Newborn Hacks?

[Beckyb1991]

Does anyone have any newborn hacks they'd like to share to help out fellow mummys? Heres mine! Would love to hear yours.

1: Making up a baby basket to keep next to the sofa / bed containing all the stuff you need for the day- mine included:
.nappies
.wipes
.nappy bags
.barrier cream
.sudocream
.change of clothes for baby
.muslins
.baby blanket
.nipple cream
.breast pads
.hand sanitiser
. Snacks (cereal bars and flapjacks mainly)
.painkillers
. Arnica tablets
. Hairbrush and hairbands
.charged kindle
. Phone charger
.magazines
.remote control
.2 litre water bottle
(This time im going to add snacks for my toddler and books and things to do together while I'm breastfeeding)

.If breastfeeding - to remember which side you last fed on put a hair band on your left or right wrist indicating which breast was last fed on.

. Breastmilk can be used for loads of things other than feeding , my favorites were using it on scratch marks on my little girls face or nappy rash - they healed by the next day, making teething lollies, using it in my bath -great for skin ,and using on baby acne /eczema.

.using white noise to help your baby sleep.. i use this myself ( takes the attention on my o/h snoring)

. Keep a cold drink in the fridge and sip on it during nightfeeds or suck on icecubes to keep you awake

.baby sleeping bags - i swear by these!

.using extra virgin olive oil to mousturise babys skin instead of baby products.


I'd really love to hear your tips- especially breastfeeding! Anything to make the first few weeks easier ... would love to hear tips from mummys who had young toddlers and newborns at the same time too xxx

 

[Rose83]

Hi Becky, my little girl was 15 months when my son was born this March. I breastfed until this month when my supply disappeared because I got pregnant again (oops).
You sound very organised, a basket is a great idea! I found I was basically in the sofa most of the day and covered in sick because my little boy had terrible reflux. I tried to always make sure I had a big bottle of water or one of those cups with a lid on the top and a straw through so I would drink enough.

I'm afraid my experience was that with baby 2 I have never had time to read a kindle or magazine although I might get a to read a short article on my phone or something. He was a very speedy feeder so a feed was done in 3-4 minutes but they would be every 1.5 hours and I'd be occupied with my toddler the rest of the time. She wouldn't sit and do something quietly while he was feeding but would watch tv and play with her toys. One problem I did have was that she would launch books etc at me if she was frustrated at not getting enough attention when he was feeding or sleeping on me and that led to a few books hitting the head incidents - poor little boy!

You might want to get a sling to put newborn in when you need to get other jobs done. My little boy was 10lbs so I found him very heavy to carry when my body was already sore from carrying him 9 months so I didn't use it that often but it was handy if I needed to go out to the garden or something with both of them.

The best things I've had are places to put my youngest, so the bouncy chair or a swing chair when he was smaller so he could be strapped in and amused while I was dealing with my little girl or doing a chore. Later I needed something to contain him while I was in the shower so I got an activity centre a bit like a jumperoo but less jumpy for the bathroom (he had a jumperoo downstairs). That meant that while I was in the showerI knew he was safe and not crawling near the radiator etc.

Now they are older I suppose a tip is to change them both at the same time like nurseries do - if you get to know when they usually go you can have a rough time in your head of when they might both need a nappy change. X

 

[Papermoon]

Subscribing to this thread.

 

[Luella]

I found snacks for night feeds really useful. Breast feeding made me so hungry and drained that there was no way I would have been able to get back to sleep without eating. I had cereal bars stashed next to the bed.

 

[babybee]

Dont bother buying nursing tops, just loads of vests and your normal tops and jeans.

Don't drink and pump. So little alcohol goes into breastmilk its negligible.

Download a bunch of books on your phone to keep you awake during night feeds.

If you have a toddler, accept feeding will no longer be a relaxing time and you'll have to play on the floor whilst having a baby feeding off of you.

Get a crappy bra and cut it slightly and position your pump in there so you can go hands free.

Pump whilst feeding your baby on the other side to stimulate a more effective let down on the pumping side.

Colicky babies can sometimes be helped by changes to your diet. Same with some refluxy babies.

Not everything is a dairy allergy. Lots of social media parenting pages will have users put everything down to dairy but its not always the case. Though if course sometimes it is.

Dont bother investing in moses basket sheets, just use pillowcases.

Don't believe it when people harp on about what a dream their newborn is and that they sleep through. Often its a load of bollocks but at the time will make you feel stressed and that you're doing something wrong. You're not, newborns once they hit 3ish weeks begin to stay asleep less and less and you'll wonder where your sleepy newborn has gone.

Most importantly... it's ok to have custard creams for lunch.

 

[Luella]

Babybee your last point made me laugh - sometimes I survive almost entirely on biscuits.

 

[Papermoon]

These are some good ideas, I love it.

 

[BunnyN]

I dont seem to have the type of babies who will be put down. Once I stopped listening to everyone who told me I had to get them used to being in their cot and bought a boba wrap life got so much easier.

 

[Rose83]

Totally agree bunnyn - both mine wanted to sleep on my chest, they were OK for a while in a bouncy chair but most of the time they just wanted to sleep on me.

I would disagree though on feeding tops (that might be down to your size though - I imagine smaller ladies might find vest tops fine) I couldn't cope with normal vest tops at all, I needed easy to open feeding tops designed to make things a bit more discreet too for when out and about. Vertbaudet do some great feeding tops with wrapover drapey fronts that shield feeding if you are a bit shy or just to hide your mummy tummy! I didn't find feeding vests that useful apart from in bed at night because a vest that you can unclip just means this great big boob hangs out which I'm not comfortable with even just sitting at home - it's cold too! I really recommend any feeding top that has some layering to it x

 

[Beckyb1991]

Loving all these tips girls- another one i forgot to add was keeping battery powered fairy lights next to your bed at night for night feeds and checking on baby in the dark! Xx

 

[KateK]

Loving some of these hairband trick is a great one! Feels like an age since I had a newborn (it's been almost 5 years!) Agree 100% with white noise - I always hoovered when Poppy was falling asleep and I swear it helped her find it really easy to fall asleep anywhere - she would always nap when out and about and would even sleep through my Mum's cheeky labrador barking!

 

[babybee]

Definitely agree with white noise. I couldnt have survived without it. Ewan the sodding dream sheep was always way too quiet. I needed a specific white noise track on my phone that I would blast at top volume.

 

[Rose83]

That's a shame - Ewan was great for us!
If you happen to have them or have looked into them then the hue light bulbs that you control via an app on your phone are good as you can turn the light on in another room (eg babies room) while you are on your way there and have just a tiny bit of light to see what you are doing x

 

[Papermoon]

Loving some of these hairband trick is a great one! Feels like an age since I had a newborn (it's been almost 5 years!) Agree 100% with white noise - I always hoovered when Poppy was falling asleep and I swear it helped her find it really easy to fall asleep anywhere - she would always nap when out and about and would even sleep through my Mum's cheeky labrador barking!

Sounds good. Yeah I would like to get T.J. used to sleeping with sound so we don't have to tip toe around and whisper for fear of waking him when he's asleep and we can just go on like normal. I hope he has my sleep pattern, before getting pregnant I could sleep through a hurricane and an earthquake. LOL

 

[millielaura]

We're going to try just go about as normal in the day regarding sound and then at night her monitor which we will just have in our room too with her at the start, has lullabies and white noise and star projections and nightlight we will use xx

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

 

[Papermoon]

Cool! I'm gonna try that.