A Little Secret for New Moms

Being a new mom, I’ve learned a lot through trial and error. Today, I’m sharing a little secret for fellow members of the “I just had a baby and don’t know what I’m doing” club that will guarantee you sleep, and most important, sanity. Ready for it?Here it is: Have your significant other help with a feeding at night. Seems simple, but it makes the biggest difference for many reasons.

First, on a very basic level, you need sleep. During the first few months, your newborn doesn’t have a schedule. It’s *wake, eat, sleep, repeat* constantly until they get the hang of that whole night time thing, which means you get used to functioning on very little shut-eye.

During those newborn long nights, Doug and I established a routine that worked well for us. He’d take a night feeding so that I could sleep for 3 – 4 hours at a time, which let me tell you, made such a difference. (It’s amazing how your body switches into survival gear when you’re in that situation. I’d get a few hours in and feel rested because that was just the new normal.)

Second, mentally it’s just helpful to know you’re not in it alone. After weeks of constantly being awake at 3 am soothing a crying baby, you can definitely start to feel overwhelmed. Knowing that I had a partner to “tap in” was enough to make it through. It also allowed for me to be my best self (or, as good as I could be with minimal rest!) when I was taking care of Gracie.

Third, long term, having your partner help with feedings and introducing your baby to a bottle will help when you are going back to work and bottles enter the picture more frequently. Or, if you’re not going back to work, it’s just nice to be able to leverage the bottle when you need or want to. Start them early, and you’ll have less of a tough transition later! 

Of course, relying on your partner to help with a night feeding requires a great bottle that your baby will take. (Again, seems simple, but this can be very tricky as other new moms may know!) We used Munchkin’s Latch bottles during the first months and they were amazing. I was still breastfeeding, so a bottle that offered an easy transition was key. Gracie did great going back and forth from the breast to bottle with these as help. 

If you’re interested, the Latch line has other great products for moms who are still breastfeeding. Their bottle cleaner is a must, and I also loved their breast milk storage bags & nursing pads!

This post was sponsored by Munchkin LATCH. All opinions and secret-sharing are my own. 😉