Top 10 New Mommy Must Haves!!
I've noticed that there are A LOT of us military wives getting pregnant here in Hawaii alone so I can imagine everywhere else. lol. (Must be something in the water...)
So I've decided to put together a list of top 10 things a new mom "must" have these days.
These are things I wish I had when I gave birth to my first two boys and maybe they were available to me but I just didn't look hard enough. Some of them I did get a chance to get so I figured I'd share the knowledge. :-)
1 - Boppy.
These things are life savers, literally and figuratively since they're shaped like life savers. lol. You can find this at Target or Babies R Us or Walmart. I got mine from Target and it came with a really cute plush design. I didn't have this with my first two kids. This time around it's helped me tremendously with my back pain from breastfeeding since I'm so used to putting myself in weird positions to breast feed (my own fault). It's also very useful to prop the baby in while you get to do stuff around the house or if you just want to have both hands free while the baby just lays next to you.
2 - Johnson & Johnson Breast pads.
These are the best!! I tried every other brand that made breast pads just to make sure I was using the best ones since I get a lot of milk. For some reason the other brands didn't get the memo that my boobs weren't flat. Hello!!! Anyway, I'm glad someone clued in the manufacturers at Johnson and Johnson because not only are the pads round which made for a better fit, they were also pretty comfortable in my bra and they held in place with a small sticky part that was sticky enough to keep it in place but not too much that it was hard to remove. If I had to wear a breast pad these would be the best option hands down. These can be found at Target, Babies R Us, Walmart and some local supermarkets.
3 - Lansinoh Breast cream.
HEAVEN sent!!! I say this because all 3 of my boys were hard suckers.
With my first born, the first 2 weeks of breast feeding was torture for me because he was such a hard sucker. I literally had to prep myself each time I had to breast feed him because it was so bad. It was like prepping to jump into a game of double dutch. I had to count to 3, hold my breathe and let him have it all while I was cringing and curling my toes up from the pain.
This is not to discourage anyone from wanting to breast feed their baby which is the best option for baby (in my opinion). I swear, I'm getting to the good part, lol. My mom told me about Lansinoh (I guess the hospital I gave birth in forgot to tell me about this, hmm...) and as soon as I started using it, the pain eased up. Mekhi was still a hard sucker but using this cream prepped my breasts and made it softer and more moisturized which helped get rid of the soreness of having to breast feed so much.
With my 2nd son, it helped heal me pretty quickly after he chomped down on my boobs with his 1st set of teeth (OUCH!!!!) Anywhoo, I highly recommend this cream. I found this at Walmart, Target and Babies R Us. I couldn't find it in my local supermarkets but then again, it could be available in other places.
4 - Aveeno Products.
Nothing against the other baby products (which I love by the way) but Aveeno baby products as well as mommy/baby gift sets were really great for me especially since all 3 of my sons suffered from eczema. Aveeno was the only fragrant type product that seemed to work as far as keeping them moisturized and helping to get rid of any rashes or dry skin they had. The Stress Free Relief lotion and body wash they have for moms is great as well. It smells great and really puts you in a relaxing mood. This can be found practically anywhere they sell baby products.
5 - Cetaphil Products.
Magical!!!! I LOVE Cetaphil products. These products have about 2 lines worth of ingredients in them compared to the usual 4 to 5 lines worth of stuff I can't even pronounce. Even in baby products I see that they have a lot of different chemicals in them. With Cetaphil, I can bathe my baby and it leaves his skin nice and smooth and moisturized so if I don't feel like adding lotion to his skin after bathing him, he wouldn't be ashy or dry at all. I currently use the "gentle cleanser" on my newborn's face because he developed baby acne around 2 weeks old. After using it I saw a major difference and his skin cleared up within a couple of days. I don't use any lotions on his face whatsoever and it's NEVER ashy or dry. I do use Aveeno soap and lotion on his body since he didn't have a problem with acne/rashes anywhere else but his face.
My mom was the one who introduced me to this product after her dermatologist recommended she use this on her face to prevent acne and scaring. Her doctor explained that Cetaphil was the most effective and gentle way to clean her skin without worrying about any harsh chemicals possibly burning or drying out her skin which was one of the problems she was having with her face. She also suffers from eczema so of course once she knew that my little ones had it as well, she told me to use it on them. I've been hooked on their products ever since.
6 - Johnson & Johnson Safety Swabs.
I know it probably doesn't seem like a big deal since a q-tip is just a q-tip but these safety swabs were a pretty smart and convenient invention. Since everything on a baby is so tiny and fragile this q-tip is manufactured in such a way that there's no way you could push the q-tip too far up baby's ears or nose while cleaning them out. My husband and I are obsessed with having clean ears (hubby is a fanatic) so of course we make sure our kids have clean ears. They're not the biggest fans of getting their ears cleaned so they move around a lot. These Q-tips help make sure we don't go too far down in their ears (I accidentally did that once with munchkin # 2, he's all good but it was a bit of a pain for him to experience). So this q-tip comes in handy not just for babies but as for little kids as well.
7 - A & D Ointment.
This one is a given to me. Back in the day Desitin was the hit for my mom so anytime we had rashes or any type of sores, scars, cuts, etc, she'd paste on the Desitin which was white in color and took FOREVER to get off. Well to me A & D ointment does the same thing Desitin does except it's clear and much easier to wipe off. It works wonders and provides very quick results so this is definitely up there on my list. There are a bunch of other diaper rash or skin irritant creams out there but after trying out the rest, I'd have to say that my top 2 creams would be Desitin and A & D but I'd go with A & D strictly because it's much better all around as far as convenience and results are concerned.
8 - Burts Bees Products.
I'm in love with all of their products. I like to experiment with organic products and decided that I'd give this company a try when I realized that my first 2 boys had a huge problem with staying moisturized throughout the day. I ended up buying tons of different products for them and some lotions worked but they were so oily and thick and I was worried about pasting all those ingredients in their skin and clogging up their poor little pores so I was relieved when I stumbled upon Burts Bees products. This company uses all natural ingredients to make their products and that was important to me. I currently use their Baby Bee Buttermilk lotion which miraculously keeps my boys nice and moisturized the entire day despite the fact that the consistency of the lotion is thin. It also smells divine and the scent stays on you the entire day as well. I've also tried their foot care, hair care, and face care products and I've loved each and every one of their products.
9 - Nuk Bottles & Pacifiers by Gerber
These are by far the closest nipples to a woman's actual nipples. There are a couple of other brands out there that I've tried and they've come pretty close but Nuk comes the closest. My newborn HATES drinking from a bottle. He wants his breast milk straight from the source. (typical boy I guess, lol) However, when I need to run errands and I leave him hubby with a bottle, he's more likely to "attempt" to drink out of a Nuk bottle than any other brand and we currently have 3 different brands of bottles in the house. So I'm sticking with these bottles. Plus they have some really cute designs.
10 - Munchkin Microwave Sterilizer
Heaven Sent!!! With my 1st 2 boys we had the stove top sterilizer which worked great except for the fact that it often left a while film inside the bottles as well as the actual sterilizer and I'd sometimes over boil the bottles/nipples. This wasn't a big deal to me and it wasn't like it took long for me to clean it off. However, with this new microwave sterilizer I have no problems with it whatsoever. I just set up the bottles & nipples, fill up the set water amount, pop it in the microwave for 3 minutes and tada, its done. No white residue on the bottles, nipples or sterilizer and I don't have to worry about whether I've over boiled the bottles or not. This is extremely convenient and I'm glad someone thought to make it because it definitely wasn't around 6 yrs ago. Unless it was in hiding. lol.
Munchkin also has a bunch of other cute and very handy baby products that I own as well. So you can't go wrong with any of their things.
So that's my list. There's tons more stuff I'd like to share but I thought this list was pretty on point as far as what would be needed and actually put to use on a daily basis for new mommies (in my opinion).
Hope it was informative enough and comes in handy. Any questions, hit me up @ kerryelly@itskerrysworld.com/
Ciao! :)
So I've decided to put together a list of top 10 things a new mom "must" have these days.
These are things I wish I had when I gave birth to my first two boys and maybe they were available to me but I just didn't look hard enough. Some of them I did get a chance to get so I figured I'd share the knowledge. :-)
1 - Boppy.
These things are life savers, literally and figuratively since they're shaped like life savers. lol. You can find this at Target or Babies R Us or Walmart. I got mine from Target and it came with a really cute plush design. I didn't have this with my first two kids. This time around it's helped me tremendously with my back pain from breastfeeding since I'm so used to putting myself in weird positions to breast feed (my own fault). It's also very useful to prop the baby in while you get to do stuff around the house or if you just want to have both hands free while the baby just lays next to you.
2 - Johnson & Johnson Breast pads.
These are the best!! I tried every other brand that made breast pads just to make sure I was using the best ones since I get a lot of milk. For some reason the other brands didn't get the memo that my boobs weren't flat. Hello!!! Anyway, I'm glad someone clued in the manufacturers at Johnson and Johnson because not only are the pads round which made for a better fit, they were also pretty comfortable in my bra and they held in place with a small sticky part that was sticky enough to keep it in place but not too much that it was hard to remove. If I had to wear a breast pad these would be the best option hands down. These can be found at Target, Babies R Us, Walmart and some local supermarkets.
3 - Lansinoh Breast cream.
HEAVEN sent!!! I say this because all 3 of my boys were hard suckers.
With my first born, the first 2 weeks of breast feeding was torture for me because he was such a hard sucker. I literally had to prep myself each time I had to breast feed him because it was so bad. It was like prepping to jump into a game of double dutch. I had to count to 3, hold my breathe and let him have it all while I was cringing and curling my toes up from the pain.
This is not to discourage anyone from wanting to breast feed their baby which is the best option for baby (in my opinion). I swear, I'm getting to the good part, lol. My mom told me about Lansinoh (I guess the hospital I gave birth in forgot to tell me about this, hmm...) and as soon as I started using it, the pain eased up. Mekhi was still a hard sucker but using this cream prepped my breasts and made it softer and more moisturized which helped get rid of the soreness of having to breast feed so much.
With my 2nd son, it helped heal me pretty quickly after he chomped down on my boobs with his 1st set of teeth (OUCH!!!!) Anywhoo, I highly recommend this cream. I found this at Walmart, Target and Babies R Us. I couldn't find it in my local supermarkets but then again, it could be available in other places.
4 - Aveeno Products.
Nothing against the other baby products (which I love by the way) but Aveeno baby products as well as mommy/baby gift sets were really great for me especially since all 3 of my sons suffered from eczema. Aveeno was the only fragrant type product that seemed to work as far as keeping them moisturized and helping to get rid of any rashes or dry skin they had. The Stress Free Relief lotion and body wash they have for moms is great as well. It smells great and really puts you in a relaxing mood. This can be found practically anywhere they sell baby products.
5 - Cetaphil Products.
Magical!!!! I LOVE Cetaphil products. These products have about 2 lines worth of ingredients in them compared to the usual 4 to 5 lines worth of stuff I can't even pronounce. Even in baby products I see that they have a lot of different chemicals in them. With Cetaphil, I can bathe my baby and it leaves his skin nice and smooth and moisturized so if I don't feel like adding lotion to his skin after bathing him, he wouldn't be ashy or dry at all. I currently use the "gentle cleanser" on my newborn's face because he developed baby acne around 2 weeks old. After using it I saw a major difference and his skin cleared up within a couple of days. I don't use any lotions on his face whatsoever and it's NEVER ashy or dry. I do use Aveeno soap and lotion on his body since he didn't have a problem with acne/rashes anywhere else but his face.
My mom was the one who introduced me to this product after her dermatologist recommended she use this on her face to prevent acne and scaring. Her doctor explained that Cetaphil was the most effective and gentle way to clean her skin without worrying about any harsh chemicals possibly burning or drying out her skin which was one of the problems she was having with her face. She also suffers from eczema so of course once she knew that my little ones had it as well, she told me to use it on them. I've been hooked on their products ever since.
6 - Johnson & Johnson Safety Swabs.
I know it probably doesn't seem like a big deal since a q-tip is just a q-tip but these safety swabs were a pretty smart and convenient invention. Since everything on a baby is so tiny and fragile this q-tip is manufactured in such a way that there's no way you could push the q-tip too far up baby's ears or nose while cleaning them out. My husband and I are obsessed with having clean ears (hubby is a fanatic) so of course we make sure our kids have clean ears. They're not the biggest fans of getting their ears cleaned so they move around a lot. These Q-tips help make sure we don't go too far down in their ears (I accidentally did that once with munchkin # 2, he's all good but it was a bit of a pain for him to experience). So this q-tip comes in handy not just for babies but as for little kids as well.
7 - A & D Ointment.
This one is a given to me. Back in the day Desitin was the hit for my mom so anytime we had rashes or any type of sores, scars, cuts, etc, she'd paste on the Desitin which was white in color and took FOREVER to get off. Well to me A & D ointment does the same thing Desitin does except it's clear and much easier to wipe off. It works wonders and provides very quick results so this is definitely up there on my list. There are a bunch of other diaper rash or skin irritant creams out there but after trying out the rest, I'd have to say that my top 2 creams would be Desitin and A & D but I'd go with A & D strictly because it's much better all around as far as convenience and results are concerned.
8 - Burts Bees Products.
I'm in love with all of their products. I like to experiment with organic products and decided that I'd give this company a try when I realized that my first 2 boys had a huge problem with staying moisturized throughout the day. I ended up buying tons of different products for them and some lotions worked but they were so oily and thick and I was worried about pasting all those ingredients in their skin and clogging up their poor little pores so I was relieved when I stumbled upon Burts Bees products. This company uses all natural ingredients to make their products and that was important to me. I currently use their Baby Bee Buttermilk lotion which miraculously keeps my boys nice and moisturized the entire day despite the fact that the consistency of the lotion is thin. It also smells divine and the scent stays on you the entire day as well. I've also tried their foot care, hair care, and face care products and I've loved each and every one of their products.
9 - Nuk Bottles & Pacifiers by Gerber
These are by far the closest nipples to a woman's actual nipples. There are a couple of other brands out there that I've tried and they've come pretty close but Nuk comes the closest. My newborn HATES drinking from a bottle. He wants his breast milk straight from the source. (typical boy I guess, lol) However, when I need to run errands and I leave him hubby with a bottle, he's more likely to "attempt" to drink out of a Nuk bottle than any other brand and we currently have 3 different brands of bottles in the house. So I'm sticking with these bottles. Plus they have some really cute designs.
10 - Munchkin Microwave Sterilizer
Heaven Sent!!! With my 1st 2 boys we had the stove top sterilizer which worked great except for the fact that it often left a while film inside the bottles as well as the actual sterilizer and I'd sometimes over boil the bottles/nipples. This wasn't a big deal to me and it wasn't like it took long for me to clean it off. However, with this new microwave sterilizer I have no problems with it whatsoever. I just set up the bottles & nipples, fill up the set water amount, pop it in the microwave for 3 minutes and tada, its done. No white residue on the bottles, nipples or sterilizer and I don't have to worry about whether I've over boiled the bottles or not. This is extremely convenient and I'm glad someone thought to make it because it definitely wasn't around 6 yrs ago. Unless it was in hiding. lol.
Munchkin also has a bunch of other cute and very handy baby products that I own as well. So you can't go wrong with any of their things.
So that's my list. There's tons more stuff I'd like to share but I thought this list was pretty on point as far as what would be needed and actually put to use on a daily basis for new mommies (in my opinion).
Hope it was informative enough and comes in handy. Any questions, hit me up @ kerryelly@itskerrysworld.com/
Ciao! :)
This list is so right on. Except when I had my son, Avent bottles were it. I see that nothing much has changed. Probably because we can't do without these things!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. When I had my 8 and 6 yr old, Avent bottles were the best as well and they're still pretty good but Nuk kinda took over now (in my opinion). ;)
ReplyDelete