Mommy Mondays: Advice for a New Mom

Baby B is my first "real" niece.  Both Thatniece and Thatnephew were born when Thatboy and I were still dating, so I wasn't invested in them from the start the way I am with Baby B.  Add to the fact that my brother is one of my favorite people in the entire world, and the fact that I've already "been there done that" in terms of babies, it's really all I can do not to swoop in and take that baby from them every time they have an issue.

But it's not too hard to call back to those early days myself.  Those days when every person you met had "advice" for how to raise your new baby.  "Let your baby cry to develop its lungs"  "Don't hold the baby too much or you'll spoil it."  "You should fill the bottle with cereal so the baby sleeps through the night."  It's overwhelming.

Really, there is one piece of advice that every new mom should have, and one that I passed along to UDubb:  You are doing a great job.  You have carried this baby for 9 months.  You know her better than anyone does.  Go with your gut, because only you really know what's best for your baby.

You know what?  New parents are going to make mistakes.  It's inevitable.   But what they don't need is people making them feel like things they are doing right are mistakes.  My best advice is to build them up, give them the confidence.  Babies don't break easily (their skeletons aren't even really fully solidified yet!) and new parents are inherently nervous.  So why add to that?

I firmly believe that no matter what difficulty is thrown their way, Thatbrother and UDubb, like every other new parent before them, will figure it out.  And its much easier to do that without a million people telling you that you're doing it wrong, or trying to give you a better way to do it.  So the next time a new mom asks you for advice?  Tell her she's doing a fantastic job.  And the next time you're questioning yourself?  Remember, you're doing it all right.