed. I found out what helped relieve gas for mine was the “bicycle” with the legs and pushing the legs upward that relieved a lot of gas for them. Click here for video.
9. The famous “Witch Hour”
You may be asking what is the witching hour? It’s an intense period of fussiness or crying in the evenings, usually around 5 PM and lasting up to three hours. You’ll usually start seeing this when your baby hits 2 weeks of age, but the worst may pass by 12 weeks. This is different from colic. There are a few tips you can help with the over tiredness of your baby.
-Go outside- this is good relaxation for both baby and parent and good exposure to some daylight .
-Overstimulation- Reduce the noise and lights to baby. Remember this is a new world for them and there are so many distractions, so it is easy to get overstimulated.
10. Breastfeed/Pumping
Whether you decide to breastfeed, pump or do formula, all are great choices you make for you and your baby. Your breasts will get full no matter what. So if you do breastfeed, I recommend while feeding baby on one breast use a Hakka on the other to get the leakage which will happen. Now if you’re like me I hated using a pump that was a plug in, there were so many things that needed to get done. So I bought a rechargeable hands free pump, so I can easily slip it into my bra and go about my day. If I were out I had that handy cooler with bags and ice pack to store the milk in. The pump I used is listed below along with other items. Don’t forget the breast pads for leakage, trust me that’s a thing.
In Summary
Hopefully these tips/hacks help you, there so many more tips and tricks out there as well. I just hope these tips give you some sort of stress relieve. Just remember even though baby needs you, but also know you need to take care of yourself too mama. That is just as important too. Postpartum emotions are no joke, I dealt with PP anxiety. I remember writing down everything I felt in that moment and would just cry. I was scared wondering how am I going take care of my first born alone when my husband went back to work. I never been a parent before, so that scared me. I was even more scared about being alone with my toddler and newborn recently. You have to learn schedules and devote time to the oldest as well as new baby. What helped me was talking to my friends and family, writing things down, taking a shower, getting out of the house for a bit, really helped me feel better, because it is all normal to go through this. So if you’re dealing with the anxiety or the depression side of PP talk to someone, let someone come help with the baby, take time for yourself, self care is VERY IMPORTANT.
YOU GOT THIS MAMA!!!
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