Ladies, there are things I did not discover until my THIRD baby that I wish I had known about for ALL the babies! I want to share them with you and I want you to share them with all your pregnant mama friends, okay? Because that’s what friends are for!
Milk Leak Cups
These magical cups capture the milk that leaks out of the other breast while nursing your baby. That is an incredible gift because that dripping, leaking milk is liquid gold! With previous babies I used cloths, towels, or whatever nearby to soak up the leakage. What. A. Waste. Get these cups even if you’re just *thinking* about breastfeeding! When your milk comes in, you may leak a lot, and some women will wear these cups at night to catch the night leaking and set aside some extra milk, which is also a genius idea.
You’re going to find that there are lots of cups out there, but these are the ones I used. They’ve been around for forever and have a great reputation (and price tag). They come in a pack of 2, so I would rotate them each night. While one was being washed and set out to dry (thank you, Husband!), the other was on my headboard, waiting for all the nursing sessions to come over the next 24 hours! Try them!
Night Pads for Your Bed
Maybe it was in the pregnancy books and I just didn’t grasp the true horror of it, but the amount of bleeding that happens postpartum is ridiculous. I had NO IDEA. It can be a rough few days, sometimes weeks! For me, it would go away almost completely and then start up “out of nowhere” usually right around when I started resuming normal activity…. (Coincidence? I think not.) Interesting side note: when my bleeding got really bad (with baby #3), my midwife advised that I pee before nursing. It made a HUGE difference!
First baby: I put towels down underneath me and would adjust them throughout the night. Second baby: Towels again, but I also used old sheets on purpose so I wouldn’t wake up panicked trying to make sure I was protecting them properly. Third baby: Enter the nighttime pads. Lifesaver.
So these pads are the kind you might use for your nighttime potty training toddler. They work great for that too. I loved not having to change the sheets every day on the top bunk during potty training season. But for postpartum they can’t be more perfect. They take the stress out of worrying about leaking postpartum pads and they don’t shift in the night. They’re easy to dispose of and they’re easy to put in place. They are a win-win. You’ve got enough on your plate without worrying about keeping your sheets clean (or having any more laundry to do than you already do) after giving birth.
Make sure you have these on hand. If you don’t need them or use them all, you’ll have a potty training toddler in a few years and you can use them then. This (affiliate) link below is the best price per sheet and totally worth it!
White Noise
A little bit of white noise can go a long way for a fussy or sleeping baby! Don’t underestimate the power of some sssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. If you think about it, baby has been in an environment that has been white noise-ish for 9 months. To be in complete silence might feel really foreign to the new little being. Even Happiest Baby On The Block talks about the power of the SSSHHHHHHHHHH.
With baby #1 I used an app on my phone, but guess what? My phone had to stay with baby! And the battery dying was a big concern. With baby #2 I still used the app but usually on my iPad. Of course then I couldn’t use my iPad whenever I wanted either. I have a SleepMate that I’ve had for years but I didn’t feel like it got quite loud enough to help baby drift and stop listening for any tiny noise interrupting the blaring silence. So I found this little machine for baby #3 and he seriously cannot sleep without it. It’s under $20 and has different sounds to choose from, though I always just choose white noise. It also doesn’t have an auto-turn-off timer like a lot of the baby white noise toys do and it plugs in, so batteries aren’t a concern! (It does take batteries though, which is great for power outages and other odd situations!)
This would make a great gift for a pregnant friend or for yourself to help baby have a little bit of comfort noise while trying to learn to sleep outside of the comfort of your womb! And when baby sleeps better, so does mommy.
Milk Storage Bags
Remember we talked about the magical cups that capture your leaking breastmilk? Well, you need to put that milk somewhere and these bags are perfect. They’re small. You can label them. They guard against freezer burn. They’re affordable.
Even if you plan to EBF (exclusively breastfeed), you never know when your breastmilk can come in handy. You may need it for baby’s first clogged tear duct (worked great for baby #1). You might want to put it on baby’s acne if that develops, like our baby #2. Or maybe baby is having trouble gaining weight and it’s suggested that you top him off like we had to with baby #3. Having some bags of breastmilk in the fridge or freezer really gave me peace of mind.
These are another one of those “good to have around” products that you might not use, but if you have them when you need them, you’ll be so grateful! I know I was.
Organic Chocolate Covered Almonds
Do you want to get yourself or another new mom something really useful? Chocolate.
Seriously.
Chocolate.
There hasn’t been a postpartum period during which I haven’t found great comfort, energy, and serotonin boosting blessings from chocolate!
Pair that chocolate with the protein and health benefits of almonds and you’ll be gifting that mom with some energy that will last a little longer than a candy bar or other empty-calorie-snack.