Can Round Two be Better??

So… you all know this.. I’m a planner and I like to know how things are going to happen and be organized and prepared.

For some reason, my planner side didn’t kick into full gear when I was pregnant with Austin. Oh sure, I ran our budget 50 bajillion times to try and figure out how to keep us from begging on the streets… and I think maybe I was so consumed with the financial side of having and raising a baby that my brain couldn’t handle any other planning and organizing.

One area I completely failed at was preparing ME to be a Mom.

I planned money, I planned the actual birth (kinda), I planned his room, his toys, his clothes and closet organization… no problem.

Then suddenly I was a Mom and I fumbled through Austin’s infant days in certain important areas.  I really hope I will get on the ball and do better the next go-round:

-Making and Preparing Freezer Meals.

Ok, I MEANT to do this. I really did. But I put it off and put it off then Austin came early and was a barnacle “don’t put me down for a second” baby and Neal was coaching and in baseball season and gone every night and what happened? I ate terribly.

Cereal.

Plain crackers.

Chicken Nuggets

And that’s about it. For WEEKS. This did not help with my struggle making milk, I’m sure. I just never had time or the chance to make any good, “real” food. When Neal would get home I’d be too tired to try and whip up large meals for the coming days so it never happened. Not to mention the last thing you want to do with a new baby is to trek to the grocery store all the time so you settle for scrounging in cupboards.

This time, I fully intend to go Pinterest-crazy and make and freeze a bunch of food. Meatloaf, soups, casseroles, chili, shredded rotisserie chicken I can make salads from, etc. In fact, making and freezing food has become my #1 advice to all my pregnant friends.

Don’t be like me and go thru an entire bag of chicken nuggets (as delicious as they were) in two days. Eat real food!

-Stocking up early on easy-to-grab HEALTHY snacks

Emphasis on “not total crap.”

On that same vein, I did not prepare for my pregnancy or my post-natal time very well in the snack dept.

You’re newly pregnant, you have to eat NOW or risk feeling sick and you have nothing to eat handy. This made it all too easy for me to rely on candy bars, sugar-filled chocolate milk and greasy fast food from drive-thru’s.

And I wonder how I gained 60lbs.

This time around, I plan on having an arsenal ready. Nuts, healthy granola bars/cereal bars, individual hummus packets and healthy crackers, ingredients to make smoothies, etc… always stocked up. That way I can make a smoothie first thing in the morning and drive right by McDonalds and their gosh-darn-awesome sausage McMuffins.

I don’t think I realized how hungry I’d be, or how often I’d want to eat so I just didn’t have any good snacks at the ready.

-Investing in a post-partum wardrobe

Don’t freak out Neal, I promise I won’t go too berserk. J

But, in all honesty, you really do need some different types of clothes after you have a baby. Something I didn’t know as a first time Mom. I was also being too frugal to buy anything for myself.. settling with the “I’ll just make do” mindset and in hindsight, suffering a bit for it.

Having a new baby means nursing. Nursing requires certain body parts be accessible, very quickly and at all hours. This requires clothes and undergarments that help with that.

I didn’t own a nursing bra with Austin. 

I know, I must be, like, the only woman who tried to nurse and didn’t have a nursing bra. Why? Because they cost about $50-60 and I thought I could “make-do” with my normal bras. Sometimes I am cheap to a fault.

Well, you can’t “make-do.” That requires getting naked practically and that is not the most pleasant thing to do at the mall or a friend’s house or elsewhere. So anytime we went anywhere, I used formula instead of wrangling with my normal bra, my normal shirt and many layers I had on.

Another check on the “things that didn’t help my nursing experience” list.

The next time, I really want nursing to work. I will purchase the correct bra, the correct camisoles, and easy to access shirts (button-ups!! Nothing that has to go over my head!) so I can have a better chance at making this work.

-Use a Moby wrap

Ok, my incredibly vain confession.. I knew about Moby wraps but I refused to use one because I thought that was what hippie Moms did, and I didn’t want to be a Hippie Mom or have others think I was.

Then my good friend Jesica introduced me to the Moby wrap this summer.. she used one on her son and claimed it saved her life and sanity many times.

The Moby wraps your baby snug, and distributes the weight so your back doesn’t ache (much like I found traditional front-packs to do)… and get this! YOU ARE HANDS FREE!!!

I wore Austin around CONSTANTLY in his front pack, but it hurt my back and he wasn’t that “snug” in there so he’d get fussy or I’d have to still hold him up and support him as I moved around. I didn’t like it at all.

So I was an idiot. My vanity kept me from a baby wearing option that was comfortable, easy, and I could have made real food, or did my hair and felt more human.. oh the possibilities!! You bet your britches I will use a Moby with baby #2.

Oh hindsight…. You truly are 20/20…