Parenting

Top 10 Tips for New Dads

By Trey ⋅ October 28, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅ Post a comment

Addison is now 20 days old, and I’ve learned a lot over the past 3 weeks. I’d like to share my top 10 tips list with other fathers-to-be out there. Hopefully it will make your first days with your new child a bit less surprising.

1. Ask questions until you’re blue in the face. Doctors and nurses are paid to help you. Make them earn it.
2. Do not buy into the “tough love” approach so early. Hold your baby every chance you get.
3. Sleep when your baby sleeps – you’ll both be much happier.
4. Put down the books. They offer guidelines for the norm. I can guarantee your baby won’t read that book nor will they suddenly follow every rule presented on Day 5. Don’t freak out if her stool does not go from black tar to “yellow and seedy” by precisely 5 PM on the day the book tells you.
5. Take a break. Invite family over, let them entertain the baby, and go get some quiet time for at least an hour.
6. Trust in mommy’s intuition. When she says the baby does not want any more food, listen to her. Otherwise you only have yourself to blame for the vomit on your face.
7. Get the new diaper on QUICKLY. A naked baby is an invitation to get peed on.
8. Burping is CRITICAL. Otherwise the last point on #6 applies.
9. Your baby is tough. Just because they scream when you change their diaper or clothes does not mean you are contorting their limbs at unnatural angles. They’re just being pissy, and those baby wipes are cold.
10. When you first hear your baby have a bowel movement, do not rush to change her. I can guarantee there is more to come in the next 5 minutes. You’ll know when she’s done as her face will no longer look like a tomato.

Tags: tips