Organized New Mom Tip #3: Create baby checklists for different excursions

EVERY new mom, organized or not, has done it: you think you’ve got everything you need, you load it all in the car, and when you’re too far from your house to go back, you turn to your significant other and say “Oh $%#@, we forgot the  __________!

Making a baby checklist for different types of excursions all but eliminated this problem in my house. Here’s how I was able to utilize my checklists successfully:

·         Use your computer to make the lists. What your baby needs can change almost daily, and it’s important to be able to edit and save your lists at will.

·         Make different baby checklists for different adventures.  For example, a checklist for a daytrip looks completely different from a weekend trip to the mountains, which looks absolutely alien from a 2 week vacation to (sigh) Hawaii. I had two different lists- The “Daytrip List” and the “Weekend Trip List” since those are the ones we did the most. We never needed a baby checklist for Hawaii. If you do, then you are awesome.

·         Check off each item on the baby checklist as you pack your baby’s things. This might seem a little silly, but there were a few times when I didn’t and regretted it. Let’s face it, you can get a bit scatterbrained when you’re trying to pack your child’s things while also cleaning up spit-up and keeping your baby happy in his bouncer.  It takes less time than you think and you’ll have peace of mind knowing you didn’t forget something essential.

·         Be specific about what you need to pack, especially on the big trips. For example, instead of just having bibs on your list, write down how many bibs you’ll need per day you will need so you won’t fall short or have to do thousands of loads of laundry.

·         Have a special section on your saved baby checklists for extra items that you don’t take with you all the time but need to remember to bring just the same. By extra items, I mean birthday presents, that book you borrowed and need to return to its owner, or the bottle of wine you said you could bring to the party.

·         Save seasonal baby checklists. You’ll need all that swim and sun gear in the summer, but not necessarily in the winter.

·         Keep the baby checklists as simple as possible. I just wrote mine in Microsoft Word with bullet points that I could fill in as I packed the needed baby item.  No spreadsheets or color coding are necessary. Cool, but not necessary.

Attached to this entry are a couple of my baby checklists from when Will was a wee one. Please use and change to make them work for you.

Day Trip Baby Checklist

Weekend Baby Checklist

Organized New Mom Tip #2: Create a Universal Battery Charger Station

Before our son was born, batteries were something that we purchased maybe a couple of times a year. After he was born, and I found myself shelling out a few extra dollars every other shopping trip for 2AA’s here, or 4 D’s there, I finally broke down and bought a universal battery charger.

Baby toys take all different sizes and quantities of batteries, and oftentimes they drain them quickly.  When I made the move to rechargeable, I cringed at the initial cost, but I ended up saving money in the end.  It also gave me peace of mind knowing that if my baby’s bouncer ran out of batteries, I wouldn’t have to bundle him up and take him to the store to buy more.

Here’s some hints to help make your battery station something you can’t live without:

• Make sure you buy double the amount of batteries you need so you can use those while the others are charging-this little tip saved my life several times.
• Designate a spot in your home to create your rechargeable battery station, so everyone knows exactly where it is. 
• Keep all of your extra batteries at the station, along with a screwdriver for taking off all of those protective covers on all of the toys; otherwise, you’ll find yourself hunting through the tool box every couple of days.
• I also used this spot to place my camera battery charger and miscellaneous USB cords which made it easier to keep track of all of our gadgety-cord things.
• Go ahead and place the station out of reach of little hands now, since your baby will be walking before you know it.

One more tip about batteries: I recommend not using rechargeables for all of those little knick-knack toys your baby might have. Most likely you have so many of these kind of toys, it simply becomes too hard to keep track of which ones have regulars and which ones have rechargeables, not to mention that these type of toys can drain rechargeable batteries in a matter of hours. Save the rechargeable batteries for all of those space-hogging but necessary newborn items, like the bouncer, mobile, swing, crib soother, etc.

Our family rechargeable battery station-
simple and to the point



Will, at 4 months-thoroughly enjoying the rechargeable batteries
while sleeping soundly in his vibrating bouncer
(Sophie the Giraffe available at http://www.justdelivered.net/ )



Organized New Mom Tip #1: ROUTINE, ROUTINE, ROUTINE

When I say routine, I don't mean that at 9:07 a.m. Baby must be down for his nap or there's gonna be trouble. It simply means doing things in a certain order.

I don't care if you decide to sleep all day and be awake all night, just make sure you do it consistently. This was the best thing I could do for my son and was the most integral part in salvaging my sanity.  My husband and I were hermits for the first few months of his life because that was the routine that worked for us. Besides, once a routine is firmly established, I found that I could change it occasionally. We could keep him up a little bit later to go to a ball game, or miracle of miracles, my husband and I could go on a date once in awhile.

However, you don't necessarily have to stay at home to keep a routine. If you are always out and about, that could be a part of your routine. Once Will was a few months old, we went out all the time, but I just made sure I built it into his daily routine. Shopping was always after his morning nap, and walks were always after his afternoon snack.  I firmly believe he was a much happier baby when he knew what was coming next, and a happy baby means an ecstatic new mom.

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