Surviving the First Two Weeks with a Newborn

The first two weeks with a newborn are overwhelming for sure… you have a tiny human you are trying to keep alive, you are running on little sleep and you are recovering from birthing a baby. I tried to prep myself and my house as much as I could to make these first two weeks as easy as possible. I wanted to focus on taking care of my baby and myself and nothing else! The first two weeks are a big adjustment period as you get to know each other. Here are my tips for surviving the first two weeks with a newborn. 

• Make sure you have your Post-Partum Kit and C-Section Recovery items ready to go and accessible before you go to the hospital!
• Prep your freezer with food so you don’t have to worry about cooking. (Pro tip- have your hubby order pizza the first night)
• Use Paper everything: Paper plates, plastic forks, paper towels, crockpot liners, aluminum foil baking pans. That way everything can just be thrown away – no dishes. 
• Make sure to check out my Pre-Baby Checklist and get everything done prior to their arrival – especially the home cleaning, I didn’t have to clean my house for the first two weeks, because it was in pretty good shape and could go that long.
• Have help: especially with a C-section you will need help. I wasn’t alone for the first 10 days. However, I didn’t feel my mom needed to be there right away- she came after Miguel went back to work and this worked out nicely because we had some sort of a routine established already.  
• Sleep when baby sleeps (between hours the of 8PM-9AM): Once that baby was in bed, I was in bed trying to sleep too. No staying up to watch TV or look at my phone. Even if I had to sleep in 3 chunks of time – I made sure I got 7-8 hours of sleep a day. 
• Check out my most used newborn items: a lot of these were things we used from day 1 to make life easier! 
• Make sure you have a trash can and bags *everywhere* you plan to change diapers. Bedroom, living room, nursery. With those messy ones, you want a trash can right next to you, trust me. 
• Have hand lotion everywhere – with all the hand washing and bottle washing, my hands became so dry and cracked!
• Use premade formula at night if you are formula feeding. (The little bottles – makes it so much easier to feed)
• Get a portable sound machine! We used this wherever she was napping – living room, our room, carseat. Basically if she is sleeping anywhere other than her room, this is what we use. 
• Use the Baby Tracker App to keep track of eating, sleeping and diaper changes – trust me you will forget otherwise. Made it super easy to tell the doctor how much she eats/sleeps/poops in a day. 

The first two weeks will seem long and short at the same time. You will get through it, things get easier (and some things get harder too). But if you can survive those first few weeks you can do it all!