[This is a preview of a guest post I wrote for ESL Marriage]
Before I became a first-time father, I prepared. I took a pre-natal class with my wife, asked other parents what their experience was like, and read numerous blog posts and books about the subject. But even with all that preparation, there were many things about being a new father that surprised and shocked me. No one warned me about these things (or maybe they did and I wasn’t paying attention).
Here are a few:
1) The Massive Amount of Diapers to Change
How many times do you have to change a newborn baby’s diaper? 10-12 times PER DAY. The number shocked me. I felt like all I was doing was feeding, rocking, and changing the baby. It didn’t help that the baby cried almost every time I changed her. Those dirty diapers created a lot of garbage, which is one of the main reasons we decided to use a cloth diaper service in Vancouver.
2) The Near-Impossibility of Clipping a Baby’s Nails
A newborn baby’s nails are tiny. And they get very sharp. We found that out the hard way, after our baby left scratches all over her face. I lost rock-paper-scissors to Olive and was left to the super difficult task of using a tiny nail clipper to cut the baby’s teeny-tiny nails. I was so afraid of clipping her fingers (which I have done a few times, causing her to bleed). It was even more difficult because the baby was constantly moving her hands.
To read the other 4 things that shocked me (and find out how you can win a free copy of our new book about parenting), go to ESL Marriage. This funny and insightful blog is written by our friend Amelia Rana, who writes about the joys and confusions of an intercultural relationship.
photo credit: Terry McCombs