Life
We all have those "first-time mom mistakes," the ones that make you face-palm because you really had no idea what you were doing. For me, those mistakes usually happened because I didn't think about what I was doing before it actually happened. Luckily, nothing resulted in any permanent damage to my daughter and, in fact, some of my first-time mom mistakes actually benefitted my kid. Yay for "happy" accidents, right?
I was looking back at photos of my daughter's first days at home a few days ago and did a double take when I saw photos from her first bath, with umbilical cord still hanging around. First, of all: yuck, because those umbilical cords are the grossest and no one can convince me otherwise. Second of all: oops? It didn't even occur to me (or my husband apparently) that we were supposed to wait to give her her first bath until after that fell off. We didn't even do it in the sink! We had her in her little bath inside our regular bath.
Then again, I think there was something about introducing her to the bath and the tub early on that made giving her a bath easier from the very beginning. Who knows, maybe she's just the kind of baby who wouldn't have minded the bath in the slightest, but I'm going to keep telling myself that it benefitted her so I can stop blaming myself for being so clueless at the beginning.
When I Gave My Baby A Bath Too Early
Chalk this one up to not having read the baby books before we brought our daughter home, but I realized the other day in looking through photos that we gave our daughter her first bath before her umbilical cord stump had even fallen off. Whoops!
While I wouldn't do that again with a second kid, she's fine and we got the added benefit of her getting used to having a bath earlier in her life. She never had a phase where she disliked the bath, she always thought it was pretty normal.
When I Used A Bassinet For Naps From The Very Beginning
When we brought her home from the hospital, we didn't have much ready for her arrival. After all, we only found out she was coming 48 hours before she arrived. However, we did have a bassinet and we figured since she'd been sleeping in a bassinet in the NICU for a week, she might like to sleep in a similar way now that she was home.
So, from day one, she took all her naps in the bassinet. Looking back this doesn't seem very cosy, and I can't believe we didn't hold her non-stop, but it did save us having to get her adjusted to sleeping in a bassinet later on.
When My Baby Slept In Her Own Room From The Beginning
Now, to be fair, our apartment is so small she's just as close as she might be in if she was in the same room of a more American-sized house. Even in her own room, she's about1 5 feet from me while I sleep. We started having her sleep in her own room from night two, when her heavy-sleeper dad claimed her every noise had him on edge. We never had to make the transition to moving her out of our room and into her own because that was all she ever knew.
When My Baby Wore A Hat To Sleep For Months
Because I am a total weirdo, you guys. However, hear me out. She wore a hat for her whole first week of life in the NICU, so when we got home I figured she still needed one all the time. Then I decided maybe it was going to be a bit of a sleep cue for her that when we put her hat on, that was time to sleep. That did work, although it makes me cringe at what a total weirdo I was for all those months (I know, months!?).
The bonus? She'll keep a hat on for hours when we need her to.
When I Gave My Baby Eggs And Peanut Butter
Peanuts I thought twice about, and maybe even Googled, but I had been giving our daughter some of my scrambled eggs for weeks before it even occurred to me that I should look that one up.
Turns out, pediatricians are mixed about eggs but since she had already done fine with them we were in the clear. And the biggest benefit? No allergies and no aversions.
When I Read All The Baby Books Way Too Late
There's something to be said for a little ignorance-is-bliss factor when you have a newborn. Too much information always made me more nervous and liable to second-guess myself. When I finally got around to reading the baby books, I had bypassed the first few months and found my own confidence as a mom.
When I Asked Everyone For Advice
In lieu of reading the baby books at the beginning, I asked everyone I came across for advice. Kind of a terrible idea in some respects, because it's hard to wade through so many different opinions. However, as a general strategy, it did have its benefits because I ended up with a few key pieces of advice that made a huge difference that I never would have encountered unless I was open to a lot of opinions. For example, the sleep sacks we use now have been nothing short of a miracle.
