Do you see that picture? That sure is a cute baby. Okay, so I am totally biased because I’m his mom, but that picture reminds me of something that I did not really pay any attention to before I had a baby. I am not sure what I was expecting to see when I welcomed my first newborn three years ago, but I probably thought that he would look something like the baby in the picture. I was wrong. Newborns don’t look like babies. They look like newborns, and when your newborn baby is placed in your arms, you will think that he or she is beautiful regardless of what you think when you see a picture of a newborn now.
That is just one of the things that I was unaware of when I gave birth to my first son. Here are a few other helpful bits of information that I think it would have been helpful to have as a first time parent. For example, it is important to have a couple of different sizes of baby clothes on hand at the hospital, as well as at home. Just because your baby is a newborn does not mean that he or she will fit into newborn sized clothing. Some babies are born and fit into size three months clothing right away, so keep the tags on at least some of the clothes that you have until you know what fits your baby.
On a related note, babies can grow quickly, so make sure you have at least a few things in other sizes. You do not want to have a ton of newborn clothes, only to have baby grow out of them in just a couple of weeks and then have nothing to dress him in. I don’t remember how long it took Dylan to grow out of his newborn clothes, but it took Blake less than a month before he could no longer wear them. At just eight months old, he is now wearing twelve months sized clothing.
For some reason I thought that I would have my baby, take him home the next day, and resume my normal household routine. It did not work out exactly like that, and there were at least a few weeks where frozen foods, disposable dishes and silverware, and take out food were a big part of my daily life. Before baby is born, stock up on paper plates, fill your freezer with nutritious and quick meals, and get those takeout menus ready because the first couple of weeks with a newborn involve a lot of learning how to get through your days in an entirely different way.