Mom Hacks

Considering the title of this blog, I figured I should probably put something on here that actually regards "moming," so, here we go. I've gotta share some of the best mom hacks I've learned in the 9 months since little Isabelle was born.

I did have a lot of experience with children before I had one of my own because I started helping babysit my younger siblings (well, the last 5 anyway) when I was eight years old. Little did I know then what a blessing that experience would be. Some of my mom hacks were passed down from my mother during those babysitting years but I have come up with a few mic drops of my own.

1. Getting Mommy a shower when Daddy is at work presents a few problems. I can't leave Isabelle anywhere alone. If I put her in her crib she tries to stand up and then promptly falls over, banging her head on the side. Leaving her on the floor is a definite "NO" because she crawls and can get into who knows what. I've even tried taking her in the shower with me. Yeah.....not going to do that again. Trying to get myself AND the baby dressed at the same time is just...well...impossible. But! I found a solution. I put the baby in her walker right after her nap, a feeding, and a diaper when she's super duper happy. Then I prop the walker in the bathroom door so that she can't roll around. I now have 15 minutes. I can hop in the shower, get all cleaned up, get out, dried, and dressed before she starts getting bored. If she starts fussing before I'm out I can peak my head out of the shower curtain to reassure her that I'm still around. I should probably mention, by the way, that I do not have any stairs in my house. 
2. This one comes from my mom but it's one of the best ever. Does your baby every start peeing or pooping right after you get the diaper off? Isabelle does sometimes. Here's the fix: before you take the dirty diaper off, put a clean diaper underneath. This catches anything that may start coming out after the dirty diaper is off. 
3. Along with #2, if you're changing a poopy diaper, go ahead and get a couple of wipes out and at the ready before taking the diaper off. It not only saves time but, if the wipes bunch up you're not sitting there fighting with them with only one hand.
4. Dark corn syrup! This helps a constipated baby poop. When I started Isabelle on baby food her body was having a difficult time adjusting from mommy milk and she didn't poop for over a week. I started giving her about 1/2 teaspoon of dark corn syrup twice a day and she went in a couple of days. This hack actually came from my grandma and was verified by my pediatrician. :)
5. Nursing a stuffy, sick baby can be nearly impossible. Especially when they start getting mad because they are having trouble eating and they don't feel good anyway. Isabelle had a really bad cold a few weeks ago and I had to find a way to overcome this. I was worried about her fluids and I knew she wasn't eating as much as normal because I felt like I had a major overabundance of milk. Finally, I grabbed the smallest medicine dropper I had, hand expressed some milk into a little bowl, and fed her using the medicine dropper. I had to go very slowly, pushing out only enough milk to barely cover her tongue but she perked up quit a bit after a couple medicine droppers full. Happy babies mean happy mommies. 

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I'm sure as Isabelle grows more and more I will have plenty more mom hacks to share. In the meantime, if any of you have some mom hacks you could share with me, I'd really love to hear about them. Leave me a comment and let me know some of your best!