Well, we had our first kid around the same time and I would say is that there are too many chefs in the kitchen theses days. Between books, online articles, baby courses, social media, consultants, nurses, doctors, friends, siblings and parents you end up getting hundreds if not thousands of contradicting tips that end up making you feel insecure.
When in reality this quote says it all, "“We have survived as a race for millennia. Babies have lived and thrived in dirt-floored huts, been raised in crowded and noisy tenements, slept with their siblings from birth in makeshift beds made of animal hides, and traveled in caravans across scorching deserts"
Sure, infant mortality rates used to be much. much higher so you can't discount every resource available in modern times, but simple common sense (we all have that evolutionary intuition ingrained in us) takes you a long, long way. I've never so much as held a baby prior to my son being born and now I can pretty much doing anything with him hanging off me. I've also become a defacto expert in infant body language without so much as reading an article from an expert. You just know what to do and when to do it.
I will concede it's obviously much harder on the Mom, but I also run my own business while having a newborn at home. Trying to manage that through these crazy times, at the busiest time of our year, has been one of the most difficult times of my life. It's also been the easiest in many ways.
Great nuggets!!! Best wishes to you and your growing family. Grace is key. Grace for yourself and grace for others. We're all just out here doing the best we can! Comparison-itis is EASY to do in parenting. Resist the temptation. And as my husband likes to tell first time parents, "do what you need to do to survive!" :)
All good suggestions there. I am also a new parent (28th November 2021). There were too many advises before peegnancy, during pregnancy and after pregnancy of my wife. And all of them are well intented, but at the same time, it was over-whelming for us to digest and process that many advises/suggestions. And first 15-20 days after baby was born were quite challenging and me and my wife thought that we are going to fail and fail miserable, not capable to take care of our child. But after that, things started settling down, and started figuring out how to take care of our baby. We are still in early days, but we are better equipped.
11. Do not lose yourself now that you are a parent. Do not preach but instead live as a role model and gather role models for your child.
Well, we had our first kid around the same time and I would say is that there are too many chefs in the kitchen theses days. Between books, online articles, baby courses, social media, consultants, nurses, doctors, friends, siblings and parents you end up getting hundreds if not thousands of contradicting tips that end up making you feel insecure.
When in reality this quote says it all, "“We have survived as a race for millennia. Babies have lived and thrived in dirt-floored huts, been raised in crowded and noisy tenements, slept with their siblings from birth in makeshift beds made of animal hides, and traveled in caravans across scorching deserts"
Sure, infant mortality rates used to be much. much higher so you can't discount every resource available in modern times, but simple common sense (we all have that evolutionary intuition ingrained in us) takes you a long, long way. I've never so much as held a baby prior to my son being born and now I can pretty much doing anything with him hanging off me. I've also become a defacto expert in infant body language without so much as reading an article from an expert. You just know what to do and when to do it.
I will concede it's obviously much harder on the Mom, but I also run my own business while having a newborn at home. Trying to manage that through these crazy times, at the busiest time of our year, has been one of the most difficult times of my life. It's also been the easiest in many ways.
Great nuggets!!! Best wishes to you and your growing family. Grace is key. Grace for yourself and grace for others. We're all just out here doing the best we can! Comparison-itis is EASY to do in parenting. Resist the temptation. And as my husband likes to tell first time parents, "do what you need to do to survive!" :)
Amazing post, Polina. ❤️
All good suggestions there. I am also a new parent (28th November 2021). There were too many advises before peegnancy, during pregnancy and after pregnancy of my wife. And all of them are well intented, but at the same time, it was over-whelming for us to digest and process that many advises/suggestions. And first 15-20 days after baby was born were quite challenging and me and my wife thought that we are going to fail and fail miserable, not capable to take care of our child. But after that, things started settling down, and started figuring out how to take care of our baby. We are still in early days, but we are better equipped.