Before I was a mommy I thought I knew everything there was to having a baby. Change a few diapers, feed the kid every now and then, cuddle them when they cry, play with their toys....Piece of cake right.... After all I read all the books preparing me for the things that I was unsure of so this should be a simple walk in the park...right?.....WRONG... and Boy was I wrong! ha. don't get me wrong, being a mommy is by far the best, most enjoyable thing I could have ever done with my life. I enjoy every single minute of it, and wouldn't rather be doing anything other then spending time with my little boy.
But here are a few tips of being a mommy that the books, the babysitting lessons, and the experts don't always teach you.....
1)Dishes, laundry, house work, and supper don't always get done. Your house will be a complete pig sty sometimes and as much as that may stress me out, its OK. Order in sometimes and let someone else do the cooking. You will be far to tired in the beginning, just after you bring your little baby home to worry about these things. LET THEM GO, your family and company will understand that you have far more important things to take care of now.
2)NURSING PADS....buy them, you will need them, and lots of them at first
3)Nursing Bra's... Lets face it your boobs will go from little oranges to gigantic watermellons. eeek. I bought all my nursing bra's before I had Haylen. Of course your boobs get bigger just while you are pregnant so I thought great i'll buy them now so i'm totally prepared, and besides they will definatly be big enough since I am already buying 3 sizes up from what I am. well WRONG again. I went to put mine on after I had Haylen and they were WAY to small. I had to send poor Ryan out to buy me some new bra's. ha, poor guy! Well after the first month or so your boobs do get a little smaller, and I was able to fit into the ones I bought while still pregnant, so don't worry you wouldn't be stuck with watermellons forever.
4)Lanalin cream.... Best invention ever. BUY SOME. It is a soothing nipple cream for breastfeeding, and believe me you will need it.
5)Nipple Shields. Alot of people don't know what these are, but they were a life saver to me. without going into alot of detail, I had ALOT of pain while breastfeeding my son. I was cracked and bleeding alot, so the nurse gave me one of these to try and it protects you from that. They are designed for mom's who have a fast milk flow so that the baby can slow the amount they intake, so they work for a few differnt things
6)Breastfedding HURTS. No matter what anybody tells you. It hurts. but it is SO worth it. I don't need to tell you about the great benifts to your baby, everybody knows that, but it is the best bond with your baby. Its a great feeling to know that you are the one and only person who can take care of your baby in that specail way. I honestly did not want to breastfeed at first. I thought it was gross. But I thought, I'll just do this for him for a few months just to give him the good benifits for his health. But i ended up loving it. Oh and after about a month or so the pain goes away and it doesn't hurt at all anymore, so just stick with it for your baby no matter how much it hurts you.
7)Electric Breast Pumps are the best. To store your breastmilk I have a great system. Get the breastmilk bags from Walmart. Before you put the milk in the bag, mark on it the date you pumped, and the amount of ounces going into the bag. Then once you have the milk in, lay it flat in your freezer so when it freezes it takes up the whole bag but it will be so thin that it will defrost in seconds. Then get a shoe box and file your milkbags in it, putting the oldest milk in the front and newest in the back.
8)Do not thaw breakmilk out in the microwave. Put it in hot water for a few seconds and let it thaw that way.
9)Every Fart is not a poop.
10)Wait a few minutes after a poop to make sure they are done. Seriously. wait. I have been pooped on a few times while changing a diaper thinking, He can't possible have anymore poop in him....and then out it comes! Gross I know!
11)"Pee Pee - Tee Pee's" are great for little boys.
12) If your diapers are leaking move to the next size up. This seems like common sense when I say it like that, but we were constantly finding Haylen's sleepers covered in poo or soaking wet with pee when we would pick him up from his naps. He was only a month old so about 8-9 lbs. Newborn diapers say they are good until 11 lbs, and they fit him really good so we didn't think that should be the problem. We even switch diaper brands thinking that huggies just sucked, but we had the same thing with pampers. And the same problem with size 1 diapers when he got to fitting in that size. So moral of the story...even if the diapers fit perfect or the weight they say on the box is in your babies range, but they are still leaking move to the size up. They will fit big, but solve the messy problem.
13)You can never have to many diapers. Pack more then you think you will ever need in your diaper bag, and even keep extra's in your veichle.
14)Pack and extra shirt for yourself in the daiper bag.
15)Cute bibs are great. You buy a super cute shirt, wanting to show it off...and soon enough it it soaking wet in drool and have to change it. Or it just gets covered with a bib. So buy cute bibs.
16)The person who invented baby sizing for clothes was on drugs. Seriously, they are dumb. My son is an averaged size baby who is 5 months old and wears 9-12 month sized clothes. NEVER go by the sizes that the tags say for buying stuff, they are wrong. I got alot of clothes as gifts for my baby shower, but they were all sizes 6 - 12 months so I just put them in a drawer thinking, when he is 6 months old I will pull them out and he can wear them then...wrong again. Well I went through that drawer when he was about 3-4 months old, and alot of the clothes fit him perfectly then, and some were already too small. Also a size 6 months from one store will not be the same 6 month size from another store so watch out for that too.
17)Burp cloths are great. I got one from a friend before I had Haylen and didn't even know what it was...ha I soon found out they are great!
18)Spray and Wash. The person who invented spray and wash should be given a medal! BUY SOME, it gets all puke and poop stains out, even set in ones. BUY SOME
19)Vasaline!! Another great invention. It cures everything. If your baby has craddle cap (dry skin on his head) vasaline is great. Also all babies 'shed' their skin when they are a few weeks old, and so they have really dry skin. baby oil sucks. it's good for nothing but making things slippery. don't buy it. Vasaline is the way to go. Oh and vasaline is best for diaper rash too. Penatin (sp) works good, but its so thick and hard to spread, that vasaline is way better and easier to use.
20)Diaper rash is a sign of teething
21)Bottles. If you are going to give your baby a bottle you should introduce it before 3-4 weeks. Haylen is only breastfed but I wanted to make sure that he would take a bottle just incase he needed to, so we gave him his first one at 31/2 weeks and he took it no problem. My kid is kinda a pig tho, so it was easy for him. But some babies if you wait until they are older it will be alot harder to give them the bottle cuz they wouldn't know what it is.
22)Vitamin D. All breastfed babies need vitamin D, since it is not passed through breastmilk. "D vi sol" Is the type of stuff that I give and its very easy to give with a dropper and tastes great
23)Gripe Water is a good thing. Buy some.
24)"Boogies Wipes" are sold at walmart in the pharmacy section. Buy some. They contain saline which helps break up snot.
25)Saline Drops are great. Haylen is a very stuffed up kid. He has lots of boogers. Pleasent I know. Put a few drops up the nose and put them on their belly and they will shoot right out. You can buy them at any pharmacy. go buy some.
26)Pictures and video's. You can NEVER have to many pictures or videos' of your kids!! They grow up way to fast so take too many pictures, you will be glad you did
27)Cherish and enjoy every minute with your baby....even the tough times
28)Tummy Time is important
29)Alone time. Sometimes when Haylen is crying I will rock him, feed him, walk with him, talk to him, do anything. But once I just put him down in his crib after he cried for a while and I tried everything, and he fell right alseep. So try just putting your baby down if you don't know what else to do, they may just want to be alone.
30)Jumperoo's are the best things ever. Buy one.
31)Soother stings. Buy one of those too. Haylen went through a phase where he spit out his soother and it would fall on the floor. I would wash it, but it back in, and he would spit it out....then cry cuz he wanted it again, agh, I was ready to duct tape his soother to his face. But then I got one of those soothers clips that clip to their shirt and the soother, and problem solved, it didn't hit the floor anymore.
32)Teething...aaghhh....this is where i need help. Haylen's bottom front 2 teeth are trying to pop through. I have some natural teething pills and they work great. I also keep a frozen water filled teething ring in the freezer and he loves that. I've given him a wet wash cloth to suck on, rubbed his gums, bought tons of teething toys, and it still hurts him. poor guy.
33)Shots are hard. prepare yourself for needle days. Breast feed him after he gets his needles and it will take his mind off the pain, and you can cuddle him while feeding.
34)Dental care. Even though babies don't have teeth yet, you still have to clean their mouths. Either wash with a wet cloth or brush them with a finger brush from walmart. Very important you do this!
35)Read to your baby. They love it and it helps them learn!!
36) Humidifers are great. Buy a cold mist one so that when your baby starts moving you don't have to worry about them burning themselves on the steam.
37) Hand Sanitizers are also great. But be careful and make sure you get the alchol free ones. I got some with the alchol in it from Walmart and rubbed it on my hands, then was eating an apple, and couldn't figure out why my apple tasted so gross....well it was becuase I was tasting the alchol from the sanitizer. So you don't want to rub it on your hands, touch your babies toys, then have them put it in their mouths.
38) Breastfed babies can go 7-10 days without pooping. Haylen usally goes about 3-4 days....just be prepared after a few days for a MAJOR poop explosion!!
39) Hug and kiss your baby everynight before bedtime
40) Tell your baby you love them all the time. This may sound crazy to some people but I swear Haylen has said "I love you" 3 times already....really.... I swear. Once to me, then once to Ryan, and I don't know what was funnier, the fact that it sounded so much like he said "I love you" or the look on Ryan's face. LOL it was way to cute. But babies mimic and mock the sounds that they hear, so "I love you" must be one thing that he hears the most.
Well that is all my great mommy wisdom that I have learnt over the past 5 months. I hope that helps out all new mommies or mommies to be!! If anybody has anymore tips on anything plz comment and let me know.
