35 Newborn Hacks to Help you Survive Life with A Baby

Being a new mom is tough! Bookmark these newborn hacks so you can make the fourth trimester a little bit easier. These newborn hacks are from moms who have been there and know how hard it can be having a baby!

There have been several occasions where I come across a life hack and it was a game changer. So much so, that sometimes I wonder how I ever lived life without it.

For me, having a newborn was one of the toughest phases ever. Mentally, emotionally, physically—there’s so just so much going on inside your own body and mind and now you have this tiny little thang to care for.

It’s HARD!

Since it can be so challenging, I like to find big and small ways to make it easier. Enter these amazing newborn hacks. I polled some of my mama friends to see what helped them the most in those early newborn days and here’s what they said. These are our best newborn hacks so you can survive that fourth trimester and beyond!

Want a realistic newborn sleep schedule? Download my free newborn sleep schedule to see what a day with your newborn might look like. Click here to grab it, it’ll be super helpful.

Diaper Bag Newborn Hacks

Getting out of the house with baby is no small feat, especially when you first start doing it! Use these diaper bag newborn hacks to make sure you have everything you need while you’re out and about.

Use plastic condiment cups to store smaller pacifiers inside your diaper bag. It will help keep them clean and make it easier to find when you’re searching for that little binky inside a giant diaper bag full of stuff.

Babies spit up or have blowouts pretty regularly in those first few months. Always be ready by keeping an extra change of baby clothes in a sealable plastic bag. If you switch out your diaper bag or trade baby duty with dad, you can easily hand him the bag so he has it too.

I also liked to have an extra outfit for my baby in the car. You never know when you’ll need to change baby’s outfit and you’ll be so glad you have it when you need it! I still keep an extra outfit for her now, even at 2 years old.

Many woman also like to keep an extra top for mom in the car. If you get spit up on or leak milk, you’ll have something you can change into easily.

Pacifiers fall on the ground all the time. Instead of picking it up and replacing it or washing it each time, you can get this self-closing pacifier. It automatically closes on itself when it’s dropped, meaning you can use it over and over again without having to worry about washing it off each time.

Baby Changing Newborn Hacks

Welcome to the land of diapers! Make diaper changes easier with these diaper changing newborn hacks.

Keep diapers, wet wipes, and burp cloths in the main rooms in your house and in baby’s nursery. If baby spits up or needs to be changed, it will be so much easier to have those supplies close by.

Use disposable diaper bags or plastic sealed bags at home and on the go so you can stick dirty diapers in them before throwing them away. This will help keep your house, car, diaper bag, etc. from getting too smelly.

Most onesies are made with stretchy shoulder flaps so you can pull the onesie over baby’s shoulders. If your baby gets poop on their onesie, you can take it off over their shoulders and through their legs so you don’t risk getting poop all over their head and face.

Fold down the waistline of your baby’s diaper to allow your baby’s umbilical cord to heal. Make sure the diaper hits below the belly button.

It might seem absurd but moms swear by the Baby Bum Brush to apply diaper cream to baby’s bum. You can also use an inexpensive makeup brush to “paint” ointment on baby. Just make sure to wash it in between uses. Another option is to put your ointment or diaper rash cream on the diaper and then put it on the baby. No matter which option you choose, you’ll save a big mess!

Newborn Laundry Hacks

With all of those diaper changes comes a lot of laundry. See the laundry tips moms use to get stains out and how to stay on top of the mess.

Use Baby Oxiclean to get poop stains out of baby’s clothes. There have been very few stains that I haven’t been able to get out with this stuff!

Use mesh bags to keep all of baby’s socks and lovies in. This ensures you don’t lose them in the wash and makes it easy to pull things out that can’t go in the dryer.

Organize all your baby clothes using this system. It makes it easier to stay on top of all the clothes between growth spurts.

Keep a small hamper upstairs and downstairs so you can easily throw dirty clothes in it without having to lug them up or down the stairs each time.

One of my tips for getting the stink out of cloth diapers is to let the diapers dry out in the sun. This works for other items of clothing as well. Just treat, wash, and let the sun take care of the rest.

Newborn Sleep Hacks

I’m not sure who coined the term sleeping like a baby. Newborn sleep is hard and sometimes babies fight sleep like it’s their job! And exhausted parents will find any way they can to help get their baby to sleep. Try these newborn sleeping hacks to help your babe—and you—sleep better.

Use the swaddles with velcro or zipper. I’m sure you’ve seen ways of how to swaddle a baby, with swaddling cloth, but at 2 a.m. your brain isn’t working and you just want to get baby back to sleep ASAP. These are some of the best swaddle options to make it foolproof!

I worried so much about how to dress my baby for sleep in those early days and understanding TOG ratings would have saved me so much stress! Look out for the ratings on the tags to make sure your baby is dressed appropriately!

If you want to keep your baby in your room for the first 3 to 6 months, get a bassinet that can easily be moved over to your bed for middle-of-the-night feeds. I have a list of the best bassinets for small spaces if you’re tight on space!

Enjoy those contact naps. Babies need a lot of sleep in the beginning and sometimes it’s easiest to just let them lay on you while you watch TV or read a book.

Set up your baby’s nursery for an optimum sleep environment. I have some baby nursery must haves that can help with sleep!

This includes using a white noise sound machine to create a similar sound to the womb and block out outside noises and using blackout curtains in the nursery to make the room pitch black.

Swap out those snap button pajamas for zippers. When you’re changing your baby in the middle of the night and trying to keep the room dark, zippers are so much easier than a million snaps. And yes, there are that many of them when it’s dark and your bed is waiting for you.

Use a Rock N Play alternative if your baby is having a hard time with sleep. Many of them have automatic motions and white noise so it helps soothe baby without you!

Layer your baby’s bedding in case of late night spit ups or blowouts. Start with a waterproof mattress pad, add a crib sheet, then add another waterproof mattress pad and one more crib sheet. If you need to change the bedding in the middle of the night, you can just pull off the top layer and go back to bed.

Babies like to be warm. You can warm the bed up for them before laying them down by putting a heating pad or warm water bottle on the crib sheets. Make sure to remove any objects before you put baby inside.

Get started with healthy sleep habits from the beginning by learning what helps babies sleep!

We started with Babywise but it didn’t give me all the pieces. Following a newborn sleep schedule based on the EASY baby schedule method gives you a great framework for structuring your baby’s day and makes it so you don’t have to learn how to stop feeding to sleep later down the line.

Finally, using the Soothing Ladder when your baby won’t sleep can be such a huge help, especially in the middle of the night.

Get Your Newborn to Sleep

Learn how to get your newborn to sleep with my Newborn Sleep Program. You’ll learn expert sleep tips for soothing your baby to sleep, getting in good routines, and slowly dropping night feeds. Learn more here.

Make sure to pay attention to baby’s wake times and sleepy cues so they’re going down for naps at the right time.

Newborn Feeding Hacks

Whether you’re breastfeeding or bottle feeding, use these newborn feeding hacks to make feeding time better and quicker.

Breastfeeding and Pumping Hacks

The Haakaa manual pump can catch milk from one side while you’re nursing on the other. Awesome for those first few weeks when your supply is still regulating.

Keep all your pump parts in the fridge in between uses. You don’t have to wash them each time, just stash them in the fridge until the next pumping session and wash them all at the end of each day.

Formula Feeding Hacks

If you’re formula feeding, grab this container to store formula on the go. So much cleaner and quicker than scooping it out of the can while you’re out and about.

You might not need to warm your baby’s bottle. Your baby will likely get used to however you feed them, so if you start with room temperature water from the start it can save you down the road.

Another hack to make formula feeding easier is to get yourself a Baby Brezza. It’s basically like a Keurig for baby formula. It’s amazing for exclusively fed formula babies and an often overlooked baby registry item.

Newborn Teething Hacks

As if having a baby isn’t challenging enough, then they start to get teeth! Use these newborn teething hacks to help baby once those teeth start coming in.

If your baby has started eating solid foods and is teething, give them a frozen bagel. They can gnaw on the hard frozen bread to help soothe their gums! We did this almost daily when Evelyn was teething around 11 months.

If you’re doing baby-led weaning with your little one, you can let them chew on a cold cucumber to help relieve sore gums.

If your baby hasn’t started solid foods yet, you can freeze breastmilk in ice cubes or breastmilk popsicles and use that for teething.

Other Newborn Hacks

Here are a few other newborn hacks and tips for new moms!

Use these car seat clips to make getting your baby in and out of the carseat a breeze. These are great when baby is already asleep and you’re trying to transfer them to the carseat.

Put a fitted sheet on the seats of your car before strapping in the carseat. If your baby has a blowout, spit up, or throws up, it’s easy to take the seat off and wash it and your car will stay clean.

Once your baby gets a little older it’s fun to add a few bath toys to the tub! But so many bath toys have the little hole at the bottom so you can squirt water out. These get moldy and really gross fast. You can put a little hot glue to cover up the hole so water can’t get in and your toys stay mold-free.

Add a little olive oil or vegetable oil to help get rid of cradle cap. You don’t need much! A few drops will help!

Babywear! When baby won’t sleep, is fussy, or you have other kids at home, wearing your baby is a great way to move around and snuggle at the same time. Moms love the Lilliebaby carrier as well as the Ergobaby carrier.

Do baby-led weaning! This hack isn’t technically for newborns, but we loved the benefits of baby-led weaning and thought it made introducing solids so, so easy! You’ll also capture the cutest photos of your sweetie in their high chair!

Above all else, accept help and give yourself grace. These newborn hacks are so popular because having a newborn can be so challenging. Do what you can to survive these newborn days and remember that with time it will get a lot easier.

What’s your favorite newborn hack? Leave it in the comments and I’ll add to this list!