Believe that you can be a good mom, and you will be. Believe that your baby is going to be a good baby, and he or she will be, or at least you will ensure that he/she will be.
If your baby gets a fever, for example, try to not worry right away that he/she will get brain damage, etc. Most fevers go away after about 24 hours. Just give your baby some medication as directed by the label, and everything will most likely be okay. Let your baby sleep as much as they want to to fight off the fever. If your baby is crying and you can’t figure out why, it may be because of gas and that they need to be burped. Usually babies cry when they are hungry, for the most part, but their needing to burp is something that is harder for moms to think of. Sometimes you will have changed your baby, fed your baby, but they are still crying and it might be driving you crazy. Don’t worry, every mom has been there, at a loss and not knowing what else to do. You may just need to pat their back and hold them upright so that they can burp. Swaddling your baby can also comfort them and help them to stop crying, if the crying continues after feeding and burping.
Take as much time off work as you can in this time so you won’t have to worry about sleeping so many hours every night so that you are rested for work. If you can, move to a smaller house or cheaper apartment so that your family can survive on one income until your baby is older.
If at all possible, make sure you are living near supportive family members. You will definitely need their help and advice. Also whenever you have questions, Google whatever it might be. You can find the answer to pretty much anything online. You have to have breaks, even if it’s just going to the store by yourself, baby free, once a week. Try to get your mom or mother in law to babysit once a week, so you can relax and recapture the peaceful life you had before taking on all this responsibility.
Make sure you maintain a healthy relationship with your spouse and don’t let the baby consume all of your time. It can be easy for your husband to get jealous of a new baby, but if you still do things together, that will help. Watch movies together, play games, or go shopping.
If you used to go to church every Sunday, don’t stress yourself out too much if you can’t make it to church on Sundays anymore. You can find alternatives during this phase of your life, such as watching online church services or going to a mid-week Bible study when a babysitter is available. Be flexible and refrain from forcing yourself to go out when you know the baby might have a very hard time in the nursery, etc.
Don’t blame yourself for not being perfect. Realize it would be impossible to be. Don’t expect too much of yourself or anyone else.
Your life now revolves around your new little one. You have to deny yourself and serve your new baby in almost every single hour of your day. You keep getting your sleep interrupted. You can’t get outside as much as you might want to. Remember to give yourself breaks sometimes: listen to fun music or watch some good movies.
Swinging is a good way to get your baby to sleep, since they are moving like they are used to. You can try rocking them yourself, but it can be hard to set them down after you’ve rocked them to sleep. Babies usually wake up when you lay them down in their crib etc. A swing saves you from having to worry about that. It is possible for a baby to sleep in a swing, one that reclines back, or a bassinet, since co-sleeping is not recommended. Swing sleeping can give you peace of mind that your baby is strapped in and won’t be able to roll on their tummy, which can be dangerous for them and cause SIDS. You can also give them their bottles in the swing. You can hold the bottle for them or, as mentioned before, you can prop the bottle up on a blanket to make things easier for you.
Sometimes babies resist diaper changing time, or are extra fussy, because they have a rash.
If you are switching from milk from formula, mix the formula with milk. You need to slowly wean your baby off of the formula. If you don’t do this, they may become constipated and unhappy. Constipation happens with an abrupt change in diet, so make transitions in food “slow and easy”.
Although studies suggest that babies who “cried it out” had no significant short-term or long-term change in their development as opposed to babies whose parents used check-and-console or “camping out” sleep training regimens, such regimens positively impacted the psychological and sleep-related health of the parent and child. “Camping out” refers to the parent staying in the room for increasingly shorter periods of time when the baby is crying, while “check-and-console” refers to the parent returning to check on the baby at increasingly longer intervals. Don’t neglect your baby if you suspect there is a serious problem—attend to their needs as best you can.
