baby

New moms in their first year of motherhood are modern-day superheroes. They are masters in the art of powering through. New moms know that sometimes you have to resort to weird and unexpected hacks to take care of tired, hungry, and crying babies.

Over on Reddit in a subforum of parents, member Lina_reese shared her thoughts on "the weirdest advice I got as a new mom… and it actually helped!" She went on to explain, "One day my friend told me, 'Just take a shower if the baby won’t sleep,' and I laughed. Like, this is the time for me to shower? He’s the one who needs to sleep!"

She decided to take her friend's advice. And to her surprise, it worked. "But believe it or not, as soon as I stepped away and relaxed for a bit, he started calming down too. I had no idea how much my own energy affected him. Now whenever I feel overwhelmed, I try to take a small break and it often helps both of us," she added.

She concluded her post by asking other new moms to share their "weirdest" parenting hacks that also helped them with their new babies. These are 16 of the best pieces of advice that fellow new moms offered that helped them survive early days with new babies.

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"I would put my twins in their cribs when they were tired/it was nap time and go shower. Within a week they barely cried when I put them down. It was huge for my mental health to have 10 minutes without crying babies and gave me a much needed reset. The inadvertent sleep training was a cherry on top. This is something I share with new moms because there is so much guilt involved in letting a baby cry. You can't pour from an empty cup though." —igloo1234

"Baby not sleeping? Turn on your favorite music and dance, you'll calm down and baby will fall asleep. It made sleep time, 1000x better." —mallowpuff9

"If they're big enough for baby wearing, I would wear them on my back and clean the kitchen. They always fell asleep while I was hand washing dishes when they got backed up and wiping down countertops/ table. I also turned on the TV to watch/listen to something adulty for my own entertainment." —Dr_mombie

"Use earplugs if the baby is colicky or whining a lot. It doesn’t make you a bad parent if you’re tending to their needs. I joked that the only thing I could control is if there was two people crying, and earplugs helped me deal with rocking a colicky baby for hours and stay sane." —zazrouge

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"Baby won't stop crying? Take them outside. That's it. They'll almost always stop once they're outside. And if they don't stop, at least it doesn't sound as loud out there." —RoRoRoYourGoat

"Outside or water. Even just splashing around in the bath is enough to change the vibe." —littlescreechyowl

"Sometimes all you can do is try new ideas, often nonsensical ones, until you find one that works. Will the fourth silly idea that ended up working work tomorrow? Nope. Would it have worked if you tried it first? Who knows!" —jimmyw404

"I find that, if invested in something (a project, playing a game, etc) most people can easily push themselves past their bedtime without even realizing how tired they really are. The act of wanting to continue and having the thing you want to continue doing in front of you helps keep you going. And then once you stop doing what you were doing and sit down for a few minutes, it often catches up in a huge wave. Same thing applies to kids and babies. When the stimulation ends, it's easier for them to fall asleep." —thegimboid

"Make a Spotify playlist of songs you know the words to. Overwhelmed and can't think of a song? Pop in an earbud and sing along. Calm baby and yourself." —Icy_Marsupial5003

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"I had just given birth, still in the hospital, had a 21 month at home. A nurse told me, to help with jealously, the 21 month old remembers being the only child. the baby doesnt. Take care of his needs, put him down to sleep, play with the 21 month old like she was the only child. After a few weeks, when the baby didn't sleep as much she realized he was not to bad and OK to keep around. Never had a once of jealously. 20 years later, they are still best friends." —bethaliz6894

"Infant probiotics. At some point I read that a lot of colicky babies are dealing with digestive upset, and someone recommended clinical-grade infant probiotics, and they were a lifesaver. People love to recommend gripe water, but I was ON IT with the probiotics whether he or I had just been on antibiotics, or he had diarrhea, etc. Total game changer." —invah

"When you get mad at your kid, look at his tiny hands." —CaptainSensible17

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"When your kid is really driving you crazy, get down on the floor with them and play. Look at the world from their point of view." —plantverdant

"I don’t remember who told me about the 1-2-3 hours nap schedule but I tried it and was blown away. When your baby ( not a newborn) wakes up, look at the time. Put them back down for a first nap again 1 hour after. When they wake again, they stay up for 2 hours. Then after the next nap it’s 3 hours, and then bedtime for the night. Put them in their crib before they are showing you physical signs of being over tired." —majadadim