8 Newborn Tips Every New Mom Should Know!
Top Sanity-Saving Newborn Tips
Today, I want to share with you some newborn tips, whether you’re a new mom or veteran.
The newborn phase is such a crazy time, it can be easy to feel like you’re in over your head. To help you through this crazy time, I want to share seven of my top tips for the newborn phase.
I remember when my toddler was just a newborn. It was easy to feel overwhelmed by the constant flow of random advice from anyone and everyone.
What advice was I supposed to actually listen to? What advice should I ignore?
Learning what advice to take and what advice to ignore quickly becomes an art for moms, especially when it’s your first baby.
Thankfully, you can rely on these solid tips from a mom who’s been there.
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New baby rules signs to keep visitors from getting your baby sick!
1. Prepare Ahead of Time
Taking the initiative to educate yourself to be confidently prepared for the newborn phase has never been easier, and I’ll explain how you can do so in just a second.
Being well-informed ahead of time could be a crucial factor to how well you recover and enjoy the first few weeks with your baby.
Because let’s face it, newborns can be scary!
Now let’s talk about how you can remove those fears and go from clueless to confident with the help of Newborn Basics. An online course covering everything the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends when caring for your newborn.
Expect to receive detailed information and step-by-step guides plus tips and takeaways from a fellow mom and labor nurse.
Follow this link to peek at the course details for yourself and use the code LOVEOURLITTLES for 10% off when you’re ready to enroll!
See also: Last Minute Things to do Before Baby Arrives (with free checklists)
2. Sleep When Baby Sleeps
One of the biggest tips everyone tells new moms is to sleep when the baby sleeps.
This is great advice, as long as you actually do need and want sleep.
By all means, try to rest as much as you can. After all, it takes a lot of time and energy to fully heal from birth, regardless of how you give birth.
Does that mean you have to sleep every single time the baby falls asleep? Not necessarily.
Maybe you’re just not sleepy enough to take a nap at a given moment. Or maybe it really is bothering you that the house desperately needs to be tidied up.
Let me give you some better advice: when the baby sleeps, do something for yourself.
Maybe you want to read a few chapters of a book, or wash up the dishes. Maybe you do want to lay down and take a nap.
Whatever it is, make sure it’s something for you. You don’t have to sleep at every single opportunity, and it’s totally okay if that is what you want.
The point is, nap times are for you. Do something that makes you feel better.
Newborn Mom Tip: Whatever you do choose to do while the baby sleeps, do be sure to not overexert yourself. Remember that your body is healing, and needs you to take it easy.
3. Get Into A Routine
I know, it can be hard with a newborn, but it’s one of my biggest tips for new moms. Routines are so important for both baby and mom. Not a schedule, a routine.
Schedules are time oriented, routines are not.
Getting into a daily routine with your baby can make your day so much easier. It will provide predictability and security for you and your baby.
Plus, it will help your baby to recognize when it is time to sleep, and ultimately help your baby to sleep through the night sooner.
Not sure where to start? You can hop on over to my blog and check out the routine I had as a SAHM with a baby.
You can also use a daily habit tracker for baby, like this freebie I offer. This will help you track and log baby’s daily dirty diapers, sleeping and eating schedule and more!
4. Take the Stress and Guess out of Baby Feeding
Do you feel prepared for the challenges that may come with breastfeeding?
It’s easy to overlook the importance of knowing how to feed your baby.
After all, shouldn’t it all come naturally and be effortless? – Um, no. At least, that’s not what over 50% of new mom’s experience when it comes to breastfeeding.
And this is where The Ultimate Breastfeeding Class by Milkology comes in.
This is an online resource that teaches moms how to breastfeed by showing them with video and engaging graphics.
The teacher is even a very experienced lactation consultant who has helped thousands of moms through her online breastfeeding courses.
I see dozens of women per week sign up and they are so glad they did! To grab yourself a risk-free seat for less than a few cups of coffee, visit this link.
On the flip side, sometimes breastfeeding looks a little different than nursing and for a lot of moms, breastfeeding is bottle nursing or exclusive pumping.
Along with preparing to breastfeed, take the advantage of Milkology’s up-sell 20% off discount to put towards a second Milkology.
I would recommend one of these pumping coursers to make sure you are well-rounded in your baby feeding knowledge:
P.S. As an added layer of preparation, after you have enrolled in any of these courses via the links provided, I will give you FREE access to my Pumping Pro Course. Just contact me with a screenshot!
5. Don’t Feel Guilty About Putting the Baby Down
One of the things I remember feeling conflicted over as a new mom was putting the baby down.
On one hand, everyone kept telling me to sleep when the baby slept. But in the same sentence they would also tell me to hold him as much as possible. After all, they grow up so fast and you don’t want to miss a minute of it.
Which of these newborn tips was I supposed to follow? Hold him all day or put him down so I could sleep?
Here’s what I eventually settled on, after way too much stress trying to figure out the balance. If he was awake, I would hold him. Once he fell asleep, I would typically lay him down in his pack n’ play to sleep.
Then I had the freedom to sleep or do something else I wanted to do until he woke up. And sometimes what I wanted to do was to sit and hold him for a bit.
That was completely fine too!
The point is, don’t feel bad if you want to set the baby down for a bit.
Must Read: Rules for Visiting a New Baby and Free Hospital Door Signs
6. Listen to Your Gut
Seriously. Listen to your instincts.
But what if you feel like you don’t have any maternal instincts kicking in like everyone said they would?
First, don’t freak out about it. I felt the same way right after I had my son. I probably had the least maternal instinct of any mother in history (or so I thought). Truth is, you have mom instincts, even if you are positive that you don’t.
Trust me. If something bad happens to your child, even it turns out to not be serious, those instincts will kick in when you need them. When someone gives you lousy newborn tips or parenting advice, it will tickle the back of your mind telling you something’s fishy.
The thing is, your instincts aren’t always as “in your face” as people lead you to believe. So listen for it, and follow it.
Must Read: How to get Hundreds of Dollars in Free Baby Stuff (No, for Real!)
7. Change Diapers Quickly
I can’t even count the number of times my son peed everywhere in the middle of the night while I was trying to change his diaper.
Let me tell you, it does not take much for a newborn to pee.
I know, this tip is kind of just funny and less serious, but out of all the articles I read and research I did pre-baby, not one person warned me about this one.
Consider yourself warned.
Must Read: Baby Prefers Bottle to Breast: How to Reintroduce Breastfeeding
8. You’re Doing Better than You Think You Are
Okay, this is less of a tip and more of an affirmation.
Because you need it, and you deserve it.
Being a mom is hard–especially during the newborn stage.
And during this stage, it’s so easy to feel overwhelmed with the constant advice and commentary on your baby. And when it doesn’t seem like things are going real well, it’s easy to take it out on yourself.
Don’t. You are doing way better than you think you are.
And you are rocking it
