By: Donna Farber

As a career couple with extensive travel ambitions, Donna and her husband decided to live their lives to the fullest, and have children later. They knew that when they had kids, their focus would be solely on them.

When their babies were born, life as they knew it instantly changed forever. They didn’’t sleep, ate fast food, were confined to the house for weeks on end, except for the occasional (just to see/hear other adults) trip through the Starbucks drive through while the baby slept in the bucket.

 

Here are Donna Faber’s suggestions for you, the career Mom:

 

1. Keep your Room for You

Move the baby to their own room as soon as possible. (To avoid co-sleeping arrangements, too much dependency, increase sleep, etc.)

2.No Pacifier

Don’t introduce this to the baby and it is hard to get them to stop using it later. Also, when it falls out of their mouth at night, they cry and you have to wake up to give it back to them. As an alternative, you can help them learn to self soothe early on.

3. Noisy Sleep

Put their crib in a loud area so they become familiar with noise and can fall asleep anywhere. This is the best option for sleep on the go.

4. Disco Ball Room

They should get used to sleeping anywhere, even when the blinds aren’t closed. Keep the room bright and dark too.

5. Goodbye Rock a Bye Baby

Avoid rocking them to sleep or they will get used to constant rocking and you won’t have free hands (or feet) for many months. You can workout in other ways.

6. Formula Early (even a little)

I respect both breast and bottle feeding moms. I breastfed for 8 months. When it was time to go back to work, my son was so used to the taste of breast milk that he refused formula and went on a hunger strike. He eventually got used to it, but it was an excruciating time for all of us. As a result of this traumatic experience, we introduced a very small amount of formula (while breastfeeding) to my daughter early on. This way, she was used to the formula when I had to wean her. This also gave me needed time to escape to the mall alone as she could be fed by a multitude of helpful? relatives.

7. Cold Milk

Don’t heat the babies’ milk. Get them used to cold or room temperate milk, formula/water, juice, etc. This way, you don’t have to purchase bottle warmers or heat liquids on the go. Just easier, especially when you’re traveling and the microwave on the airplane isn’t working. We witnessed a baby melt down on a plane because their bottle couldn’t be warmed.

8. Go for Gear

Research the hottest new baby products on the market that make parents’ lives easier. We invented Take N’ Shake by Bouche Baby as we were tired of using bottles, separate containers and plastic sleeves when mixing formula on the go. Talk to your friends, read the blogs, find out about the latest inventions that help other parents. We are talking the kids to Disney world for the first time this summer. A good friend recommended a fold up stroller with a boogie board too – so both kids won’t complain about the long walks.