Baby Charlie
Feeding and diapering are probably two of the most important things you'll need to know about when caring for a newborn. In Part 1 of my "registering for baby" I covered the diaper basics and this week I'm going to cover feeding.
One of the most used items when feeding has to be the chair you choose. You don't need a special rocker or glider for this, but what you do need is someplace that's comfortable and has good back support. If you're like me then you'll do most of your day feedings on the couch or in your main living space. Night time is, of course, an entirely different story. When we had Bea we would both get up in the night (however many times that was) and take her out to our living room and watch TV while we fed her. Then a good friend happened to mention that you don't want to do this because around 6 weeks the baby will start to notice the TV and will completely wake up, which makes total sense when you think about it. If you wake in the middle of the night and had a TV blaring you'd be less likely to fall back asleep as well. So, from that point on we fed Bea in an over sized chair that was in our room (side note, we shared a room with her for the first year because we were in a one bedroom apartment). With Charlie we've handled night time feedings in our bed. We are now in a house, but even though Charlie has his own room I still prefer to feed him in our bed at night and then take him back to his crib.
There are a hundred different rockers and gliders on the market and you could even skip those altogether and just buy a chair that will grow with your baby (use it for story time down the road, etc). I'm not going to recommend one specific chair, but I will tell you to make sure that if you use some sort of feeding support pillow (which I'll touch on in a minute) that it fits in the chair. You'd be surprised how many chairs do not accommodate these and what a pain that is!
Now, onto those pillows. I adore the Boppy.
Image via Boppy
I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but we currently have three of these pillows. One for downstairs, one for upstairs, and one for the grandparents house. This is something that you'll use every single day, multiple times a day. A must have!
Since I predominately breastfeed I don't have a ton of experience using bottles but when we do use bottles we've been very happy with Dr. Brown's.
Image via Amazon
Right now we're using the glass bottles. We used the same set with Bea and not a single one has broken (and we didn't even have the protective covers).
Next up, burp cloths. If you have a spitter you'll go through a TON of these each and every day. My favorites for both the shape and absorbency are Aden & Anais burpy bibs.
And finally, for breastfeeding mamas, the breast pump. If you're not sure you'll breastfeed then you might want to rent a pump until you're ready to make the investment, because they are an investment. I use the Medela Freestyle Breast Pump.
Image via Diapers.com
And to save time (and be hands free) I also use the Simple Wishes Hands Free Pumping Bustier. It's comfortable and allows me to do other things while pumping, like read a magazine (I wish!) or tend to our toddler (more likely!).
These are just a few of my favorites to get you started. Next week I'll focus on feeding baby once they've moved onto the next stage.
Heather
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