New Mom Hacks
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If there’s one thing that I know, it’s that all moms can appreciate a good mom hack. Anything that makes life a bit easier while your hands are full is helpful in my eyes. This list is for the new moms, about to venture into uncharted territory. I put together a list of hacks that I found helpful when I was a first time mom, and even when I was a second time mom. Even though we’re done having kids and I might not ever have to do some of these things again, I thought it would be nice to recap and pass it down to anyone that might be looking for some helpful tips before starting down their journey through parenthood.
Pull Down Onesies with Blowouts
All moms eventually figure this one out because of how oddly shaped the neckline is at the shoulders of the majority of basic onesies. Or maybe I’m wrong, and no one really questions the purpose of why the neckline is shaped that way. Whatever the case is, I’m going to let you know that the folds at the shoulders allow you to pull the onesie down over your baby’s body instead of up over their head. This is especially helpful when your baby has an inevitable poop blowout. I’m talking about liquid poop all over their body and clothes, and the last thing you want to do is try to remove their onesie by pulling it over their precious little face.
Put Extra Clothes in a Ziplock
One thing that I got in the habit of doing when my kids were babies, was packing an extra outfit in a ziplock bag before putting it in our diaper bag. I loved being able to see everything through the bag and knowing I had all the items that I needed packed without having to open it. Having the clothes in its own plastic bag also helped to keep my diaper bag organized and I knew I wouldn’t have to dig through a million things to find a pair of socks. The plastic bag also served as a place to put the dirty clothes until we got home. With babies, you never know if their dirty clothes will be covered in food, drool, spit up, or poop, so you’ll want to keep their dirty clothes separated from all the other stuff in your bag.
Washcloth Bath Time Hack
Babies lose warmth easily. And, one of the places that can feel extra chilly, is when they’re in their baby bath tub. Yes, we all check the temperature of the water to make sure it is not too cold and not too hot before putting the baby in, but usually a baby tub is filled somewhat shallow for safety reasons. This makes the skin exposed to air a bit cold. That is why I would wet a wash cloth with warm water and place it over my baby’s belly for extra warmth as I went through and washed each part of the body, making sure that I would rewet the washcloth with warm water often throughout bath time.
Skip the Diaper Pail (for Pee Diapers)
We have the Diaper Genie diaper pail, and while we absolutely love the product for its effectiveness and ease of use, buying refills can get expensive. This was especially true when we had 2 kids in diapers at the same time. You should also be aware that as your children grow, it doesn’t take as many larger sized diapers to fill up the diaper genie. So, we started throwing diapers, with just pee, in the trash and saved the diaper genie’s limited space for diapers with poop. We just found that we throw out our garbage frequently enough that the mild smell from a diaper with just pee was easily taken care of if we just toss it in the regular trash. Just like that, we started saving money on diaper genie refills since we were only having to change out the Diaper Genie bag about once a week instead of almost daily.
Start a Morning and Night Routine Immediately
With my firstborn, the newborn days were such a blur. Days bled into the nights and vice versa, because we were operating around the clock for so long. And, as my baby grew older, it seemed like he would sleep during the day, only to wake for feeding, but would stay up all night! At that point, we started trying to really make it a point to show him the difference between day and night with just a couple little routines. During the 6 or 7am feed, I decided to open the blinds to let the sunshine in so that my son could really rise and shine! Then we got into the routine of getting ready for the day. I would change him out of pajamas and into a daytime outfit, lightly cleanse his little face with a warm washcloth, and comb his hair. Then when 6 or 7pm hit, I would start a night routine. We would go upstairs, give him a bath, get into pajamas, turn the lights off or at least dim them, the sound machine was turned on, and it was time for just feeding and sleeping. This took a little while for my little guy to get into the swing of things, but eventually, his body clock was adjusted.
Not only did this help our baby shift his wake hours to daytime, it got me and my husband out of our funk of not knowing what day it was anymore! We started establishing a night routine right away during my next baby’s newborn stage, and it made such a huge difference in my baby’s ability to sleep at night and for my overall sanity during the newborn stage. I mentioned this hack in a previous blog, “How to Survive the Newborn Stage,” because I truly believe it was a game changer with my second baby. This is a hack that I definitely wish we started sooner with my first baby.
Let Baby Hold Something During Diaper Changes
If you got a wiggly baby, diaper changes can turn out to be a fiasco! This is especially true when your baby gets older and learns how to roll and crawl. They will want to be anywhere, but getting their diapers changed. I would say that sometimes changing an older baby feels similar to wrestling a tiny alligator. To help avoid this fight, just give your baby something interesting to hold. It could be a toy that they like to look at or sometimes I would pull out all the wipes I think I’d need for the diaper change and then let my babies hold the crinkly plastic wipes container. It keeps their attention busy enough for me to finish the diaper change really quickly while they are on their backs.
Have a Diaper Change Set Up on Each Floor
This was suggested to us by a friend when I was still pregnant with my first baby. Since I was about to have my first baby, initially, this was not something I thought about prior. Of course, this is only applicable if you have more than one floor in your home. And as predicted, it was solid advice. We have a couple floors with a lot of stairs, and with the amount of dirty diapers that you need to change in the earlier newborn days, it saved us so many trips upstairs. It really doesn’t matter what your extra diaper station set up looks like, as long as you have the basic essentials available, a designated changing mat or table, diapers, wipes, diaper cream, hand sanitizer, and a plan for how to dispose of your dirty diapers.
Socks Double as Mittens
Baby mittens are adorable. But, honestly, they just get lost and mismatched. If you want to save money, just use socks as mittens if you are needing to temporarily protect your baby from scratching themselves before you get the chance to file their nails. It also helps to just buy a pack of plain, one color socks. This way, your collection of baby socks will be easy to pair.
Freeze Homemade Baby Food in Ice Trays
Freezing homemade baby food was the only way I was able to keep up with making my own baby food. I normally would steam and purée vegetables and fruits during naptime and then freeze them into ice cubes. These cubes were then popped out, sorted by flavor, and stored in labeled freezer bags. The ice tray that I was using at the time was the OXO Baby Food Freezer Tray. It was nice because I could fit a couple tablespoons of puréed food in each ice mold, so I knew exactly how much food I was thawing out or heating up. And, they were small enough portion sizes that when my baby was exposed to a good amount of food and flavors, I was able to easily mix and match food in order to offer variety.
Cut Food with Kitchen Scissors
I love this baby food prep hack. I never really was in the habit of using kitchen shears to prepare food before having a baby, but I definitely still use them a lot now. As my babies grew and progressed their diets to soft finger foods, I always spent so much time cutting their food into small non-chokable pieces. Let me tell you, cutting up a bunch of long noodles or pieces of chicken into smaller pieces with a fork and knife takes forever! Cutting up food with scissors literally cuts food prep time in half!
Catch Your Let Down
Let down is when your breast milk starts flowing after stimulation. What I didn’t know as a first time mom is that when you are nursing on one side and finally let down happens, the other breast that has not been stimulated will also have a let down of milk. If you are not prepared for that, you milk will let down right into your bra or nursing pad. When I started catching the let down from the opposite breast with a Haakaa Silicone Pump, I was surprised that it was a pretty sizable amount. I usually caught a couple ounces of milk and with every nursing session, that’s enough milk to serve as an emergency stash for when you are unable to breastfeed. And this is all being done without having to take time and pull out a separate electric breast pump. This way of saving milk saved me time and took minimal effort. So ladies, catch your let down and save it!
Portable Blackout Curtains
Blackout curtains, portable or not, are incredibly useful if you choose to sleep train your baby. We all know that it can be hard to convince a baby that it’s time to rest when the sun is out. So, you’ll want to help them out by creating an environment that is conducive to sleep. We decided to try out portable blackout curtains and they’ve worked perfectly fine for us. We didn’t want to commit to drilling holes in the walls and installing real curtains, so we just suction cupped the portable blackout curtain directly on our window then we shut the blinds in front of it. We found that the combination of our blinds and the portable blackout curtains provided enough coverage to make our kids’ rooms pitch dark during daytime naps. The portable blackout curtain that we use is just the Amazon Basics Blackout Curtain.
Sound Machines Work
As a first time parent, you may be wondering if getting a sound machine is worth the money. Well, in my opinion, they most definitely are! White noise lulled my babies to sleep and kept them asleep by helping to block out outside noises. After using a sound machine for a while, I think it helped to signify to our children that it is time to rest. Out of all the sound machines available out there, we were huge fans of the Hatch Rest Sound Machine because of the ease of use, the adjustable night light and soothing sounds that you can control conveniently from your phone. It also helps that the newer generation Hatch sound machines have a portable battery, making it easy to unplug and use the sound machine on the go or just continue providing uninterrupted white noise through an unexpected brown out.
Newborns Love a Secure Swaddle
Swaddling your baby is definitely a skill worth mastering. It’s normal for a newborn baby to startle fairly regularly in the first couple months due to having the Moro reflex. That is why learning how to wrap your baby in a secure swaddle can really help to decrease waking due to startling themselves awake. I found that if I swaddled my babies well enough, it was a lot easier to transfer them from my arms to their crib without waking them. If you can learn how to do a good swaddle, it will feel like a nice warm hug when your baby is sleeping soundly in their crib. Some of my favorite swaddle blankets were from Copper Pearl. Not only did they come in super cute prints, they are made out of the softest fabric that was so stretchy, making swaddling much easier. If your baby is too good at wiggling out of a swaddle blanket, you can choose to use a Halo newborn sleep sack because the design is both user friendly and secure.
And now we’ve come to the end! I like to think that my list of advice is short and sweet because I only included the good stuff! I am aware that many of these hacks are not rocket science, but they did help me out in all different areas when I was learning the ropes of parenthood. While you are navigating through your own journey of motherhood, I hope you find some of these tips helpful as well! But, mom to mom, use what you find helpful and forget the rest. You’ll find that you know your baby best and you’ll know how to cherry pick the right advice for your family! Good luck mamas!
