I was worried about how my skills at taking care of newborn were going to measure up. I can count on one hand the number of diapers I had changed before Lucy was born. My experience with babies was very limited. I did not do a lot of babysitting growing up (it made me way too anxious). So needless to say, I was worried about how I was going to be with a newborn. I read a lot about safety online and such, so I was prepared in terms of keeping her safe and healthy. I also knew that the hospital would teach Justin and I all the essentials about taking care of newborn, such as diapering, bathing, etc. Beyond all of this there certainly was a learning curve for us. Thankfully Lucy has always had a happy, easy-going temperament and was patient throughout our learning process. She gave us the extra time we needed as we learned the best way to put a onesie over her head and her little arms through the sleeves. There were only a couple of times she frowned as if to say, "I'm being patient with you, but this is a little ridiculous." One of the hardest things to learn was how to regulate her temperature. It's not something you have experience with without a baby. It was hard for me to keep her warm or cool enough. I had heard over and over not to overdress a baby. So I kept doing the opposite :( One parenting blunder when Lucy was 5 weeks old really sticks out in my head. Lucy was particularly fussy one Sunday evening. She had a hard time sleeping that day, so I knew she was probably just tired. I thought I had the perfect solution. I had the grand plan for Justin and I to walk Lucy to Subway for dinner. I figured she would fall asleep on the way there, stay asleep while Justin and I ate, and then she would be ready to eat when we got back home. WRONG WRONG WRONG. She did NOT fall asleep on the way to Subway. Instead, as soon as we got there she started crying, really crying. Apparently I didn't dress her warm enough or bring enough blankets. So here we were a good mile from home, and she was cold...not to mention getting hungrier by the minute. To make a long story short, the evening ended with Justin doing a modified version of skipping all the way home (remember that Lucy loved motion) with Lucy wrapped up in his sweatshirt. While Justin was half skipping holding Lucy tight in his arms in shorts and a t-shirt himself, I was power walking an empty stroller. All we wanted was to get home NOW, more like 20 minutes before now. Lucy wailed the entire walk home. My brilliant idea was a complete bust. BUT we learned from it. I learned to always pack an extra blanket no matter what, never to be too far away from home when Lucy was going to be hungry, and if she is already fussy, going farther away from the comfort of home is never a good idea...especially on foot.
The good news that comes out of our parenting blunders is that Justin and I are quick learners. We rarely made the same mistake twice. A good example of just how far we had come came from the Lucy's first two baseball games. The first game was when she was a month old. We had SO much fun...for the first couple of innings anyway. We spent the first part of the game watching Lucy's reaction to the game and taking a bazillion pictures more than we spent watching the baseball game itself...or the clock. Before we knew it, the sun had gone down and once again, Lucy was very cold and very hungry. Yikes. We tried our best to undo the damage, but we couldn't get her completely happy until we were home.
A few of the bazillion pictures we took (before she was cold and hungry):
Lucy is wearing Justin's Reds outfit from when he was a Reds fan as a baby!
The second game we took her to was a month later. This time, we knew what we were doing. Lucy was comfortable and well fed the entire game. We efficiently packed everything we needed and left at home what we didn't. We left the game only a little early with a smiling, joyful baby :)
Here are a few pictures from that evening:
I have a feeling we will never stop learning as parents. Everyday is chance to learn what we didn't know the day before, tweak the things we just learned, and perfect the things we already knew! Thank you Lucy for being so patient while we figure things out :)
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