Advices About the Baby

When a baby arrives, the new parents get a lot of help and advice. Some of that advice is wanted, others not so much; some good, others bad; some wise, others funny. As with all advice, some you can ignore safely, others you ignore at your risk.

We had a lot of trouble burping the baby. My mother-in-law seemed to be able to do it effortlessly, but she couldn't teach us how. So we tried the Internet, first via articles, and when that didn't work, via a YouTube video with a woman in a German dress. And bingo! Turns out one should hit (trust me, “hit” is the right word) the baby quite hard, not pat it gently the way we were doing. My wife now says we learnt how to burp a baby from a German lady. Go globalization!

Turns out a baby is far more resilient than we imagined. Like how hot the water in which you bathe her. It can be really hot, way above the temperature at which we adults would bathe, as my mom showed us. But the baby has no problems at all bathing in the (what feels to us like) boiling, hot water.

To get or not to get a car seat for the baby? Some said Yes, others that it’s just a western idea. This one got sorted easily: one of wife's friends said she'd give us hers since her baby was now grown up. We never look a gift horse in the mouth!

But the greatest piece of wisdom was from one of my friends, who basically said that I should be careful what I wished for when it comes to the baby because it might come true! He said that when I told him that I wished the baby could talk, as otherwise we were so lost trying to figure out what she wanted. His point was that once she could talk, sure you'd understand what she wanted. But conversely, she'd understand what you guys are saying or planning and say No! His point was that at every stage you'll wish the baby was at the next stage, but once she gets there, you'll wish she hadn't graduated and how much simpler life was in the previous stage. So now every time I find myself wishing that the baby could roll over, sit up, crawl or talk, I imagine what horrors would follow if she did any of those things and then I feel happy with our current situation.

Comments

  1. Guruprasad RaoJanuary 4, 2012 at 12:00 PM

    Very True VK - I wish my daughter goes into Auto-pilot mode with her tasks (bathing, eating & study) before new one arrives.

    ReplyDelete

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