This one is a tough one because there’s no cut and dry answer to it.    There’ll be times when your baby is cranky, tired and just won’t go to sleep.   They’ll just continue to play and/or squirm about with no real reason crying the whole time.   Most of us as guys are fixers and we’re going to sit there with our baby like some sort of screaming rubik cube.   The only problem is this puzzle can’t be solved by holding it and moving it around.

As you’ve had your child for a while you’ll know what their cries and attitudes mean.   You’ll be able to hear the difference between hurt, hungry and being a brat in their voice.     This experience will allow you to know when you can do what I’m saying next.

Let your baby cry themself to sleep in their crib.

My daughter fights her sleep terribly so we’ve had to become masters of this quick.   She doesn’t want to sleep as if she’s scared she’ll miss something.    So sometimes when we’ve tried it all we just let her cry until she goes to sleep.   We monitor her of course and many times we bend and go pick her up but you’ve got to know that option has to be used for your sanity and for your babies growth.

What Doctors Say About Crying

They’ll always say it depends however I’ll tell you what the on call nurse told us when we called about crying.   Our baby had never cried longer than 10 minutes and one night she was just fussing badly for over 30 minutes.   The nurse told us if there wasn’t anything obviously wrong they won’t even worry about it until the baby had cried for over 2 hours continuously.    At around the 1 hour 15 minute mark our little pumpkin went to sleep and stayed down all night.   We attributed it to gas but we’ll never really know because it didn’t happen again.

I bet you’ve never heard a dad say they got beat like a government mule by an infant?  Well trust me you’re going to have days like this.    It seemed a decent blog subject almost as a warning to all you soon to be dads out there that you should know there’s a good chance your baby is flat out going to want mom and nothing you do can make her really happy.  It’s a tough situation when the security net that is mom has to go away for 6 hours and you’re one on one with a cute little angel that turns in to a feisty little crab.  Mom came home and took her at which point she instantly smiled and got cheery for the first time in hours.   I couldn’t help but smile at her, kiss her and 15 minutes later I was sleeping it off like I just did my taxes.   

This has happened to me on average about once a month since our baby was born.   I’ve been alone with her for a long span many times with no problems and we had a lot of fun together but sometimes mom’s the only thing that makes her happy.   All I can do is my best and remind myself that it’s not personal and she’s not out to get me.    I stay calm as possible, feed her, change her and attempt to play with her or put her to sleep.   I reflect on how my mom always made me feel better growing up when nothing else helped.   It’s completely natural  since moms carry us for 9 months and a vast majority of the time spend by far more time with us.   We love our moms and dad I’m sorry but you’re second best.   

I love my baby and wouldn’t trade her for anything but boy she beat me up last night.

This subject is a lot of fun for me and I think a lot of you dads won’t need any advice on this front but it’s still fun to blog about given recent developments with our baby starting to babble out syllables, vowels and “da da” “ba ba” sounds.    We’ve got our baby on the “Your Baby Can Read” videos among other things and we’ve learned a lot on that front about what our interactions should be.   Do not be afraid to make a fool out of yourself and talk about nonsense to your baby at home or in public.   When they start babbling you need to talk back to them and encourage them to make those sounds so they’ll remember them and continue to develop.   The first few years are by far the most important for people to develop.  The video below shows our little one talking to me during feeding time and I talk back to her asking questions and being interactive in general.   I wish I had a better one at the time of thinking up this blog but this will do just fine.   She’s so cute!

Probably one thing most first time fathers won’t plan for or be ready for is dealing with constipation issues. You’ll get hit with all the diaper teasing but nobody is going to bring up great things like glycerin suppositories and ways to help your baby have a bowel movement. This came to mind today when my wife mentioned that our little tootie bug always has a movement when she’s in her walker. Well in all those panicked early months I learned all about pushing off and bowel movements. Because your infant is on her back they can’t push off and get that extra umph to help them go. Makes sense when you hear that sentence doesn’t it? Well it’s a little harder to come to that conclusion at 11pm when your little one is struggling after not going for a couple of days and believe me you’ll know exactly how many hours it’s been when you’re the first time father! I learned that little piece one night late just like that when debating whether to get out and find an all night pharmacy.  Here’s my advice to you:

Don’t Panic

It happens and it’s common.   A babies digestive system is a delicate thing and it doesn’t run like a well oiled machine like yours does.   In fact chances are even if your system doesn’t run well it still probably doesn’t behave like your baby’s system.   They’re different and given a little knowledge you can likely help a little with their troubles.  First off you’re never going to resolve it in your time.   They’ll go when they go however you can do a few things to help them out. 

Remember what I said about not being able to push off on the floor?   You’ll be able to tell when your little one is struggling to go so put your hand under their feet and give them something to push off on.   It helps and If they don’t go they’ll get closer to going.   Additionally give them a little apple juice diluted in water or some Karo syrup diluted in water.(Google it)   Any of these common remedies will help loosen the situation.

Glycerin Suppositories

Suppositories and other medications are likely only going to be necessary if you knew ahead of time your baby has issues.   We purchased some when we first had irregularities but we never used them.   It just wasn’t necessary.   We called the on call nurse when upset on one occurrence and she said we needed to wait 3 days until we even had to consider a possible problem.   What do you know she was right!

Well that’s it for this entry.   I promise there’ll be some readers very thankful for this blog entry because this is one nobody ever plans for on the first child.   Good luck first time dads!

The world of your pet and your baby will never be the same once that baby gets control of his or her legs. We’ve all seen it on America’s Funniest Home Videos but somehow it just doesn’t click until that first time they’re going head to head over the couch, a food bowl or just a random collision in the hallway. Dad be ready and start working on the scenarios where your pets world and your child’s world become one.

For us it took about 7 months. Our cats sniffed the baby a few times when we brought her own and then minded their own business. I’m not a cat person but I have to say our cats are good like that when it comes to our baby. However at around the 5-6 month mark our infant started getting better control over that little body. Scooting, crawling and now with the help of a walker she’s moving around with those little arms stretched out grabbing anything she can. Guess what the number one target is:

My thoughts are that we’ll have to let them collide. The baby won’t leave the cat alone and I don’t want the cat running from the baby all the time so I’ll have to eventually let the cat land a couple of blows to the head of the baby. It won’t hurt her because kitty doesn’t have claws but it’ll let her know to keep her hands off the kitty unless the kitty says ok.

My advice is to try and get an early detection on how your pet will do with toddlers and babies. We already knew this cat would be trouble because he’s slapped my niece and a couple of other toddlers already.