Family and Friends Can Help With Baby

Re-Use Baby Equipment from Friends

I’m a software developer and as a profession we’re all about re-use of proven systems.  Not re-inventing the wheel really saves us time and money.   Having a baby shares many of these traits.  I visited one of my best friends several weeks before our baby was due.  He has a 2 year old and a 3 year old so they decided their child having was over.   He handed me a boppy pillow, a swing and a jumper telling me these things would save my life.   The pillow and swing saved my life.  The boppy can be a quick prop for the baby, a breast feeding aid and a pillow for dad.   The swing soothes babies when they have an upset tummy or just in general because they like rocking.

 Let me know what I can do to help?

Get ready to hear this phrase more often than you ever did before in your entire life.   Your friends and family will step up like you won’t believe asking to help you out with your new baby.  Most of us when asked are just stoned with no response and either deny help or don’t know what to ask for.   Let your friends and family help!  It’s a big recovery process when you have a little one so take a helping hand in getting your new baby home.

  1. Food – The number one thing you can get them to do is cook you something that you can eat for a couple of days or freeze.   Cooking sucks while tending a new baby and you’ve likely already been eating quick and dirty in the week leading up to the baby.   Between our parents and friends we didn’t have to deal with food the first 10+ days which is a major help.
  2. House work – If anyone offers assistance let them come over.   Your house cleanliness will degrade while you’re getting used to the baby.  In fact it’ll degrade in general before having the baby and probably never return to form.
  3. 3rd pair of hands – Someone to just help with the general daily baby activities.   Bathing, bottle making, changing, swaddling, whatever.   Grandmothers and aunts usually love this opportunity and it’s not a chore to them.   Take their presence as a chance to sleep, run to the store or anything else you usually can’t get away for.