Mom blog real talk!
Having a newborn is hard.
My baby is 3 months old and I'm just starting to feel like a real person again. I've learned to inhale my meals now out of pure necessity bc ya know this mom has to survive in order to take care of the baby. Moms to be- I cannot stress this point enough bc I love food/ the first few months I rarely ate actual meals there's literally no time to prepare a full meal when you have a newborn. Snacks that you can eat with one hand are essential- power bars, cereal bars etc. Frozen pizzas are a must have as well. Also Uber Eats is a life saver, and if you are lucky enough to have someone watch the baby so you can go to the grocery store- Trader Joe's is the bomb- their frozen and prepared foods section make it possible to eat semi healthy and when making dinner faster is better, anything that can just be heated up and consumed with one hand is primo in my book. Literally any prep that can be done with one hand is absolutely essential- example take one hand and open package- place food item on cookie sheet or directly in the microwave (ie steam able vegetables etc) and heat, voila dinner is done :).
Y'all probably think I'm nuts and are thinking what is wrong with this lady she doesn't have time to prepare dinner?! Let me tell you something- babies don't have a schedule, so if you're like "hey the baby is napping I'm going to prepare dinner" and then go to the kitchen and start making dinner- mid way in the baby starts screaming- dinner is abandoned half cooked on the stove and that's the end of that- dinner ruined. I've ruined plenty of dinners, noodles left in the water to get nice and squishy, fish burnt, the list goes on and on. Tending to the babies needs first is always my priority. Now I know I'm new at this (first time mom! what's up ! ) Tending to what baby needs is never a quick thing either- one minute the baby could be peacefully napping and the next minute he or she is screaming bc of a dirty diaper, or gas or hunger or bc a loud noise or sometimes all of the above and you have to tend to all of those things, so you change the diaper- make a bottle- feed the baby- burp the baby- hold baby upright for at least 15 minutes (this helps minimize reflux and spitting up and gas) change another diaper- do tummy time or some other activity to build muscle control and stimulate brain activity- rock the baby if he or she is sleepy again and repeat the whole cycle over and over again.
So if you are looking for unsolicited advice here I would say that having a freezer full of ready to heat meals is the absolute way to go- you will be sleep deprived, you will be disoriented, you will put your babies needs before your own.
My sister in law actually suggested this meal service thing where friends and relatives can go online and pick a meal they want to send to you and pay for it and it gets delivered- and I was all like "oh no, I totally got this! No worries"- Wrong I was so so wrong!
Take the help, and definitely stock your own freezers and pantry ( a little side bar on why I didn't actually do that for myself is bc we moved when the baby was 2 weeks old, moved out of our condo (found renters for that) and purchased a house, closed on the house when the baby was like 12 days old and moved the weekend after closing. It was nuts- I was lifting heavy stuff and going up and down several flights of stairs to get all of our belongings out of the condo before the renters needed to move in- we moved on a Friday and the renters moved in on Saturday - the following day- we had stuff packed in boxes for weeks prior to moving but severely under estimated the amount of stuff we had and all of the things that needed to be moved- anyway that's a story for another time)
So the take away point I'm trying to make here is: freezer meals and anything that can be consumed with one hand while handling the baby is absolutely essential.Best of luck other mommas!