3 ms·

It’s very hard to prepare. I had two sons in 16 months, and the hardest part is not knowing what will happen today. Better than any book or video about parenti

It’s very hard to prepare. I had two sons in 16 months, and the hardest part is not knowing what will happen today. Better than any book or video about parenting it’s better to learn to be calm and collected. Your life is over, what ever it is / was it’s done. You now get the opportunity to build a new life, with a new family. When you have a baby it’s like getting a significant other which needs your assistance to do everything. I found that just starting by giving everything up and slowly adding back a social life, work, etc worked best for me. For both kids I basically cleared my slate and saw what I could do. In terms of preparing, I’d recommend any local parenting classes (get to know people too). You can also get the book “Nurture” (I believe it’s called). But the reality is little can prepare you, but you’ll figure it out with time. A lot of one off searches like “what to do when toddler won’t stop vomiting” are things you’ll probably need most. Also! Set a schedule and stick to it. It makes it easier to at least know you’ll have your significant other take over in 15 min so you can sleep.

trestletech 7y ago
Yes! A schedule was imperative for me to feel like I had some expectations and control. Waking up with absolutely no structure was just a little too overwhelming for me, so having "naptime is ___, lunch is ___" really put me at ease. I didn't read many books on parenting, but one that was immediately helpful was on sleep schedules of children and how they evolve as the kids age. This helped us figure out a schedule that worked for us. Another thing we did that really helped was artificially limiting inputs regarding advice. In those first weeks, we had a handful of books and dozens of blogs and websites that all had contradictory advice; it was really overwhelming. We decided we would only subscribe to three primary sources of info where possible: Mayo Clinic online, some book we had on sleep schedules, and our pediatrician. Only having three places to consult when we had questions (as opposed to the entire Internet) was an enormous help.

trestletech 7y ago

Yes! A schedule was imperative for me to feel like I had some expectations and control. Waking up with absolutely no structure was just a little too overwhelming for me, so having "naptime is ___, lunch is ___" really put me at ease. I didn't read many books on parenting, but one that was immediately helpful was on sleep schedules of children and how they evolve as the kids age. This helped us figure out a schedule that worked for us. Another thing we did that really helped was artificially limiting inputs regarding advice. In those first weeks, we had a handful of books and dozens of blogs and websites that all had contradictory advice; it was really overwhelming. We decided we would only subscribe to three primary sources of info where possible: Mayo Clinic online, some book we had on sleep schedules, and our pediatrician. Only having three places to consult when we had questions (as opposed to the entire Internet) was an enormous help.