Before Baby To-do List
Hello! Today I am sharing with you all the things I did or bought before Harnaya was born and encourage all soon-to-be-parents to do the same. Not only was the transition a lot smoother when she was born, Haman and I also felt a lot more confident in our abilities as parents.
TAKE “TAKINGCARA’S” NEWBORN SLEEP CLASS
This class talks about what you need to get and do for your baby from day one of birth in order to have a great sleeper. We implemented Cara’s techniques from the very first day in the hospital, and let me tell you: we’ve had a great sleeper since then. I owe it all to Cara. I took the course during my third trimester so everything would stay fresh in my mind when Harnaya was born. Take the course, it’s worth the investment!
The course lays out the foundation of a good sleeper. Because I took the newborn course, we never had to formally sleep train Harnaya. Her tips include swaddling, how to lay a baby down, and so much more. Haryana was sleeping five hour stretches at five weeks old, and eight hour stretches at eight weeks.
Note: we still have some hiccups, babies are not robots, but she bounces back so quickly!
SOUND MACHINE - HATCH
I loved this particular sound machine because I could control the nightlight and the type of sound and volume right from my phone. Talk about convenience. It is also very user-friendly so whenever we had family taking care of Harnaya, they were able to navigate the machine very easily.
SWADDLES- VELCRO
Swaddling intimidates a lot of new parents and because of this, they sometimes prefer to skip this step. But trust me on this, don’t skip it. It took Harnaya a few days to adjust to a swaddle but when she did, she slept SO much better. Haman and I were scared to swaddle as well especially from the swaddles that were not pre-made. We invested in velcro and zip swaddles and that made a big difference.
Here are some of the swaddles we used and loved:
SwaddleMe
Love to Dream Swaddle
OWLET SMART SOCK 3 BABY MONITOR WITH OXYGEN & HEART RATE
I know there are a lot of mixed feelings about the Owlet monitor. It makes some people more anxious but honestly, it was the only way Haman and I could get any sleep at night. We were very anxious first-time parents and the heart rate monitor gave us peace of mind. We actually ended up using it until she was 18-months old. And the only reason we stopped using it was that she outgrew all the socks! Yes, we are those parents haha!
That’s all! I know some of these purchases are on the pricier side, but we used each product for a very long time. It was totally worth it for us, and if we had to, we would 10000% buy all of the products again. I plan on reusing everything for Baby #2!
