My Favorite Postpartum Resources

I'm excited to share my absolute favs/must have items and resources for the first few weeks postpartum. I hope you benefit from the items that resonate with you :)

The Most Helpful/Useful Items:

• My Brest Friend Nursing Pillow: If you get anything from this list, I'd say get this. I wish I would have had it sooner. I started with the Boppy (which was annoying because baby would sort of fall through the gap between my belly and the pillow) and ended up getting this instead and it was honestly life changing. It made breast feeding SOOO much more comfortable and easy!
• LMNT Electrolytes: I swear these made my milk supply go back up when I noticed it dropping around 3 weeks postpartum. I also love the taste and knowing I'm getting extra hydrated. I've been drinking 1 a day since then and haven't had any supply drops since (obviously it's many factors but it really seems like these made a difference for me).
• Miss Mouth's Stain Remover: This stain remover works like magic, especially on my never ending milk/spit up stains!
• Hatch Nursing Tanks: Obsessed & highly recommend. I have 2 and honestly wish I had one for every day. 

• Momcozy Colostrum Collector: I pumped once a day the last 5 or so days of being pregnant. My midwives suggested it to help labor start and said I could save the colostrum for baby. I stored it in these syringes in the freezer and we'll use it when the baby is sick.
• Robe: I have 3 and honestly might get more. I have been living in these postpartum. It's super comfy and makes it very easy to nurse. I'd get black because you can't see milk stains (my red one shows them).
• Earth Mama Perineal Spray: Very smoothing and smells amazing. 
• Huckleberry App: I've been using this app to track feedings and it's been super useful! I've heard it's also great for sleep but we haven't felt called to track sleep for now. (UPDATE: I stopped using it after about 2-3 weeks...it was super helpful at first but then just made me obsessed with time so I stopped tracking feeding and it's still going great).
• Nursery Lamp: This is an awesome battery powered light for night feedings and diaper changes. It's SO cute, only $7 and is the perfect amount of light.
• Lansinoh Ice Packs: These feel amazing when my boobs are tender or engorged and were especially helpful when my milk first came in.
• Aussie Bites: These taste like really yummy muffins and have ingredients that help milk production.
• Munchkin Lactation Cookies: These are pretty tasty for pre-made lactation cookies. I like to dunk them in almond milk :)
• Cracked Nipples Remedy: Mix equal parts Polysporin, Lotrimin, 1% cortisone. Store in a jar and apply to nipples after each feed. My nipples cracked in the first week due to "improper" latches. My lactation consultant recommended this to heal them and it worked great. The cortizone also worked great on rashes I had from a reaction to the medical tape used in labor.
• Wishgarden Postpartum Emotional Support Tincture: I started using this occasionally when I feel intuitively called a couple weeks postpartum. It definitely seems to help balance my energy and mood. But I am also intentional about feeling and allowing my emotions separate from taking this (ie. I am not taking this as a way to avoid/suppress my emotions; rather it's a tool to support emotional/energetic balance in conjunction with feeling/allowing my emotions).
• Momanda Seamless Nursing Bras: My FAV nursing bras (by far!!) after trying and sending back like 6 different brands. 
• Love Every Play Kits: I LOVE not having to think about finding toys, especially ones that are age/developmentally appropriate. I was on the fence about doing this but am so glad I did and have had lots of friends who have 1 year olds say they still get them and love them as well.
• Nursing Pads: Work great!

Postpartum Support:

• Night Nanny: Hiring a night nanny was the best decision we ever made! I would also imagine that a postpartum doula who comes in the day would also be an amazing option.
• Lactation Consultant: I highly recommend finding a lactation consultant if you plan to breast feed and meeting with them once during pregnancy and then within a few days of giving birth (and then regularly after as needed). Ask around to find a really good one; it makes the world of a difference. Every time I met with mine, I felt like a new person because I'd learned such life changing tips to make feeding easier, more effective and pain free!
• Meal Train: I set up a meal train for friends and family to sign up to bring meals for the first couple weeks and it was a HUGE help. I highly recommend creating one and sharing with your community. It helped SO much to not have to figure out dinner AND was such a treat to have home-cooked meals. 

Books/Education:

• Taking Cara Babies First Five Months Bundle: I loved this sleep class! I started watching it and implementing/practicing about 2.5 weeks postpartum.
• Aware Baby: I really enjoyed this book on helping babies release pent up emotions. It had so many good reminders for me as well.

Reminders/Insights That Helped Me The Most:

• Trust your intuition
  • You know what is best for you, your family and your baby. This question has been super helpful for me: "What would this look like if I trusted myself?".
• Feel and allow your emotions
  • If you feel the need to cry, let it pour! Or if any other emotions arise, feel and release them as best you can. Emotions are often pent up from the past and not directly related to current circumstances. The current circumstances are just pulling up old energy and that's amazing because it's freeing you even more. On the other side is always more relief and clarity!

• This too shall pass
  • If it's a hard moment or day (or few days), remember it won't last forever. Relief is coming. Also, nothing has gone wrong if every day and moment isn't flowing smoothly. It's ALL part of the flow.
• When you feel unsure of how "responsive" you need to be to the baby, do what feels right for you right now.
  • This was some advice a friend gave me that I want to pass along. It's a moving target and you're not going to mess anything up by being "too" or "not enough" responsive. In the first week or so, "le pause" really helped us (waiting and observing baby's cries/noises for 1-3 minutes before jumping in). Newborns make a lot of noises and not all of them indicate a need. It's okay to not know what your baby needs or is trying to communicate. It will get easier with time. Your best is enough. There is zero mesing up. No one else could be doing a better job because you're the mom.
• "Me time is with me wherever I go." - Headspace
  • Or, in other words, peace is always and only right here, right now, as things are, as you are, where you are NOW. It's easy to get lost in mind stories that say "I can't have me time or relax until baby goes down for a nap" but waiting for the future creates more suffering now. As best you can, lean into and allow what is now. Given what is, what does "me time" look like now?
• If you're frustrated with your partner, it's completely normal.
  • It doesn't mean you "should" be frustrated but it's okay if you are AND you don't have to hold onto it indefinitely. What helped me (and our relationship) the most was allowing myself to be angry/frustrated (telling myself "it's okay to be frustrated...of course you are"), communicating with my husband (letting him know how I feel and asking for support) and taking ownership of my own emotions and releasing them as best I could. For me, I was aware that I wasn't "actually" mad at him...my mind was just projecting it onto him because it wanted an explanation for how I was feeling. I do my best to recognize when it's coming up and feel the feelings instead of reacting to them. It's OKAY if you are reacting. Each time, your awareness and ability to feel before reacting will grow. Reacting keeps the feelings stuck. Feeling allows you to get to the other side where the same situation that once felt infuriating, now feels like no problem at all. It also helped me to remember that it's an anatomy thing...he can't breast feed and he can't understand it and that's okay (even if it feels like it's not sometimes).

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