Hey, New Mom!

Essential Care Tips

  1. Feeding
    1. Bottles
    2. Burp cloths, burp cloths, burp cloths!
  2. Sleeping
    1. Mattress
  3. Sleepwear
  4. Sleepwear Transition
    1. Swaddle blanket –> sleepsack swaddle –> sleepsack
      1. Weeks 1 – 3: Swaddle Blanket
      2. Weeks 3 – 6: Swaddle
      3. Weeks 7 – 11: Sleepsack Swaddle
  5. Baby cam
  6. Nursery
  7. Eczema
  8. Cleaning
    1. Moisturizer
      1. Laundry
    2. Travel
  9. Sound
  10. Team Huggies

There are so many things to know about what baby needs. You will get a ton of hand-me-downs like I did. I was thankful and overwhelmed at the same time. Yet, I found that things eventually I needed were somewhere so it helped to have everything organized at least by category before the baby.

Feeding

Like make things baby-related, we tried multiple bottles, figured out what worked for baby and moved on.

Bottles

Burp cloths, burp cloths, burp cloths!

It seems you can never have enough burp cloths!

Sleeping

Mattress

Sleepwear

We got so lucky with a baby that slept well! Even still, we tried all different kinds of swaddles and sleep sacks because babies have preferences like all humans.

Things I googled about swaddles:

  • What does swaddling mean?
    Swaddling refers to the practice of wrapping a baby snugly in a blanket or cloth, with their arms and legs securely contained. This technique can help calm babies and promote better sleep by preventing sudden movements that might startle them awake.
  • How to transition out of swaddle?
    Transitioning out of swaddling is a gradual process. You can start by swaddling with one arm out, allowing your baby to gradually adjust to more freedom of movement. Over time, you can transition to both arms out or move to a sleep sack, which provides the cozy feeling of being swaddled while allowing more mobility. (Source: Halo.com)
  • What is TOG?
    TOG (Thermal Overall Grade) is a way to measure the warmth of baby sleepwear like sleep sacks, wearable blankets, and swaddles. It tells you how well a material traps heat to keep your baby cozy. The higher the TOG rating, the warmer the sleepwear—making it perfect for colder nights. Lower TOG ratings are better for warmer temperatures. Keep an eye on the room temperature and adjust the TOG as needed to keep your baby comfortable.

Sleepwear Transition

Swaddle blanket –> sleepsack swaddle –> sleepsack

Weeks 1 – 3: Swaddle Blanket

We used these nice and soft swaddles as soon we got home from the hospital. I like that you can eventually use these for other things like as a burp cloth. We use these as blankets in the bassinet for when we go out.

Weeks 3 – 6: Swaddle

Our baby had kicked a lot in the womb and those same kicks undid the swaddle several times. We had to use another swaddle we were gifted.

Weeks 7 – 11: Sleepsack Swaddle

Our baby was born big and so he quickly grew in weight and height by 2 months. We love the microfleece HALO Micro-Fleece Sleepsack Swaddle, TOG 3.0 because of the quality and that it is both sleepsack and swaddle.

He quickly outgrew the 0-3 months, which is the last version with the swaddle. I guess they assume young babies do not get that big.

Available sizes for Halo are:

  • Preemie, Newborn,
  • 0-3 months (with swaddle)
  • 3-6 months (no swaddle)
  • Small, Small/Medium, Large

I was on the hunt for a new sleepsack swaddle similar to the Halo. I found a sleepsack swaddle for 6 – 12 month olds. Many reviewers with large babies used it after their baby outgrew the Halo.

At 6 months, we transitioned Evan to sleep sacks with feet because he would constantly kick out of the swaddles. He’s still wearing these at 14 months old so it was a great buy for us:

Baby cam

  • We use the Nanit, which offers a wall mount or floor stand:
    • Nanit Pro Smart Baby Monitor + wall mount
    • Nanit Pro Smart Baby Monitor + floor stand
    • Pros: it has great picture quality, 4 different sounds like white noise that we use daily, and great for both parents to access from our phones even while traveling. It logs the time the baby sleep, any crying, temperature, and humidity
    • Cons: it detects sounds and movement a little too well and inaccurately logs my baby’s activities often. For example, it might show that Evan woke up multiple times throughout the night based on his occasional twists and turns. It might also detect the wind and log that a “caretaker attended” to him, which isn’t true. It’s not a huge issue because I use it for his sleep and wake up times, which is when we put him in and out of the crib.Really Nanit? We did not go into his room, and definitely not this many times! Maybe it’s best to keep the crib/camera further away from the window.

Nursery

Eczema

See post. I am keeping a running list of products we’ve tried and used. Nothing has been working yet, so we will have to go see a dermatologist and/or allergist soon.

Cleaning

We wash baby’s face, hands, and neck (smells like cheese!) every day to moisturize him. Here are the items I used almost every day until 6-8 months:

Moisturizer

We had used so many different types of moisturizers due to Evan’s eczema, which we are realizing now was just dry skin. We still use tubs of Aquaphor even now at 14 months:

Laundry

Travel

As Evan was getting bigger, we needed an option to be able to carry him but also have free hands to carry his diaper bag and food. We bought these:

Formula carriers

Sound

For church every Sunday, we use this noise cancelling Baby Headphones for Ages 0-36 Months to protect his hearing when the drums are playing. It was much easier to use once he had head control.

Team Huggies