7.17.2013

parenting advice i wish i'd listened to when i was a new mom

1| never ever ever ever wake a sleeping baby!
most books say to wake them up every couple of hours to eat. when i first had zu, i had a timer that would go off every three hours for me to make sure to wake up and feed her. this, friends, was crazy. it ignored her natural rhythms, meaning sometimes i was trying my darndest to feed a sound-asleep child, and insured that i got absolutely no sleep. just let them sleep. they will wake up when they are hungry.

2| a bottle = more hours of sleep
even if you are breastfeeding, giving them a little formula before bed can mean an extra hour of sleep for you, and, speaking from experience, formula fed babies are no less happy, intelligent, and healthy, if my sweet zu is any example. i'm breastfeeding june, but i give her a bottle before bedtime too.

3| a little bit of tv doesn't hurt
when you have a newborn and a toddler, sometimes you are just trying to survive. which can mean an hour of tv in the afternoons.

4| don't worry about the babyweight. 
give yourself a break! so what if you are pudgey for a few months? i'm not even going to think about that stuff until june is two months old at least. i'm not a kardashian, no one cares if i don't immediately fit into skinny jeans.

5| don't do anything for six weeks
don't worry about having a clean house or going out with people (unless you want to) or brushing your hair or cooking a nice dinner or writing poems. just worry about taking care of your newborn and adjusting to your new life--all the rest of that stuff will come eventually. 

4 comments:

  1. what great advice! i will log it all away! :) i've always thought it was odd that some people wake up babies to feed them. but it's good to know you don't have to!

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    1. as a first time mom i was scared that zu would starve to death if i didn't wake her up, or that it would hurt my chances of being able to breastfeed. funnily enough, i NEVER wake june up to feed her and she has both gained weight better than zu did and breastfed better! i wish i hadn't let books make me so paranoid!

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  2. Milo never slept long enough at one time that I ever needed to set a timer, but I've thought I would probably set one with Linus unless he's up a lot, too - that's good to know that maybe it's not necessary. :)

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    1. zu was a really good sleeper and would go for 5 hour stretches if i didn't wake her up. june usually wakes up every 2 to 3 hours to eat, but whenever there's a four hour stretch, i just enjoy it instead of freaking out like with zuzu lol.

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