When planning for the postpartum season most women are focused on the needs of BABY, and forget about their own needs! But mama – your needs are just as important as the needs of your new baby.
A little bit of planning can help you to thrive after your baby arrives!
These are my must-have postpartum essentials to allow for healing, rest and bonding with your baby!
STOCKPILE YOUR FREEZER + PANTRY
Prepare SO much food. As much as you can afford or have space for. I promise, you won’t regret having meals in the freezer or a stocked pantry when baby is here.
We didn’t even touch the meals that I had prepped for the first few weeks because friends and family helped out, but I still appreciated them SO much when baby was a month old. I loved prepping meals in smaller disposable containers – like 9×9 aluminum pans. I also did some in the really big like 9×13 but then we would end up eating lasagna for an entire week. So I preferred the smaller ones since it was just the two of us eating!
I typically prefer to cook in glass casserole dishes, but I felt this was an appropriate time to use disposable.
I prepped dinners like lasagna, chicken pot pie casserole (my favourite recipe), mexican rice, pesto chicken pasta, soups. But I also found it so helpful to have snacks like banana bread, muffins, oatmeal peanut butter cookies to grab when I was hungry especially in the middle of the night!
ARRANGE FOR HELP
If you’re able to arrange help for after baby gets here, I highly recommend doing so! Maybe that looks like your husband taking a few weeks off work, hiring a postpartum doula or having your mom stay with you, or even come help with dinners.
This will obviously look different for every family, but if people have offered help I would recommend accepting it! Let someone fold a basket of laundry, do the dishes, take your older kids for an afternoon or pick up food for you.
SET HEALTHY BOUNDARIES
The reality is that not all visitors are helpful. Again, this will look different for every family, but if your MIL has offered to stay with you for a few weeks and you know that won’t be helpful for you – have that conversation.
Maybe you have unhealthy family relationships, or know that you just want it to be you, your partner and your baby for the first few weeks. The point is, dig deep to decide what YOU want. What you think is going to be helpful for you and let go of people pleasing.
COMFORTABLE CLOTHING
I lived in loose t-shirts + leggings, button up shirts, etc. After giving birth you likely won’t fit your pre-pregnancy clothes, but your pregnancy clothes might not fit anymore. I liked having a handful of comfortable, loose clothes that were easy to breastfeed in.
Everyone told me baby’s go through a lot of outfits in a day. For us that wasn’t true! Cohen could wear the same outfit for days (he rarely did because changing him was fun haha), but our clothes were ALWAYS getting dirty.
I’ve always been able to wear a tshirt or leggings for several days before washing, but that luxury was gone with a newborn! Whether it was spit up, leaked breast milk, or just a general feeling of “gross” – my clothes were always needing to be washed.
Honestly – spend less money on baby clothes and more money on things for YOU to wear to feel comfortable!
BUTTON UP PAJAMAS
On top of comfy loungewear I also liked having some button up pjs that were nice enough to wear around the house.
Typically I’m not much of a matching pajama set girl – but it’s nice in those early postpartum days to feel a little bit more put together.
CUP WITH STRAW
We still joke that “can you fill up my water” was my most used phrase in my early postpartum days. I don’t think my mom + husband will ever let me live that one down!
I’m always a big water drinker, but it seemed like every time I sat down to breastfeed I was also thirsty so I was always asking whoever was there to fill my water cup for me. I love having a cup with a straw, but next time I would probably get something that doesn’t leak when knocked over because this cup spilled many times.
SET UP DIAPER STATIONS
So this is going to depend on the layout of your home, but I recommend having a diaper changing station in any room you plan on spending a lot of time in. For us this was the bedroom and living room. You aren’t going to want to walk all over the house every time baby needs a clean diaper – which is often with newborns! We don’t have a changing table, we just use a portable changing pad on the couch/ground/bed.
I love this utility cart from Ikea for storing diapers, creams, wipes, and even a few extra sets of clothes in our living room.
POSTPARTUM BATHROOM STATIONS
The same idea with Postpartum stations in each bathroom throughout your home (pads, adult diapers, peri bottle). We only have one bathroom but if you have an en suite as well as another bathroom that you’ll be using regularly, I would have them both stocked with supplies – especially if your bedroom is on a different floor.
I just used chlorine free and fragrance free pads + adult diapers. I had several different brands and didn’t really have a preference. I also liked having a peri bottle and a perineal spray.
BOOK A POSTPARTUM MASSAGE
Okay this is something I hadn’t heard anyone recommend. Preferably in your own home if you can find someone to do that!
I had a very straight forward birth and recovery but the one thing that was so surprising to me was how sore my tailbone and upper back were after birth and from breastfeeding. I have a good friend who is a massage therapist and she gifted me a massage in my home in the first week and it was so needed.
I’m also a huge advocate for chiropractic care during pregnancy and postpartum. I definitely felt unprepared for how sore my shoulders, back and neck would be from holding my almost 10lb baby and breastfeeding all day long!
A GOOD NURSING PILLOW
This was actually something I didn’t think I would need. I thought I’d be fine just using regular pillows. I ended up getting a cheap nursing pillow that helped, but next time I’ll be investing in a really good one because even at 6 months I still use mine daily!
When baby is brand new, you end up straining your shoulder and upper back muscles to hold them in a good position while nursing! On top of always looking down to check his latch – I was SORE!
Here’s my dream nursing pillow for my next baby!
NIPPLE BUTTER
This nipple butter is obviously good for cracked or sore nipples but I also love it for any skin issues (like when he scratches himself or me!). It has amazing organic, non-toxic ingredients and works well on little baby scratches, baby acne.
A little bit goes a LONG way!
