Baby William

[RJ]

That is awesome beyond words. (Good name, my son is named William also )

1. Get sleep now.

2. Enjoy the period now, for about 8 months, where if you put them down, they don't move on their own.

3. Ages 1-12 are magical, enjoy every minute of it.

4. But try and ignore the Age 13-17 years; you can't kill them, and you can't put them back.

Congrats again!

[VW.45]

Here is a dirty secret, fight to change every diaper for as long as you can. Your Ole lady will eventually feel guilty, and take over. By the time she does, the baby will have moved on to more solid food, and that shit stinks, lol. The formula/milk diaper changes are a breeze, the later diapers could be used in bio warfare . Trust me on this method, it worked for me!

[breakingtime91]

Thanks everyone! I plan on helping as much as possible. My wife is awesome and has done a lot of research on breast feeding so I can't help with bottle until about week 3 (this is now the recommended age so nipple confusion doesn't occur). I already cook, clean, and plan on taking on diapers as my main duty while home. Were both really happy that the Air Force extended maternity leave because she gets to spend 3 months with the baby. Thanks for all the tips, please keep them coming.

[JDM]

Thanks everyone! I plan on helping as much as possible. My wife is awesome and has done a lot of research on breast feeding so I can't help with bottle until about week 3 (this is now the recommended age so nipple confusion doesn't occur). I already cook, clean, and plan on taking on diapers as my main duty while home. Were both really happy that the Air Force extended maternity leave because she gets to spend 3 months with the baby. Thanks for all the tips, please keep them coming.

That extended leave thing is awesome!

[Jared]

My baby girl was born in January and I started school again this summer. I aint got much but I do have this

Work as a team, and be ready to do more than what seems like"your" part. Don't complain, just do it. She will thank you.

Be ready for her to be a little moody. My wife wasn't too bad, but there were definitely some days where I had to walk on eggshells. It seems to be par for the course according to folks I talked to and it's probably not really her fault.

The first three months are sometimes called "the fourth trimester" and they will have some pretty rough parts. It sounds awful to say, but I thought once or twice that maybe I just wasn't cut out for this job. Somewhere around month 4, my daughter actually got a lot easier to take care of, and I really started to love fatherhood.

That's all I really got, as you can see, I'm not too much further down this road than you are.

[Irelander]

I pretty much echo what the other guys have said. Raising a child is both the most exhausting and amazing thing you will ever do. My daughter is 3 and a ball of questions and amazing fun...and every so often she'll sleep through the night.

As far as the birthing process goes, one thing that my wife said really helped, when the contractions started I would start counting out loud until the contraction stopped. That gave my wife an idea of how long the contractions would last. She said it helped her to know that when I got to say 10, the pain would start to lessen.

Even if you are not religious, I recommend reading this book: Bringing Up Boys - Dr. Dobson. I listened to the audio version of Bringing Up Girls before my daughter was born and it informed, inspired, and freaked me out. I need to read/listen to it again.

Also, vaccines really freaked us out at first but I read The Vaccine Book - Dr. Sears and it gave us lots of great info and eased our minds.

[RoyGBiv]

The moment of my life when I was most afraid...... (truth!)

When we brought our first home from the hospital, walked in the house and closed the door...

"Now what do we do with it?"

Thank God for Mother-in-laws!

__________________________________________________ ___________

Funniest moment of the first few weeks.....? The first real poo.
I'm not going to go into details, because I don't want to ruin the surprise for you.

[rauchman]

Congratulations!!! I'm sure your world is going to change big time. I don't have kids, no can't offer advice, but I'm sure you're going to rock as a dad!

[ubervic]

The moment of my life when I was most afraid...... (truth!)

When we brought our first home from the hospital, walked in the house and closed the door...

"Now what do we do with it?"

Thank God for Mother-in-laws!

__________________________________________________ ___________

Funniest moment of the first few weeks.....? The first real poo.
I'm not going to go into details, because I don't want to ruin the surprise for you.

THIS

i remember wondering with my wife, once laying sleeping newborn in crib for the very first time, "What do we do now? Do we stand and stare at baby....or do we walk away....or do we walk away and then come back and check every 30 seconds.....2 minutes......2 hours????!!!!" Hahaha

The good news is that our children are way tougher than we parents in many ways, and they ultimately teach us more than we teach them, especially during the first year.

hahaha

[UNK]

Every kid is different. The two most perplexing thing s for my son were he wouldn't sleep the answer turned out to be swaddling. He had extreme gas which manifested in continual screaming and crying which was resolved only by name brand Gas X over the counter, generics wouldn't touch it.
This guys stuff is pure Gold. http://www.rosemond.com/Books-John-Rosemond.html
Get her out of the house as early and as often as possible. (without the kid)
Best of luck