Tips For Future Parents

Top tips for parents to be

1. Buy twice as many vests and baby grows than the books tell you. Logan has about 25 of each and I can tell you at times it is a life savour. That way you don’t have to do washing everyday and your baby will always have something to change in to when they decide to spit up on them selves.

2. Buy a pack of Muslin cloths. They come in large packs and are usually found with the reusable nappies. I use these to wipe up spit up or milk spillages. They can go in the washing machine and are a lot cheaper than using a wet wipe every time Logan dribbles.

3. Don’t buy too many nappies before your little one is born. There are great offers out there and it can be tempting to stock up but your little one may be the wrong shape for that brand of nappy. Logan used Pampers when we were in hospital but he kept leaking, I changed him to huggies and not a problem since.

4. Buy twice as many thick maternity pads than you think you will need. The guide books, or at least the ones I read told me to get two packs which I did. These lasted roughly three days and you should have seen the look on my husbands face when I asked him to get me some more. Even if you don’t have stitches you will be brused and sore and I found, especially at night that if I doubled them up I could actually get comfortable and there were no little accidents. All in all I went through six packs of the thick pads and two packs of the thin ones.

5. Pack three bags for your hospital stay. You will be surprised how much you need and lugging it all around with you can be a hassle. I packed one bag for labour, one for my hospital stay and one for coming home. When my mum came to visit she took the labour bag home along with anything I didn’t need and bought my going home bag in.

6. Pack lots of drinks and snack bars in your labour and hospital stay bags. Most hospitals will let you eat in early onset labour and I found it reassuring to do something normal. Once you have had your baby and are feeling battered and brused the one thing you are not going to want to do is wander around in the middle of the night trying to find a vending machine because your starving after having fed your baby. Don’t pack anything fizzy though, just water. You fill feel the benefits when you go to the loo.

7. If your baby is due in the winter, while you are pregnant the shops will be filled with irresistible summer clothes that you know will not be practical for the season your baby is born in. I found it hard to prepare in advance as Logan was due in the October until I discovered long sleeved baby vests. A pack of these meant that he could still wear the cute short sleeved outfits that were in the shops and still be warm enough. The added bonus is that his clothes last him that little bit longer, instead of having to put them away as impractical he can now just grow out of them instead.

8. Try and buy babygrows with attached scratch mitts. Logan throws his off with regular inevitability and I lost more than I could count. If they are attached to the babygrow he can’t lose them and if he gets a little warm they just fold back.

9. Take full advantage of your nesting instinct. When your little one arrives time becomes very precious and you don’t want to miss his first smile because you are dusting. Try and get your washing up straight and do all those little jobs that have been bugging you. It will be easier to maintain a tidy house and you won’t cringe when people come over to see you. Enlist the help of friends and family, they won’t mind a bit.

10. Buy a changing box and keep a set of changing gear in the most used areas of the house. Logan sleeps in a moses basket next to our bed so there is a small basket next to our bed for night changes with nappies, wet wipe, nappy bags, nappy cream and a change of clothes in it. As my husband goes to bed early for work I keep a box downstairs with the same in so that we don’t disturb him in the evening. I keep all the bulk of Logans stuff in his nursery and go round and re stock every morning so that I don’t have to run around looking for something.

11. If you are breastfeeding, put a fresh breast pad in on the side you are not feeding from. The stimulation of one breast may trigger the other to leak. Not pleasant and can be uncomfortable.

12. If you are bottle feeding buy a bottle warmer. I take mine upstairs with me when we go to bed so that I don’t have to go downstairs to warm Logan’s feed in the night. That way I can change his nappy and comfit him while I wait for it to warm.