(That was a joke) First of all have you heard of the concept of "The Fourth Trimester" of pregnancy? The idea behind this is that babies are still going through major developments that would ideally be taking place inside a protective womb. However, due to the size constraints, Mother Nature (thankfully) thought it a better idea for us to have these babies for around 40 (ish) weeks in-utero. And hence, babies in their first 3 months want/yearn/need to feel like they would if they were still in the comfort of a womb.
Our fourth trimester has since ended so I thought I'd share how it went.
Routine, shmootine.
We actually love a good routine in our house but for those first few weeks, forget about it. It is safe to say we are a 'fly by the seat of your pants' for those first weeks. In reality it would be great to know when and for how long Huck would sleep or when and how much he would like to eat but that is just not how it goes, at least for us. Around the second month I started feeling like I could understand a semblance of a schedule but even today we are still winging it for the most part in terms of napping. Although we are starting to get the basic routine down for a bedtime; diaper, jammies, bottle, bed (all done in his room, dimly light). And then Henry generally sleeps for 6 hours straight which for us is amazing after Oliver who never slept more than 3 hours in a row until he was about 11 months old.
Babies love to be held.
And hold him, we do! I enjoy wearing Huck in a ring sling and a Solly baby wrap. If he is really cranky it is my go to and it almost always calms him down. He stills loves to snuggle on our chests and he most definitely gets picked up when he cries. I love holding him close and just breathing him in. That sweet baby smell is amazing.
That being said Huck sleeps in his crib, in his room.
Now this is just works best for us with Huck. Many people go about sleeping arrangements differently for those first few weeks but to be honest, Huck was a loud, grunty baby and I had a really hard time sleeping with him next to me in a bassinet.
Take the baby with you.
They are small, portable, like to sleep a good amount so go out with them! Yes, sometimes it feels a bit messy and yes, you may sweat a bit more but trust me going anywhere with a three month old or younger is way easier than traveling or going to a museum, restaurant, etc with an older baby. Soak in the time where you can sit at a coffee shop and chat with a friend or in my case my older son without too much interruption.
Talk to them. Read to them.
I am a strong believer in talking to your babies in a normal voice. We often have to remind Oliver to talk to Huck normally or he will not know who he is. I also read to my babies. I read The Art Newspaper to Oliver and now Huck listens to the chapter books we read to Oliver, currently we are reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. But really it does not matter what you read to them, just read aloud, heck some of my favourites is to read a recipe aloud before I make it.
These 3 months have just flown by. I have learnt so much from my boy and everytime I look at him and how wonderfully he's growing, I realize that Matt and I... We've got this. It is in no way, shape or form the "correct" way to raise a child, but it's our way and it works (for us).
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