Olivia Jeanette

It has been quite a ride the last seven weeks. During my pregnancy, we said to ourselves that we’d read all the books and go to the prep classes so we would be ready for the baby. It didn’t happen. Matt and I started reading the books, but after a couple days it went by the wayside. Work caught up to us and frankly we really just wanted to leverage our friends for advice. We’re not typically planners, so doing all that reading and attending the classes was doomed from the start. I know, some might take that as though we didn’t care enough but obviously thats not the case. Everyone is different in how they prepare and do whatever way works for them. Here’s what worked for us:

Asking Other New Parents

We have a lot of friends, who are new parents and we relied (and still do) for their advice. They share what to do in certain situations, what to look out for, what to bring with you when you are out and about, what not to do, etc. It’s been great and they love helping out. We also never attended lamaz classes or any birth classes prior to Sebastian being born. Again, we set out to but we just kept pushing it out and ended up running out of time. The more and more we talked to folks, however, they said it really wasn’t necessary. That made us feel a little better. Even though both of us felt good about everything and we were excited to meet Sebastian, we still had quite a bit of anxiety. There are always little things that would pop into our heads that would cause us to pause and sometimes panic. It’s always the unknown that makes you feel as if you aren’t ready for what’s about to come. Regardless of how much you prepare or feel you are prepared, that feeling will always be there.

Practice Makes Perfect! 

On Sebastian’s arrival day, we were so relieved everything went as great as it did. As I mentioned in my birth story, the day he was born just ended up being so smooth. After a early morning of extreme pain, everything afterwards just fell into place. Now that we have been home with him for seven weeks, we have had some time to reflect. I have an even greater respect for mothers (and fathers) now that I am one. The amount of your time that Sebastian consumes is incredible and with breastfeeding it can be very difficult to manage. There are days, where I simply don’t have the energy to do anything. That alone is difficult and very discouraging. I am trying (like most mothers) to balance many hats but oftentimes you are forced to drop all of them except your baby. This is not me complaining, you just don’t realize home much time and effort goes into raising your newborn until you do.

Teamwork

Matt has been such a huge help. He will always be there to take care of Sebastian, while I go out to events, meetings, the gym, or out with friends to catch-up. One piece of advice that I have gotten over and over again is that you have to make time for yourselves. Both, Matt and I are beginning to start figuring out how to do just that. We are leveraging our friends, who want to watch Sebastian for us, so we can go out together and spend time just the two of us. While we love spending time together, it is really difficult to leave him even for a minute. I am really struggling with the idea of going back to work. It is going to be extremely difficult those first few weeks.

Finding Products That Work

It’s been cold out, but not too cold so we have been taking Sebastian out in the city with us to run errands and just spend quality time together as a family. With the cold air comes dry skin. One of the many things we have to be conscious of with Sebastian is that he has fairly dry skin. It tends to be the worst up by his hairline, which cased small flakes to fall in his eyes. We have tried a few different types of lotions but none seemed to do the job that even our own skin lotion does for us. Our friends had been recommending Mustela to us, so we knew we had to try it out. Mustela has an amazing set of baby skincare for all types of skin. Their line ranges from normal to eczema prone skin care. They most recently released a brand new line for dry skin and it’s perfect for Sebastian.

The brand new Dry Skin Care Line keeps his skin moisturized and protected. A little can go a long way, so you don’t have to lather them up like we do with sunscreen when we’re headed to the beach. We still are generous with it though, since we are still so overprotective of him. We sock away the travel size bottle in our essentials city bag so we always have lotion with us. It can be a lifesaver especially with the weather so cold. Matt and I have also been using the bath oil along with the nourishing cleansing gel with cold cream for Sebastian’s baths. You really can’t go wrong as Mustela has a great line of products for all skin types. They are clinically tested, hypoallergenic, include natural ingredients, very eco-friendly and smell soooooo good!

We’ve teamed up with the Mustela team to giveaway five sets of the new Dry Skin Care Line; Nourishing Lotion with Cold Cream, Nourishing Cleansing Gel with Cold Cream, Cleansing Milk, Bath Oil and travel size Nourishing Lotion with Cold Cream. Please comment below for a chance to win a set for your little bundle of joy!

xo, Olivia

This post was created in collaboration with Mustela, as always, all words, opinions and photography are my own. 

Complete Set of Mustela Dry Skin Line