1. DIAPERS May I make a simple suggestion, ask everyone for diapers when people ask you what you want for your baby shower, its one thing that you can NOT get enough of, (you can get enough of one size, ha I ran into that, so ask for all sizes!) people are always asking if they can bring you anything, or pick up anything for you, DIAPERS, should be your answer!:) My girls are 4.5 months, TWO of them at that and we have not had to buy diapers yet. (thanks to all my friends and family) It saves you TONS of money and a trip to the store in those early days when things are hectic and hard to get out of the house. BRAND, pick what works best for you, I am personally a Pampers fan, hate huggies. But that is a personal preference, I just really like the way pampers fit. But once I run out of diapers I might be switching brands as Pampers are super duper expensive, I do like LUVS and they are not as expensive so we MIGHT be switching we will have to see. WIPES, these will become your best friend they are not only great for changing diapers but wipes gets spit up off your clothes(and if you have spitters like I do, you will def need lots of these), spit up off floors, they wipe it right off the leather, etc. WIPE WARMER. Some people sware by it and love it, well I found that yeah its great the wipes are a slight temperature warmer than if they came straight out the box, but it takes the moisture out of your wipes and then they are not as soft when you are clearning our babies bottom! I rather have a cold soft moist wipe than a slightly warm rough one! BRAND, the one and only kirkland from costco! Best wipes ever, and you can get 9 packs of 100 for 19 dollars and some change! Which I personally think is greatt! Buy them in bulk and you dont have to get them very often. But do pay attention when you grab your last pack, you dont want to be scrambaling for wipes at 2am, because you didnt realize you were on your last pack! DESITIN. This is the miracle drug for butt paste! Best over the counter cream ever. Change diaper, wipe, apply paste, go to change diaper again, red bottom=GONE! Love, love it! Learned though, have one tube at every changing station and every diaper bag, so it is easy access at all times! Learned that in the early days of running upstairs after I have diaper open and ready for change and then where is the desitin, oh on the other changing table! AH, no good! So large tubes at every station and diaper bag you have! CHANGING STATIONS. (exp. for moms of multiples) Have a changing station set up on BOTH floors of your house, makes it easier, exp in those early days when you are changing diapers non stop. The floor works great as one for us, but I know some moms dont want to bend down and all that if they dont have too! Downstairs changing station consists of, diapers, wipes, creams, extra clothes, and blankets! Their upstairs consist of the same!
2. TOP ITEMS, COULD NOT BE WITHOUT, everyone knows the basics but this is what I found that I used the most! BOPPY PILLOWS. This will be your absolute best friend, well if you have TWINS I know it will be, even if you have a singleton I think that you would use it alot. When I feed the babies by myself I lay them in thir boppy pillows on either side of me and feed them. Which makes for a perfect feeding set up. Even when they are not feeding, they lay in them. They often take naps in them. And now that they can sit with support it is good to use to hold them up when they can not sit on their own. Also, tummy time, its great for that! Some babies dont like being put flat on the floor for tummy time(exp in the beg) so prop them up in the boppy pillow and they can use that to strenghten their neck and back muscles to learn to hold thier head up! See I think this is a great assest of things that are needed!BOUNCY SEATS, these are great exp the ones that vibrate, it relaxes the baby! The items that hang helps with god focus and eventually hand eye coordination. My girls actually slept in their boucy seats the first couple months due to reflux. PACK AND PLAY. I use mine for its changing table and storing everything in the pack and play so I have a station down stairs and do not have to go up and down the steps. But early on when the girls first came home, they slept in it. So it is a great necessity! SWING. Seems to sooth babies exp. during the witching hours, think about it, they felt movement constantly for 9 months as you walked around, the rocking motion soothes them. It is a plus if it has music on it! VIDEO MONITOR. This helps exp. if you are like me and a worry wart, you do not have to jump out of bed at every peep you here when your baby goes to his/her own nursery, you can just look at the monitor! You need all the sleep you can get and getting up every hour is not going to help when you dont have too! SWADDLE ME. Best invention ever, babies are so used to being tightly in your womb, then all of a sudden its out into the real world, I think about it like this babies are in our womb for 9 months of darkness, snug tight, no loud voices and then bam all of a sudden they hit bright lights and loud noises and naked and cold! Kind of like how we feel when we walk out of a movie theatre. THey like to be cuddled, again I think this sooths them! Kiddopotamus makes a great swaddle me, It was great in the early days until my girls just wiggled their way out of them! The swaddle me saves you from having to swaddle them yoruself with blankets! NOISE MACHINE. We just have a bear that makes the white noise machine and is attached to their crib, it gets turned on every night to establish their "bed time routine" so they associate night time with that noise. It also helps block out the other noise that may be going on in the house at that time. PLAY MAT. OH I think this may be my best friend, even early on it engages them to look at things, giving them a change of scenary and different things too look at. And eventually they learn to grab, kick things, and touch different parts of the play mat.
3. FEEDINGS. Bottles, Bottles, Bottles, they can get expensive, exp buying enough for TWO. Don't waste your money and go and buy the smaller 4oz bottles and then when they start drinking more than 4 oz have to buy the bigger ones. Just buy the bigger ones in the begining and then you wont have to buy bottles twice. We used the avent ones, but not the regular avent ones because they LEAK, we use the avent colic ones, they have an insert on the top of the bottle that prevents them from leaking and air getting in the bottles. They are not too pricy and worked well for us, jsut wish we did not go buy all these small ones and then turn around and have to buy the big ones! BOTTLE WARMER, is a must exp at 3, 5, 6 AM or whatever time your baby wants to feed in the middle of the night, Def. a must have purchase item. It takes too long to heat it up under running water. FORMULA VS BREAST FEEDING. Lots of people will say you should really BF its better for the baby, etc. But do you, do what is best for you, if BF is not for you formula is ok. No one is their to judge you. I am a different sneaker, I BF for the first month, and now I strictly pump my girls get expressed BM in a bottle everyday, we are going strong of 4.5 months and no formula and hope to continue for a year. My goal was 3 months, we hit that now my goal is 6 months, if we make it their I know I can do a year! So lets hope so! You DO WHAT is best for YOU; BF, formula, or BOTH! As for PUMPING ONLY, it is hard in the begining but it does get easier, I suggest that if you are BF and not strictly pumping you should pump a couple times a day too, exp. in the begining to help build your milk supply, also if you pump a couple times a day on top of BF (putting the baby on you) it helps build your milk supply. Also this allows you to store milk for emergencies, exp. ones you dont think of that you might run into! I have some stored in the freezer and thank goodness because I had to get a CT scan and well you can read here for that story. So I am glad I had back up milk in the freezer. STORAGE GUIDELINES: Freshly Expressed Breast milk, 5 hours. Refrigerator, 5 days. Freezer, 6 months(stored in the back of the freezer not the door). Deep Freezer, one year. NURSING PADS are a must have for those that may leak. I do not leak very much, but it has happened on occasions when I have been in public, NOT a pretty site. STORAGE BAGS are a must have as well, the medela ones are really good and they have an edge on the bottom so they stand up, which makes easier for storing. CEREAL in the bottle. Majority of bottles do not let cereal go through the nipple, I learned this the hard way. So if you are going to put cereal in your babies bottle make sure you ffind a brand that makes Y nipples, the Y shape holes at the top of the nipple allow the cereal to go through. Platex, Gerber, and Dr. Brown make these nipples to allow easy axcess for the cereal to flow through. CEREAL on a spoon. TIP: First couple times they eat from a spoon, where a diaper and a bib and thats it, otherwise you willl be changing their outfit when they are done! I have not experienced any other foods yet, so that will be a post for a later day.
4. PREPARING FOR COMING HOME FROM HOSPITAL. I had already recieved everything that I needed but did not get everything "ready" before I came home from the hospital. Exp. with two little ones and having a rough recovery on my part, I was not able to set things up the way I wanted them. So make sure before you go to the hospital, you have batteries in everything ie. swing, bouncy seats, mobiles, play mats, etc. anything you may use in that first month. Have everything OUT of its boxes and ready to go, bottles, bottle warmer, sterilizer, etc. Thats the last thing you want to do. Have all babies closed pre-washed and organized. Sheets pre-washed for cribs or bassinets, you never know when your baby may have an accident and need a sheet change, which is often in those early days. Have a set up plan for people to help, everyone is always willing and wanting to help you but you dont want an overload so make a plan so you dont have to worry about it after coming home. When you do come home you take care of yourself and baby and others that come over to help, ask them to throw in a load of laundry, wash bottles, take out the trash, pick up dinner, etc. every little bit helps! Exp. for those visitors that are coming over to stay and hang out. Most common courtesy is a visit for 20 mins or so. Make sure you are fully organized with everything that you can do before hand so you are not doing last minute things when you come home.
5. ROUTINES. Did I just type that, Yes, why yes I did. Its never too early to establish a routine, NO I did not say set schedule because with babies that is almost impossible to have the exact same schedule every day early on, but you can establish a routine and this is coming from a mommy of two little girls who had their days and nights mixed up pretty bad and the only reason we fixed it was by establishing a routine. For example 45 mins before every bottle in the early days I would lay them on a blanket, and wake them up and keep them engaged for 45 minutes b4 they ate. This is during the time when all they did was sleep, eat and poo,pee. I needed them to learn that day time was wake time and night time was sleep time. So I would take their clothes off, wipe a wet wash cloth on them do whatever was needed to wake them during these times. It took dedication and work but it did work. We kept the lights on all day and never were quiet kept TV on and everything. THen B4 it was "bedtime" we would feed them their last bottle in their room, with the lights off, sound machine on, no talking and feed them and put them down. We did all this for two straight weeks and they eventually figured out night and days. Now we still do our bedtime routine, It is the best thing I could have ever done for the girls and for ourselves!
6. SLEEP DEPRIVATION. It happens, be ready, get allll the SLEEP you can NOW! But just a little comfort, I never realized how much sleep I would not be getting, and I ALSO know how much I used to be able to sleep in and be able to sleep ALOT! I would never have thought I would be able to run on the sleep I run on. THe first couple weeks were hard, but your body does just adjust, to it. Its almost like, we were made to adjust to the no sleeping thing.
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