I’m a New (Very Sleepy) Dad. Here’s How I Stay Caffeinated

If you are a new parent you know that having a constant flow of caffeination is important for your well-being and the actual safety of your child. In the newborn days of night-time duty, I found myself sipping a couple of gulps of coffee in the 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. hours of the night (morning?) to make sure I didn’t fall asleep while holding the baby.

Now, post-newborn phase I’ve entered the long phase of tired-all-the-time new parent. So as expected I’ve deepened my relationship with coffee, but found new problems.

The main issue now is that time escapes me and coffee ends up being whatever the hell you can get your hands on (damn you Starbucks expediency!). This is fine for a while but I found myself really craving a good cup of coffee that could last me most of the day (I’m a notorious room-temp, all-day coffee drinker — don’t hate). Alas, I found the solution to this problem from two items gifted to me separately, but joined by fate. The first was the Stagg EKG Electric Kettle and the second was Instant Coffee Packs from Joe Coffee.

Fellow

Fellow Stagg EKG Electric Kettle

• $165.00 at fellowproducts.com

Amazon

Joe Coffee Specialty Instant Coffee Packets

• $19.99 at Amazon

Interesting enough, our first use of the kettle was to make our Bobbie formula for our kid’s feedings. The Stagg kettle’s biggest upside is that you can set it to heat water to a specific temperature, so the formula would be the right temperature every time.

Then one day staring at the instant coffee in the pantry it clicked: Just use the damn Fellow Kettle to make a quick cup of coffee with our new instant coffee. The best part was that I could basically do the whole operation with one arm, while holding a 20-pound constantly moving child. These days, instant coffee has come a long way since the Maxwell House and the Folgers days. Brands like Joe Coffee are turning their specialty coffee into something you can quite literally make in an instant.

My wife and I are overjoyed that we can now enjoy great coffee while taking care of the kiddo. The only addition that we have made to this setup is a spill-proof HydroFlask to keep our delicious coffee warm for “most” of the day. So new parents let me tell you can still have nice coffee — get yourself a kettle with temperature control, some nice instant coffee and an insulated, spill-proof container. Thank me later.

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