Lesser known advice after you bring your baby home from the hospital

What worked for us when we took our baby home from the hospital

This article is meant to be some advice that we knew as new parents when we took our baby home from the hospital. Of course no baby is the same and what worked for us might not work for everyone. This is meant to be constructive points that may help you in the beginning stages of parenthood when you feel lost.

There are articles all over the internet of what things you need to buy as new parents before you take your baby home, or what is the best toys and beds in the beginning, but this can offer some less common advice that is just as important to make your life with your new baby as smooth as possible.

Our situation is that we are a married couple in our early thirties living in a large city in Europe. This influences things such as time off of work for mom and dad, which in our case is quite generous. Other things should be very similar from parent to parent and baby to baby. There will always be sleepless nights, frustration with your partners due to lack of sleep, and the rest of your life becoming a bit more chaotic due to the recent large change in your life of becoming parents. Rest assured, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and things seem to only get easier as you learn the ropes and adjust to having a new son or daughter in your life.

Try not to take visitors too early

When we brought our daughter home from the hospital, she was a little more than one week overdue. Because of this, a previously scheduled visit from one of the grandparents was happening just two days after we settled in. While it is great to have some help around the house, it would be advised to set aside up to two weeks of alone time for you and your husband or wife to really get to know your baby and get very comfortable with the basics such as diaper changes, learning their sleep patterns, and gauging what is in store for this new journey you are on.

Everyone has different relationships and for some couples, the earlier that some help arrives to help with other tasks around the house the better, but this time is very special, and if possible you should put anything you can on hold and completely focus on learning every detail about your new baby and how to care for them before taking visitors.

Another very important part of having alone time is that most importantly, your baby gets accustomed to the new world they are living in. Of course babies are cute and everyone will be excited to see him or her, but this is a time that the baby needs to process every little new thing that is happening to them and each step along the way requires time to unwind. Having a lot of visitors too early will not be beneficial to your little one's adaptation into the world.

Take as much time off of work as possible

We are blessed to live in a country that offers a very generous amount of time off for new mothers and fathers. This is not the same in a lot of places, but for dad to take off for 2 months directly after the birth of our daughter was a blessing. In addition, mom was able to take off for 14 months.

If you are not in such a situation and need to get back to work shortly after your newborn arrives, at least make a point of getting other responsibilities off of your plate so when you come home from work it is possible to spend as much time as possible with your new baby. These types of things may include putting any hobbies on the back burner during these first few months or doing them less than normal.

Get comfortable holding your new baby

While mothers, especially ones that are breastfeeding, have a stronger initial connection to your new baby boy or girl and are in more physical contact in the first few weeks, it is important that the father is also involved and able to be comfortable taking care of the child.

The best way we found to get comfortable in the beginning for dad was to do almost every diaper change in the first few weeks. This was very beneficial not only for handling such a delicate newborn baby and not being scared of hurting her, but was also one less thing that mom had to worry about while recovering physically and spending the majority of her time otherwise with our baby in bed.

After only a few days of doing every diaper change and changing outfits afterwards, you will be more confident holding your newborn son or daughter and able to physically interact with them without fear.

Try to prepare healthy meals in advance

A common thing to neglect during the stress of being a new parent is finding the time to cook quality food. This often overlooked but very important topic should be high on your priority list to make sure as a recovering mother you are receiving proper nutrition and getting all the energy you need to sustain your baby.

Portioning and freezing high quality meals during your time after bringing your baby home from the hospital will provide a huge benefit and peace of mind while leaving you more time to care for your infant.

Keep your apartment or home as clean as possible

One last tip we could not recommend enough would be to keep your living area as clean as possible during any downtime you have. This would be an especially good job for the father since during these beginning days and weeks, your baby will be much more attached to mom and dad might feel as if he has no way to contribute in a meaningful way.

The mentality of having a clean house will help during the times when you may feel out of control from taking care of the needs of your newborn. Walking around and seeing a nice clean house or apartment will help to alleviate some of your stress and make you feel a bit more in control.

Additionally, this will help new mothers by having one less thing to worry about while recovering from the birth and spending so much time with your newborn baby. The last thing anyone wants to do in this situation is worry about a messy house.

Final thoughts

We hope you found some of our advice for bringing your newborn baby home from the hospital to be useful. As stated earlier, these are some things that worked for our family when our baby daughter came home with us and every child and family is different, but with some planning and knowing a bit more of what to expect, your journey as new parents can be off to a great start.

If you enjoyed this article, please check back here often for more similar articles on a variety of topics specifically geared towards parents of new babies that live in the city. While you are here, please check out the links at the top of the page to see what else we have to offer on www.citybabytips.com. We hope you have a great day and a wonderful start with your new baby boy or girl!