What happened? A baby happened!
On December 26th of last year, I became a new mom. I’m still getting used to the title and having a little potato to take care of 24/7. One thing that drastically changed during my pregnancy, and now motherhood, was the drive to make sustainable choices. A lot of my habits that I have been developing for years went out the window when the morning sickness stuck around for 10 weeks. I didn’t think twice about it, I was in survival mode. Then the continued exhaustion of growing a human made seeking convenience all the more appealing.
When looking back on how my lifestyle changed these last 10 months, I started to feel a little guilty about my frivolous Amazon spending and purchases of foods in plastic containers from the grocery store. I know I shouldn’t beat myself up, I’ll find my way back to some of my old habits and seek new ways to minimize my footprint in parenthood too. But finding my way back means some serious planning and the ability to be flexible, I know I likely can’t go back to my old ways 100% right now.
So here I will share some things I hope to start doing again or for the first time as a new mom finding her way back to a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Farmer’s Market
We will certainly be getting back to our weekly produce shopping at the Sunday market by us. I might be driving to it instead of biking these days, but I look forward to eating a bit more seasonally and locally again. My body is craving fresh, balanced meals while I recover and breastfeed.
Cloth Diapers
We go through SO MANY DIAPERS with our 2-week-old Ava!! It feels dreadfully wasteful, but I know my sweet girl is just growing and lots of diapers is a good thing. Once we are a bit out of the newborn phase of life, my goal is to try cloth diapers. It seems intimidating, but I’ve been told by many friends and family that it’s not as scary as it seems. These days cloth diapers are well structured and easier to clean. We will likely only do cloth diapers at home for now as we learn the ins and outs of what works best for us. Stay tuned for how that journey goes for us, I’ll be sure to report back.
Minimal & Secondhand clothes/toys
When it comes to clothes, the first couple weeks we haven’t used that many. So far, we have avoided blow outs that get all over her clothes. I’d say she wears PJs and then one outfit a day. As long as the PJs are clean, we use those for several days in a row. We also aren’t going out anywhere, so all those “cute” little outfits are hardly worn. In fact, she’s already grown out of a couple. Luckily, many of her clothes were handed down to her by our friends. We have several friends who are expecting this year and I plan on offering the newborn/early clothes to them to keep the cycle going - Especially because Ava hasn’t worn that many of them!
Toys are the same thing as clothes, we don’t need that many – especially at this stage in life. Babies don’t need fancy toys, the simplest things you have at home can entertain them just fine. As she gets older, we will utilize what we have at home and nature as many of our toys/entertainment.
Cooking/meal planning
Like I mentioned about the farmer’s market – I am craving fresh, balanced meals these days. Processed food bogs me down and I want Ava to have a healthy meal through me. As my husband goes back to work, cooking will likely be happening during nap times. Weekends will be our time to do a little meal prepping for the week to make life just a little easier with an infant. We also received a lot of meal delivery gift cards that allow us to support local restaurants and feed ourselves without dirty dishes!
Things I’d do differently next time:
Less Postpartum Products:
I bought a lot of the postpartum items that are advertised and talked about – witch hazel pads, Dermoplast, adult diapers, pads of various sizes. And I did use them all, but I mainly did because I already had them and didn’t want to waste what I bought. I really did not enjoy the witch hazel pads and the Dermoplast was a little too much for me as well – they brought more attention to the area than I wanted. The hospital also provided the giant pads and diapers that would have lasted me the first week or so. By then, I didn’t need them as much as recovery continued along. Overall, I would just utilize what the hospital sent me home with, then buy what I needed as I needed it since we live so close to a store. Would have saved a lot of money and wasted less had I waited it out.
Less Newborn Clothes:
I mentioned above that we utilized hand-me-downs for clothes. We still had a lot of clothes for the first newborn stage, and it is too much. I’d rather have been more practical – easy diaper access clothes like double zippers and knotted bottoms instead of the cute outfits. A couple of those are good if you want to do cute pictures with visitors, but other than that Ava lives in her warm PJs (it’s cold in our apartment!) and long-sleeved jumpers that have a double zipper. Anything else stays in a drawer and she’s going to outgrow them fairly soon.
Overall, I think we are doing the best we can with what we have. I look forward to making changes that better align with the lifestyle I want for us, while also giving myself grace when it doesn’t happen immediately. As long as we are all happy and healthy, I’d say it’s a win in my book.
