1) More expensive doesn’t always mean better. IKEA high chairs are fabric-free, so there are no crevices where food can get stuck. In fact, food can sit on the chairs overnight and still wipe clean easily (or be hosed off, if necessary), and they’re only $25.
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| Available in these colors now! |
2) Communication is essential – with your spouse/partner, doulas, family, and everyone else who wants to help. No one can read your mind, and if you try to do it all, you’ll be too exhausted and frustrated to be a good parent, spouse, or employee.
3) Transitions are hard. Swaddle to no swaddle. Bottle to sippy/straw cup. Cribs to toddler beds. Every horrible growing pain never seemed like it would end, but it did, and life got back to a new normal. Asking other parents for advice can really help, so take advantage of friends and online forums.
Liane B.
FHM Co-President
What 3 things do you wish you had known before having babies?
The three things I wish I'd known before twins:
ReplyDelete1. I wish I'd gotten all my yard and home projects done ahead of time because now there truly isn't time!
2. I wish I'd understood sooner that everything is temporary. Similar to Liane's post - these little guys are constantly learning and changing...and my couch is no longer "feeding central" like I thought it would be forever...and now when they wake crying at 2 a.m. it really is unusual...and I can't believe very soon we'll say good-bye to bottles forever! (Which makes me a little sad.)
3. I wish I'd known (although I don't know what I could've done about it) how affected I'd be by news stories, fiction, etc. that revolves around the pain of a child. I had to finally put down my book group book "Sarah's Key" because I just couldn't take the thought of what the children were enduring in this story. I've always been sensitive to issues of child abuse, neglect, etc., but now my mind automatically puts my little loves into these stories/circumstances and my heart just hurts too much to listen/read further. Maybe someday when they're grown I'll be tougher, but for now I'm as tender as they are.
Jill W.
I second the yard work and home projects, after the girls were born we gave up on the whole institution and moved into a townhouse. They did all the yard work and home improvements for us.
ReplyDeleteI wish I would have been told a little more of the after effects of a multiple birth. No one sent home any manuals on sweating off 40lbs in two weeks. I thought there was something seriously wrong with me.
I knew that I should ask for help more often, I wish I go back in time to the old me and knocked some sense into myself as I took care of them by myself no outside help whatsoever for the first year of their lives. Not even babysitters people, I was a crazy woman!!! It wasn't for lack of people asking either. You need time for yourself too, the old me didn't know that. Now if someone asks me if they can watch the kids for me and the hubby to go out, I gladly take it. Makes for a happier Mommy!