Wow thanks guys, lots of things I hadn’t thought about. Please keep it coming.
Silly things to help with stuff you don’t think to ask:
How to burp a baby:
Clean diaper or baby towel over your off hand shoulder. Baby over that shoulder, head resting on the shoulder, if they want to, but lifted on their own is fine. Cup your hand fingers tight together, thumb along side, and shaped like you were trying to hold water in your palm. Start with the kid’s butt. Thump, don’t swat. About three times a second, each one landing a half inch higher than the last, the final one in each sequence right between the shoulder blades. (OK, it’s a baby, right across the shoulder blades.) Avoid the neck. Start again after about three seconds. Swaying is fine, but don’t bounce.
About that clean towel: At every discount department store, or savings club there is a bundle of 12 hand towels, plain white, 100% cotton. They are cheap, and deservedly so, since they are totally not luxury items. Consider them a necessity, and buy two bundles. Consider them dirty if you didn’t just pick them up off the stack. Wash them with bleach in batches of ten to twenty, and dry them until they crackle. (The dyer is the most effective antiseptic thing you own, without any doubt. Nothing survives getting that hot, and that dry.) Use them dry, wet them down with tap water, use them on the baby, and use them on everything. Semi-disposable, if you can afford it and thrown away when they get too stained, or ratty. They are not distinctive enough to become emotionally significant objects, other than generically. You cannot, and should not sterilize your baby’s environment, but this is the exception. You don’t want to transport germs from one mess to every part of your home. This way, you break the transportation cycle by habit.
They make great baby shower gifts. Other things to buy new mothers: Plastic coated baby spoons, the special type that changes color with temperature. Plastic caps for electric outlets. (Don’t wait until you need them, you need them before you think you do, put them in now.) Latches for drawers, and cabinets. (Put them in now.) And of course, books. Baby books, and other such books. (I favor the “Chronicles of Narnia” which mom can practice on while baby is not being attentive to content and delivery, later, when critical listening is happening, mom will be accomplished in out loud reading, and familiar with the story.)
OK, so I like babies.
Tris
And if you do give up, don’t beat yourself over it. Not everyone can live with cracked and bleeding nipples. Jeez, just writing that made me hurt. About two weeks into it I couldn’t take it anymore. It felt like she was biting me every time she latched on. It was horrific. And really, I just wanted my body back.
Same with the cloth diapers. Try it and if it goes well, then maybe it’s for you. For me, I just couldn’t handle the mess of it. I had to go with disposables.
People will try to make you feel like those two issues make or break you as a mother. Trust me, they don’t. There are so many factors that are much more important.
There’s lots of good stuff in here, things that I was remembering from our first child.
But there’s something else I was reminded of last night around midnight, when our newborn was fussy and crying after being fed by mommy. (Amelia Airblair, 7 lb 14 oz, 4/18/05, thankyouverymuch).
That is, when a baby is crying after eating, be persistent about burping her. You may think you got it all out, but babies are like any other people–they should feel satisfied with warm food in their bellies. If they’re crying, you probably haven’t burped 'em enough. For newborns, I have a slightly different method than Triskadecamus: Hold the baby upright, cradle and support her head in the “V” between your thumb and index finger, and pat her back until you hear something or she stops crying. It can help if you gently bounce her on your knee as you’re doing this.
It took me about 6 weeks with our firstborn before I made the connection: Baby Burps=Daddy Sleeps.
You know on the front page with this thread being at the top it reads
What if she doesn’t come
Which is a completly different thread.
:eek: Perish the thought! My kid will never have sex!
At least not while I am alive. 
[ul][li]You cannot spoil a new born. []Feed one end, clean the other, hug the middle []If anyone offers help, accept gratefully. []If anyone offers advice, listen, and then do what you think best. []You still have a husband. If you play your cards right, you will still have a husband after your children are out of the house. Remember all those times you thought, “Honestly! Can’t those people control their children?” [/li]IT’S PAYBACK TIME![/ul]
Regards,
Shodan