New Mom Tips {Guest Post}

Hey all!  My name is Jess (yep, most popular name EVER for girls born in the 1980s) and I blog over at Being Mrs. Beer.  I write about my every day – my married life, my baby girl Abbie, and my life in the DC area.  Since one of my favorite things to write about is motherhood, I thought I’d share my top tips for all the new moms in your life!

• As long as you have a car seat and diapers, you’ll be just fine.  The first few days, the only thing your baby needs is her parents.

• The first night home was one of the worst nights of my life.  We were incredibly tired, stressed, and overwhelmed.  If you feel that way, don’t beat yourself up about it.  So many parents have been in your shoes.
• It’s okay to cry.  Sometimes, you just have to – whether you’re sad, tired, hungry overwhelmed…it’s ok to let it out.
• If someone offers to bring you dinner, let them.  If they want to clean your bathrooms or vaccuum for you, let them.  Don’t try to be supermom in those first few weeks.  Spend the time getting to know your baby.  Besides, the cleaning and laundry will be there tomorrow.
• Don’t let anyone deter you in the choices you and your family make.  We chose to cloth diaper, and a lot of our friends and family thought we were crazy…but it’s been my favorite decision we’ve made.  You can read more about why we chose to cloth diaper here, and how it’s been going here.

• Get baby clothes used – they grow out of them so fast, and you can score some great deals at consignment sales.  Most of Abbie’s clothes, some toys, and some books have been used, and it’s saved us a lot of money.
• Find a middle of the night text buddy or some new mom friends on twitter.  When you’re up for a feeding at 2am, you’ll be glad to have some entertainment.
• If breastfeeding works for you – great.  If you choose to formula feed – great.  if you do a combination – that’s great too.  Both are great nutrition for your baby and you should never let anyone make you feel bad about how you choose to feed her.  Don’t let people bully you about solids either – do your own research and start when you think is best for your child.

• Go with the flow.  You can do all the research you want, but your baby is your best teacher.  She’ll teach you want she wants and needs, what she likes and what she doesn’t.
• Get an Amazon Prime subscription.  Seriously.  You pay a yearly fee, but then stuff gets shipped to you for free in two days.  I can’t tell you how many orders I placed in those first few weeks for things I needed that we hadn’t picked up!

I really hope these help some moms out there – even if you’re not one yet!  It’s so important for moms to support each other, especially in those first critical days.  I also wanted to thank Jessica for having me today – I’ve been following along with her for a long time now, and I was so thrilled when she announced Julia (then Pickles!) was on her way.  I’m really hoping one of these days she makes a trip up to DC so we can have a blogger date / baby play date!