Preparing for baby tips

Before Baby:

Great books: (read now, you will not have time or energy later)

-Baby Bargains: Secrets to Saving 20% to 50% on baby furniture, gear, clothes, toys, maternity wear and much, much more!

-Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers

After you have your little one listening to books while nursing can work. I do it while commuting.

Websites:

-BabyCenter- I signed up myself and my mom so we could both read about the baby's development in me and after birth. My mom would ask how my "grapefruit" was that week or what're fruit they used to describe his size. The emails after birth are great too. Lots or mommy questions answered on those emails!

-babysteals.com. All baby stuff and great deals. I got silicone covers for my glass bottles and teething necklaces recently. Like them on facebook and their steals pop up on your newsfeed

-Zulili.com- i get their daily emails. Baby, toddler and mommy stuff daily. I got my favorite nursing tanks (glamourmom) on there and cute baby cloths you don't see at every store. Every few months a cloth diaper pips up on there too.

Breastfeeding - if you plan on breastfeeding I highly recommend finding a lactation consultant now while you don't need it and aren't sleep deprived. Then you'll have a # of someone you like just in case you need them. I only needed their email and phone services afterward and that was free with mine.

Buying Stuff:

Things to buy new: (because they are big baby killers)

-carseat-they expire

-crib

Toys/gear:

-they truly need so little and may be picky. Hand-me-downs are great.

-bouncy/vibrating seat will allow you to shower and pee...lol

-glider-great for nursing!

-baby carrier (sling, moby, ergo, bjorn...) will help around the house when dad isn't there

-play mat is fun too. Ryder now likes the mirror on it. He flirts with himself

After 38 weeks (if you aren't dialated) I have a paper of helpful ways to get there. I was 4 cm w/o a single contraction. Definitely nice not to have to labor through that part

Hospital:

-bring your nursing bras. That have lanolin and stuff there if you need it

-try the breast pump there. Use the lactation consultant's knowledge..it's free there. And they will give you all the tubing you can use later at home to pump. $40 or so worth of stuff

Wash the baby cloths and cloth toys in 1load = 1 cup vinegar. It cleans off residual dye and perfumes from processing. And the cloth does not smell of vinegar when you are done.



After Baby Arrives:

-Cloths-baby pj's with a zipper/snaps down 1 leg are torture at 3 am with a screaming baby.

-Diaper bag-do not do a black inside. Things disappear. A waterproof/ wipeable outside is great. You end up putting that thing on so many surfaces, wet counter tops...
-Sox-put on 1 size bigger than the cloths size so they don't fall off

Find ways ti get out of the house. Start with a walk around the block. Eventually you feel comfortable doing more and more. Look up "diaper date nights" in your area. Great way to see a movie.