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You have had your baby. Now the real fun begins! Bringing your baby home from the hospital is a big event. Your life will never be the same again. Hopefully, you have prepared for the baby’s arrival during your pregnancy. Now is the big day. What kinds of things can you do to make your transition go more smoothly?

Get as much sleep as you can. This means take a nap when the baby naps. Don’t try to catch up on housework, paying bills or doing the laundry. In order to take care of baby the way she deserves, you will need to feel as rested as possible.

If you cannot stand a slightly messy house, you have two choices. You can either hire a housekeeper or get used to things not being perfectly cleaned like they were before baby. It is extremely tempting to try and do all of your chores when the baby is asleep. If you find yourself doing this, please remember that you need to sleep as much as you can. Your main purpose in life at this moment is to care for your newborn.

Have plenty of diapers on hand. If you are using a cloth diaper service, make sure they have delivered the first order before you come home. It is always a good idea to have some disposable diapers on hand even if you are using cloth diapers. If you are using disposable diapers, make sure you have plenty on hand – three or four bags at least – because babies go through a lot of diapers when they are tiny.

If you are nursing, your milk may not have come in enough to completely feed the baby the first two or three days. Your baby will still be hungry. Having a little formula on hand will save you and your baby from being frustrated at her not being able to get enough to eat. (Do nurse her each time she is hungry, but supplement with a little formula until your milk is established.)

During the night, in order to increase the amount of sleep you get, it is easy to bring the baby into your bed to nurse. Some families with sleep with the baby in the parents’ bed, others are not comfortable with this. If this is the case for you, purchasing a small crib or basinette and letting the baby sleep right next to you will make night nursing easier. Just reach over and bring the baby into your bed. When you are finished, put the baby back in his basinette.

Safety is a concern for a new parent. A dect baby monitor will allow parents to hear what the baby is doing in her room. You can listen to the baby sleeping and easily hear her when she cries. Safety in the water is also a huge concern. Buying a baby bath makes certain that the baby is safe in while you are giving her a bath. It also saves your back from the strain of bending over the big bathtub. Never leave your baby unattended when you bathe her… Even if you are using a small bathtub.

Most of all, when you bring your new baby home, enjoy him or her. It will not be too long until your baby is grown and having babies of his or her own.

melkay Current Events baby, baby formula, diapers, household chores, milk, newborn, nursing, sleep

Being a mother can be the most rewarding and scariest thing in the world. The day you have your baby the worrying will begin. If you think you were worried about your baby while you were pregnant you will soon learn that was nothing compared to the stress you will now feel.

It is our responsibility as mothers to keep our sweet baby happy and safe. Worrying over your baby is normal and just because they get older does not mean it will stop. Just try to remember that your child has to live their own life and learn things by themselves but there are times they will need your help to learn. When your baby first learns to walk or crawl and you have home space heaters in your house, this is definitely a time that you have to help them learn.

This is a great example of a time to teach them. There are things that will be alright for your baby to learn on their own but if the lesson will cause them harm it is the mothers job to stop it. Some people like to say that if they hurt themselves doing something then they wont do it anymore. I believe this is a horrible way to let your child learn something. It is not necessary to let your child come to harm so they can learn something.

We buy the tear free baby bath and shampoo to keep from hurting their eyes, so why would we want them to hurt over anything else? If you do use space heaters in your home, it is important to put them some where that the baby can not get to them. Our babies grow up so fast that when we are boxing up the little girl clothes or the baby boy bedding we often wonder where the time went.

It is important to be with your baby as much as you can. You don’t want to miss out on anything because before you know it they will be using big kid underwear and sleeping in a big kid bed. This is not to say that you should not get a babysitter occasionally. Mothers need breaks and that is alright so never feel bad about hiring a sitter for your baby.

Do you call your sitter every thirty minutes checking on the baby? It is alright to do so. You will be worried about your baby and it is fine to call for reassurance if you need it. You have to teach your child things and you also have to teach yourself how to have fine even when you are worried.

Mothers worry that is just what they do. It is important to learn how to put it to the back of your mind and do not dwell over it. Your baby will grow up and have babies one day and then you will see how good a job you did raising and teaching your child even through all the worrying.

melkay Current Events baby, baby bath, home space heaters, shampoo, sitter

The further into a pregnancy the more often the question comes up: Is it a boy or a girl? Sometimes, people ask out of mere curiosity, other times it is because they are trying to select a gift. It is not always possible to find out, and some people do not want to find out the sex of their baby.

When you choose things for your baby that are gender neutral you will actually be ensuring that you get the maximum possible use out of them. If you are thinking you may want a larger family this is especially true. A convertible crib natural is far easier to use with more than one child than a crib with dinosaurs on it. You want something that can be used multiple times.

Light browns and other earth tones can be very sweet for a baby nursery. By carefully selecting neutral colors your designer baby bedding you can make sure that it is worth every cent you pay for it. These are usually high quality and can survive baby after baby, but not if they are pink with lace.

It is easy to go overboard on the pink or blue for a new baby. While the shopping can be fun, the end result should never be a room that looks like it is being lit with a blue light. A room that looks like a bottle of allergy medication exploded is also not desirable. The baby’s room should not be nauseating.

The convertible crib is easily accented with other things. You can always tack on some bows, or attach some buttons to make it cuter. The biggest difference is that in the end, these things can be easily changed or eliminated. It is not so easy when the whole crib is gender specific.

Having kids is not an inexpensive thing. Buy gender specific items makes it far more expensive. Pink blankets, cribs, car seats, and other necessities are not likely to be reused if the next baby is a boy. A blue highchair with red racing cars painted could be used with a little girl, but chances are that a new pink highchair will be bought instead. By keeping it neutral you can save yourself a lot of headache.

If you have twins, one boy and one girl, this approach makes even more sense. They will likely share many items, and as they become more vocal you do not want to have to listen to fights over which booster seat belongs to whom. Taking the more practical approach will mean you can have a little more peace and quiet later on.

melkay Current Events baby, bedding, lasting, neutral