Hello friends, this is my very FIRST blog post as a new MOMMY! It has been the most amazing five months since Kayden has arrived and Malick and I are enjoying every single minute of it! Kayden is such a sweet little boy and we don’t know what our world was like without him! Every minute of every day reminds us how grateful we are for our new bundle of joy! As first-time parents, everything we are experiencing is of course very new to us! With that said, I want to shed some light on parenting and some tips that have helped us these last few months.
Now, you can never be completely prepared for what’s going to come your way, but at least you can try and have a solid base and foundation. One brand I knew I was going to use before Kayden even arrived was Dr. Brown’s. It is a brand that has been used for many, many years and used by millions of parents around the world; a brand that I trust for my child. Not only did we have the Dr. Brown’s bottles handy, but we stocked up on all of the other essentials needed for a newborn. For example: teethers, a food masher, bibs, pacifiers, toothbrush, toothpaste, face and nose wipes, pacifier and bottle wipes, tooth and gum wipes, snack and dip cups, etc.
Early on, Kayden only had a need for the basics – Dr. Brown’s Nose and Face Wipes, Dr. Brown’s Pacifier and Bottle Wipes, the Dr. Brown’s HappyPaci Silicone Pacifier and Dr. Brown’s Pacifier Clip. These were useful at home, on walks, and on occasional car rides when we took Kayden out for a change of scene!
As you all already know, once I grew comfortable with the idea of pacifiers and we weren’t concerned about nipple confusion, we introduced him to the Dr. Brown’s Options+ Wide-Neck Baby Bottles in various shapes and sizes. What I haven’t shared yet but have gotten a lot of requests about is what breast pump I am using — Dr. Brown’s Customflow Double Electric Breast Pump. Kayden is 100% breast-fed, however I also pump as much as I can to stock up a supply for times when I must leave the house, or in times of need. The breast pump is very easy to use, and the display screen makes it simple to understand which feature is being used. Along with the breast pump, I also used the Dr. Brown’s Hands Free Pumping Bra because they are very, very comfortable and easily attach to the breast pumps keeping my hands free to do other things! I have it in both nude and black. Of course, the last thing needed as part of the pumping trio are storage bags. We used the Dr. Brown’s Breast Milk Storage Bags, and I use a permanent marker to write the date and the amount of breast milk I am storing. They are very easy to seal and have made transferring from bottle to bag effortless. While we are on the topic of pumping I want to also let you know how important it is to create a schedule, and try to pump at the same time every day to make your life a lot easier. It took me some time to create a schedule of my own, but I am so glad that I do pump after Kayden‘s morning feeding so that I am not taking anything away from his “breakfast.” One thing that has made it easier is that I will have my coffee and turn on a favorite TV show while pumping, and it has made the pumping process of 20 to 30 minutes a lot more enjoyable in my opinion. I try to pump a second time at 4 PM, but there are days when I will miss that cause there is always something to do! As you all know, some days are busier than others.
Kayden started teething a lot sooner than I thought he would, and I’m so glad I had the Dr. Brown’s Flexees Friends, Learning Loop, and Flexees Ergonomic teethers handy because they really were able to soothe his gums. One of his absolute favorites is the Dr. Brown’s Nawgum 3-in-1 Teether. It has different textures that really soothe his gums and it is very easy for him to grip onto. Another aspect that comes with teething is drooling, so we also really love the Dr. Brown’s Bandana Bib with Snap-On Teether. It is functional (which Malick loves), soothes Kayden, and it is super cute. What’s not to love?
Last week Kayden started on solids! Can you believe he is already eating food?! It feels like he was born just yesterday; oh how time flies! For his very first food ever in life I decided to give him avocado! It’s funny because I dressed him up as an avocado for Halloween :-). To make sure that the avocado was mashed up well enough to feed him, we used the Dr. Brown’s Make-A-Smash Food Masher to mash up an organic avocado. He actually seemed to really like it! Next, I will be making sweet potato using the masher, followed by a couple of other foods in the next few weeks: carrots, peas, banana etc. I am going to slowly introduce foods to him to make sure he is not allergic to anything. To be cautious, I also encourage you to write down what he ate and what time and give the foods a break between so that you can always pinpoint which food would have caused the allergic reaction.
Here are some other items along with the ones I mentioned above that we have been using quite frequently; the Dr. Brown’s Deluxe Bottle Warmer & Sterilizer and the Dr. Brown’s Baby Bottle Brush. Throughout the last few months, I have I have also written a piece for the challenges of mom shaming which you can read at this link on the Dr. Brown’s website.
Please let me know if there is anything you wanted me to cover that I didn’t get to in this blog post, as I tried to share details of how we leverage and use the various Dr. Brown’s products. I hope you all are staying safe and healthy, and I look forward to hearing from you all soon!
Lots of love,
Farheen