Introduction

Today I’m going to be sharing with you guys 25 newborn child care hacks that every first-time mom should know. I’m currently in the thick of life with 202, and I thought, while it’s still fresh, I would share with you guys some of the different tips and tricks I picked up along the way that made everyday life with a newborn a million times easier.

Now, I have a lot of tips to share as well as some demonstrations to get into, so I’m just going to jump right into it.

Tip number one in child care: changing your newborn’s diaper

• When you are changing your newborn’s diaper, try to use the diaper as the first wipe.
• but it will save you so much money on wipes and save you from having to pull out a million every time you are doing poop diapers.
• especially if you just take the top part of the diaper and use that to wipe down any of the initial stuff.
• There, you would be surprised at how well these things can do to actually just get a cleaner surface before you actually use wipes to finish the job.

The next tip is also diaper-related in child care.

• This is especially helpful for anyone who is expecting a baby boy.
• If you know you’re expecting a baby boy.
• I’m sure that you have already heard that they often pee during diaper changes.
• especially in the newborn stage.
• So, you don’t need anything extra.
• What I would do is just put the new diaper directly under the old diaper and then actually use the top of that for quick cover if I needed it if he started peeing.
• The other thing that I have found especially helpful about putting a new diaper directly under the old one before I start changing it is that it kind of keeps the entire area clean in general.

My next diaper-related tip is to have a diaper change station on each floor.

• I would say to try and have a diaper change station in each section that would be really high traffic for you during the day with a newborn.
• Especially if you end up changing so many diapers during the day.
• and if you only have one spot in your house that you’re constantly having to go back to to grab another diaper and the pack of wipes.
• It just saves you from all of the back and forth, and especially while you are recovering postpartum.

the last thing that you want to be doing

• The last thing that you want to be doing is having to go all the way back upstairs to get diapers and wipes .
• and having to go back down the stairs again to change your baby’s diaper.
• when what you really should be doing is just resting.
• So, I highly recommend having a couple of different diaper changing zones around your house.

My next two tips in child care are belly button-related.

your baby will have a little clip that is attached to the leftover part of the umbilical cord that is still attached to their belly button. And this is not something that you want to remove. You want to just leave it there until it falls off naturally, because that is the safest thing for your baby. Now, what I didn’t expect as a first-time mom was how kind of nasty and hard to work around that clip was when it came to dressing my baby and putting diapers on.

when you are putting a diaper on your baby you can do it

• They still have that belly button clip attached.
• what you want to do is just fold over the top part of the diaper at the waistband to kind of avoid hitting and fully covering that belly button clip.
• By giving it a little bit more space from the diaper.
• you’ll give it a better opportunity to breathe and recover naturally without bumping it and irritating it all the time.

The second thing is

• the type of body suits to dress your baby in.
• At this point, both of my newborns spent most of their days just sleeping.
• But there were times that I did want to get them dressed to go out or something like that.
• and I was typically pulling a bodysuit over their head and then over their belly button.
• and it would kind of tug at the belly button clip.
• And so, I actually had a friend recommend to me using the wrap-over style bodysuits.
• And essentially, these have little clips so that you don’t actually have to pull anything down over your baby’s head.
• you just lay them flat into this, put their arms in.
• and then you can wrap over from the front to clip them in.
• These were so much more comfortable for my newborns.

My next tip in child care is for anyone who plans to breastfeed their baby.

Alright, let’s talk about tummy time in child care.

I want to share with you guys some of the ways that tummy time can be a little bit more tolerable for newborns

especially at first you can do tummy in this way

• One of the ways that I love to do tummy time with my newborns.
• especially when they are so fresh and you’re working on just forming that attachment with them.
•   do tummy time on your own chest.
• Bonus points if you do it skin-to-skin as well.
• I love doing it this way because I find that it’s really easy.
• kind of before or after a feeding.
• to just burp your baby and then lift them up onto your chest.
• This is a really great way that you still give them the opportunity to build that neck and back strength while being really close to you in the newborn stage as well.

Another tummy time tip for newborn child care

• This is another great way to do it because it does just keep your baby very close to you.
• which is exactly where you want them to be in the newborn stage.
• And as you recover, it gives you the opportunity to kind of get things done as well.
• So when you’re ready and you feel like you want to have both of your hands to maybe start folding laundry again or prepping some of your own food.
• I find that this is a really great way to kind of accomplish tummy time while still snuggling my baby as much as I can.

My last tip on tummy time

• Use your breastfeeding pillow.
• if you have one, as a prop for tummy time to make it a little bit more tolerable for your baby as well.
• At some point, I do recommend that you introduce floor time to your baby.
• because this is an opportunity for them to start getting freedom of movement and learning how to use their limbs .
• and all the different pieces of development that help them progress into eventually rolling over both ways and sitting up.

My next tips are all around baby clothing in child care.

Now you’ve probably already heard the tip that you should definitely prioritize getting pajamas or sleepers that have a zipper instead of buttons. So if you haven’t heard that one, I’m throwing it in as a freebie for you. But in the middle of the night, I can just tell you that you are not going to want to try and line all those little buttons up at 3 a.m., let me tell you that. But another tip that you may not have heard is that if you can get footless clothing like footless pajamas or footless pants, I find that it is just way better because your baby is going to be growing out of the clothing at a much slower rate than if you choose to get everything footed.

The next tip on baby clothing is to invest in drawer dividers if you can.

When you first wash all of your newborn’s clothes and you get everything set up and it all looks cute, it’s so exciting and fun. But then you start washing it and your baby starts wearing it, and the amount of times that you have to do laundry and have all these little pieces all over the place, you can use sort drawer divider what are newborn size versus zero to three. And so if you can invest in some sort of drawer divider or organization system for the types of clothing that you have, the accessories that you have, and also the sizes that you have, you will love yourself for it in the postpartum stage.

The next tip is about baby baths.

If you’re a first-time mom, what you might expect around your baby’s first few baths is a very peaceful, relaxing, and enjoyable experience because those are the types of baby bath videos that are uploaded to social media.One of the things that we found very helpful to make the experience a little bit better for our babies was actually taking a washcloth, wetting it with a little bit of warm water, and laying that over them while they were having their baths. They’re typically used to being very snuggled and cozy in the womb, and so being in a bath can be very overwhelming because they don’t have that same sort of support. So by laying the warm washcloth over them, I found that it kind of simulates that same sort of feeling of being really cozy, snuggled, and safe.