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Hey there friends. Welcome to the better postpartum podcast. I’m your host Angel Swan, crunchy mom, coffee addict and postpartum doula turned new mom coach. This podcast is your audio guide to not just surviving but thriving during those early and newborn days. If you want to care for yourself, your household and your baby with confidence, grab your earbuds because this is the only podcast that you need. So what do you say? Should we get started with today’s episode? Let’s do this. Hey, friends, thank you so much for tuning in today. Before we get started, I just wanted to read this awesome review submitted by Esther Mae. She says angel is brilliant. I’m all for natural ways to help get better from a cold or anything else. I find this podcast educational, interesting and extremely easy to follow. The tips are 100% doable. Angel is relatable and you feel like you’re hearing from a friend. Love it. Hey, thank you for that review. If you’ve been loving this podcast and you’re learning from it, please go to Apple podcasts. Make sure you subscribe. Leave me a five star rating and a written review. Tell me something that you’ve learned. Tell me a message that really stuck with you. Or just let me know what your favorite episode has been so far. Leaving that rating and review is really the best way to support the show. And it helps other new moms find this podcast so they can learn from it too. So thank you again to Esther Mae, for that awesome review. Now let’s get into today’s episode. Today we’re going to be continuing the minimal and sustainable postpartum series. And today’s topic is diaper bag essentials, because it’s important to be prepared for anything, especially when you’re out with your baby. But we also don’t like carrying around super heavy diaper bags. So today, we’re going to go over the things that you absolutely must carry with you. And then if you want to pack in some extra stuff in there, go for it. So first things first is a change of clothes for your baby. So when you’re packing for the day, just think about how long you’re going to be out. And then think about how many times do you add like usually change your baby’s clothes during that amount of time. And so if you’re changing your baby one time, you should pack one outfit plus one extra, you always want to have one extra. So just pack however many outfits you’d usually use in that amount of time, pull us an extra because you just never know. You also want to make sure you’re packing the most practical outfits. Don’t be packing the things that are like the bulkiest outfits that your baby wears. You know, go for the onesie, go for the pants, go for the footie pajamas are great if you have those, you know something that’s simple, that’s easy to roll up and stick in your bag and is not going to take up a ton of space. The next thing you should have is diapers, obviously, it’s a diaper bag. So the same concept applies here. So think about how long you’re going to be out and how many diapers would you normally use in that amount of time and pack as many diapers as you would use during that time plus one extra just to be safe. You know how babies are, you change them, you get them all cleaned up, and then they decide to poop like five seconds after you change them into a clean diaper so So always have one more diaper than you think you’re going to need.

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The next thing is wipes. So there are some really great travel containers that you can use to hold your wipes and I’ll make sure to link one of these in the episode description for you. Because you really don’t need to bring a whole pack of wipes with you, you can keep buying your wipes in bulk if you’re using disposables or if you’re using cloth wipes, you should still have a wipes container just keeps things nice and neat in your bag. So you always you know, you want to know where everything is at all times and be super organized that way. You’re ready to go you’re prepared for anything. So get yourself a travel wipe container. And just keep it fully stocked and you’ll be good to go. So before you go out, you know you check your diaper bag, make sure you have what you need, and then you head out. The next thing you should have is a wet bag. These are really great even if you don’t use cloth diapers. So typically, if you’re using cloth diapers, you will also have a wet bag and this is just where you hold your soiled diapers until you get home and then you can put them in your diaper pail. So it’s just a washable, waterproof bag that you can use to hold soiled clothes or your cloth diapers. And it’s great because it’s reusable, right? This is minimal and sustainable. Right so the wet bag is great. I like to have at least three wet bags just like in my possession anytime like not when I’m in my put one and you’re done. diaper bag and have three that you kind of cycle through. And that’s usually enough like if you’re doing diaper laundry about every other day, you should have enough wet bags if you need more than that, because you’re not washing as frequently and you’re going out more than adjust how many you get for that. I will also link a wet bag for you in the description. The next thing you need is diaper cream. You should always have diaper cream available. You never know when a stubborn Diaper rash is gonna appear. So it’s important to be ready to treat it wherever you are. Don’t go for the big tubes right? I think the What brand is it? Bordeaux’s, but paste which I don’t really like that brand anyways, but their tube is so massive. Don’t pick the biggest thing of diaper crane, you just need a little one the Burt’s Bees one is fine, it’s a nice small tube. And that is plenty to keep in your diaper bag. Okay, next up is your portable changing pads. So, if you listen to my previous episode about diapering accessories to keep in the house, this is the same thing. So you can either tote one of them around with you. So bring it home with you and take it out the same one or you can just get another one to keep in your diaper bag, which is probably something that I would do, I don’t think that it would make a lot of sense to try and remember to take your one changing pad with you all over the place. So have one stored in your diaper bag. These are just very simple. It’s like a little waterproof mat that you lay down and it folds up and can easily store in the bottom of your diaper bag. I will link one for you as well. The next thing is a pacifier if your baby takes them. So actually two pacifiers, right, because what if you drop one. So keep one of the pacifiers packed away in your diaper bag, and then have the other one on a pacifier clip ready to go and secure it to your baby’s clothes that it doesn’t get lost. I’m going to link for you some pacifier clips that are safe to use. I did want to mention something that I saw on Facebook recently, which was so sad. So true trigger warning for a baby being harmed by a pacifier clip. But basically, there are a lot of these pacifier clips with silicone beads on them and

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this poor baby had been gnawing on this pacifier clip with a silicone beads and it came apart and the baby was choking on their on the bead from their pacifier clip. So I just like to stick with the most simple pacifier clip that you can get, which is just like a little piece of cloth and that is going to be the safest thing to have for your baby. So I did link some great pacifier clips for you in the description that are going to be safe for your baby to use. And, you know, once your baby’s past the point of pacifiers, maybe you want to clip on a teething ring or something, you can still do that so you don’t have to have the two in one teether and pacifier clip thing with all the beads on it, you just buy a multipack of fabric pacifier clips, stick a pacifier on one stick a T there on the other and you’ll be good to go. It’s it’s worth it for your baby’s safety. Okay, rant over about pacifier clips. The next thing you might want to have is a nursing cover if you use one, you know me, I like the two shirt method. Keep your tummy nice and tucked away and all you have exposed really is just your breast where you’re latching your baby. But if you prefer a full cover, then bring your nursing cover or even a muslin swaddle is nice to have their you know, lightweight, breathable, you can use that as your cover. I really like the we are ama cocoon. It they’re just a breathable knit nursing cover. They’re very cute, fashionable, you can wear them a whole bunch of different ways. So I’ll put that in the episode description for you to the next thing you should have is burp cloths, obviously, right if we’re feeding them, we need our burp cloth. You should use the same logic as like how many outfits to bring as how many you’re going to use how many burp cloths you’re going to use. So for me like Jenny spit up a lot. She’s what we would call a happy spitter. I mean truly though, sometimes it’s more like vomit like home girl would exercise style projectile vomit four feet across the room. Oh, it was horrific. So I always had a three bird claws with me at any given point, just to be safe because she would soiled them like in a flash. So just think about how much your baby spits up on a regular basis and then how many burp cloths you would use during the time you’ll be out, too. To determine how many you should bring with you. The next thing is to bring one toy that your baby likes. Not their most favorite one. Because if you if they have a lovey and you lose the lovey while you’re out, that would just be devastating because babies are so picky. If you lose their lovey, and you try and buy them the same thing brand new, they’re probably going to reject it. It’s just the thing that these kids do, right. So if you can just bring one of their favorite toys, not their most favorite toy and secure it to their stroller or their car seat handle, with a little, little strap. So there are some really nice silicone straps that you can get specifically for this. You can also you know, strap like a sippy cup, or a little snack cup to it, they’re great, they’re highly worth the investment. And they’re not even that much of an investment to be honest with you. Because I can’t tell you how many times Jenny would throw her toy out of her car seat, and just cry and scream until we picked it up and give it back to her. So having the strap once your baby’s able to like pull the things back to them, they can just kind of go fishing for their toy because they’re just pulling the strap back. And it’s also a great way to like keep their toys off the ground, right because nobody likes a dirty toy. So if I were to do it again, I would 100% get one of these little straps, I’ll leave a link for you for that. The next thing you should have is some food and water. This does depend on how old your baby is, right? If they’re exclusively nursing, you obviously don’t have to bring anything but maybe bring a little snack for yourself a water bottle for yourself. If your baby is eating solids, or they’re drinking from a bottle, whether that’s breast milk or formula, you got to use that same logic of just pack how much they would eat. During that amount of time that you’ll be gone plus maybe a few extra ounces of milk or formula for their bottle. Or if they’re eating like actual snacks, one more bag of snacks. And then you’ll be good deal. The next thing is a miniature first aid kit. This is just for minor scrapes and cuts that happen having a few band aids and antibiotic antibiotic ointment with

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having those little things is just great to keep in your diaper bag. So I found a really cute tin from Coleman. They make like camping gear and stuff, Coleman. And I’ll link that for you. It’s so small, but it has a lot of goodies in it for you. And this is especially great like once your baby is kind of mobile, they might be banging their head on stuff, or, I mean especially if they’re kind of totaling like starting to walk around, you know, they’re gonna they’re gonna scrape themselves or scrape a knee bust their head open like babies just they get hurt no matter how hard you try. So it’s never a bad idea to have a little first aid kit with you. Okay, and this is not this last thing is not a diaper bag. essential, but it’s something that you should keep in your car, which is just an emergency tote. So I found a cute little it’s, it’s almost like a cube storage like cubby thingy, I’ll link it for you everything is linked in the description for you. But it’s just essentially extras that you can’t fit in your diaper bag. So you just keep it in the back of your car. And if you run out of stuff in your diaper bag, you have extra stuff in the back of your car ready to go. So here’s what you should keep in your emergency tote. To outfits for your baby that are one size up from what your baby is wearing. Right now. This is key because you’ll probably forget to change out the clothes as your baby grows. So you don’t want to be trying to fit your six month old and a newborn outfit that you packed a couple months ago because that’s not going to work. All right, next is five diapers. Some people say like two or three diapers just put five in there. Why not right? And if you use let’s say you’re using cloth diapers and you don’t necessarily want to buy five more cloth diapers. This is a this is where it might be okay to have some disposables in your trunk. I’m giving you permission to keep disposables. However, I personally think it would be worth it to just have five more cloth diapers in the back because cloth diapers grow with your baby. So so let’s say you did buy disposables, right. And you didn’t need to use them and then a couple months down the road, oh, you need to use them but you never changed the diaper. So now you have teeny tiny diapers for your big baby. So if you’re cloth diapering, like you’re kind of ahead of the game here, keeping five cloth diapers in the back. Because they can you can just adjust the snaps so that it fits your baby. Whatever size they are. All right next thing is just one pack of wipes. One wet bag, one pacifier two burp cloths, one swaddle four bottles of water. I just like that number four bottles of water if you That’s a good amount. If you do keep water in your car, though, I recommend that you store it in a BPA free container. So like silicone, or glass or stainless steel. And the reason for this is that your generic plastic water bottle, right? It is not BPA free, and it just will leach chemicals into the water as the water bottles get hot, so if it’s like warmer weather, springtime, summertime, early fall, and your car gets hot, that plastic is going to leach chemicals into the water. And you should never ever drink from a plastic water bottle that has been in a hot car. It’s just not good for you. So I’ll link a couple water bottles that I like to use are just stainless steel water bottles, they’re, they’re nice, I like them. Next is a box of snacks that are safe to keep in a hot car. So just do a little assessment of the snacks that you’d like to eat, think about what you might be able to keep in a car with fluctuating temperatures and stick a couple of those in the car. And then finally, is an extra shirt and pair of pants for you. This is for you. In case of you know, a blowout or a major spit up that gets all over you. You should have extra clothes for yourself. So you don’t have to keep the extra clothes for you in your diaper bag, because that’s a little bit cumbersome. But if you keep it in the back of your car, you’ll be ready for anything. And that is the diaper bag essentials. I hope you like that list. It’s not too crazy.

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It is a lot. But you know, I like to be ready for anything. And I think that’s one of our superpowers as moms is we are ready for anything right? Have you ever seen, like a meme of a mom just like dumping all kinds of things out of her purse because she’s ready for anything. So this list, it is probably Oh, I mean it’s minimal. It’s definitely minimal. I might have a couple extra things in here that you might not have thought of, but we got to be ready for anything. So that that is it for two days, minimal and sustainable postpartum. If you like the tips that I give on this podcast and you want to work with me as your new mom, coach, we can work on anything that you’re struggling with since having your baby go to Angel spawn.com/work with me and schedule your free consultation. The link is also going to be in the episode description for you as always. And don’t forget you can hang out with me on Instagram at Angel dot swan. Join my free mom and baby support group is hosted on Facebook, but you can find it at Angel Swan calm. And of course don’t forget to get on Apple podcasts rate review and subscribe. Thank you so much for listening. I’ll talk to you soon. Buh bye. Thank you so much for listening to the better postpartum podcast. Here’s what I want you to do next. If you loved what you heard today, would you do me a giant favor and leave me a written five star review. Those little love notes that you leave are the perfect way to thank me for putting out these episodes just for you. Seriously, it would mean the world to me. Next, take a screenshot of the episode you’re listening to right now and share it on your Instagram stories and make sure you tag me at Angel dot swan. That’s SW o n so that more moms can find this podcast and hopefully get the advice and encouragement they need to truly thrive with their babies. And don’t forget to come back every single week for more nuggets of wisdom and truth bombs about the early motherhood journey. I’ll talk to you next time. Bye bye