Another day, another guest post from a lovely fellow blogger! Today I have Melanie from Melanie’s Fab Finds and she is going to be let you all in on her Top 5 Tips for new mums. I wrote a guide last year about awesome guides for first time parents so if you like this post you should go check out that as well. Being a new parent can be super stressful so having tips from people who are already parents can really help! Over to Melanie
Hello, my name is Melanie and I write a blog called Melanie’s Fab Finds. It’s a pretty varied blog with posts about children, fashion – adults and children’s, food, health and beauty and much more. I also host a range of competitions for my readers so please do pop over and join the fun.
When you become a mother for the first time it is very easy to become swamped with the flood of new information that will appear to come at you from just about every direction. Other mums will offer their advice but don’t feel obliged to take it. The worst part is that they tend to say different things – so it can be very confusing. I found the best thing to do was smile and thank them for their help and think about what they have suggested and make sure it actually works for you before doing anything.
Get some Sleep
One of the most important things you can do as a new mum is to get as much sleep as possible. For a start the birth is a pretty traumatic experience and baby will not have a routine and is generally guaranteed to wake up during the night for feeds and changing. They say sleep when baby sleeps for a reason. Having a baby can be very overwhelming and combined with a lack of sleep can make it much harder. With the lack of sleep it is easy to begin to begin to feel low even if you are a generally happy person.
You Can Never Have Enough Muslins and Spare Clothes
I am one of those people that likes to be prepared so would always go out with one spare set of clothes and a couple of extra muslin cloths. I learnt fast that you can never have enough of these. It’s sods law that baby will vomit or their nappy will leak when you go out and wait for it the best part is that once you have them changed and they are lovely and clean they are at it yet again. I found having a bag with 3-4 sets of clothing and around 6/7 muslins would last me most of the day and meant I didn’t need to go back home if I was out shopping, socialising etc. The moral to that story is be prepared with extra supplies and make sure you have plenty of stock of each as you will be at it all over again the following day and you won’t want to be cleaning clothes on a daily basis.
Buy a Mix of Clothes Sizes
When I had my first child I was super organised. I bought a range of newborn outfits as well as 0-3 months and 3-6 months. I was super prepared and we moved from one to the next without panicking about not having any to tide us over until there was time to get more in. I had learnt from the experience of others. I had a friend that had given birth the year before who had an enormous baby (he was long, his father is over 6 foot) and found that none of the newborn clothes she had bought fit. What a disaster! Luckily her family were on hand to help as her birth was pretty traumatic so she wasn’t moving anywhere on doctor’s orders.
Make Food and Freeze it in Advance
A month before I was due I made a range of foods which I froze. There are so many dishes that you can do this with including; chilli con carne, bolognaise, moussaka, lasagne and more. Don’t eat meat, that’s not a problem, make meat free versions. What you need to consider when making the dishes is that they contain iron rich ingredients and calcium. Many of us suffer blood loss during labour and it can take a little while to recuperate. For those that breastfeed increasing your calcium intake is even more important as baby is taking a substantial amount from the milk they are drinking from you.
Don’t Refuse Help
When we first have a baby many of us are inundated with offers of help by friends and family. I remember with my first child I didn’t really accept any assistance as I wanted to do it myself as other mother’s seem to breeze through it all so easily. It really didn’t do me any favours and later I discovered these other mums that had appeared to be doing such a wonderful job on their own actually had quite a bit of help. Well you live and learn. Make the most of parents, relatives and friends offering to watch baby whilst you have a nap, take baby for a walk, or offering to help with the dishes or clothes washing or even buy in shopping.
These are just some of the main things to keep in mind as they affect most mothers. Good luck with the arrival of your little one and please do pop over to Melanie’s Fab Finds and say hello sometime.