Tuesday's tip for new mamas: The Laundry!

Quick tip for today: Doing the Laundry

If you get lots of baby clothes ahead of time at showers, or passed down from family or neighbors, do all of the laundry before your due date!!  I remember I did about 6 loads of just baby clothes about a week before Baby W arrived, and I was so happy that it was done!  You will of course be doing lots of laundry once your baby gets here, but you will be thankful if you have the initial loads done.

Photo Credit

Also, baby clothes are small and they don't take up lots of room, so you can get lots of clothes into one load.  I usually wash Baby W's clothes every Sunday.  The only time I do his laundry more often is if he has really messed up some of his clothes or sheets (and knock on wood, this hasn't happened as often as I thought it might!)

Baby Boy Clothes

We have used Dreft since Baby W was born, but I hear that the free and clear detergents work just as well. 

Dreft

Good luck with your loads :)

wordless wednesday: the laundry basket!

See yesterday's post for more of an explanation :)

tuesday's tip for new mamas: the laundry basket!

A few weeks ago, my mother in law was keeping Baby W while the hubby and I were working.  When I got home, she showed me a new, fun way for Baby W to keep himself entertained!  She put blankets in the bottom and hanging on the sides of a laundry basket, and she put toys in the basket as well.  Then, she plopped Baby W in with the blankets and toys and let him play!  He loves it!

This is only recommended when your baby can sit up pretty easily on his/her own.  But, it makes it easy to get stuff done around the house when you can watch them easily and transport them to any room with their toys. 

When I was in Charlotte this past weekend, my mom was going to watch Baby W while I went out and spent my birthday money.  She wanted to clean the kitchen and I showed her that it would be easy if she used the laundry basket.  She thought the idea was ingenious and that I should send it in to Parenting magazine...lol!  She said he loved sitting in there so much!

Another good thing about it is that when I pack for a trip, I can fit nearly everything we need for Baby W in the laundry basket.  So I pack the blankets, toys, clothes, burpcloths, bibs, pjs, white sound machine, baby monitor, bath stuff, and whatever else I need right there in the laundry basket. 

I don't have my camera right now to post pictures of this...but I will definitely give you some visuals tomorrow for wordless wednesday! 

Good luck trying this out!