After the first 6 weeks, breastfeeding is optional. You’re not eeeeevil parents if you go to formula, but formula is expensive. During the first 6, there are special nutrients and antibodies in the milk they should be getting. The world won’t end if they don’t get breastfed in those 6 weeks, but it does make life easier all around if you do.
Count on being peed and barfed on at least once.
Diapers are another touchy issue. Disposables are great, but expensive. Even if you don’t use them on their butts, get a bundle of cloth diapers, they make great rags.
Learn to burp them. It’s quite funny to hear a 2 or 3 month old belch like a drunken fratboy.
Take them everywhere you can. I took the VunderKind to the grocery and hardware store whenever possible, just for the socialization. He ate up the attention.
They don’t break easily.
Play with them as much as possible.
If you have normally tempered pets, don’t shelter the kids from them. Beware of psycho cats or dogs, though.
A nap on the couch with a sprout is one of the top five all-time best things in life.
Decide now about circumcision, if you have a boy. Either way is fine, but you don’t want to fight a mom in post-partum depression over the issue.
Breastfeeding is always optional. Do not feel pressured to breastfeed your babies (well, not you personally…) because someone has told you they’ll be prone to ear infections or they won’t be as smart. I did not breastfeed, nor was I breastfed. I’ve never had an ear infection and, so far, neither has my son. And, believe me, we’re both pretty smart.
I took this advice today. My son has been not quite right - very happy and cheerful, but just a little quieter than normal and not eating quite as much. I took him to the doctor today and it turns out that not only is he teething (which I had figured), but he has a stomach virus, too. The doctor couldn’t do anything, but she gave me good advice on watching for and preventing dehydration and let me know how long it would last. The reassurance was really what I needed.
Never feel like you can’t call the doctor or that your question is stupid. If the doctor (or the nurses) makes you feel that way, switch.
My other advice: do the best you can and let the rest go. Laugh a lot. Worry less.
(As far as holding your kids - if you like it and they like it, and you can fit it in, great! My son hated being held or swaddled, from the time he popped out. As he gets a little older, he’s getting more and more cuddly, but he does not like to be constrained in any way. Other babies love it, though. Makes them feel secure. I think my kid’s going to be an adrenaline junkie - it cracks him up to be startled.)
Check my post again. After the first comment about breastfeeding being optional after six weeks, I said that the world won’t end if you bottle feed from the beginning.
Then there’s the time when the wife brought the kid to bed with us in the middle of the night and I woke up to a 3 week old latching on to me.
BTW, I was bottlefed from the start, and I’m the smartest guy I know.
