As you may have guessed by the silence on the blog these past few weeks, our newest family member has finally arrived! And, although our little Birdy is adorable and I love her to pieces, sleep deprivation is starting to kick in and nursing almost every hour (she’s into her first growth spurt) is exhausting.
As the little has no rhythm yet and there’s no telling when she will become awake, for how long or how hungry she’ll be, these days there’s a few things I like to keep within arms length. To begin with, there’s the nursing pillow, a burp cloth or two, a cup of tea and some light snacks like nuts or rice waffles. Nursing makes me thirsty and, most of all, super hungry!
But let me tell you more about the other things I keep around to keep my sanity and make the daily life a little easier. Here’s my TOP 5 gadgets for surviving a new baby.
1. E-book reader
I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my Kindle these days and I keep it loaded with light, entertaining literature. You see, reading a book while nursing may be pretty hard as you often need both hands to flip the pages, besides books can be heavy. An e-book reader will never get your hand tired, it’s easy to flip the pages, and it can store a huge amount of books. The only downside is that, if I keep my current pace of reading, it’ll leave a serious dent in my bank account.
2. Video streaming service
I would’ve never thought that having a baby will allow me to catch up on TV series I’ve been meaning to watch but never found the time to. I’m sure this will change once Birdy is older and active for longer periods of time, but currently it’s nice to have a a TV series or a movie running in the background while I’m occupied with her. I’m looking forward to finally finishing “The Tudors” – a series I first started watching 3 years ago!
3. Smartphone
Just like Kindle it’s light and easy to operate with one hand, and allows me to keep in touch with the wider world – from reading news to chatting with friends and family. In addition, smartphones have apps that can further improve your life as a new parent (see below).
4. Baby App
In the sleep deprived state that results from being around a few weeks old baby some basic questions can suddenly become very hard to answer. When did I change the diaper? Did I last nurse her on the right or on the left side? This is where an app can be very handy. I’m using Feed Baby and find it extremely practical for making the main notes on nursing, diapering, her growth etc. Besides it makes the geek in me happy by producing graphs and charts on the press of a button!
5. Shopping App
Since I had a c-section I’m not allowed to carry anything heavier than the little one so grocery shopping has now fully become the realm of my hubby. And he found an app that makes shopping soooo much easier. It’s called Our Groceries and allows us to share shopping lists – I just add everything that we need (or that I crave for) to one of our lists on my Android phone and it instantly synchronizes to his iPhone.