10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Having a Baby

I’ll be honest, I really had no idea what I was getting into before I had my baby.  I’ve always wanted children and had spent a good deal of time around kids of all ages.  In all honesty, I thought that the whole “caring for a baby” thing would be a piece of cake.  Obviously, I was dead wrong. Read on to see the 10 things I wish I knew before having a baby.

1. You can never have enough onesies.

No, really.  I was dead set on not have 1,000,000 useless baby items lying around my house. My registry was very slim for this reason.  I mean, I do my laundry weekly. Why would I ever need more than, like, 8 baby outfits in each size? (Facepalm). Here’s why: You go to change your one week old baby’s diaper… They pee all over their outfit. So, you start to change their onesie… While you’re doing that, they begin pooping all over the new onesie.  Once you change them into another fresh outfit, you’re now on your 3rd outfit change within 3 minutes. You’ll be grateful to have an abundance of clothing.  

2. You can never have enough bibs and burp cloths. 

Same logic applies as above.  I have also used burp cloths to mop up the extra pee that the changing pad cover didn’t soak up.  Or to soak up anything baby related, really. I didn’t think we’d need bibs until she was eating solids.  Turns out those bottles feedings involve a lot of leakage. I ordered several additional bibs and burp cloths our second week home.

3. I never use receiving blankets.

I do have friends that use them.  I just haven’t had many uses for them yet, expect like the burp cloths I mentioned, I do recall sopping up baby pee with them a time or two.  You could probably do without.

4. I do use swaddling blankets!

I have muslin swaddles because I didn’t know anything about anything and they seemed really popular. I’ve since learned a lot, become a swaddling pro, and fully believe in swaddling your way to happier sleep for you and your baby.   I have the Aden and Anais muslin swaddles, and I really do like them. However, if I had a do-over, I’d try some cozy stretchy ones.

5. Baby eczema is so real.

I knew this, and as someone who suffers from sensitive skin and eczema herself, I thought I had taken enough precautions by prewashing all clothing, blankets, and accessory items prior to baby wearing them.  Turns out the regular sensitive laundry detergent I had been using was not enough. I can’t say for sure what made her eczema flare up all over her face and head, but once I switched to Molly’s Suds for the whole family and re-washed EVERYTHING baby, including her car seat cover, she’s been eczema free since.  

6. Cheap diapers can cause diaper rash.

All I know is that when I was consistently using cheap diapers we received as a gift, Evvy got her first and only diaper rash.  I’ve still supplemented with cheap diapers here and there, but I am terrified to have her in any diapers that feel too chincy for too long. 

7. Pumping is hard.

I had this idea that the only reason I wouldn’t breastfeed is if I wasn’t producing enough milk.  I produced plenty of milk, but I ended up not breastfeeding anyway. This left pumping as an option.  I kept reading to pump while you feed them a bottle. I’ve heard from one mama friend that they were able to accomplish this, but to me it just seemed impossible.  Maybe it’s because I have large breasts, so those combined with the ginormous pump attachments made it physically impossible for me to reach my baby to bottle feed them.  This meant I was bottle feeding my newborn every 1.5 hours, and then pumping for 15ish minutes after the feeding. Anywho, pumping wasn’t the cakewalk I thought it would be.  Though, it is very encouraging to be able to see how much milk you are or aren’t producing. 

8. Formula feeding is hard!

I imagined that if we were to choose to formula feed for whatever reason, that I’d just, you know, make a bottle of formula when the time came.  Turns out, there is a lot to learn about formula feeding. How do you make sure the water is sterile? How long does it last in the refrigerator? How long can it sit out? Should I pre-make it or make it one bottle at a time? 

~See my post about all things formula feeding here~






9. Formula is EXPENSIVE!

If you’re anything like me, I was so happy to be formula feeding my little one her little 2.5oz bottles ever couple of hours I didn’t truly notice how quickly the formula tub was emptying until it was almost gone.  Then of course she began eating more and more and once we were up to 4 ounces I kind of started panicking about how quickly these nearly $30 tubs of food were dwindling. 

10. Babies start fussing at 2 weeks old. 

Who knew?! My sweet angel baby who slept all day and only cried when hungry was all the sudden MAD about everything all.the.time.  So, I started googling something like “two week old baby won’t stop crying”, and “colic signs”, and was pleasantly (er, sort of?) surprised to find that this was completely normal! God is brilliant, and just knew that bringing home an alien baby that turns your world upside down is all you can handle at once. Then BAM, as soon as you think it’s going well and you can handle it, the baby begins truly crying.  Surprise!

Did anything else surprise you when you had a baby? Let me know in the comments!

xo,

Abby

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.*