Eleen's Hacks

There are those memes that you see floating around on the internet: life hacks, mom hacks, etc...well, here are some tips and tricks that I've picked up in the past three+ years of being a mom.  They don't make me an expert by any means, but they've helped me make life a little bit easier.

1. My favorite youtube channel for mom advice is hands down: whatsupmoms
2. Lucas created a google spreadsheet to help us keep track of the pooping, feeding, and sick logs that we have to record and share with our pediatrician.  It's easily accessible from phones, more than one person can edit it at a time, and can be kept forever in the "cloud."

   

   A screen capture of the beginning days of feeding Leila

3. Also, a friend uses google photos to share daily photos of his baby.  It's a great idea because you can store google photos for free and people can check in on the album instead of getting pushed photos on their own time.  Or, you can use amazon prime photos to sync your phone's pictures to their cloud.  Either way, make sure to sync your phone's photos somewhere so you don't lose all those memories!
4. Even ABCs can be a calming song.  When you have a baby, you start googling all the nursery rhymes because babies like to hear your voice in order to be soothed.  At first, I didn't remember any of the words to those songs, so I just sang the ABCs.  Ethan is now an expert at singing and tracing his ABCs.  I told him he needs to teach his sister. 
5. When changing diapers, of which you do a lot for a newborn; Make sure to put a new diaper under the one you're about to change.  This will catch in-progress events.  Also, if you have a boy, make sure to put another diaper on top as you wipe.  Yea, you'll waste more diapers, but you also won't get sprayed in the face.
6. Diaper bag backpacks are the way to go.  I had originally purchased a tote-style diaper bag, and while it had a ton of pockets inside, it ultimately got sold in favor of a backpack style.  When you're holding your toddler's hand while baby wearing your infant, you'll need to be as hands-free as possible.  I've recently seen some really cute styles from the Oh Joy line at Target, but I have the SkipHop Forma one for gender neutrality.

   

   SkipHop Forma

   
   

   

   Oh Joy Diaper Backpack

7. Take care of your ergonomics.  Make sure your neck, back, wrists, and other joints are in a restful state most of the time.  It's easy to bend your neck down a lot as you gaze at and kiss your infant, but that will create a strain on your neck quickly.  Don't try to bend down to pick up your baby without using the strength of your legs in order to protect your back.  When holding the baby, try not to bend your wrists upwards as you will start getting carpel tunnel syndrome-like pains.  It's super easy to do this especially in the beginning when they don't know how to hold onto you.
8. Take care of your hands: moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!  When I had Ethan, my hands developed eczema patches due to my lack of sleep (resulting in a lower immune system) and constantly washing my hands to avoid passing germs or washing bottles/pumping parts.  My favorite hand cream is the Cetaphil Restoraderm Lotion or the Cerave Moisturizing Cream when they've run out of the Cetaphil one.
   
9. Baby eczema: it sucks and is bound to happen to all the babies since their skin is so preciously perfect and pristine.  What I've found to really work for Ethan is Tubby Todd's Dream Cream and Cetaphil's Restoraderm Body Wash. Also, for diaper rashes, Leila's current daycare recommended Dr. Smith's Diaper cream, and that really worked wonders (and the ingredients look pretty natural).  The Honest diaper cream is pretty good too, but I prefer the Dr. Smith one.  I've never used Butt Paste or Desitin.
   
10. Inevitably, the baby is going to get sick.  When sick, one of the most annoying issues is their inability to breathe because of snot accumulating and blocking their nose.  You can create a safe incline by putting rolled up towels underneath the mattress.  Don't make it too high so they won't slip down.  Putting them under the mattress also eliminates any worry of the towels creating too much bulk or getting in the way of grabby hands.  Also, for clearing their nose, I recommend a bulb syringe.  I used to be a huge fan of the nose Frida, but I want to say that I might have gotten sick from using it too much and constantly sucking is taxing on an already sore throat too.  I never used the small bulb syringe that came in the first aid kit I bought for Ethan, but I became a fan of it lately because it's easier to repetitively squeeze than the blue hospital ones.

    

    Aw, she was so small!  Age: 3 months

11. On the note of sickness: it seems Leila is doing a lot better at dealing with sicknesses than Ethan ever was.  It has come to our realization recently that it may be because we started her in daycare later than her brother.  So, she was already bigger and more developed before she really had to deal with the big germs (although she did get her first cold via her brother at home).  Before, people always told me that kids always get sick once they start school, since their immune system just has to go through that cycle, so it didn't matter when they started school.  But, now I would recommend starting school later if you can just so that your kids have a better chance of dealing with sicknesses better.  A coworker had told me that you can expect for your kid to be continually sick until they're 3.  I was the screaming face emoji when he told me this, but I think it actually turned out to be true for Ethan.
    

    
12. 
    Pumping hacks: I recently joined the Working Pumping Moms facebook group and learned so much in such a short amount of time.  The support on there is phenomenal.
• Drink lots and lots of water to maintain supply.  When I was sick once and had diarrhea (sorry, TMI), my supply went way down.  I carry around a contigo water bottle (they often carry a pack of 3 @ Costco too) that has a drinking spout because I've found that I drink anything that has a straw much faster and more often.
• You can pump and then refrigerate your pump parts to save for pumping again later since keeping it in the refrigerator should prevent bacteria growth.  Recently, there was an article saying that you shouldn't do this, but as with all mom advice - do what you think is best.  I washed every part after one pump session with Ethan for the entirety of his first year of life, and I regret not knowing about this hack sooner.
• After you're done pumping, let the machine run for a few minutes disconnected to bottles in order to push out the condensation that gets created near the end of the tubing.
• If you ever forget your bottles to pump or store the milk, you can use an empty water bottle in a pinch.
• Lots of people love and prefer the Spectra system over the Medela Pump In Style (the one I have).  Some say that it provides better output in a shorter amount of pumping time.  If my output goes down for some unexplainable reason, I might look into that.
• It's recommended to replace those white membranes every few months to maintain optimal suction.

  

  This pic alone should be revolutionary if you pump and have not discovered that you can attach the pump parts onto Dr. Brown bottles directly.  I discovered this hack near the end of my first pumping journey, and had forgotten it the second time around until a month into it!

13. Buy gender-neutral clothes that focus on animals so that you can use them for possible future babies.  I donated or sold all of Ethan's old button up shirts and polo shirts.  I suppose Leila could wear his old dinosaur shirts.  Although...there are mom companies that sell astronaut shirts for girls these days.  Yay for girl scientists!  On the topic of boy clothes though: I've found trendy clothes from H&M and Zara besides the typical Gap, Old Navy, and Carter's stores.
14. Our kids rarely wear pajamas because we put them in their clothes for the next day in order to expedite the morning routine.  Their normal clothes are pretty comfy anyway, so there isn't much difference.  I always chuckle whenever daycare has "PJs day" because it's never applicable to our family.
15. Photobooks & Journaling: try to make it a habit and aim to create ones regularly like annual yearbooks or a book of favorites.  Photos and tidbits of your babies early years get trapped on your phone or on someone's social media scroll.  Wouldn't it be nice to preserve those memories in your home so you can see them or gift them to the grandparents?  My favorite scrapbook style photobooks are at mixbook.com (which I blogged about here).  I recently found artifactuprising and chatbooks as well.
16. PetSmart is a free, air-conditioned zoo with less crowds

Do you have any tips/hacks that you'd like to share?  I love learning about how to make my life easier, thanks.