Your months of planning have finally paid off. You have a brand new baby. Now it is time to bring her home from the hospital. Following these simple suggestions will make your first days home with baby more pleasant.
Sleep when the baby sleeps. This is the biggest piece of advice new parents need to put into practice. Your baby will sleep a lot in the beginning. You should take advantage of this and sleep, too. Your internal time clock may get disrupted, but this is part of having a new baby. Everything gets disrupted! To care for your baby properly, you need to feel as rested as possible.
If you cannot stand a slightly messy house, you have two choices. You can either hire a housekeeper or get used to things not being perfectly cleaned like they were before baby. It is extremely tempting to try and do all of your chores when the baby is asleep. If you find yourself doing this, please remember that you need to sleep as much as you can. Your main purpose in life at this moment is to care for your newborn.
Stock up on diapers before the baby is due. Diaper services, if you are using cloth diapers, deliver ahead of time you just need to let them know when you want a delivery. Make sure to have at least one bag of disposable diapers even if you are using cloth. If your baby is going to wear disposable diapers, having four bags at home will make life easier in the long run.
If you are nursing, your milk may not have come in enough to completely feed the baby the first two or three days. Your baby will still be hungry. Having a little formula on hand will save you and your baby from being frustrated at her not being able to get enough to eat. (Do nurse her each time she is hungry, but supplement with a little formula until your milk is established.)
Have a basinette set up in your bedroom right next to your bed. This will make nursing in the middle of the night much easier. You can just get the baby out of the basinette and nurse right in your bed without having to wake up fully.
Baby’s safety is a huge concern for a new parent. It is important to hear what is going on in baby’s room. Is she asleep or awake? For your own piece of mind, the purchase of a dect baby monitor is wise. With a monitor you will be able to know all of the time whether the baby is asleep or awake. Bathing baby is another big safety concern. Buy a baby bath to use on the counter top or sink. You will have much better control over baby’s body in a small bathtub than you would trying to bathe her in the adult-size tub.
Lastly, take time to enjoy your new baby. Play with him, read to him and devote your attention to him. It will not be very long before baby is a grown man.