We all find ourselves looking for ways to make our lives a little bit easier. When you’re a new parent, suddenly your time is being divided even more by the tiny human in your life. So, when you find something that makes your life easier that victory can make you feel like a superhero. These are a few of the things I’ve discovered in the first year of caring for my tiny human.
Baby Wearing
I survived those days when my son wanted to be held all the time because of baby wearing. My husband always called it kangarooing the baby, which I felt I was appropriate. If I needed to get anything done, baby wanted to take a contact nap, or even just for skin to skin I could get him into the carrier, and it would free up my arms. During the pandemic baby wearing was also an easy way to deter other from touching him or asking to hold him without me having to be the “bad guy”. When he was still little I loved the Boppy Baby Carrier I found this to be a good mix between the cloth wraps and the more structured baby carriers. Now that he is bigger I like to use my Contours Journey 5 in 1 which is more structured than the Boppy one. Both work great and there is no need for both; we were just lucky to be gifted both for our baby shower and that is how I ended up using them.
Batching foods and freezing them
This one works on so many levels. Making soup? Double it up and freeze half, now you have a quick dinner on hand for another night when you don’t feel like cooking. Cookie dough freezes great and make having fresh cookies so much easier. Mornings can be hectic and having a few things in the freezer that just need to be warmed up can make them easier.
Freezing cooking dough
As far as I know everyone loves freshly made cookies. I call this one a mom hack, but since my son is only one and not really eating sugar, this is more a mom hack for mom. Early on in my breastfeeding journey I got stuck on the lactation cookie train. Do lactation cookies work? I don’t know, but it did give me a great excuse to eat cookies almost daily. Now I don’t know about you, but when I make a batch of cookies a few things happen. First, about halfway through cooking them I want to just stop. A few trays in and I have a mountain of cookies next to me, and my husband doesn’t really have a sweet tooth. The second, is that they start to go stale a few days after baking and then I don’t want to eat them anymore.
So, I started mixing up a batch of cookies, baking off a tray or two and then balling up and freezing the rest. Now whenever I want a cookie, I just pop a few on a tray to defrost a little while pre-heating and then pop them in the over. Boom… fresh baked cookies on demand.
Homemade frozen waffles
One of my sons’ favorite foods has been waffles with peanut butter. Now I have nothing against Eggos or other frozen waffles, but I love the taste of homemade waffles. I thought to myself, why can’t I just make my own? Well, turns out you can freeze homemade waffles and they toast up just the same! So now every few weeks I spend a weekend morning making a big breakfast for my family and then I freeze all the leftover waffles and I can just pop one into the toaster whenever I need a quick meal or snack for him. My favorite waffle maker is this Dash Waffle Stick maker. Perfect for baby led weaning and makes great waffles. If there is interest I can provide my waffle recipe
I’ve seen other moms who have pre-prepped breakfast sandwiches that only need to be warmed up as well. I haven’t tried that version of this hack yet since my son isn’t really eating foods like that yet. Maybe that will make my next mom hacks list though!
Packing the diaper bag
This one may not be considered a hack for everyone. Some moms may think something like this is obvious. However, this was not something I did at first, but it is something that I have tried to put into our routine. Keep the diaper bag stocked at all times! I never put the diaper bag away without restocking the items I used. That way it is always ready to go and I don’t have to worry about packing the bag before I leave when I am usually in more of a rush.
Keep it simple
You don’t need to bring the whole nursery with you wherever you go, but there are a few things I consider essential to keep in your diaper bag. 1. An extra outfit for baby and an outfit or neutral top for me. My son had reflux really bad for awhile so undoubtedly we would end up soaked and need a fresh outfit at some point. I try and make sure it is not one of my favorite outfits because one time one of my favorite newborn outfits ended up staying in the bag until he grew out of it 2. Snacks for baby and parents, as a breastfeeding mom hunger can strike at any moment, so I always keep a few snacks and a water bottle in the bag for me. Now that my son is eating solids, we also keep a few snacks for him. 3. Some diapers and wipes. I just make sure I have 1-2 more than I would normally need in the amount of time I am going to be out of the house. And 4. Sunscreen, we live in Texas and it can get sunny and hot we always keep sunscreen in the diaper bag that way we never have to worry about forgetting it.
Using the sun to remove stains
This is probably my most used hack in the first 6 months. The sun will take all those food and poop stains out of clothes. We’ve all had a blowout diaper that ruined one of our favorite outfits. Even if it wasn’t a favorite, a bad blowout can ruin an outfit forever. Anytime we had a blowout I would take the outfit rinse it out with some water, and then place is on my back patio to sit in the sun, it didn’t even need to be a sunny day. By the end of the day the spot would be completely gone and then I’d toss it in the regular laundry. This hack is simple but effective, just make sure you don’t leave it is the sun too long, because it will eventually fade the whole outfit.
Overly fussy baby? Try a change of scenery
Sometimes no matter what you try your little one is just grumpy. All their basic needs have been met, they aren’t sleepy, hungry, gassy, or teething but they are still fussy. Whenever my son was really fussy and did not seem to want anything. The only thing that worked every time was to change the scenery.
Go outside
I don’t know if this is true, but my grandma swears that all babies love fresh air. A walk around the block for my son cured most of his fussy days, and sometimes even calmed enough for a nap. I work from home and care for my son so after the end of maternity leave a walk was not always an option. Most of the time thought a quick trip to the backyard where I could sit or walk on the patio, and he would instantly usually calm down.
Give them a bath
Another trick is to stick that baby in the bathtub. If your baby is like mine, he loves bath time. Some nights especially when he is teething, and long bath is the only cure. It’s almost like we’re washing away the fussiness. I call it the baby reset button. I think it also extra helps that my husband is the one who does the bath. This gives him an extra change and gives him extra time to bond and play with daddy.
Keep an emergencies bag in the car
This one kind of goes along with the diaper bag one but let’s say you already went through you back up items in the diaper bag or you thought you packed it but didn’t. Keeping a small bag in my trunk with a few extra diapers and a pack of travel wipes has saved me on a few outings where we ended up staying out much longer than I had prepared for. For now, I just have a reusable grocery bag with those items plus a back up outfit for baby. As he gets older and we get into the potty-training stage I am sure the car emergency bag will get upgraded, but for now it has served me well as is.
Toy rotating
This is a very Montessori mom kind of thing, but even if you are not practicing Montessori (I’m not) this is something that really works well to keep your kids interested in their toys. I have his toys divided into 3 categories 1. for playing with in his playpen/out living room, 2. toys for playing with in his bedroom, and 3. toys that are stored in his closet. I try to mix up what he had available in each of his play areas. A toy does not always go from a play are to storage sometimes I simply move it from one play area to the other. There are also a few “toys” that he always has out, for example, he loves to play with our rubber coasters which obviously stay out in our living room all the time. I also like to keep a lot of his stuffies out in his bedroom to play with. The rest I like to put out and put away somewhat randomly so that he stays interested in the toys available to him. This also allows me to “limit” which toys are out and how many to keep some sort of semblance of a clean house.
These may not all be hacks for some, but they are things that worked for us and me feel like I had somehow made my life easier. Entering year two I am sure we will discover more hacks and more ways to make parenthood easier. If there was something you used to make life easier and want to share comment on this post!