2 Weeks as a New Father

Alice Marie at 2 weeks old.

    Today my little girl is a whopping 2 weeks old.  2 weeks!  Time really does fly, and it's amazing to see how much my daughter has already grown in just 14 days.  I know a question for you parents-to-be, or those who don't have kids but want them, is "How hard is it?"  I know that there are horror stories of no sleep with a screaming and crying child, or of poop everywhere, or some other horrific tale your parents, friends, relatives, or co-workers have told you.I'm going to let you in on a secret or two, and even give you some advice.



Have a Game Plan for Sleep
    When people tell you that you get no sleep,   I'm quite happy to say that they're mostly exaggerating.  Notice I said mostly.  You do get less sleep.  Alice sleeps in 2 to 3 hour increments.  Which is fine, because that means that Amy and I still get anywhere from 6 to 8 hours of sleep.  Right now Amy is the only one feeding our daughter, since she's still about a week too young to start on the bottle.  So, once I can start feeding her, Amy should be able to get larger chunks of sleep.  The plan is to take "shifts" of feeding and changing and cuddling.  That way we can get sleep in larger chunks of 4 hours.
    My advice for you parents-to-be, figure out a game plan before the baby is born.  Since my wife and I are both going back to work, we decided shifts were fair, and would help us stay a little more sane.  Once Amy is a stay-at-home mommy, she'll be responsible for the late night and early morning stuff. That may not work for everyone, but that's why I recommend a game plan now, so that one of you doesn't end up feeling like they do all the work.
There is poop.
    LOTS of poop.  Have a diaper prepared to change you little one into immediately, because they can and will pee or poop on you if you're too slow.  Also, pee and poop are no longer as disgusting as they once were.  Speaking of diapers, get as many as you can stock piled in both newborn size and 1.  With Amy breast-feeding Alice, we go through more diapers than someone using formula.  I've calculated that thus far, on average, Alice is going through about 110 diapers a week.  That's 440 diapers in a month, give or take a few.  Wow!  But, we were smart and stockpiled from the past couple of months, buying a bag here, or a box there, and we still have another week's worth of diapers.
    So, the lesson to be learned is that it is never too early to start buying diapers and wipes.  We didn't realize how many we'd go through, even though everyone kept saying "a lot of diapers."  Well, I can't count how many "a lot" is, but knowing now that it's around 440 a month is going to help us budget.  Which, if you're in need of a budgeting tool, I can't recommend anything other than Mint by Intuit.  It allows you to set budgets, and it watches all of your accounts for you to see where your money goes, and how much total debt you have.  So, looking that Pampers has a box of 96 for $32 at Babies"R"Us, You can figure that you'll spend $150 on Diapers a month (5 boxes), unless you're doing it the Earth-friendly and economically smart way and using wash clothes and re-usable diapers.  If you go "green" then really you're looking at spending $200 up front for a set of 12 from Amazon.com.  I would probably invest in 24 re-usable diapers, figuring that Alice goes through 18 normal diapers a day, that would let you get through the day and do laundry at night with a few diapers extra just in case.  But, to keep cost down, you could just wash laundry more often.
Take Pictures
   And share them.  Do it through Facebook, Google+, Flckr, it doesn't matter.  The more pictures you have the better.  And, in our case, you have family like the new Grandma and Grandpa, send them pictures everyday.  Even if they have Skype and you talk every single day (which we're currently working on getting my parents) send them a picture message, or an e-mail, or hell, even snail mail.  It's a great way for those family members to still be a part of her life and see her grow up too.
Babies are noisy
    Babies make noise.  Not just the "I'm hungry feed me" noise, but other weird, random noises.  Our daughter grunts, gurgles, gasps, rasps, sighs, and smacks.  She does this when sleeping, or awake, and it can be unnerving the first couple of nights she's sleeping in the bassinet in your room.  If you're doing a bassinet in their own nursery and are using a baby monitor, DON'T TURN THE MONITOR UP TO FULL VOLUME!  Even a cheap baby monitor picks up the random sounds they make, and you'll worry yourself half to death listening and jumping at all the sounds.  After a few nights of her sleeping in our room, we adjusted to the random noises, and now I sleep as soundly as Alice does.  And, once she moves into her crib in her nursery, Amy and I will be using a baby monitor set to half the max volume.  Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a diaper that needs to be changed.