Tips on the Infant Stage of Life?

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Porfirio said:
Any tips on surviving it? I am thinking of working more.
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Literally LOLd at this. Working more is probably not your solution. May I suggest working less for the first three months of the childs life until some semblance of a sleep pattern can form.
If you really hate it so much that you want to work more, I think a nanny may help. Use that extra pay to get a night nanny. That way you sleep at night whether or not your child does.
 
Porfirio said:
My wife and I just had our first baby. I love my daughter, but I hate the infant stage of life. Any tips on surviving it? I am thinking of working more.
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It gets better. It feels like it’s going to last forever, but you blink and it’s over. Take some time to be home. Show your wife grace. Splurge on coffee.

Funny thing is: when you have you second kid, you realize how easy this part is.
 
Just add 1/2 cap to the bottle...

DA2703F5-42CA-4DED-BEF9-A4A0B06E9F56.jpeg
 
TimesNewRoman said:
It gets better. It feels like it’s going to last forever, but you blink and it’s over. Take some time to be home. Show your wife grace. Splurge on coffee.

Funny thing is: when you have you second kid, you realize how easy this part is.
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Truth!!!
 
I guess just help your wife out as much as possible and do things around the house to make her life easier. The baby doesn’t care about you at this point, it just wants to sleep, pee, poop, and be on the boob.

Funny with my first kid I was up all the time whenever my wife had to get up for the first few months. I would clean dishes, get her stuff while she slaved away nursing.

With the second kid, I just slept through all that stuff.
 
Porfirio said:
My wife and I just had our first baby. I love my daughter, but I hate the infant stage of life. Any tips on surviving it? I am thinking of working more.
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Oh, man, my wife and I just had our first 10 weeks ago. I couldn't agree more...infants are just no fun. The occasional smile and bath time are great, but overall it has stressed me out to no end. My wife's maternity leave ended this week, and that has just made it worse. She's at work now while I'm up with the kid posting on SDN at 4 am, haha.
 
Mine is 7 months. It got much more fun when he started crawling and babbling. Before that it just felt like a super-intense version of gardening.

I am kinda glad I work nights and the wife gets to stay home and get woken up randomly. When I'm at the FSED I at least get pretty consistent sleep.

Agree that there's no shame in getting a nanny or babysitter. I dunno how my parents managed without one. My wife would go crazy being a SAHM. Different generational values/pain tolerance I guess? Babysitter is a much better value for our money vs nanny as we both have pretty predictable work schedules (working the same days each week is my reward for being a nocturnist).

If you haven't figured it out yet, when they're crying, always check the diaper first, and then only second try to feed them if they're still crying. That way hopefully they'll sleep a bit longer and not wake up screaming cuz they're wet.

Once they start crawling, having a big fuzzy dog for them to harass takes a lot of stress off you to entertain them all the time.
 
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hundreddaysoff said:
Mine is 7 months. It got much more fun when he started crawling and babbling. Before that it just felt like a super-intense version of gardening.

I am kinda glad I work nights and the wife gets to stay home and get woken up randomly. When I'm at the FSED I at least get pretty consistent sleep.

Agree that there's no shame in getting a nanny or babysitter. I dunno how my parents managed without one. My wife would go crazy being a SAHM. Different generational values/pain tolerance I guess? Babysitter is a much better value for our money vs nanny as we both have pretty predictable work schedules (working the same days each week is my reward for being a nocturnist).

If you haven't figured it out yet, when they're crying, always check the diaper first, and then only second try to feed them if they're still crying. That way hopefully they'll sleep a bit longer and not wake up screaming cuz they're wet.

Once they start crawling, having a big fuzzy dog for them to harass takes a lot of stress off you to entertain them all the time.
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Have you started picking the kid up, and smelling the ass, to see if the diaper needs to be changed?
 
hundreddaysoff said:
nah, my sense of smell is horrible and even if there's no poop I'd miss the pee
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You'll soon be able to distinguish a wet/pooey/dry diaper from one another by feel of squish by itself. Three kids, had
I dealt with it by indulging in islay single malts and some work.

Sent from my LYA-L29 using SDN mobile
 
Birdstrike said:
It goes by incredibly fast.
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I hope every day.

My wife last night burst into my room (sleeping in the guest room) and was crying and yelling that the baby was foaming at the mouth and breathing funny. The baby farted 3 big farts in my arms and went to sleep on my chest. This happened at 3:25 am after I went to bed at 2:00 am so my wife could sleep.
 
Porfirio said:
I hope every day.

My wife last night burst into my room (sleeping in the guest room) and was crying and yelling that the baby was foaming at the mouth and breathing funny. The baby farted 3 big farts in my arms and went to sleep on my chest. This happened at 3:25 am after I went to bed at 2:00 am so my wife could sleep.
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Once your kid sleeps through the night, which will come much sooner than you think, things get much better. Plus first kids are unnecessarily anxiety provoking.

First kid: “OMG! He’s foaming at the mouth, crying, breathing funny! Do something!”

Second kid: “Hurry up and fart already” *instasnore*

You’ll look back and say, “Remember when he was a baby and every time he had to fart we thought he was gonna die? Lolz”

Before you know it, it’ll be, “You know you’re close to the daily lethal dose of iPhone time, right?”

“So? Heh-heh. Heh-heh.”
 
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Sounds like my life is going to get pretty terrible in a few months -_-
 
When in doubt, take your kid to the park. Backyard will work in a pinch. Pretty good at getting the rugrats to quiet down.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Porfirio said:
My wife and I just had our first baby. I love my daughter, but I hate the infant stage of life. Any tips on surviving it? I am thinking of working more.
Click to expand...

Tip #1 - don't get parenting tips from the internet.

So I won't give you any tips, but I will say that when I became a parent & was frustrated that everyone seemed to lie about liking parenthood.

The fact of the matter is that a newborn WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE. It's almost like the old you dies a painful death, but at some point a (very different) new you emerges. It sucks.

But then 2 years later I decided I wanted another kid. So I guess parenthood also gave me amnesia.
 
WilcoWorld said:
Tip #1 - don't get parenting tips from the internet.

So I won't give you any tips, but I will say that when I became a parent & was frustrated that everyone seemed to lie about liking parenthood.

The fact of the matter is that a newborn WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE. It's almost like the old you dies a painful death, but at some point a (very different) new you emerges. It sucks.

But then 2 years later I decided I wanted another kid. So I guess parenthood also gave me amnesia.
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You’re doing it wrong. My first kid and the first couple years of his life were awesome.
 
I don't remember much when it came to the 1st 3-6 months of each of our kids. My wife took care of everything even nighttime breastfeeding.

She said,"There is no reason to wake you b/c I am awake anyways"

I don't think I gave them a bath. Did some diaper duties when I was awake but even those were scants.
 
WilcoWorld said:
Tip #1 - don't get parenting tips from the internet.

So I won't give you any tips, but I will say that when I became a parent & was frustrated that everyone seemed to lie about liking parenthood.

The fact of the matter is that a newborn WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE. It's almost like the old you dies a painful death, but at some point a (very different) new you emerges. It sucks.

But then 2 years later I decided I wanted another kid. So I guess parenthood also gave me amnesia.
Click to expand...
You're smarter than I am, we had 2 at once. Do not recommend if sleep is any kind of a priority.
 
WilcoWorld said:
So I won't give you any tips, but I will say that when I became a parent & was frustrated that everyone seemed to lie about liking parenthood.

The fact of the matter is that a newborn WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE. It's almost like the old you dies a painful death, but at some point a (very different) new you emerges. It sucks.

But then 2 years later I decided I wanted another kid. So I guess parenthood also gave me amnesia.
Click to expand...

I think parenthood exposes every little bit of selfishness you have, at least it did for me. @TimesNewRoman x100.

My wife would say she loved all the phases up until 2.5-3.5 yo. (My son was hard that year, but he’s been so much fun since then.). It does go by fast.

PS, can’t imagine having twins. .......nope
 
My feelings on parenthood were well illustrated by Ted Chiang in his fantastic sci fi short Story of Your Life.

By most lights, the decision to become a parent is irrational. Just look at @RustedFox's bank account or @GeneralVeers's passport stamps for evidence. OTOH I see my perfectly flawed children & conclude that they're mistakes I'd make over and over again.

I think that new parents often feel isolated and become self-judgmental because too few people are open about how hard it is to become a parent. Those who acknowledge the difficulty are told "you're doing it wrong" or are called selfish. So, people loudly tout how much they love their kids & only furtively whisper about their negative feelings, if they admit them at all. So when a new parent feels these feelings they're left to wonder "what is wrong with me?" I answer that there's nothing wrong with you - it's perfectly normal to mourn the loss of your old life, taken by the hands of this incredibly cute tyrant.
 
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WilcoWorld said:
My feelings on parenthood were well illustrated by Ted Chiang in his fantastic sci fi short Story of Your Life.

By most lights, the decision to become a parent is irrational. Just look at @RustedFox's bank account or @GeneralVeers's passport stamps for evidence. OTOH I see my perfectly flawed children & conclude that they're mistakes I'd make over and over again.

I think that new parents often feel isolated and become self-judgmental because too few people are open about how hard it is to become a parent. Those who acknowledge the difficulty are told "you're doing it wrong" or are called selfish. So, people loudly tout how much they love their kids & only furtively whisper about their negative feelings, if they admit them at all. So when a new parent feels these feelings they're left to wonder "what is wrong with me?" I answer that there's nothing wrong with you - it's perfectly normal to mourn the loss of your old life, taken by the hands of this incredibly cute tyrant.
Click to expand...
Eh, kids suck, life sucks, but without kids what's the point of life? lol
 
Expect the house to be chronically messy, and for the little one to use your shirt/pants as their own personal napkins. Lost count of how many times my favorite clothes were wrecked with food stains after junior decided to come and give me a hug or jump in my lap after hands covered in pasta sauce/chocolate chip cookie/whatever messy food he ate at the time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Mom here
Work less the first year of life...if you can afford it
 
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Sleep makes everything better, whenever it happens. The first few days are cool because brand new person, but then the next few months really suck with the lack of sleep and everything. But they are easy to take places at that age. For me baby wearing helped me stay sane because it stopped the baby from crying so I could actually do things and interact with people.
 
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