New Mom Rookie Mistakes

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12805871_10153417458871402_8289874454900857304_nJust this month my little man turned one! Ahhhh! It got me thinking about the first year of motherhood, sleepless nights, and my “New Mom Rookie Mistakes!” As a first time mom there are a couple of moments when looking back that I think “Why didn’t someone tell me that!” So I’ve decided to put my list of Rookie Mistakes together and hopefully give you a good laugh, but also to help you avoid those embarrassing moments.

  1. Choose a seat on the end of a row – My sweet friends were saving me a spot as I was running late for church, which happens all the time now that I’m a parent. It just so happened that my reserved seat was in the middle of the isle. Instead of asking my friends to move in I just picked up the car seat and made my way to the middle. This was all fine until my baby started crying in the middle of church and needed to feed. Without having a quick exit plan, I was stuck in the middle of a row trying to figure out breastfeeding in public for one of the first times!
  1. Skip the stroller and use a high chair – Instead of banging in to your table neighbor at a restaurant and having to say sorry 5 times before getting to your table, just bring in the car seat. Did you know that those wooden high chairs flip over and hold your car seat perfectly? I know, right! Genius! Thank you kind waitress for that tip!
  1. Downsize your purse – this might be obvious to most of you, but for me it took some time. Instead of carrying that nice big purse, it might be time to down size to a wallet purse or find a case for your phone that can carry a little cash and a credit card. I was carrying so many bags that it looked like I was a tourist in my own neighborhood.
  1. Pack clothing for yourself – This is one thing you may not need, but if you do you will thank me! In the diaper bag, not only do you have an extra set of clothing for your baby, but one for you too. I was at a car dealership having the oil changed when – yes, a blowout! It was all the way down the side of my shirt! So as Mr. Giggles is laughing and feeling a bit of relief, I’m trying to figure out how to use his swaddling blanket as a shawl to go over my nursing tank top. I was hoping that I would score a free dealership t-shirt out of pity, but that did not happen.IMG-531579430
  1. Make sure all high chair safety straps are in the right place – This picture probably explains it all! But double check even when you are using your own high chair cover that the safety strap is in the middle to keep your little one from slipping through. P.S. don’t go to breakfast with your parents if they are just going to laugh and take pictures instead of helping!!20211
  1. Read directions – I’m one that likes to skip directions and that sometimes leads to more work and stress then necessary. In the hospital those wonderful nurses swaddle your baby like a champ leaving me to believe “I got this,” until I was at home. Oh boy! That little one was unwrapped before I could say “ta-da!” So you can always YouTube this “how to” or you could simply look at the large tag on your swaddle blanket showing you exactly what to do. This took us about 2 weeks to find, oops!

So now that I’m looking back all of these moments they make me AND my friends laugh so hard…but it took months to get to the point where life settled down, I’m sleeping through the night, and I can laugh at myself. I would love to hear about your “Rookie Mistakes,” partly just to make myself feel normal, but also to let us know that it’s also OK to laugh at ourselves.

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