This is my write up of what it was like to take care of the baby the first month.
- It is not mentally hard to take care of a kid, but it is physically a lot of work
- There is a lot of time allocated to taking care of the kid when they are small and eating all the time.
- It is not as hard for the husband as it is for the mom, because she has to feed the baby around 10 minutes on each breast, then she pumps after breast feeding each breast (10-20 minutes) That is around 45 minutes of just feeding the baby, now there is 1 hour and 15 minutes left to cook food, wash dishes, and other things
- The hardest part is adjusting to help your wife, I think they say 80% of the women have PPD, and it can be anything even thoughts about not feeling like you are a good mother, or being extra anxious about the baby. Hard part of all this is that most mom’s don’t really remember their first 2 months well, so it is hard to prep a new mom for everything.
- If there is any tearing during birth, it takes time for the mom to heal, so she is mostly out of commission and sitting on the bed.
- There is a lot of planning when taking the kid out, and i sometimes put the car seat into the shopping cart, especially in a costco cart if i shop by myself.
- Feeding the kid every 2 hours messes with your perception of time, so it is good to get a schedule. I noticed the kid could sleep 3 hours at night, so i fed her at 1am, 4am, and 7am.
- Burp Cloths are the most important thing, besides baby formula. I use so many of those to take care of the kid
- The library has parenting resource hotline that you can call for help.
- I ordered a lot of food from online services, because it is so much work ig change to the schedule to always be feeding.
- People who are on their 2nd kid are much more relaxed, and might not be great people to ask for help if they don’t remember, or say they had an easy preganancy.
- It is nice to find a mommy group before you give birth, so you have a potential group of people that can help
- I use the bassinet for everything, as a sleep place, and a changing table.
On the first day we left the hospital, we went to get a late brunch with the baby. It was her 3rd day in the world, and she was eating at one of our favorite places “Skillets”.
A lot of different people have come and met Naomi for the first time. Sherri and I think she has a very sweet demeanor, she is very patient with us, and only cries when she is hungry. She does not seem to be too bothered by loud noises, lights, or me running around. So it makes it easy to put her to sleep and do things around her. We are so blessed with a such a beautiful baby.
