Life Changing Newborn Tips You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner
Everyone warms you about the newborn phase, but nobody gives you a handbook. Once your baby is born you just wing it.
After having two myself, I can confirm it is the hardest part.
Both times I spent all of my time preparing for the pregnancy and the delivery, but nothing once we came home. And honestly, that is the hardest part.
Truthfully, I was expecting everything to come naturally. But no matter how good you are with babies, there is going to be learning involved with your little one.
So, if you are a first time mom, by the end of this post, you should know a little more than I did to survive your fourth trimester, bringing you newborn home, and postpartum but actually thrive while doing it.
Here are all of the life-changing newborn tips to help you with your baby.
How to Get More Sleep With a Newborn
After having two kids who are both completely different, there is no “magic” way to get your newborn to sleep. Both of my kids sleep totally differently. But, there are some things that worked with both of them and lessons I learned along the way.
#1 Introducing a bottle early on
Even if you are breastfeeding, introducing a bottle early on is a really good idea for so many reasons. Here are a few:
#1 Someone else can feed your baby and give you a break
#2 Your baby will be used to it if you need to be somewhere else or go back to work
#3 You can get extra sleep
#4 If your baby is trying to catch up on weight, you can ensure they get a good full feed which can also help them sleep in longer stretches
#2 Waking your baby to feed
Most parents don’t know when they first bring their baby home that you need to wake your baby if they sleep longer than 3-4 hours.
The reason for this is so that you can make sure they are getting enough food to maintain a healthy weight, for you to establish a good milk supply, and to prevent low blood sugar.
With my first baby, I never had to know or even worry about this because he was up every two hours. But my second, I had to wake him up all the time.
If I didn’t, he would sleep too long and wake up starving
Understanding newborn sleep
Newborn Daytime Sleep
There are so many things to know about your newborn’s sleep during the day. It is important to know your babies’ hunger cues and to make sure you are not keeping them up long enough.
Newborn babies are only awake for 30-45 minutes at a time. If you don’t get them down to sleep fast enough, that is when the trouble starts.
You should know your newborns’ wake windows and create a good schedule for them.
Check out this post on newborn schedules:
Dream Feeding
Dream feeding is a really good way to get a longer stretch of sleep when you have a newborn. Dream feeding is when you feed your baby at night without fully waking them up. And doing this one more time before you go to sleep for the night.
This will help your baby get a much longer stretch of sleep by keeping their belly full longer.
Heated Pad before Bedtime
Transferring your baby from your arms to their bassinet can really be a struggle. One of the smartest newborn tips I wish I had sooner is a heated pad in the bassinet before bedtime.
NOT during bedtime, but before. I put a heating pad on my baby’s bassinet so that when they are ready to lay down, it is warm and cozy.
This way they aren’t going from your warm and soft arms to a cold and hard bassinet that makes them wake up.
If you are having trouble getting your baby to sleep in their bassinet, read this article:
Parenting Hacks to Make Life Easier with a Newborn
Keeping Newborn Clothes Simple
One thing that new moms get so excited about are all of the little newborn outfits. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but they aren’t going to wear any of them….
Maybe one or two….
But all you really need are two-way zip onesies. They are the best and all that you really need for your newborn baby. There are cute ones too.
If you get 6-10 of these, that is honestly all you need. Definitely more than 5 because, trust me, we have gone through 5 in one day.
And you might be thinking… but, then I have to do laundry every day.
You are going to have to do laundry every day anyway, sorry.
Routines
Even having a loose routine will be so much better than no routine. A “routine” might be as simple as eat, play, sleep. But getting your baby on a routine will help them understand when it's time to sleep, when it is time to eat, and when to wake up.
This is also going to help you out too. You are going to have stuff to do around the house, cleaning, self care and a lot of other things.
Understanding your babies’ sleep cues and wake windows will help you plan and establish a day-to-day routine.
Swaddles are life changing
I thought that I was doomed and never going to sleep ever again until I found arms-up swaddles. I don’t know how grandmas are swaddling these babies in blankets. But I had Houdini babies and they wouldn’t stay in there for more than 5 seconds.
Once I found arms-up swaddles, my life changed forever. And so did my babies’.
Your baby is used to being in your womb all cudled up and warm. Then, out of nowhere, they are out in the cold and uncomfortable world.
That is why swaddles work so well for babies. They loved to be all curled up just like they were in your belly.
Babies also develop a startle reflex that causes them to wake themselves up more easily. This can make them really irritable and fussy. Having an arms up swaddle can be a good way for them to be tight and cozy.
Diaper Changing Stations
A great newborn hack for first time moms or any mom is having multiple diaper changing stations around the house.
The first time I had a baby, I wanted everything to be clean and organized and in his room. I don’t know what was wrong with me. Now that I have more than one, I threw that out the window a long time ago.
Having multiple diaper changing stations saved my life the second time around.
We have a diaper changing caddy in the living room, and entire changing station in our room, and a mobile diaper caddy with everything we need.
We also have a diaper caddy in the trunk of the car for diaper changes on the go.
Multiple Places for Baby to lay down
When I had my first baby, I literally thought, “where do I put him?” It’s such a funny thought, but it’s so true.
I have to shower and do dishes, what do I do with him????
Luckily, I had a patient mom who showed me everything I needed. These are the best baby products we used for my baby around the house.
Sleep products
Baby Carrying will Save You
Baby carrying is the best thing. Most moms don’t appreciate baby carrying until they have their second child. This also happened to me.
If your baby is fussy, just put them in the carrier. Stomach hurts? Carrier Can’t settle down? Carrier Trouble Burping?? Carrier
It is literally the solution for everything! Just trust me
Daily Walks
After you are done taking care of your body postpartum, daily walks are truly a blessing. When you are postpartum, you don’t want to spend all day every day sitting in your house. Getting out and going on a walk is great for you and your baby.
You can get some fresh air and get your body moving. Once you have been inside for so long, it is going to feel really good to get outside.
Wipeable Changing Pad
If you are going to get a changing pad, you need to get one that is wipeable. Having a cloth changing pad might be cute. But it is not cute when it is covered in spit-up, pee and poop and you are washing it all day long.
Getting a wipeable changing pad will be the best bet and will make changes easier. The one that I used with both of my kids was the Hatch Wipeable Changing pad which also doubles as a scale.
Knowing your babies’ weight in the first few months is really important. This changing pad was great because it had two functions and really gave us peace of mind.
Loungers and Puppy Pads
Your first thought might be…… Whattttt??? But trust me. Every lounger or bassinet that I had, I put a puppy pad under the cover. There were so many accidents and I got so tired of washing everything over and over.
This was until I saw a video of someone who put a disposable puppy pad under the sheet to catch all of the accidents.
Now, I do this and it is the best newborn tip ever. I have to wash things so much less. It was a pain because there would be an accident and I had nowhere to put my baby for the 3 hours it took to wash everything. But using a puppy pad is as easy as changing a dirty diaper.
Newborn Care Tips
Nail trimming
Most of the time, when you bring your newborn home, their nails are very long. Because of this, they tend to cut and scratch their face. You need to regularly trim your newborn’s nails. Honestly a lot more often than you would think.
I got all of the types of nail trimmers because for some reason, I was totally terrified. But, with my second, I use normal nail scissors and it is so much easier than it was with all the files and trimmers I used the first time.
As long as your babies’ nails are trimmed and they aren’t scratching their face, that is all that matters.
Probiotics
Lots of times, babies with colic can be easily remedied with probiotics. Your baby is growing, learning and adjusting to digesting food. Sometimes this can be really hard for them and cause their stomachs to hurt.
When we started implementing probiotics, our baby could go to the bathroom so much easier, sleep better and stay asleep longer.
This is the one that we used:
Baby Cues
All babies have cues that indicate when they are tired, hungry, or have an upset stomach. If you don’t know these cues, you can be confused on what your baby needs. And if you don’t know that your baby is hungry or tired, it can cause a lot of unnecessary tears and upset.
Here is a good article on understanding your babies cues: https://susanlandersmd.com/mastering-your-newborn-infants-cues-a-guide-for-new-mothers/Burping
Something a lot of first time mom’s don’t realize, is how often you have to burp your baby. If you think you have a really fussy or colicky baby, you might just need to burp them longer.
A newborn tip that we implemented was burping for 10 minutes after feeding. This might seem long and excessive, but our second baby had such an easier time eating and was not colicky at all.
Newborn Tips on Feeding
Bottles and Nipple Sizes
When I became a mom, I didn’t even realize there were multiple nipple sizes for bottles. I also had no idea what kind of bottles to get because there were so many different kinds.
When you are getting bottles, you are going to want to make sure that there is an option to get size 0 or slow flow nipples for your newborn. This will make sure that the flow is not too fast for them. If it is too fast, you will notice them struggling and spitting up. Having a slow flow nipple is also really good for breastfeeding to make sure that they are not getting “lazy” and wanting to get the milk really fast because it is coming from the bottle.
Nipple Shields
Breastfeeding comes with so many new things to learn. The number one thing I hear from moms and experienced myself is not being prepared enough for breastfeeding.
If you are having trouble breastfeeding, but your baby can take a bottle just fine, you might want to try a nipple shield. This is what got my second baby to be able to latch.
All you have to do is put it on before breastfeeding, and it feels a bit more structured like a bottle. Your baby will be able to easily latch and start feeding. What I would do is put it on for a few minutes and then take it off. Once I took it off, he was always able to re-latch. It was only the initial latch that was a struggle.
Haakaa
If you are breastfeeding, a Haaka is a great product to get. How you use it is that you put it on one side while you are breastfeeding on the other side. You would be surprised at how much milk it catches.
Your body has what is called a “let down.” It is the signaling of your body to “let down” or flow your milk. But, it happens on both sides. So, you can use a Haakaa to catch it instead of it going to waste.
This can help if you have low supply or if you want to create a small freezer stash.
Tummy Exercises
Tummy exercises are a great way to help your baby go to the bathroom or pass gas. Your baby likely will have trouble going to the bathroom at some point because they are still learning how to process and digest.
Doing tummy exercises daily can be a great addition to feeding and tummy time. You can look up different videos on types of exercises that are safe for the age range your baby is in.
Tips to Make Postpartum Easier
Getting a laundry service
This is the one thing I wish I did that I am definitely doing with my next baby. For some reason, I thought that I could never afford a laundry service.
This was until I realized that I could get my laundry done for $40-50! I wish I would have done this postpartum because it would have definitely been worth the money to take it easy and spend more time with my baby instead of worrying about laundry.
You can look up services near you.
Storing Colostrum
With my second baby, I was fortunate enough to store colostrum. You have to check with your doctor when it is safe for you to express colostrum.
After having my first, I struggled a lot to breastfeed and get my supply to come in. I was so worried about having to give him formula because he was underweight. It all ended up working out but I could have avoided all of that by storing colostrum ahead of time.
Here is what I used with my second to store colostrum: https://a.co/d/jfxrlvi
