Truth from the Trenches: Helping the New Parents

I have been pretty honest about how hard those first few weeks were with our little bundle of joy. A few people have asked me as they plan for babies what people can do that is really helpful.  So I made a list. 

1. Bring food. Not sure what they like?  I can help! The answer is "anything they didn't have to make." We had several folks show up to our house with a full meal in tow. Ty's cousin brought tacos complete with tortillas already fried and ready, cheese in a bag, and homemade salsa.  My cousin and her crew arrived with sloppy joes, chopped veggies, dip, and a cake. Best meals I ever ate. If you are not much of a cook, bring snacks. New moms are starving and busy so something they can eat quickly is awesome. 

2.  Don't forget paper goods. A couple people brough is paper plates and boy was that a life saver! We don't have a dishwasher (I know, you are picturing that "we are settlers" commercial) so it was lovely to eat and throw everything away at the end. 

3.  Go grocery shopping. Twice I asked people to take my list and go to the grocery store. I cannot tell you how helpful that was. The idea of us loading up and trying to navigate the cart down aisles to find oatmeal and shredded cheese made me want a Prozac. They just brought me a reciept, I wrote them  a check, and it was glorious. 

4. Take on some household chores. Admittedly, I was not very good about taking people up on this. But looking back I should have been. A mom has a very narrow of when the baby is napping to sleep, eat, pee, look at her phone...so things like laundry are not a real priority.  Run their laundry. Sweep the floor. Wash the dishes.  Anything like this is huge. 

5. Walk the dog. When BB came along, our poor dogs probably thought we had fallen off the face of the earth. For a couple weeks all we could manage to do was yell hi and throw them some food. It would have been so nice for someone to take them out for a short walk or to play with them in the back yard. 

 6. Encourage. Every new mom feels like she has no clue what she is doing. Don't make that a worse by questioning her or telling her what she is doing wrong. Be helpful and encouraging and supportive.  This one is a biggie. I didn't need someone else telling me how I should burp him or how much better their kids were...I needed someone to show up with a carton of cookie dough ice cream to tell me I had this!