Five Time (and Sanity) Saving Baby Care Tips

You may think you were pushed for time before you had a baby but that's nothing to the hours that, weirdly, both whizz by and stretch on endlessly in those first few weeks after your baby's birth. Whole days can pass at roughly the speed of an elderly snail but, strangely, you still don't seem to have time to get anything done. Some of it, obviously, is the almost hallucinogenic level of tiredness induced by sleep deprivation, but having to get to grips with a whole new set of tasks you didn't have to worry about before also takes it out of you. The last thing you'll need is another flood of well-meaning but ultimately exhausting advice, but these quick tips should help you organise yourself and make life with a new baby a little bit easier:1. Set up 'changing stations' in the rooms of the house that you spend most time in. Buy a nice box or basket and stock it with nappies, wipes, Sudocreme, a change mat, muslins and perhaps a change of clothes. You'll save time and energy because you won't have to lug your baby upstairs to the changing table every time you need to change a nappy. Better yet, buy a basket with a handle and you can move the changing station from room to room.2. In the same vein, have a pre-packed baby bag. Put in nappies, wipes, a change-mat, a bib, a muslin, a spoon and a jar of food. You can add bottles and drinks as necessary. For older children, make sure you have wipes, a change of clothes, snacks and drinks. Keep the bag in the car, or hung on the pushchair: whatever form of transport you use most. You can then simply leave the house with all eventualities covered.3. When weaning, pre-cook suitable dishes, puree and then freeze in ice cube trays. When you need to, simply pop out a couple of cubes and heat in the microwave (be sure to stir thoroughly and test for heat - try touching some to your lip - before giving it to your baby). Pasta, stew and cottage pie are all worth a go. It's worth having at least a few jars of pre-made food at home at all times. Those little pots of pureed fruit might be more expensive than making it yourself but once you've thrown away the fifteenth Tupperware container of mouldering apple sauce from the fridge, you'll realise it's a price worth paying.4. When you move onto weaning, make sure you have a high chair with a removable, washable cover. It will get filthy and dabbing at it with a baby wipe won't be enough to clean it. Make sure the chair has a large, easily wipe-able, removable tray. After every meal, you need to be able to up-end it in the kitchen sink and sluice it down. Most importantly, make sure the chair has a decent harness, not just a lap strap - babies can and will climb out of these and you don't want them taking a header onto a tiled floor from table height.5. If you possibly can, breastfeed. It's better for your baby, it's better for you and it'll mean you'll not have to stand in the kitchen at 3am, hopping from bare foot to bare foot on the cold floor and shivering while you wait for the kettle to boil. Breastfeeding means you'll have the perfect food available at the perfect temperature, whenever it's needed. Even more importantly, learn to breastfeed lying down at the earliest opportunity. Once I'd mastered this, I began to get literally twice the amount of sleep that I'd been getting before.It really is true what they say - the time will fly by. Your baby will grow and develop so quickly; try and make the most of every moment because, no matter how hard it might be to believe when you're in the thick of it, it really does go by in a flash.