My cousin is pregnant! Well..his wife is. I was asked what I thought were necessities, which made me think back on those first weeks. Two things came to mind instantly – a Moby wrap and an exercise ball.
The baby classes the mister and I went to, as well as the intro session during those first days in the hospital, swore by the Moby wrap. Basically said that if it didn’t work for calming a baby, then we were using it wrong. They were right. some days those first weeks/months, it was the only way the baby would sleep for longer than thirty minutes. Granted, we bought a knock off version on Amazon. Then we bought a second one, because we realized that it was useful to have a backup when one needed to be cleaned.
The other tip came from a friend of ours – use an exercise ball to bounce a baby to sleep. We walked and bounced our son without one for a week or two before that tip. It was amazing using the ball, and it definitely worked! Even if we had to bounce just as long as before, it helped us be much less tired. Generally, it worked faster too.
The only other tip I keep giving everybody was one my coworker gave me – buy paper and plastic utensils and dinnerware because you’re not going to want to do dishes. She was right! Ten months later, we’re still using paper and plastic items..though I think it’s more laziness now than anything.
Miuzing 