10 Tips For A New Mom

Several of my friends have recently had their first babies. I feel like the old lady in the group even though we are all around the same age. I guess having kids from toddler to teens makes you realize just how old you've gotten. Not a fan of this, I tell you. So in honor of their first few weeks of motherhood I've compiled a list of 10 tips I wish I had gotten when I was a brand new mom.

1- When people offer to help, let them. They wouldn't be offering if they didn't care about you and your well-being. Having a newborn is hard work. So if someone wants to do your dishes or fold your laundry- let them. Believe me, those offers will dry up soon enough so use them while you can!

2. Get out of the house. Even if you load the baby in the stroller and walk around the neighborhood, at least you're out of the house. It's so easy to start feeling isolated when you're at home with a newborn and all of a sudden your significant other goes back to work and friends have lives to get back to. You don't have to dress up or fix your face- just get out of the house for a little bit each day.

3. Put on real people clothes. I'm always the first person to advocate for pajama day at work but nothing makes you feel more unproductive and out of sorts than lying around in your pajamas all day long. And don't be bummed if the real people clothes are still maternity- we've all been there. I bought a few stretchy cute cotton dresses after Zoey was born so I could wear real people clothes that weren't maternity. It helped my moods a lot!

4. Don't look at the scale. Just don't. Pretend it doesn't exist. Your body just grew and delivered a tiny human- celebrate it and be thankful. Plus all those pounds leftover from pregnancy are totally water weight. Totally.

5. Let the schedule go. This was so hard for me. I am a super scheduled person who does not do spontaneous very well. I had to learn. The only schedule that mattered was the baby's schedule. Period. I had to go with the flow and take every day as it came. If you try to stick to a super strict schedule you are going to drive yourself crazy.

6. When others offer unsolicited advice, smile and ignore it. Oh it's so tempting to argue with the cute little old lady at the grocery store who insists putting bourbon in the bottle will help your baby sleep through the night. I know. Or the dad who insists crying it out is appropriate for a newborn. But you're not going to change their mind and do you really want to spend 20 minutes arguing with them when you could be taking a power nap?

7. Embrace your inner mama bear. I'm in no way a germaphobe but people touching my newborn baby's face about sent me over the edge. Especially when they had to lift up the blanket covering the carseat in order to do the face touching. I found a firmly placed "Please don't touch the baby, thanks" with direct eye contact deterred the majority of the rogue touchers.

8. Don't try to be super mom. She's just a myth. Sometimes dinner wasn't served until almost 8pm. Sometimes I didn't get a shower at all that day. Occasionally I bought myself new undies because every pair in the house was dirty. Our dust bunnies started breeding and pretty soon had great-grand dust babies. It happens.

9. Buy in bulk when you can. Believe me, Wal*Mart is not your happy place after having a baby. Neither is Target as much as it pains me to type that. Instead of buying the small pack of diaper- buy the giant box. You're gonna need them, trust me. Same with wipes, and formula if you use it, and pretty much anything else in your house that you can buy in bulk.

10. Give yourself grace- lots of grace. It takes time to adjust to a new baby even though you love them more than anything. It's a big shift in your life and you have to get used to your new normal a day at a time. You're going to be sleep deprived and tired and so will your significant other. {If he's not then I give you permission to kick him while he sleeps peacefully next to you as you feed the baby. You're welcome.} Accept that you might snap at each other and know that neither of you mean it.

Oh and a bonus #11: Do not under any circumstances make any drastic decisions regarding hair cuts, coloring, or the such. Just don't. You might think you'd look great with bangs but that could just be the postpartum hormones and sleep deprivation talking. Don't chance it.

That last one comes from some really personal experience and a hair tragedy involving bangs and red hair dye. It was ugly and I'm twitching just thinking about it now. You'll thank me later when you are well rested and your hormones settle down.

What advice do you have for new moms or what advice were you given that helped?