The Balanced Father

You are officially a dad, congratulations! If I’m going to be completely honest the next 2 weeks is going to be a grind. If you weren’t white knuckled driving your newborn baby home from the hospital then the first couple weeks might be good for you ! There is going to be a lot of visitors, no sleep and what in the world am I doing in the first 2 weeks. Here is a bit of advice from my personal experience.

Find a sleep routine that works for you and your partner. At first we tried doing a day shift/ nightshift and do almost 3-4 hour rotations. It didn’t work, we were both so tired and ended up going to sleep together and took turns throughout the night waking up and doing feedings. It is a bit of trial and error, and it’s ok to have error when and if you have no baby experience. Trust me you will be tired, I found energy to shower and put on 2 pairs of underwear after it without really noticing.

Sleep when the baby sleeps. This is one of those statements you hear alot and some say they couldn’t sleep when the baby slept due to things around the house like dishes, laundry etc. You will find time for that, soak up as many contact naps as possible because in a blink of an eye they are done or your baby is to big to lay on you asleep. It is the best feeling having a nap on the couch with your little baby on your chest, your dad instincts will kick in and keep that baby there regardless of what you think haha.

Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. The new generation we live in it’s not all about the mom doing the work. Your partner just went through a body changing experience and most likely she is recovering, can’t move as fast and very emotional. Be patient, let her recover and help as much as you can with diapers and things around the house. If she is breast feeding and only that there isn’t much you can do in that aspect other than helping around those times and if she is pumping take those night time feedings and diaper changes. It’s going to be hard trust me and in my previous post about having frozen meals this is where they come in clutch when you don’t have any energy to cook.

There is going to be a lot of emotions and feelings happening during this time, failure, exhaustion, overwhelmed. Take it day by day, it’s ok to feel these things. You have no idea what you are doing, your baby might be upset and crying and you don’t know why, you could be covered in throw up and maybe slept for 2 hours. Things do get easier trust me, it doesn’t feel like it at that time but it does eventually. The more time that passes the challenges get different and you get more sleep and start to feel like yourself again. It goes by in a blink of an eye and you almost miss those times of having a newborn to cuddle with and just admire the life you brought into this world. Looking back on the last 11 months with all the ups and downs to being a new dad I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Remember it’s ok to not be ok, you are not alone

-S