Oh tiny newborns. So precious, yet so exhausting. My first couple of weeks with Eli as a newborn were especially hard for me. I was on my own as Matt was sleeping in another room recovering from his pneumonia (if you haven’t, you can read all about our crazy birth story here). I was a zombie. I didn’t want to nap during the day because I have major FOMO and there was always someone at our place during that time. And of course, I was sleeping at night because I was on baby duty all night long. The first time Eli slept for 3 hours, I woke up feeling so rested. It was glorious. Thankfully, he quickly learned to sleep bigger and bigger chunks and this mama was oh so grateful. During these days I came up with a formula so to speak. I refused to change anything until he was older and we had to. By the way, I know every baby is different, so these things might not work for your baby, but they might! Here’s to hoping they do.
- The DockaTot – If you’ve been following this blog, then you know I am a HUGE fan of this thing. You can read my full review here. (Ps. There’s a $10 coupon at the end) But here’s a quick summary – I love this baby bed so much. He slept on in from the moment he came home from the hospital until he was 9 months old and couldn’t fit into it anymore, at which point we switched him to the DockaTot Grand. Our love affair with this baby item is still going strong today.
- Baby swaddles – Not every baby loves these, but Eli did. His little reflexes made his little arms jump all over the place, waking him up constantly. As beautiful as the muslin swaddles were, they were a but useless when trying to keep his arms under control. We used the Miracle Baby Swaddle, until he got strong enough to get his hands out of it. We then transitioned him to the SwaddleMe ones. They have velcro and we used them until he was 5 months old, because he was huge and it was time. He wasn’t rolling over, otherwise we would have stopped using them earlier.
- A Marpac white noise machine – I made this purchase at 2am one night while dealing with a very cranky baby. I was exhausted and willing to spend a small fortune to get this tiny baby to sleep better. Amazon probably makes a fortune from us sleep deprived, new moms. I am so glad I purchased this though! It is awesome and we still use it today. Our house is almost 100 years old and the floors are incredibly noise. You can’t walk anywhere without everyone hearing you. So a white noise machine was a must for us. He loves it and sleeps so well with it.
- Essential oils – It has been part of our every night routine since he was little. I feed him, Matt gets the oils ready. I love oils not only because they smell amazing, but also because of how amazing they are for so many things, including sleep. If you have any questions about oils, please feel free to ask. I love them so much!
- A baby monitor – This crazy thing happens when you become a mom. You start hearing your baby crying all the time. Even when he’s fast asleep on your arms. An audio monitor came so handy during this time, so I could differentiate between phantom baby cries and real Eli cries. It also gave me lots of peace of mind. We have the VTech DM221. Once we switched him over to his crib (at 6 months), we installed a video camera in his room. We have the Nest Cam and I’m a huge fan. It notifies us when it hears a sound or sees activity and I can look at it from anywhere. And we can talk from our phones. It is not a baby camera, but it works great as one.
For that dreaded witching hour, which Eli had for about 3 weeks, we used all of the above plus a yoga ball. There were lots and lots of bouncing on that thing during those terrible crying hours that felt never ending.
Please feel free to shoot me a message or leave me a comment if you have any questions!
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