Making life easier with a new baby

[HollyTheHarrier]

I’m having a baby as a solo mum in a couple of months and want to try to arrange things to make life as easy as possible. I’ve got some time off over Christmas so thinking about what I can do to prepare. It’s my first baby so I don’t really know what to expect so please hit me with your tips! So far I have:

• Get a cleaner
• Make a few weekly meal plans and set up Ocado shopping lists with everything I need so I can just add it all easily
• Declutter

I live in London so space is limited, so most keen for ideas that don’t involve more stuff on top of all the baby requirements but if there’s any real game changing gadgets I would definitely consider! I have a decent income and am prepared to throw money at making life easier to an extent.

Thanks!

Replenish the changing bag once you're home for the day. Then it's ready to go when you next go out.
If you have a boy remove his socks when changing his nappy. They like to pee on their own feet.
Buy gender neutral clothing. They're easier to sell if you're not limiting the market.
Remember babies cry. It's what they do. They don't have any language to tell you what's up. Have a mental checklist. 1. Too hot? 2. Too cold? 3. Hungry? 4. Tired? 5. Poorly?

Night nanny
perfect prep of formula feeding, I had one upstairs and one downstairs
routine ASAP

Perfect prep machine if you’re bottle feeding, as well as a few spare pre made bottles.
Changing mat & supplies upstairs and downstairs.
Baby classes/NCT to get out the house and meet other new parents.
A freezer full of home cooked meals. For meals like chilli, dhal, curry, bolognese etc fill a freezer bag with one or two portions per bag, lie the bag flat and remove the air, then squidge the food out thinly across the whole surface of the bag. The bags can then lie flat in the freezer and take up very little room.
A cleaner and a dishwasher!

If you can afford it, get a mother's help once a week to give you a break. Either with cooking/laundry, but is also good for baby to be cared for by others. Otherwise, your baby may be incredibly attached to you. If you can trust someone early on, it means down the track when they're a bit older, you can go out and have a bit of freedom. They'll also have some helpful knacks with the baby.

Another tip is to try and get out once each day for your own sanity, some fresh air and exercise does a world of good.

You don't need to buy everything before baby is here, with next day delivery anything you need is only a day away.

Good luck x

I agree with everyone saying fill the freezer with food. I would go so far as to buy an extra freezer (depending on how big yours is already I suppose!). I bought an extra medium sized freezer when pregnant on the advice of another new mum and now I can't imagine life without it At the beginning it was full of frozen food for me so less cooking was necessary. Then after a while it was full of frozen breastmilk when I went back to work and was still pumping to feed. Then it was full of frozen purees when we weaned... Then individual portions of spag bol or chicken stew so we could always whip one out for an emergency kid's meal... You get the picture!

Get a cleaner who also tidies, iron (if you prefer this), does laundry/strips beds

Get a water bottle with a spout or straw, just one hand needed. We recently got Yeti bottles at work, love mine. A good coffee cup also one handed and dishwasher friendly.

Batch cook pasta sauces/curries/stews.

Get a decent selection of frozen meals from Cook.

A good waterproof coat and boots, you will walk a lot and a pram and umbrella don't work.

I assume you plan to go back to work, look at local nurseries or consider nannies. We went researching when DD was 6 weeks to get a place when she was 9 months.

Congratulations on your pregnancy.

late pregnancy I made a list of all baby groups locally, split by day of the week they were on. I added the time, address and postcode so when my tired and addled brain needed to leave the house it was all clearly written down and I didn’t have to research and make decisions.

Tumble dryer and a sleepyhead

Another one for your sanity rather than home organisation. If you have good friends and relatives contact them and ask them to be on a rota so you have someone to call who will be available to chat when you are tired and need adult conversation, to ask advice or bounce an idea off, just a someone!

Find yourself a good nursery now and get your name down. They book up quickly.

(After finding an excellent one for our first, we had the names down for our subsequent children before the 12 week scan, and certainly before telling family and other friends!)

Thanks everyone for taking the time to give advice! This is so helpful. I’m in a flat so hopefully won’t need an upstairs and a downstairs version of things as space is a constraint. The freezer bag approach to meals is a good idea as I have always used Tupperware but this takes up so much room in the freezer.
@MrsMoastyToasty what goes into a changing bag? I think I need to make a checklist. Presumably nappies, change of clothes, wipes, bottle if not breastfeeding..? Anything else I’m missing?

As a maternity nurse I'm going to say, wait for it... book a maternity nurse! If you want to breastfeed that's great - she can support you with perfecting your latch, and be the one to wind/change/settle baby during the night between feeds so you can get some rest. Have an idea in your mind about the sort of approach you'd like to take - strict schedule vs baby-led etc, so you can really be on the same page.

You can get healthy frozen/microwavable meal delivery services - definitely go for that!

DO NOT buy ANY babygrows that have poppers. Seriously, zips are the way to go. You really want the ones with 2 zips, so you can choose whether to just open from the bottom for nappy changes.

Don't buy too many of any one thing (feeding bottles, swaddles, formula etc) until you figure out what your baby likes/dislikes. They'll all different!

I like Kit and Kin nappies best. No nappy-rash-causing chemicals, nice and soft and also fabulously absorbent. I'd only use disposable wipes when dealing with a poo. Look into soft bamboo reusable wipes for wiping after a wee. They go in the washing machine and are much better for the planet/your bank account! You would not believe how many disposable wipes you go through if you use them for everything.

Get in touch with your local sling library. Try before you buy!

@HollyTheHarrier for a change bag, don’t be fooled by the fancy bags for sale that are massive and like a shoulder bag, that will always fall off your shoulder when holding a baby!

just use a bog standard rucksack with pockets! So much easier and won’t fall off your shoulder!

in it you will need
nappies
wipes
1-2 changes of clothing
dribble bib
snack for you
milk/bottles for the baby if not breast feeding
muslin cloth
nappy sacks
plastic carrier bag/dry bag (to put clothes in if they are covered in poo/sick etc)

if you choose a rucksack, your purse, phone etc can all go in it in seperated pockets

Loads of great suggestions here. Good luck to you OP.

Definitely a backpack for a changing bag. It's so much more convenient.

Pram gloves- much easier than taking actual gloves on and off.

Changing caddy upstairs and down. Nappies wipes spare clothes nappy bag cream.

Extra long phone charging cable

Insulated mug with lid.

Water bottle.

Snacks you can eat with one hand

Sling.

If bottle feeding a prep machine.

We've recently had our third child and never had the income for anything expensive so just based off the frugal way we do it, the things I'd say that we've most used with all of ours are:

• Pram - one that isn't huge! I don't drive so have always done a lot of walking and frequently got the bus with the pram so I knew I didn't want something massive, heavy and difficult to manoeuvre and fit into places. We have a great Cosatto travel system that is 6.5yrs old and on our third child and still going strong. They do 4 yr warranties as standard.
• Baby sleeping bags. When baby reaches the weight limit these are so handy, find the stay asleep better being transferred to bed if they are already wrapped up snug in it as no temperature chance.
• Tuppence and crumble star wrap - so handy for the pram.
• Smaller, lightweight buggy for when they're an older baby and toddler. Again we have a great Cosatto one!
• Dummy - absolute life saver for us with our first and second child, I'm gutted that so far I can't get the third one to take one!
• If they do have a dummy, buy the glow in the dark ones, so you can find them at night. Then also buy two sleepytot teddies so once they're a bit bigger, say 6m+ you can keep them on that in their bed. Buy two so you can have a spare if it gets dirty which it will (drool, snot, vomit...).

Wireless headphones so you can listen to an audiobook or podcast with one ear. I got some sports ones that were bigger and, in my mind, less of a cooking risk in case the baby managed to grab one.

Babybjorn bouncer chair or a similar dupe. I can rock it with a foot while folding laundry, replying to emails etc.

Second backpack as a changing bag. My favourite one is from IKEA - cheap, light, opens wide and with lots of pockets.

I actually prefer baby suits with poppers but I know I’m an outlier. I babywear a lot and find the zipper between me and baby uncomfortable.

If your baby is prone to poop explosions or has a very sensitive bum you can just give them a quick butt bath in the sink. Will be quicker than trying to wipe everything up.

Parenting advice I’ve found the most useful:

1. Don’t take it personally. Babies cry and get upset. It’s not about you. Being a baby is just tough sometimes.
2. Parent the child you got. Even as tiny babies they differ a lot and what will work and be best for one child might not for another. You might have some parenting approaches and ideas in mind but stay flexible. Observe your child and adjust.

Oh, and I found Dr Ferber’s book on sleep extremely useful. People usually associate his name with “cry it out” and dismiss it, but actually it’s a very thick (over 400 pages) book filled with case studies and covers everything - night weening, how to introduce a plushy, night terrors, how nap schedule affects night sleep etc. Cry it out is just a tiny section and suggested only in specific cases. Whenever I had sleep issues with my first I read the relevant chapters and it would suggest things like adjusting naps, not doing anything because it’s a quickly passing developmental phase, change bed time, increase breastfeeding during the day.

I found this, with their foldable mat inside too, very handy to sort changing stuff when out. Changing pod bag

congratulations!

This is brilliant thank you! And I have a good rucksack with lots of pockets so might not need to buy a new one which is great

Thanks everyone! This is all so helpful. Taking note of everything.

I agree re: the rucksack personally. I loved being able to head out for the day with a baby slung and happy on my front and a backpack on my back with everything I needed. I was very mobile and taking London transport was super easy. And you can sling the rucksack over the buggy handle by the straps if you ever want to as well.

I personally didn’t like a backpack as changing bag but DD hated to be carried.
I had a bag I could clipped on the pram or throw over the shoulder and used it also as a handbag with keys, phone and purse in easy access.
The bag was in use for years, as changing bag, emergency bag in the car later with change of clothes and it then went to 5 years of swimming lessons.