I am no longer a new parent. I do not miss being a new parent. There are a few things I wish I knew about before I was a parent. Before I forget about what helped me during year zero, I’m sharing what helped me get through.

Here are 5 things that actually helped me as a new parent. Most are not on any other new parent list. All are tangible and most are free. This is not about feelings. This is mostly about getting more sleep.

1. Neighborhood Listservs

I’ve written about how great these are before and I stand by my initial claim. NextDoor is not a list serv and not worth your time. Parent specific listservs and Facebook Groups are absolutely worth your time. Use it to find free baby stuff that you were otherwise going to pay for and learn about the ins and outs of your local neighborhood insanity. It’s helpful well past the infant stage, you’re just not going to find as many I-NEED-THAT! moments.

2. MLB At Bat/Marvel Unlimited

If you have an iPad and you’re doing middle of the night feedings, both of these apps are worth downloading.

Baseball is not year round but it’s the best sport for dealing with a baby. There are 162 regular season games for every team, you don’t really to follow along to every pitch and trying to understand what happened around 3 a.m. by reading a box score is a good way to put yourself to sleep once you’re able to go back to sleep. If you’re up that late between the start of spring training in March and the end of the season at the end of October, you’ll like this app.

Marvel Unlimited is the easiest way to read all of the Civil War or Age of Apocalypse or catch up on most every Marvel title. As a lapsed comic fan, I found myself reading more comics than I ever have when my kid was 0 to 9 months. It was a good refresher and reminded me that, typically, nothing really happens so you won’t be shocked to full awake mode at 3 a.m.

I don’t recommend the New York Times Crossword app or Two Dots or anything else that may seem mindless but actually keeps you more awake than you need to be at 3 a.m.

3. Overdrive

I’ve been using the public library app long before I had a kid but it became much more useful once I became a parent. Listen to some audiobooks you otherwise would have ignored when you’re awake at all hours.

4. Public Library Story Times

I did not know story times existed until I had a kid. They became our most regular activity until the pandemic shut them down. They’re coming back, in outdoor form, and hopefully will be back indoors once everyone can get the vaccine. It does not matter that your kid has no idea what’s going on. It’s something to do in the middle of the day. Just go to them.

5. Portable sound machine

We waited too long to get a sound machine. Once we got a dedicated nursery sound machine we also got a portable sound machine. It’s really useful when you’re trying to get a kid to sleep in a car, stroller, hotel room, etc. It’s also really useful when you’re trying to fall asleep in the middle of the day because your kid woke you up an an ungodly hour.

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Feature photo by Bastien Jaillot on Unsplash