The first year of parenting can be stressful. Everyone has advice for parents of newborns. Including us. So here are the top five things we have learned in our first years of parenting.

Share Responsibilities

Of course, you should be sharing responsibilities. Anything mommy can do (except breastfeed) daddy can do. And vice versa. The Mrs. can throw a pretty good baseball, so she can teach our little one as well as I can.

However, we also feel you should develop roles. For example, I wake the baby up in the morning and mommy puts her to bed at night. It allows us to have one on one bonding time. This is especially true because she is a captured audience at that point.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

Despite having a website about our adventures, the Mrs and I are incredibly introverted. That’s why we force ourselves to do things we probably wouldn’t do if we didn’t have her.

So far, it has been a success. If you talk to her, she will baby talk your ear off (with a few real words as well). She loves to face the crowd. If she is in a supermarket, she will turn herself to front face if she can.

It’s not that we don’t want her to be introverted. She will be what she will be. We want to make sure that she has the chance to do things that we wouldn’t usually do.

Listen to Your Baby

One of the most significant issues we had with our little one was bedtime. It would be around 7-7:30. We would try to feed her. She would cry. More like a wail. Like she was in pain. We would put her down, and she would be miserable but then fall asleep rather quickly.

So we thought about it. She was falling asleep quickly. She was overtired.

We moved her bedtime up to 6-6:30. Her nights were peaceful again.

Babies communicate with us. Each probably does it in their way. Crack the code.

When With Family, Let Them Tend to Your Little One

This is especially true when you are visiting the generation above you.

Let your baby build bonds with family. Let them realize they can trust these people. The Mrs. family leaves mostly in Florida. However, our little one recognizes them already.

Remember, most of these people had a hand in raising you, and you turned out ok.

Right?

Find a Daycare You and Your Baby Will Love

This is the hardest one. My sister-in-law lives in DC away from family and friends. It was hard finding the right daycare for her little one. She had to change daycare.

How do you find one that is right?

Talk to people that live near or work with you. Find out where they send their kids. We choose our daycare because nearly every colleague of ours sent their kids there.

In a lot of cases, you can see right away if the place is a good fit for you. For us, we wanted a place and people our daughter would love. We also wanted a place that would be firm and fair when she does wrong. Ask tons of questions about their philosophy. Of course, they will give you literature, but talking to a person makes a difference.

It didn’t take long to see how great our choice was. And it wasn’t from how well they treated our child. We started to bring her to daycare at seven weeks. At that age, babies are just beginning to be interactive. It was watching the daycare staff interact with the other babies, toddlers, and pre-school children. We knew we had made the right decision.

Now, our little one is excited when we show up to daycare.

She misses us, but not for long. That makes us sad and happy at the same time.

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