4 Tips for Easier Mom + Baby Mornings

Picture this:  You wake up at 5:30 am to your alarm, which is your very hungry, very awake and very ready to play baby. You feed your baby. You change them, get them dressed. You start to make coffee but your baby is happy and adorable and wants attention. You play with them. It feels like 10 minutes has gone by, but in actual fact, it’s been an hour and they need to eat, again. You should probably eat, too. But you don’t.

You get the highchairs and all their gear setup, you open the fridge and, surprise! No baby food. Your baby is now screaming at you. You scramble to put together something that passes as an acceptable infant breakfast. They’re happy now because, food. Then, they barf all over themselves, so you give them a quick sink rinse and change them again. They’re cranky now because they’re tired. You put them down for a nap.

It’s now 9:30 am and your baby has had a pseudo bath, two breakfasts, and two outfit changes. You haven’t peed, showered, changed, eaten, or even had a drink of water for four hours. You now have roughly 30-90 minutes to fit all that in.

Sound familiar? Welcome to the world of Motherhood, where everyone’s needs come before your own, and mornings are — more often than not– a disaster.

If your mornings sound like mine, here are a few things that can help you turn that new mom and baby chaos into “organized” new mom and baby chaos.

4 Tips for Easier Mornings

1 // Set the Table… the Night Before

The number one thing that has helped us be somewhat organized amidst the chaos of the morning scramble is setting up the babies’ feeding stations before we go to sleep. Even though we are so exhausted that this feels like a monumental task, I promise you, it’s not. I guarantee that the 5 minutes it takes to get their high chairs, bibs, bowls, spoons, and bottles ready is a quarter of the amount of time it would take trying to do it in the morning once everyone is awake and STARVING. Also, no one is screaming at you if you do it at 9 pm. Hopefully.

• Pro tip #1: Get out a simple snack for yourself. I set up a bowl of instant oats with chia and hemp seed so that I can eat at least one thing before 9:30 am
• Pro tip #2: Partners; want to do something nice for the new mom in your house? Give her a chance to have a shower or bath, or better yet, go straight to sleep while you set up the morning things for her.

2 // Program Your Coffee

If you’re a java-loving a parent and do NOT have a programmable coffee maker, it’s time to get your act together and #treatyoself. The Braun BrewSense Drip Coffee Maker has basically become the 5^th member of our household and is ranked higher than I am in terms of family importance.  Another quick task to do at night that will save you many minutes of stress in the morning – and potentially even allow you to consume a hot coffee before noon – is setting up your coffee maker to Auto On whenever the heck you want it to.

We program ours to start right after we finish the babies first round of bottles around 7:30am so that my husband fill his traveler mug (sometimes while the coffee is still brewing; you can pour the coffee that’s ready without interrupting the cycle or spilling any!!) and then I get to sit down with a hot cup around 9:15 am after the babies go down for their first nap.

3 // Blend Some Leftovers

If you think that homemade is hard, you haven’t tried the MultiQuick 5 Baby Hand Blender.  Making your own pureés takes seconds with the hand blender plus a little veggie water, breast milk or sterilized water. I usually just set aside a small portion of whatever veggies we make for our adult dinner so I don’t have to go through the whole process of prepping and boiling their food separately because, seriously, who has the time. I’ve also pulled out the MQ5 Baby in the early hours of the morning when I panic after realizing that there is no food for the babies first round of solids.

4 // Smoothie Prep

Look, unless you’re into waking up at 4:30 am, nothing will ever change the fact that your kid will eat before you — more than once. I, personally, HATE mornings, and will always take the easy route before noon, wherever and however I can. Sadly, that has meant either eating crap or not eating all together before the babies nap. Not only does that suck, but it’s also not healthy.

One of the easiest and healthiest breakfasts to make is a smoothie or smoothie bowl, but even this can seem like too much effort to put together if the baby is awake and ain’t NO mama going to attempt to blend anything once those littles are sleeping. Uh-uh. What you CAN do is prep your smoothie magic by layering all the fruit and veggie goodness into a mason jar. In the morning, empty your jar into your blender and add in some protein powder and liquid of your choice. Blend while the kiddies are awake — I like using the Braun PureMix Power Blender —and then pour into a water bottle with a lid and straw. Less likely so spill, more likely to end up in your belly.

How do you make your mornings easier? Share your tips with me in the comments 🙂

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