"...have raised healthy, happy children." -Our Pediatrician at Will's Day-4 checkup
I recently found out that one of my dearest friends is expecting her first child. She asked for advice. So having recently entered my rookie year of parenthood, I decided to share what I have learned in the past twelve months. I also borrowed heavily from the tone of Kurt Vonnegut's "Trust me on the sunscreen" address.
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I am not sure which is more simultaneously terrifying and exciting:
-The thought of my son hanging out with your son while chasing girls and playing the "I'm more Irish, and I can prove it!" game.
or
-The thought of my son chasing your daughter.
I was discussing it with him recently on the changing table. He smiled largest at the latter. Kid's got his priorities straight already.
Food is key to surviving the first several months. A good community will line up meals for y'all for several weeks. If people even hint at this, enthusiastically say "yes!" One of the smartest things my wife did was making double recipees of all of our favorite meals several months before her due date and freezing half of them. We still have not really needed to cook a meal. Blessing.
The Baby Industrial Complex is the best friend and channel partner of the Wedding Industrial Complex. It promotes more useless gear than Sharper Image.
Register. This makes gift management much easier for people throwing you showers...and lets you return stuff you don't like / need easily in exchange for stuff you really do want / need.
Shop at Target. Target has most of the essentials without the fluff (wipes warmers, electronic kick counters)
You will get conflicting advice. Take that which empowers you. Disregard that which does not.
Pick a pediatrician with some gray hair and an interesting undergraduate major. Ours graduated from Berkeley in the early 80's with a BA in Rhetoric. We discussed that and his favorite novels at Will's first check up. Very useful for the sanity of two neurotic but literary parents.
"Many people less capable than you have raised perfectly healthy, happy children." Our pediatrician's parting comments during that first visit.
Anesthesiologists can be your best friend in the 10th month, and there is nothing wrong with that. More on that in my most recent blog post "Jet Pilots and Left Tackles."
Boy or girl really doesn't matter. Lindsay wanted a boy. I was hoping for a girl...even after we found out we were having a boy. And I completely forgot this as soon as he showed up.
And trust me, don't forget that people much less capable than you...
-Wallace
-The thought of my son hanging out with your son while chasing girls and playing the "I'm more Irish, and I can prove it!" game.
or
-The thought of my son chasing your daughter.
I was discussing it with him recently on the changing table. He smiled largest at the latter. Kid's got his priorities straight already.
Food is key to surviving the first several months. A good community will line up meals for y'all for several weeks. If people even hint at this, enthusiastically say "yes!" One of the smartest things my wife did was making double recipees of all of our favorite meals several months before her due date and freezing half of them. We still have not really needed to cook a meal. Blessing.
The Baby Industrial Complex is the best friend and channel partner of the Wedding Industrial Complex. It promotes more useless gear than Sharper Image.
Register. This makes gift management much easier for people throwing you showers...and lets you return stuff you don't like / need easily in exchange for stuff you really do want / need.
Shop at Target. Target has most of the essentials without the fluff (wipes warmers, electronic kick counters)
You will get conflicting advice. Take that which empowers you. Disregard that which does not.
Pick a pediatrician with some gray hair and an interesting undergraduate major. Ours graduated from Berkeley in the early 80's with a BA in Rhetoric. We discussed that and his favorite novels at Will's first check up. Very useful for the sanity of two neurotic but literary parents.
"Many people less capable than you have raised perfectly healthy, happy children." Our pediatrician's parting comments during that first visit.
Anesthesiologists can be your best friend in the 10th month, and there is nothing wrong with that. More on that in my most recent blog post "Jet Pilots and Left Tackles."
Boy or girl really doesn't matter. Lindsay wanted a boy. I was hoping for a girl...even after we found out we were having a boy. And I completely forgot this as soon as he showed up.
And trust me, don't forget that people much less capable than you...
-Wallace
PS - Don't forget the Butt Paste - http://www.buttpaste.com/
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