Prepare To Be Unprepared

Norman and I did our best, or at least a 3/4th-assed job, at being ready for the baby. We waited till be had a salary to budget, health insurance, and me through University. We had everything in the way of a crib, swing, bouncy chairs, etc. We read (I read) books on pregnancy and subscribed to about 3 magazines on the subject. I still felt unprepared as we sat in the hospital waiting for the little guy. Haven't never been a person who liked babies, I hadn't interacted with many. I felt I should have read at least every book I bought if not more. However, at the hospital I found myself listening to the Dr. and nurse explain things that I already knew because I had read it somewhere. Online in a forum or in a book or magazine on in the child-birth class we went to at the hospital. This brought me to the disturbing conclusion that though I didn't feel we'd done absolutely everything we could to be mentally and emotionally prepared to do our best by this little guy, a lot, if not most, did far less. Everyone in the family was bragging about how well prepared we were and how we knew so much, so the combination made me feel better. The first couple weeks were hard, trying to figure out how to keep him happy and nursing and do what was best for him, which is not feeding him constantly, though that might be an immediate solution to crying. At 7 weeks now, I feel much more competent in taking care of him, and though I'm sure I could have read a lot more, the only thing I really could have done to make things easier on me as I started caring for him would have been to hang out with a mom with a new born who knew what to do and get a feel for it first hand. And I have worked out my own system that not everyone does, so it would still have not been a perfect plan. My advice is: take a class at the hospital, ask everything you can think of, read everything you can get your hands on, and then realize that babies don't read the books and you have to take your lead from them. Trial and error is okay in areas like feeding and sleeping schedules, not in anything regarding safety. Parenting magazines rock because they give you things to look forward to like adorable toys and big milestones.