babying

Welcome baby! If this is your first baby, it can be a roller coaster wonderful challenging time. Your baby depends upon you for everything—the true definition of the word: awesome.

We all go through a lot of preparation for this point, the arrival. In truth, we don’t really need many physical items—you can keep the baby warm being skin to skin and lightly covered with a blanket, water and a washcloth can wipe up any mess and a piece of cloth could serve as a diaper. The reason you have all this STUFF is that eventually you need it- it makes your life easier, and you don’t want to shop for it once the baby is born.

We do need information. While no one can really prepare you for what it is going to be like, you want to prepare yourself so you can look back at this baby time and feel like you were empowered and able to make choices you can look back on and feel good about— and not make choices out of fear.

The same reason you buy “stuff” before so you don’t have to shop with a baby is the same reason you should research nursing, feeding, and sleeping before you give birth, and have certain numbers on hand (lactation consultant). You will most likely be sleep deprived and nervous and scared and just want to feed your baby—fear produces cortisol in our brains and makes it impossible to think things through the way you ordinarily are able to.

Most of it comes down to sleeping and nursing—and the odds are that with support, forethought, and planning, almost all women can nurse and most babies will sleep— while a new parent may not remember everything he or she has read, having information at hand, and a select group of people to ask so you don’t have conflicting information overload, almost insures success.