New Parenting Tips
So I feel like I have a quite a few mommy readers. I sent this very long email of advice to my girlfriend in Mass. that just had a BEAUTIFUL baby girl and I thought I might as well share all of my mommy insight....So here it goes. It's a rambling long list....might be better served if you print it and refer back as she or he grows....did I say I ramble...?
Good Luck to you all!
Before the little one is born have certain stuff already on hand. Make sure you have your Dreft detergent and Rubbing Alcohol....you'll need that for the belly button! Q-tips (again for belly button) a Bottle Brush, and burp cloths. Those are the things you will need straight away. So get them before you are even due....be prepared (that's the girl scout in me!)
Good Luck to you all!
Before the little one is born have certain stuff already on hand. Make sure you have your Dreft detergent and Rubbing Alcohol....you'll need that for the belly button! Q-tips (again for belly button) a Bottle Brush, and burp cloths. Those are the things you will need straight away. So get them before you are even due....be prepared (that's the girl scout in me!)
Also get a bottle of Mylicon. No one told me about this until about a week of gassy baby....then the doctor tells me to put a couple drops in her bottles and it will clear right up....kid was an angle after that! Then of course all the moms I know say to me, Oh yeah, I gave it to him in every bottle....where were you when I needed you, I asked?
Actually, Make a shopping list. Dreft, Alcohol (rubbing....for drinking is optional) Ziplock bags, Shout and the Mylicon.
OK...the Ziplock bags. These serve two purposes. First put a few in your diaper bag. Then when you are out and the precious little baby makes an inconvenient stinky, then you can toss it in the ziplock bag and lock in the 'freshness' until you can properly dispose of it. This comes in handy if you are out on a walk/hike, or at someone's house where you may not want to drop it in their trash.
The other purpose of the ziplock for me is her hair accessories. If you have a daughter and once she has hair capable of clips and rubber bands, I lock them all in a ziplock bag. That way those tiny clips and small rubber bands don't get lost or swallowed. If you go to Walmart (and I don’t go there often) they have the Ouchless bands in the health and beauty aid dept. I never bought her the stuff in the baby dept. The ouchless, I will say really are ouchless...I use them too! The bag helps not just to keep them organized and safe, but as you are pony-ing and clipping her hair back, I hand her the baggie to play with and keep her occupied....works as a great distraction!
Also before baby is born....Print out a few pages of spreadsheet. List four columns across the top: Time, Fed, Diaper, Notes. Print those out and you are ready! For what you ask? Well we wrote down everything for the first few weeks. See the hosp has you keep track of all that information while you are there and St Lukes sends you home with a tiny slip of paper to continue. It only took us a day of "did you change her?" "How much did she eat last time" “What time did I feed her last night?!" to realize that we needed to keep better track. These were a great help. Ellie did not poop but every 5 or 6 days in the beginning which really freaked me out so we were able to keep track on the sheets as well as when she ate last in case Brett came home and I was still sleeping. So they will come in handy.
Diapers....I will endorse the Pampers Swaddlers. We received Huggies and Luvs as gifts and tried them all....the Swaddlers are the best by far and they grow with her. She is now in size three cruisers and I still love them.
Sippy cups....first off, the doctor will most likely tell you to have her off the bottle by the time she is one year...listen to the doctor! We did not. Well we kind of did. She is 95% off the bottle. I just can't seem to loose that bedtime bottle...I also don't try really hard, because it's always just me at bedtime and this kid NEVER sleeps....so she’s honestly not tired at 10:00 at night and I am...the bottle of milk is the only thing that winds her down. I will have to figure out how to get her off that last one. But the longer they take a bottle the harder that habit is to break, so start weaning them away around eleven months. About the cups though. Make sure you take out the little inserts every time you wash them and scrub in the hole. We did not know they came out at first and when Brett figured it out...GROSS! ( lol...we are not bad parents) Live and learn Baby. Anyway....clean it good.
Actually, Make a shopping list. Dreft, Alcohol (rubbing....for drinking is optional) Ziplock bags, Shout and the Mylicon.
OK...the Ziplock bags. These serve two purposes. First put a few in your diaper bag. Then when you are out and the precious little baby makes an inconvenient stinky, then you can toss it in the ziplock bag and lock in the 'freshness' until you can properly dispose of it. This comes in handy if you are out on a walk/hike, or at someone's house where you may not want to drop it in their trash.
The other purpose of the ziplock for me is her hair accessories. If you have a daughter and once she has hair capable of clips and rubber bands, I lock them all in a ziplock bag. That way those tiny clips and small rubber bands don't get lost or swallowed. If you go to Walmart (and I don’t go there often) they have the Ouchless bands in the health and beauty aid dept. I never bought her the stuff in the baby dept. The ouchless, I will say really are ouchless...I use them too! The bag helps not just to keep them organized and safe, but as you are pony-ing and clipping her hair back, I hand her the baggie to play with and keep her occupied....works as a great distraction!
Also before baby is born....Print out a few pages of spreadsheet. List four columns across the top: Time, Fed, Diaper, Notes. Print those out and you are ready! For what you ask? Well we wrote down everything for the first few weeks. See the hosp has you keep track of all that information while you are there and St Lukes sends you home with a tiny slip of paper to continue. It only took us a day of "did you change her?" "How much did she eat last time" “What time did I feed her last night?!" to realize that we needed to keep better track. These were a great help. Ellie did not poop but every 5 or 6 days in the beginning which really freaked me out so we were able to keep track on the sheets as well as when she ate last in case Brett came home and I was still sleeping. So they will come in handy.
Diapers....I will endorse the Pampers Swaddlers. We received Huggies and Luvs as gifts and tried them all....the Swaddlers are the best by far and they grow with her. She is now in size three cruisers and I still love them.
Sippy cups....first off, the doctor will most likely tell you to have her off the bottle by the time she is one year...listen to the doctor! We did not. Well we kind of did. She is 95% off the bottle. I just can't seem to loose that bedtime bottle...I also don't try really hard, because it's always just me at bedtime and this kid NEVER sleeps....so she’s honestly not tired at 10:00 at night and I am...the bottle of milk is the only thing that winds her down. I will have to figure out how to get her off that last one. But the longer they take a bottle the harder that habit is to break, so start weaning them away around eleven months. About the cups though. Make sure you take out the little inserts every time you wash them and scrub in the hole. We did not know they came out at first and when Brett figured it out...GROSS! ( lol...we are not bad parents) Live and learn Baby. Anyway....clean it good.
OK…about her cloths. First of all steer clear of jammies with the big ruffly collars in the beginning. They are adorable I know. But at 2 am when you are sleep deprived and the collar keeps going in her mouth instead of the nipple…it gets very frustrating. I tried to always get her jammies without any collar. Also if you can, Zippers! Once again…2 am….buttons suck. Zippers are much faster. Here’s an FYI too, Carter's clothes always run too big....she will wear them forever...that is a good thing....unless it's all you have when she changes sizes and then will find her swimming in them!
Old Navy on line, I think, is the best place to shop. I get almost every thing for Ellie off the Clarence section and never pay more then ten dollars for a single item...and what's nice is they are cool, stylish cloths that hold up...they last...the color stays nice on them, they fit true to size, and they are durable....plus they have good re-sale (if you're an ebay-er...I am not yet, but someday I hope to list it all and make some of my money back!) Gap cloths are great too...once again....Clarence stuff! I get good stuff from both of them and I don't spend a lot...plus they are housed together so I get combined check out and shipping.
Back to diapers….Diapers.com. I love this place! I get her diapers from there ever 5 or 6 weeks....plus I get a box of wipes and swipes about three times a year. I large box of diapers is about 41.00. Spend 50 and you get free shipping. Now if you consider Oneida county 9.5% sales tax plus the cost of gas it would cost me more to drive to Target or Walmart to buy them...so spending the $50.00 is worth it for me....plus none of those stores usually have the large boxes, so you either have to buy more frequently or buy several packages at one time. This place is great...you shop from home, free shipping and they are on your door step in TWO DAYS! order on Weds....UPS is standing on your porch, package in hand on Friday. I love it...plus they contract with Ebates....I'll get to that in a minute.
Shout it out! Shout is the best pre-treater going. Get some before you even give birth...I keep a little thing of it in each bathroom and in the laundry room...you never know where baby will be getting naked...and MOST things pretreated with Shout come right out!
The Inflatable Tub....you have to get a blow up tub if you did not already receive one. I didn't know about this thing. I put a simple baby bath tub on my registry and my sister-in-law gave me the little inflatable one...she told me that it was a must have once she has out grown the other tub but not quite in the big, big tub yet. She was right...invaluable! Ellie hopped into that at around 6 months and just graduated from it at 14 months....when she discovered all that open tub space behind her. I know they sell them at One Step Ahead. That’s a great catalog....check out their web site and have a catalog sent to you if you don't already have one. The tub is great though...perfect for when she's ready to start sitting in the tub on her own and playing...but not quite ready for all that space. I don't know what your tub set up is, but we have doors so once she gets to a certain point I can't reach her anymore...this little wonder contains her for just a little bit longer...but alas you do have to eventually let her go and explore the other end of the tub....I always make sure when we are having bath time, I wear short sleeves and NO socks...that way if I have to grab her quick I can step right in!
This is an FYI economical thing as well. A friend of mine told me a little inside tip regarding Similac...someone from inside the company told her....buy the WalMart brand...it's the very same product, with a different label and ten dollars cheaper per can. The only down side of course, that you have to go to WalMart.
By the time baby reaches three months old make sure you have a package of those little plastic interlocking rings. We used them to hook every thing to her...to her saucers, her jumper, her car seat....Brett even put her teething rings on them so that he could hold on to one end when she sent it flying! (he’s pretty smart…some times) They are very handy little gadgets.
Old Navy on line, I think, is the best place to shop. I get almost every thing for Ellie off the Clarence section and never pay more then ten dollars for a single item...and what's nice is they are cool, stylish cloths that hold up...they last...the color stays nice on them, they fit true to size, and they are durable....plus they have good re-sale (if you're an ebay-er...I am not yet, but someday I hope to list it all and make some of my money back!) Gap cloths are great too...once again....Clarence stuff! I get good stuff from both of them and I don't spend a lot...plus they are housed together so I get combined check out and shipping.
Back to diapers….Diapers.com. I love this place! I get her diapers from there ever 5 or 6 weeks....plus I get a box of wipes and swipes about three times a year. I large box of diapers is about 41.00. Spend 50 and you get free shipping. Now if you consider Oneida county 9.5% sales tax plus the cost of gas it would cost me more to drive to Target or Walmart to buy them...so spending the $50.00 is worth it for me....plus none of those stores usually have the large boxes, so you either have to buy more frequently or buy several packages at one time. This place is great...you shop from home, free shipping and they are on your door step in TWO DAYS! order on Weds....UPS is standing on your porch, package in hand on Friday. I love it...plus they contract with Ebates....I'll get to that in a minute.
Shout it out! Shout is the best pre-treater going. Get some before you even give birth...I keep a little thing of it in each bathroom and in the laundry room...you never know where baby will be getting naked...and MOST things pretreated with Shout come right out!
The Inflatable Tub....you have to get a blow up tub if you did not already receive one. I didn't know about this thing. I put a simple baby bath tub on my registry and my sister-in-law gave me the little inflatable one...she told me that it was a must have once she has out grown the other tub but not quite in the big, big tub yet. She was right...invaluable! Ellie hopped into that at around 6 months and just graduated from it at 14 months....when she discovered all that open tub space behind her. I know they sell them at One Step Ahead. That’s a great catalog....check out their web site and have a catalog sent to you if you don't already have one. The tub is great though...perfect for when she's ready to start sitting in the tub on her own and playing...but not quite ready for all that space. I don't know what your tub set up is, but we have doors so once she gets to a certain point I can't reach her anymore...this little wonder contains her for just a little bit longer...but alas you do have to eventually let her go and explore the other end of the tub....I always make sure when we are having bath time, I wear short sleeves and NO socks...that way if I have to grab her quick I can step right in!
This is an FYI economical thing as well. A friend of mine told me a little inside tip regarding Similac...someone from inside the company told her....buy the WalMart brand...it's the very same product, with a different label and ten dollars cheaper per can. The only down side of course, that you have to go to WalMart.
By the time baby reaches three months old make sure you have a package of those little plastic interlocking rings. We used them to hook every thing to her...to her saucers, her jumper, her car seat....Brett even put her teething rings on them so that he could hold on to one end when she sent it flying! (he’s pretty smart…some times) They are very handy little gadgets.
What else…
Oh back to teething. Oraljel of course, but the little teething tablets work great as well. Ellie actually is getting her “I” teeth and what she likes best…Popsicles! (Sugarless) Brett has about three of them with her every night. She loves the cold on her gums. The other thing El likes, is a bottle of ice water. She loves to chew on the cold nipple.
Now here’s some advice my friend Jana passed down to me…Never warm her bottle up too much. If she gets used to super warm bottles then you may find yourself in trouble when you are unable to warm it. I never spent time waiting for hers to get to warm and about three months in, at probably 4am (because that’s the witching hour) I just wanted to sleep….so I pulled it cold from the fridge and “plugged the hole!” She sucked it right down with no fuss….we never warmed it again after that…..And I got back to bed quicker.
So before I mentioned Ebates. Ebates.com is a great little rebate site. Sign up and create an account. Then anytime you shop anywhere on line…you sign in, then find the store on their list that you are going to shop from and click on it. It will automatically route you to their web site and at the same time tell you how much in rebate you will be saving. You will not get the discount at the time of check out, but every few months they (Ebates) send you a check. It costs you nothing and they ask nothing of you…their contract is with the stores. I don’t know how much you shop on line, but I do every thing on line, so every few months I get a check for about forty bucks! It’s a nice little way to make money back, and they list all the stores I shop from and a whole bunch I have never heard of….check it out.
Baby Einstein…get yourself a baby Einstein 3 month video….it will be your best friend. About two months after Baby is born you will start to wonder how on earth you are supposed to make dinner, do laundry…shower….pop in the Video and place her in her bouncy seat and you are all set. It is a life saver…trust me!!
New parents....don’t feel bad if you can’t figure out how to work things in either. My biggest thing was when do I shower…for a girl that spends her free time in a stable…showering is a concern. It took me a long time to realize that I could have her home alone with just me and take a shower…in fact Brett is on his annual golf weekend with his brothers right now and I am still worried about when do I wash…it works it’s self out. There is the video…there’s letting her, while she is still immobile, lay on the tummy time mat outside the bathroom door…there are naps, although they are only a myth around here. You’ll get it all in…I promise.
So here are a few more baby occupied tricks. Ellie has her own drawer in our bathroom. It’s filled with scarves and soft head bands etc. When I am getting ready she is rooting through it and having fun. Also my mom purchased a plastic container at the grocery store that opens easily and filled it with about ten different scraps of material. Ellie will play with that for a long time…plus it teaches her textures, which they say is important. We also emptied out her favorite cupboard in out living room and filled it with her toys. Now I don’t have to ask her to stop opening the door and running for the stuff she is pulling from inside…it’s her space and she feels like a big girl when she opens it up and finds her stuff inside. I also got her a Dora Back pack (she loves Dora) and I filled it with misc. stuff. When it’s late and she is chasing Adrian (our 10 yr old Boxer) around the house, I grab Back Pack and we sit together and pull out every thing in side and inspect it. Then I try like crazy to teach her to put it away….she refuses. Oddly enough when the music teacher sings the toys away song, Ellie runs around and picks up all the stuff helping her….when I sing it, she looks at me devilishly…hmmmm.haha
Stock up on Sandra Boynton Books! Ellie loves them....her favorite is Pajama Time and Snuggle Puppy...mine too. I also love the Belly Button book, but she slams it shut on my every time....I think the hippos belly's upset her in some way. She also loves Barnyard Dance....they're just great...cute little rhyming books that we really enjoy. Check em out!
**She also keeps shutting the Little Girl Potty Book every time I start it....that's not a good sign I think.....lol
**She also keeps shutting the Little Girl Potty Book every time I start it....that's not a good sign I think.....lol
I will say this...habits that you form for your baby....think about what that will be like a year later. Ellie started only going back to sleep in the middle of the night with a water bottle..seemed cool at the time...no pacifier. Now she is trying to ditch the bottle but we can't figure out how to get to bed with out it. I do have a plan though. I am trying the Ferber method (from Meet The Fockers) I did not try that hard enough in the beginning...letting her self sooth herself back to sleep. When I did decide to try again she was big enough to stand and yell for me....then I worried that she would climb out of the crib. I did it though! I let her cry it out and I have had three straight weeks of sleep...yeah.....Just think about things and how they will impact your life down the road.
Listen before she is three months old you have to get the Winkel! Its a great little ball of bendy things that will be great when she is learning to hold things and negotiate them into her mouth. I got one as a gift and was like What the? Then she started playing with it and it was Great! Highly recommended.....now I know why it won all those developmental awards. I saw it today on www.kidsurplus.com They are a great place to get onesies and sweats etc pretty cheap....I get her play clothes there...but watch out there are some freaky looking things on there! LOL..I saw clown pants today! LOL
Also here's a tip for winter. I bought Ellie baby tights and put those on under her pants all the time, that way I wasn't constantly looking for socks and I knew her feet were never chilly. Old Navy usually sells them 2 for ten bucks and they make them in her newborn size.
OK…now here is the biggest thing. prepare for your life to slow down to a speed you have never experienced. At first it’s waiting for naps and feedings, but I thought it would be a few short months and I could get back to my carefully scheduled life. Let me just tell you that the first few months were nothing compared to what lies ahead. Once she starts to feed herself….meals will seem like they take forever. Once she is playing in the tub…baths will be a good half hour minimum. I usually bring a magazine in with me and flip through it as she plays and prunes, but she loves the bath so much that taking her out is a fight, so I let her be…she’s happy and what harm can a little wrinkly skin do? Then there will be the chasing her to dress her….and it will only be when you are late…when you have all the time in the world she will sit still to be dressed. I never thought in a million years I would ever, EVER chase my child around the room to put her pants back on her…but some fights are just not worth the picking. Everything will go so much slower…and it’s wonderful. Sure there are times when you can move her right along to be where you need to be, but when you don’t have too….then absorb every moment. Every creeping, not going anywhere moment that you have. It’s just amazing to see it all through her eyes for the first time. To see what it is like the first time they splash in the water. The first time they try baby food. The party you’ll through the first time she successfully navigates the fork to her mouth…with food on it! It’s just the greatest moments of your life.
Listen before she is three months old you have to get the Winkel! Its a great little ball of bendy things that will be great when she is learning to hold things and negotiate them into her mouth. I got one as a gift and was like What the? Then she started playing with it and it was Great! Highly recommended.....now I know why it won all those developmental awards. I saw it today on www.kidsurplus.com They are a great place to get onesies and sweats etc pretty cheap....I get her play clothes there...but watch out there are some freaky looking things on there! LOL..I saw clown pants today! LOL
Also here's a tip for winter. I bought Ellie baby tights and put those on under her pants all the time, that way I wasn't constantly looking for socks and I knew her feet were never chilly. Old Navy usually sells them 2 for ten bucks and they make them in her newborn size.
OK…now here is the biggest thing. prepare for your life to slow down to a speed you have never experienced. At first it’s waiting for naps and feedings, but I thought it would be a few short months and I could get back to my carefully scheduled life. Let me just tell you that the first few months were nothing compared to what lies ahead. Once she starts to feed herself….meals will seem like they take forever. Once she is playing in the tub…baths will be a good half hour minimum. I usually bring a magazine in with me and flip through it as she plays and prunes, but she loves the bath so much that taking her out is a fight, so I let her be…she’s happy and what harm can a little wrinkly skin do? Then there will be the chasing her to dress her….and it will only be when you are late…when you have all the time in the world she will sit still to be dressed. I never thought in a million years I would ever, EVER chase my child around the room to put her pants back on her…but some fights are just not worth the picking. Everything will go so much slower…and it’s wonderful. Sure there are times when you can move her right along to be where you need to be, but when you don’t have too….then absorb every moment. Every creeping, not going anywhere moment that you have. It’s just amazing to see it all through her eyes for the first time. To see what it is like the first time they splash in the water. The first time they try baby food. The party you’ll through the first time she successfully navigates the fork to her mouth…with food on it! It’s just the greatest moments of your life.
So this is my list of things I wanted to tell you. I’m sure there is a lot more, but this is what I have jotted down. But, like I to everyone, you will know what to do when the time comes. You are going to get advice from every direction. Some of it good, some of it will make you roll your eyes, some of it you may have to ponder. All of this info is just food for thought. This is all just advice and suggestions learned from trial and error...learning as I go...passed on to me...and my share off Whoopsie Daisies! You take every thing they all tell you and first you consider the source…then you decide if it works for you and your family. What I have learned the most….is you go with your gut. You will know what to do, even if you’re not sure if it’s the right thing at that moment. You will be great and your little person will be perfect.
Thanks for the tips! Another great website that helps you save money is Savingswatch.com. Its a rebate site as well but offer a much higher cashback. I'd recommend taking a look there so that you can compare the cash back percentages to maximize your earnings.
Happy Shopping!
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Gee, Thanks!
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Michelle
You are funny as always. excellent advice. I totally agree with the go with your gut. Funny how much one little person can change your life! Miss you.
Noelle
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