Before the birth of our daughter Harper, Kyle and I would talk about what our life with a child would be like. Quotes like "we're still going to see our friends" or "we're not going to let this baby change the pace of our lives" were regularly thrown around the dinner table when entertaining. Kyle would explain our approach to the preparations for baby as "cave man style", people have been doing this forever, is it really that hard? As the due date approached we remained calm and relaxed and truly didn't believe our lives would change dramatically, we were so wrong.
On April 9th, 2013 at 2:36AM Harper Emma Gibbons was born and life as we knew it changed forever. The first week as a new parent was tough and on several occasions I honestly questioned my ability as a mother. I continuously cursed myself for thinking it was going to be so easy and wondered more than once how the human race had kept reproducing. How could our sweet baby girl produce SO many dirty diapers!! I was so unprepared, but we made it through the first week and many more after that and life with a baby, although different than we imagined, is turning out to be pretty great. So for my first post I thought it appropriate to start with my 'essentials list' which contains items I simply couldn't live without. I hope this helps other new mums survive their first weeks and would love to hear from anyone who would have additions to this list.
Enjoy!
Alex's essentials List:
1. Munchkin changing table liners: Within the first 5 minutes of bringing Harper home from the hospital we had to change her diaper. I had paid a lot of money for the cutest changing pad cover and was so excited to finally get to use it! Exactly five seconds after I opened her diaper an explosion of gigantic proportions happened and there went my nice clean changing pad. These changing pad liners saved our lives and I am never without them.
2. Diapers, wipes and Desitin diaper rash cream: You will need loads! I had no idea we could easily go through 100 diapers a week. We use Pampers Swaddlers because I found the coverage better than huggies but I know many mums who use Huggies too.
3. Boppy pillow and lounger: The pillow was fantastic for holding Harper in the beginning and I even brought it to the hospital with me which was a savior. The lounger was even more amazing, Harper slept in this all the time and loved it.
4. Aden and Anais swaddling blankets: These blankets are fabulous and we use them all the time. In Bermuda they can be found at Luxury Gifts Bermuda, I have about 12 of them and could probably use more because they are so useful!
5. Formula: We all go into pregnancy aspiring to be pro's at breastfeeding but truth be told it's not easy, in fact it's downright difficult and having formula around just in case is an absolute must have.
6. Medela Pump: I cannot emphasize enough how essential this is. As I mentioned above, we all truly believe that we'll breastfeed but in case it's not as easy as you wish a double electric pump will save you life.
7. Milton tablets: The milton tablets are amazing and disinfect everything and anything, not to mention they use it in the hospital. There's no need to rinse either which makes life easier.
8. Onsies: I think we went through about 10 a day for the first few weeks, babies are messy!
9. Purex laundry detergent and Oxyclean: Did you know that baby poo stains? Well, I didn't but I did discover that Oxyclean is great at getting the stains out of all of those onsies and the Purex laundry detergent is gentle on babies clothes and skin.
10. Pacifiers: Harper wasn't a huge fan of pacifiers but I included them on my list because there were times when she would use it to blissfully fall asleep and so I will always have them on hand just in case! We use these BPA free Avent pacifiers.
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