Before I had babies of my own, I was a godmother for a little girl who I babysat every other weekend or so for the first few years of her life. I was a live in nanny for my cousin who was eighteen months at the time.
I worked in daycares. I had three younger sisters. I’d babysat from the time I was thirteen.
I thought I had the whole baby thing down pat.
Then, I had my own.
I was shocked at how much I didn’t know about newborns.
1. They don’t have much saliva at first.
2. They cry without tears.
3. They are master manipulators. We had a perfectly good bed, yet we slept on the couch and love seat in order to hold him all night.
4. They love to dirty a diaper just as you finish changing the old one.
5. They sleep 16-20 hours a day, but not in a row.
6. There is no difference between 2 a.m. and 2 p.m.
7. They don’t anticipate their needs. When they’re hungry, they’re hungry NOW.
8. Just because you’re SUPPOSED to put them on their backs to sleep, that doesn’t mean that’s the position they like.
9. They can’t hold a pacifier in their mouths.
10. There’s no better feeling than your baby against your chest, snuggled up close.
