First month with newborn a series of adjustments

It's incredible how much things have changed at our house in the past month. It's also incredible how much we've learned in the past 30 days.

We're experienced parents. We have 13-year-old and a 7-year-old daughters. So adding a third daughter to the mix shouldn't really be that big a change, right? The reality is that I'm not sure it could have been any bigger change.

The biggest adjustment we've had to make is figuring out how to do this. Because we adopted our 7-year-old when she was 4, it's been 13 years since we made bottles, changed diapers and had to constantly hold a newborn baby. And 13 years ago, we were young and dumb. 

I remember holding Paisley at the hospital and the nurse saying we needed to feed her. I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do. I know, stick the bottle in the mouth and she does all the work. Got it. But what about burping, etc. I hadn't done that in a really long time. Hit her harder. That's what they told me. But I really didn't want to hit my little baby, even though I knew she had to burp.

I've developed a totally different burping technique over the past 30 days. Now, instead of putting her over my shoulder, I hold her in the left hand across the stomach and lightly tap her back. Works every time and seems a lot less stressful.

When we were still at the hospital, they said you can put whatever clothes you want to on your baby as long as they've been washed in Dreft. Whoops.. Were we supposed to do that before we came here? I guess I dropped the ball on that one. So we went and bought some Dreft. It seems to work OK. Smells pretty good. I guess we were OK on that one.

What about formula? Which one? How do you mix it? What type of bottles? How often to feed? These are all things we've had to work out. And we're actually on our third set of bottles. You might remember one set getting damaged in the microwave in the great microwave vs. metal whisk debacle. Again, another lesson learned.

But the biggest adjustment has been holding the baby. I used to get a lot done while watching TV. I'd have my phone and laptops out and constantly multi-task. But you can't really type and hold the baby at the same time. So multitasking  has largely gone away. And so has the amount of content I'm able to produce for my other blog. But it's worth it. And frankly it's a lot more enjoyable.

One month is nearly in the books. Only about 222 more months until she heads off to college.