When I was pregnant with my first, I got all sorts of advice for what to do once the baby was born.
“Don’t buy too many newborn clothes, baby grows fast!”
“Make sure you have this specific baby product, it’s a game changer! You need it!”
And, everybody’s personal favorite:
“Sleep when the baby sleeps!”
Wow, what a novel idea. Never heard that before.
I’m not here to give you postpartum advice like that. I’m also not here to give you a twelve-step routine you should do every morning in order to survive the postpartum phase. And I’m definitely not here to tell you what to do because I’ve figured it all out. On the contrary, this is my second time being postpartum and I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing! I’ve been told that feeling of generalized inadequacy lingers throughout most of parenthood. Amazing.
No, what I am here to do is share little pieces of advice that I’ve picked up along the way, during my past six years of parenting, that I found to be genuinely helpful. I wish someone had told me these when I was a first time mom. But alas, I do not currently have access to a time machine, so I’ll settle for the next best thing: helping other moms be better off postpartum than I was!
- Freeze treats, not just meals.
When I was around 25 weeks pregnant with my twins, I started loading up my freezer with freezer meals. I had my first in 2020 during the global pandemic, so no one was really dropping off meals and I had to rely on my own freezer stash. I knew this time would be different, but I still wanted a few meals just in case.
I made beef stew, cilantro lime chicken, beef and broccoli, and other nutrient-dense meals to help aid postpartum recovery. Your body goes through a lot, so the more iron, protein, and vitamins you can squeeze in your diet, the better! But then I got to thinking… if I was going to be breastfeeding twins, I was going to (a) be burning a ton of extra calories and (b) up at all hours of the nights. I knew that was not going to be heating up leftover beef and broccoli after a 3am feed.
So in addition to the crockpot freezer meals, I baked banana bread and pumpkin bread and some cookies and chucked those in the freezer, too. And then honestly, I forgot about them for months.
Flash forward to the beginning of March 2026. I have been awake for two straight weeks (basically). I am always hungry and never full, and have the biggest sweet tooth I’ve ever had in my LIFE. I’m rummaging through the freezer, trying to cram in all of the extra milk I’ve produced in the two weeks since the twins were born, when I see it:
Mom’s favorite banana bread.
(That’s what the recipe is called because I got it from my mom).
I yanked that out of the freezer so fast, plopped it on the counter, and in a few short hours, me and my three older kids were happily enjoying thick slices of homemade bread warmed in the microwave. That loaf helped keep the hunger at bay during all of the middle-of-the-night feeds that week, served as breakfast for the big kids as we ran around trying to get everyone ready for school, and most importantly, it made me so dang happy to enjoy a homemade treat without any of the effort.
So do yourself a favor and freeze those sweets!
- Ditch the nice sheets and comforters.
No one warned me how much I would sweat while I was postpartum. Breastfeeding can also make this worse apparently! Rather than dirtying our nice sheets and duvet every night, I opted for just a fitted sheet on the bed and an individual blanket to sleep under. My husband had his own blanket, too. Not only did this make doing laundry a little bit easier, it also prevents any arguments over who’s hogging the blanket!
- Get outside!
I had my first daughter right at the tail-end of summer, so although there were some random really hot days, for the most part the weather was perfect for going for walks outside. Once she was a week or so old, I started going for an hour-long morning walk with her every single day. It majorly helped my mental health, and since she usually slept the whole time, it gave me some quiet time to clear my head that I wasn’t getting at home. It could be just a coincidence, but once it got cold enough that I decided to stop going for daily walks, I gained a bunch of weight and my mental health tanked. I’m not one who thinks “bouncing back” is necessary, but I do think motherhood is easier when you feel your best. For me, the poor mental health and the weight gain turned into a vicious cycle where one fed off of the other, and it took me years to break out of it.
This time around, with the twins, I have stayed consistent and continue to go for walks pushing the girls in their stroller. If I can make it out daily, that’s great, but more often than not, it’s closer to 4-5 times a week, and that has still been more than enough. Not to mention that getting outside has tons of positive benefits for your baby, as well!
- Remember that frozen food is still a meal.
I mentioned how I prepared a bunch of freezer meals while I was pregnant, but this piece of advice applies to frozen pizza and chicken nuggets, too. If your options are to eat something from your freezer or starve because it’s not “nutritious,” obviously you should eat because starving yourself isn’t healthy either!
I made sure to always have individual freezer meals, chicken nuggets and chicken patties, pizzas, and meatballs on hand. If you’re feeding a family and not just yourself, this still gives you plenty of options! There’s tons of crockpot recipes you can make with meatballs (I mentioned one I love here), but you can also just dump frozen meatballs in your crockpot and cover them in barbecue sauce and dark soda for 6-8 hours and call it a day.
- Get ready every day.
And no, this does not have to mean a full face of makeup and jewelry and jeans. Maybe it means taking a shower for the first time in days, or maybe it means brushing your teeth with toothpaste for the first time in days. It could also be taking ten minutes to straighten your room, do the dishes, start a load of laundry, or take out the trash. The point is, take ten minutes every morning to do something that will make you feel like the day is off to a good start.
- Stay off the internet!
Especially now that things like ChatGPT exist, it can be so tempting to look up every symptom, pain, and worry that you experience. But as I’ve learned the hard way, no amount of Googling will cure anxiety — it normally just makes it worse — and your instincts are often more correct than you would think they are.
Online guidelines for newborn sleep schedules, feeding amounts, weight gains, and more, are all just based on averages and over-generalizations. They are not specific to your baby. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution to any postpartum or newborn related struggles. More likely than not, looking up things on the internet too often will just lead to more stress. Trust yourself, your mom friends, your mom, your pediatrician, and other real people in your life!
- Don’t click the “checkout now” button in your cart until it’s light outside.
Everything feels like an emergent need when it’s three in the morning. Hydrating nipple masks. 200 more diapers. Tummy time mirrors. High-contrast flashcards for newborns. Three new pairs of stretchy pants. And usually, a lot of it is stuff you genuinely need! But just… maybe not that many. Or that emergently.
Regardless, I try to wait until morning to reassess my Amazon cart and my priorities before I order hundreds of dollars of “needs.” I’m not saying that always prevents me from ordering what I panic-added to my cart in the middle of the night, but it has saved me at least some money!
- Keep stuff in the diaper bag for you.
You can find dozens of diaper bag packing lists online. People will tell you to be sure to have everything from three changes of outfits to twelve pacifiers to portable sound machines. But you know what’s usually missing from those lists? Things for you.
Especially in those early weeks, keep extra pads in the diaper bag, and underwear, too, while you’re at it. I always be sure to have chapstick, hand lotion, hair ties, and tissues, all to help me be comfortable while I’m out and about. Since I’m exclusively pumping, I keep nursing pads and nipple butter in my bag, as well, not to mention emergency snacks. I never forget the snacks! A friend also recommend keeping an entire change of clothes for yourself in there, which honestly, between leaking boobs and baby spit up and diaper blowouts… isn’t a bad idea.
Some other items that might help, but I don’t always carry, include a phone charger, water, ibuprofen, gum, and any makeup essentials you like to have. Taking care of the baby (or in my case, babies) is important, but so is taking care of yourself! It’s so easy to forget what you need as you’re rushing to pack up what feels like the entire house just to go to the pediatrician, so keeping some essentials in the diaper bag helps to avoid not having what you need.
On that note, a bonus tip: keep diapers and wipes in your car — trust me! Because it doesn’t matter what’s in your diaper bag if you forget the whole dang thing! Speaking from painful experience.
- Keep (or start) taking prenatal vitamins.
I, admittedly, did not take prenatals when I was pregnant. I did take lots of zofran! But I could barely stomach water, much less any of the prenatal gummies or pills that I tried. But luckily, my nausea subsided the second my pregnancy ended, and since I had all of these neglected prenatals lying around, I decided to start taking them. Your body is still working hard postpartum, both to recover and to produce milk if you’re breastfeeding, so the more nutrients, the better! I didn’t do this last pregnancy, but wish I had. This time around, I plan to continue taking prenatal vitamins until at least six months postpartum.
- Bonus advice from my husband: try to still carve out time for your hobbies and interests.
I asked my husband, without telling him all of the postpartum advice I had already jotted down, what his number one piece of advice would be, and this was it! The fact that I didn’t come up with it myself shows just how easy it can be to lose yourself in parenthood. When you have a newborn, they become your whole world, and rightfully so! But as a parent, your mental health matters so much, and your identity is more than just “Mom” or “Dad.”
For me, this looks like finding just a few hours each week to write, bake, or create — all things I enjoyed before becoming a mom. For my husband, this includes getting in a few runs each week and always having a book nearby to read when time allows. Making time for your own personal hobbies and interests keeps you grounded, which in turn makes you a more calm, emotionally regulated parent.
At the end of the day, there’s no secret formula to a successful postpartum experience: it’s going to be hard no matter what. But that doesn’t have to mean that you’re miserable the whole time!
Step by Step Parenting 