By Julia Ewaida

Mommy Order

Organization Tips To help save your sanity

Night-Time Formula Fed Baby Edition

If you are a mom, you must have experienced the following scene first-hand: the child is having a crying fit, while you are trying to do something extremely simple at a ridiculously slow rate, because … you guessed it, your child is crying! It is not fun to be in that moment, where you want to tend to your baby, but in order to do that you need to tend to their need first.

Whether it’s in the middle of the night and your baby has woken up “hangry” or you are just trying to undress or dress your baby but are struggling because they are frustrated or sleepy, it is very possible that you been through this scenario a few times. It’s also possible that you experience this regularly, especially if your baby is very active and at the same time gets bored and frustrated very easily.  

Night-time formula fed baby struggles

If you can relate to this situation, then it is equally likely that you also end up feeling stressed, tense, and exhausted from those situations. This is due to the great connection between mom and baby, resulting in the emotional and physical state of the one reflecting on the other.

But do not despair, it is those same moments of intense feeling and chaos that make us stronger and more resilient. In a way, the daily hassles that we encounter force us to adapt and change our tactics. In our race against time, we learn how to work better by working “smarter”. Simply put we prepare, organize, and use available tools creatively to reduce wasting time in between transitions. The ultimate goal is to minimize frequent or prolonged “crying” episodes from the baby.

That being said, I would like to confide with you and say that I have been through this and many other scenarios with my toddler repeatedly. I still struggle in different areas with my son as he is a very active kid and is also inclined to get bored and frustrated very easily.

This has led us through many hard and exhausting days, and even more tiresome nights. For this exact reason, I would like to share a simple organizational hack for “Formula Fed Children” that I started which made our lives easier throughout the night. 

Super Simple Organizational System Hack to Save Time Overnight (Formula Fed-Baby Edition)

1. To save trips going to the kitchen or anywhere other than the parents’ or baby’s room use two thermoses – one for hot water and one for cold water- and fill them before heading to bed overnight. 

2. Select and prepare the number of milk bottles you know you will need for the night (if not sure put one extra).

3. If you don’t already have a set of milk powder dispenser boxes, then please do yourself a favor and buy one or two sets as they are very useful both for outings and for indoor use and especially for overnight use. Depending on the number of bottles you need for the overnight use, fill in same number of milk powder boxes with the milk scoops accordingly. 

4. Find & clean a number of pacifiers (if using) to avoid having to search for any in the middle of the night, which you will find to be a very unpleasant job…Proceed to place some of the pacifiers in the baby’s bed and some near you or your partner so they can be easily accessible when needed. (I was just very recently able to stop my bub from using the pacifier altogether and I will share my tips for this some other time.)

5. If your child is older than six months, then also fill a bottle of water or two (or cup or sippy cup according to your preference) with the appropriate amount according to age. Some children, like mine, get very thirsty at night & wake up multiple times a night asking for water, so we still use baby bottles for water at night as this is easier for him to drink at night although he has mastered using all kinds of open cups and does so during the day.

6. Place all the above items on a tray and place the tray in the room in which your child is sleeping prior to bedtime. Obviously if the child is sleeping on an floor bed or able to get out of the crib or toddler bed, you have to make sure you place the tray on a high unreachable surface, like on a table or a shelf. If there is no such room in the child’s room then putting it in your room will also do the trick.

Having prepared those items and placed the tray in the appropriate room will definitely cut time spent going to the kitchen, living room, or anywhere else beside parent or baby’s room doing a range of things like heating water, scooping milk & counting milk scoops, searching for pacifiers, or fetching water, and in turn you will be able to tend to your baby’s need much faster and thus reduce all sorts of crying fits in the middle of the night.

Read more Tips and hacks shared by real mums sharing your struggles