Baby’s First Year: 3 Things Parents Need To Know
Baby’s first year often sounds
like it’s all sleepless nights with endless crying.
So here’s 3 things parents need to know
about the positives!
This post was first written in 2018, and updated today.
It’s all out there, all the stuff you can expect to happen in your baby’s first year.
All the sleepless nights you’ll endure (you’ll lose 44 days of sleep that first year.)
All the diapers and baby wipes and formula and bottle liners you’ll have to buy. (A baby uses 420 newborn size diapers, not to mention the other sizes.)
There’s an endless barrage of negative information available about that important first year of your baby’s life.
Baby’s First Year:
The First Thing Parents Need to Know
There’s a lot of positive information, too.
You may have to look a little harder for the positive stories, but there are many.
”
The Bible tells us repeatedly in His Word
how all children are a gift from God.
Every single life, every single child, is a reward and blessing.
Whether they’re bringing parents pride and joy,
or whether they are teaching us how to be more patient and forgiving,
children are a gift from God!
Source.
“
Ask any mother a month into the life of her newborn what she remembers best about giving birth.
I can almost guarantee that she’ll look at you with eyes of joy, soft and shining with the excitement of telling you about that first moment she held her little one in her arms.
All the pain, all the sleepless nights, all the diaper changes
mean NOTHING compared to the incredible joy
of watching a brand new life grow and thrive…
a life that YOU brought into this world.
A LITTLE PERSON THAT BELONGS ONLY TO YOU!!
There is no feeling that can compare.
In her book, 42 Things That Change When You Have a Baby,
Rebecca Woolf Lists 13 Changes to Celebrate when you have a baby:
1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.
2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.
3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.
4. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.
5. You find that your baby’s pain feels much worse than your own.
6. You believe once again in things you believed in as a child.
7. You lose touch with people in your life you should have banished years ago.
8. Your heart breaks much more easily.
9. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.
10. Every day is a surprise.
11. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.
12. You become a morning person.
13. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.
The Second Thing Parents Need to Know
All the fun isn’t exclusive to mom.
Most Dads anticipate, rejoice, celebrate and talk baby speak just as much as moms.
They might be more inclined to show these emotions in the privacy of their own homes, but don’t doubt it.
Dads are allowed to show how much they care.
They’re allowed to shed tears when the nurse hands off that newborn baby into their arms the very first time.
They are allowed to feel pride in the little life that follows them.
This is absolutely an admirable, macho trait in any man,
to feel protective, to want to put a wall around baby
to protect her from the grabbing hands of grandmas
wanting to count her toes ten minutes after she’s born,
and to strut down the hospital corridors
feeling as if they are the first to ever accomplish this incredible feat.
This isn’t just well meaning information coming from the dark ages.
There is evidence today that women are still much more involved in child care than men are. According to the New York Times, one study found that after baby, a women’s work time increased by 21 hours a week, and a man’s just over half that, at 12.5 hours.
However, the good news is that dad’s are doing a lot more to help out than they used to. Suzanne Bianchi, a sociologist who studied family time, found that men have tripled their involvement in child care from 2.5 hours per week in 1965 to 7 hours today. Mothers spend 13.9 hours per week on child care.
In our home, we found that the bigger load of child care time was on me as the mother during baby’s first year, but after they got older their daddy spent more time teaching them to ride bike and throw a ball and playing games with them than I did. The share of child care grew to 50-50 once they were older.
Is that how it’s been for you all? Let me know in this quick poll…
The 3rd Thing Parents Should Know:
Both Parents are Equally Important to Their Child!
Whether you keep score about the time you spend caring for your child versus the time your spouse spends
just know that your child is the central concern of being a family.
No matter who works more or plays more with the child, the child will love you equally.
And you as parents will love your child equally, even though it may show in different ways.
No amount of child care or playtime
by which parent
will ever matter
compared to the love
your child feels from you.
So don’t keep score, just heap on the loving!
Let your hearts connect with the heart of your child.
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