ot- Things You Wish you Knew Before you became a first time parent

[PetiteWonder]

I thought it would be fun to post some of the things you learned that would have been helpful to know before you became a parent as we have a lot of soon to be new parents...  you can continue to add as you think of things.. some will be obvious... and everyones experience is different so some things may not seem to true for others

#1. Dont underestimate the amount of time you will spent just holding your baby...

#2.Even though, you are really anxious for your baby to come near the end, take that time to do some things you really enjoy.. nice dinner s with your partner, go to the movies, etc... as that is not very possible once you have the baby

#3. if you are finding you are having alot of diaper accidents with one brand, try another.. some brands just fit different babies differently.. which is why some people swear by huggies and others swear by pampers

#4. There will be days where you baby pretty much just wants to feed non stop

#5. Invest in a lot of receiving blankets.. Save money on things like swaddle wraps, burp clothes,etc.. a receiving blanket can do it all.... even the most uncoordinated person will learn to swaddle.. you can always pick up these things later on if you find the need in the end (since they are expensive)

#6. you can spend all the money on cute clothing you want but most days, you will be dressing your baby for convenience and easy access.. so its best to get the basics like onsies and sleepers and invest in a couple cute outfits for special events as you go

#7 Laundry may become a two day affair (one day to wash, 2nd day to fold)

im sure more will come but this is just a start.

[Mommyjeep11]

Mine was that I wish I had prepared for a different type of delivery than I wanted just so I could have known what to expect. I wanted a natural delivery no drugs or anything and ended up with a c section. All of the pants I had packed were not as accommodating for a c section incision as I would have guessed.

I also would have not let the little things bother me as much. Anytime someone would say something negative about how I was doing something I would start bawling. Now when they do I just tell them where they can shove it :) no parent is perfect you just have to try your best.

Also you don't need the expensive butt creams. Neosporin works on everything. Even diaper rash and it makes one less thing to carry in the diaper bag.

Oh and when you can buy travel sizes of stuff baby powder or what ever. My sister in law would carry around the full size box of wipes powder and anything else she needed and then wondered why her bag was so heavy and starting to rip.

And speaking of diaper bags. For me at least. Any size bag I use I pack it full. I don't know why. It just happens. Try to get a bag big enough to hold what you need but not so huge that it needs rollers just to be carried around :)

[PetiteWonder]

cutting their finger nails occurs on an every day basis...

dont worry too much about what clothes your baby will wear in the hospital... honestly i think 75% of my time shirtless and the baby was in her diaper until we left


i know about spray poop, the other night she managed to spray it from her change table, hitting our comforter agood 4 f away but hit nothing  in between?

[luvmy2girls]

I learned that baby has their own bed for a reason.  with my first I remember crying for litwo weeks straight while trying to get her to sleep on her own.  I breastfed in bed for over a year and I think i'my still traumatized by the weaning experience of getting her to sleep alone.   the 30 to 60 minutes it takes to get up and feed and change is easy compared to waking up every 20 minutes to make sure you didn't roll over them:)  ( although I still check on their breathing because they are so quiet)

[Nocturnally]

This is my first pregnancy, and hearing all these actually excites me honestly.

[cnhauk]

One of the best pieces of advice I've heard is don't worry you're 'doing it wrong'- you've never been a parent before and this baby has never HAD parents before! They don't know any different from what you're doing!

[mikaleen]

Little girls may not pee on you, but when my daughter was a month old, she was breastfed and had that really loose mustardy poop.  As soon as I took her diaper off she squirted it all over me and her sister who wanted to watch.  I swear it shot 3 feet through the air from her little heiny.