31 Days-Feeding Time with a Newborn

You knew it was coming, right?  I had a baby girl 6 days ago so at least one of these 31 Day posts just had to be baby related.  I kind of have baby on the brain (and arm, quite a bit of the time) right now.

I breastfed my older two and am bottlefeeding this one.  I wavered a lot about bottlefeeding her, but it turned out to be an easy decision as she's tongue tied and wouldn't have been able to nurse well anyways.  However, the same basic tool has made each individual experience much easier.

My mom gave me this awesome Munchkin diaper organizer when I had Little Man.  With Princess I used a cardboard box to do the same thing, but it was harder to carry and organize.  The Munchkin diaper organizer is waaaay better than a cardboard box and much cuter!

Munchkin Portable Diaper Caddy (Colors May Vary)

I stock mine with everything I will need for feeding and changing baby.  When I was breastfeeding, that included a bottle of water, snacks, a book to read (because my babies took forever to finish eating), diapers, wipes, changing pad, diaper rash cream, nursing pads, and burp cloths.  Everything I needed was right there and the box/diaper organizer could be easily moved to wherever I was nursing.  No more sitting down to nurse a hungry baby and realizing that if I didn't have a drink of water I was literally going to turn into dust in the next few minutes!  (If you've ever breastfed, you know that feeling!)

Even though I'm bottlefeeding now, my list is pretty similar.  I have diapers, wipes, burp cloths, diaper rash cream, and a changing pad in the organizer during the day.  At night, I load it up with bottles pre-measured with water and a travel formula dispenser (shown below) so I can do everything right from my bed.

Munchkin Powdered Formula Dispenser, Colors May Vary

Diaper organizer loaded up and ready to go!

A box of wipes fits perfectly inside the main pocket.

Do you have any tips for surviving the early days with a newborn?


Want to see a complete list of the posts in the 31 Days to Simplify Your Life series?  Click here.



Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  Please take a moment to "like" me on facebook"

Someone's Going to be a Big Sister!

It's been 8 weeks since I found out. Hubby didn't want to tell anybody, so I decided to abide by his wishes. But now it's time to let the cat out of the bag. Baby #2 is on its way! I'm 12 weeks pregnant now and everything has gone well. I got to hear the baby's (strong and easy to find!) heartbeat at 10 1/2 weeks. We had a little scare around 6 weeks when I had three days of small amounts of bleeding, but that stopped, and then the morning sickness kicked in to reassure me that I was indeed, pregnant. Unlike my last pregnancy, when I craved potatoes in any shape or form, this time I'm craving cheese. Which has done wonders for my pregnant digestive system. Have I mentioned I hate chugging Metamucil?

My due date is April 27th although I know from experience (Princess was 2 weeks late and had to be induced) that a due date doesn't mean much. My sister, the one with a son 6 weeks older than Princess, is also expecting a baby in April. Hers is due two weeks before mine. So, if she goes a week late and I go a week early, we could save the relatives a trip to the hospital and kill two birds with one stone. But I know better than to count on that happening.

I'm nervous about adding a second child. I'm looking forward to having a baby again and am more confident this time because I know a lot of little tricks that make taking care of a newborn easier, or at least bearable. Of course, there is always the chance that everything that worked with Princess will irritate this baby immensely. What I'm nervous about though, is taking care of a toddler and a newborn. Especially since the toddler is very possessive of me and her toys. If I hold another child, she has a meltdown and tries to push them off my lap. Because Princess adores babies so much and is such a good little mother to her dolls, I think she'll love her baby brother or sister unless I'm holding him or her. Which could be a problem because newborns require a lot of holding. This time, I have a sling I plan to use which should help at least some, especially since I will breastfeed this one as well.

When I was pregnant with Princess, I didn't really start to show until I was over halfway done with my pregnancy. This time, I was wearing maternity clothes by 10 weeks. The fact that I'm a little pudgy around the middle and am wearing maternity clothes has made it a little harder to keep the pregnancy a secret. I thought I'd kept it a secret from most of my coworkers at the bed and breakfast, but apparently they had it figured out anyway.

My doctor told me that it's normal to show sooner with the second baby because your stomach muscles are already relaxed from the first pregnancy. No offense, doc, but that one was kind of obvious. Even though I lost all the baby weight and then some, my stomach never quite looked the same as before pregnancy. And by the way, although I was pleasantly surprised at the way the weight just kind of disappeared after having Princess, I hold out no such hopes for this one. If it does happen, great! But if it doesn't, I understand that it can be much harder to lose the weight the second time around.

Just a note to the person who left a comment on my last post about the pacifier saga-I will try to blog about how I got Princess to eat and stopped stressing myself out about her weight. However, just in case I don't get to it, leave another comment with an email address or something and I'll definitely talk to you about what's going on with your child. That way I could answer your direct questions better instead of just writing broadly about the subject. I know how rough it can be and I know it realllllllly helps to talk to someone who's been there.

Do I Really Want Another?

My daughter, Princess, is now 16 months old and 20 pounds.  She was born a small 6 pounds 14 ounces after being almost 2 weeks late. Personally, I think the doctor didn't know how to use the birth calendar right because a 2 week late baby is generally more than 6 pounds 14 ounces. But I digress. She was a good baby. No colic and pretty easy to please as long as she had plenty to look at. She was incredibly alert from birth and stared at everything with huge brown eyes. At a few weeks of age, she could already hold her head up and she could sit with very little support at a few months.

As cute as a newborn baby is, I would gladly skip the first few months in a baby's life and head straight for the precocious 3 month old. At that age, they interact more, are starting to get on a schedule, eat less often than every 87 minutes, and don't cry as much simply for the fact that they are better able to entertain themselves. Although, I've been told by numerous resentful mothers that I better not complain seeing how my daughter slept through the night at the ripe old age of 5 weeks. I will go through the uncertain, insane newborn stage again if it means that I get to have another child. Maybe next time, it will be easier because I've been through it before. Wait a second, I have to give myself a reality check......................okay, done. Let me rephrase that. Maybe next time, it will be just as hard or harder because I will be caring for a toddler and a newborn without the added benefit of sleeping when the baby does and not getting off the couch for anything except to go to the bathroom or refill the enormous water bottle so necessary to a breastfeeding mother. Oh yes, and everything I learned about caring for a newborn will be obsolete because each child is so vastly different that everything that worked on my firstborn will probably irritate my second child to no end.

I can't wait to have another baby.

Unsolicited Advice:
When shopping or traveling with your child, write your cell phone number on a slip of paper and pin it to your child's shirt. This way if he or she runs off and gets lost, you can be reached. Oh, and make sure you have your cell phone with you, charged, and turned on if you're going to do this.