Bringing Home Baby…..First Time Parents, Are You Ready?
You had a baby! Congratulations! While at the hospital you were waited on by a wonderful nursing staff, you may have even had room service. You had the luxury of a jacuzzi bathtub and took advantage of it. You had family and friends cooing over your beautiful new baby. Your husband was there every minute of the day to help you out. You even had the wonderful chance to put your baby in the nursery so that you can get some much needed rest. Aw, hospital bliss. This baby stuff is a piece of cake! You were so ready to have the baby, you have experience. After all, you have nieces and nephews and you babysat a ton as a kid. You are up for anything!
Suddenly, it is discharge day. Your doctor comes in with some instructions. Tells you to call the office and make a two week follow up appointment to check the baby. A nurse helps you put your tiny bundle of love in the car seat correctly. She walks you to your car, and GULP! leaves you and your husband alone with this infant! You suddenly become overwhelmed at the thought of this tiny human relying on you for everything.
You place your baby in the backseat praying that you have the car seat in correctly. One of you decides you should sit in back with the baby, just to keep an eye on her or him. You drive slowly home, almost creeping along in the traffic. You pull up to your house. There it is, the place you will raise your child. Hmm, maybe you aren’t so ready anymore? You think that perhaps you would like to go back to the hospital and ask for the manual on child-rearing. Instead, you head inside.
Once inside, your baby starts screaming. You change a dirty diaper. Your baby is still screaming. What is wrong with this child? You decide he or she is hungry. You feed the baby. Nothing! He or she is still screaming. The baby never cried in the hospital! You think you must be doing something wrong and suddenly you feel completely unprepared to handle all of this!
The baby finally calms down and you decide to get some sleep. It seems the minute your head hits the pillow, the baby starts crying again. You feed the baby, change the baby, burp the baby and lay him or her back down. You quickly go back to bed, again hoping for some much needed shut-eye. Your head hits the pillow and of course, the baby starts crying. You cover your head with your pillow, hoping the baby will stop. No such luck. You seriously begin to wonder how you can love something so much, but wonder what in the heck you were thinking deciding to have a baby. So much work and you feel so unprepared!
Bringing home a newborn for the first time is overwhelming. It does totally change your life. I thought I was more than prepared to handle a newborn. I was an aunt of four, I used to babysit. I was a teacher for goodness sake! I loved children! I read all the books, took all the classes! But, bringing home our first born son was so much harder than I ever imagined. I thought I was prepared for it! I was wrong. You know why I was wrong? Because nothing, and I mean nothing, can ever prepare you for becoming a parent, especially the first time around. You can take classes and read books, but until you actually do it and experience it, nothing will prepare you.
Being a parent is a full-time, learn as you go job. When you bring that new baby to your home, do what you feel is right. Listen to your gut and go from there. Don’t question yourself. Be prepared to feel like you are horrible at parenting. Be prepared to be frustrated by endless crying and sleepless nights. Be prepared to not know what you are doing. No one is ever truly ready to be a parent that first time. It gets easier.
So, I say this to all first time parents to be…be prepared to be unprepared. Be ready to be clueless. Be ready to not know what you are doing. And, then let your instincts take over and be the kind of parent you wish to be! Most of all, be ready to love in a way you have not experienced before, because in a few years all of that hard work with your newborn will be nothing but a cherished memory. No matter how hard it was!
