5 tips for first time parents.

When all of the waiting is over and your little belly buddy is finally here, it can be overwhelming. Just trying to figure out what the new chores are and who should do them and when can be quite a task. A lot of strain can be put on parents during this difficult transition time. Here are a few tips to help you find your footing, so that you can have confidence as you move forward into this great new world called parenting!

1. Talk to a lactation consultant.
First thing's first. If you can overcome the difficulties of adjusting to breastfeeding and are confident of your abilities to nourish your new baby you will have a lot less stress. If despite your best efforts, you are unable to breastfeed, a lactation consultant can put you in contact with outside sources to supplement your baby's diet with donated breast milk. Knowing your baby is getting the best nutrition you can provide will free up your worry center to think about other things, like how you are ever going to be able to take a shower again!

2. Cut a deal with your partner.
Both you and your partner should sit down and write a list of the duties related to child care that you personally find the most difficult. Then, you can compare your lists. If there are things that your partner hates doing that you don't mind, you can take the bulk of those things, and if there are things you can't stand doing, your partner can take up the slack for you on those issues . By the same token, if there are things you both dislike, you can share those duties more equally. An example of this is, "No one likes changing dirty diapers, so we will both try to take an equal load of this duty. You don't like getting up in the night for feedings, but I don't mind, so I'll do that, and in exchange, I hate washing and folding the baby laundry but you don't mind it, so you will do the majority of the laundry while I do most of the night feedings." Try to steer away from ultimatums like "I will NEVER do the baby laundry", because there will always be times when you'll both need to pitch in on duties you despise. Also, do try to keep the bargaining even, if one person hates all the duties, and the other doesn't mind any of them too much, this could lead to major resentments. Although, if one parent is staying home while the other works it is fair to exchange going to work for three or four baby duties, just not all of them. Just like the person who goes to work needs a little break when they get home, the person taking care of the baby all day will need a break every day too.

3. Work out a routine.
You may be a very impulsive, "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of person, but when you are taking care of a baby, an ounce of planning can alleviate a pound of headache. During the first month or three, getting on a really reliable schedule is next to impossible, but having an order in which you do things will ensure that they all get done. For the first two months at least, your baby will tend to go to sleep after eating. These naps might not last very long, but they are fairly reliable. You can use these little naps to schedule the things you need to get done throughout the day like this: 1st nap=put the babies laundry in and/or eat, 2nd nap=wash the dishes and/or take a shower, 3rd nap=put the laundry in the dryer and/or take a nap yourself, 4th nap=tidy the house and/or fold the laundry and eat, 5th nap=Make food for yourself for the next day and/or do some exercise. You get the basic idea. It may sound crazy to schedule eating, but trust me, it isn't so simple once you have a baby.

4. Put the cute clothes on now.
I have heard, more times than I care to recall, parents expressing regret over having missed the chance for their baby to wear one cute outfit or another because they were saving it for a special occasion. Babies grow fast! If there is a specific special occasion, like a wedding or a family reunion, clothes can sometimes be saved for them. But on the whole, if you got cute duds, put em on!

5. Don't sweat the small stuff.
There will be a million things in your baby's first few months that will give you a heart attack. It's a miracle the parents survive at all with all the stress and worry. Little things like keeping track of every feeding and every bowel movement are helpful, but not usually necessary. The amount, consistency and smell of your baby's "spit up", is another constant source of concern for new parents. All babies spit up their food from time to time, sometimes it seems like they spit up their whole feeding, but if your baby is gaining weight and sleeping fine it is most likely normal. Also, spit up changes consistency, smell and sometimes color, so the vast majority of these concerns are unwarranted as well. Another natural source of stress is, of course, the crying. Firstly you should know, your baby cannot consciously control her crying. She is not crying because she is mad at you, or because she is trying to tell you something. Babies cry because they are uncomfortable, pure and simple. Some discomfort is worse than others, but they assign no blame, and hold no grudges. Figuring out exactly why your baby is uncomfortable, and trying to make her comfortable (as long as it is safe to do so), is parenting in a nutshell. Take a breath, put in some earplugs if it helps take the edge off but you can still hear, and try something different, or let someone else try when your patience runs thin. You will get better at figuring out the reasons behind the cry as time goes on, and your baby will get better at crying in certain ways for certain types of discomfort.

Trick: Pick two or three baby information sources you trust.
When you have a baby EVERYONE suddenly has an opinion on what you should do, how, and when. If you already have sources you trust that you can go to when you have questions it will help you to sort through all of the unsolicited advice you are likely to receive. I'm not saying that you shouldn't listen to all of the advice, but if you hear something you are curious about, you can run it by someone you trust before you let it stress you out. Also, if someone challenges the way you are doing something, you can be less bothered by it because you will have an authority to cite as the reason you choose the systems you are using.

Becoming a new parent is a truly transformative time in anyone's life. You may find yourself looking around feeling completely lost in an unfamiliar world filled with unfamiliar priorities. However, whenever that feeling of alienation pops up, just take one good long look into your baby's face and you will find that you do belong here after all. If you have found these tips to be helpful, please pass them on to any new or expecting parents you know. Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome. Happy parenting!

5 tips for choosing the right stroller.

Whether you call it a stroller, pram, baby buggy, carriage, perambulator or a pushchair, picking the baby-mover that you will trust to carry around your most precious cargo is no small decision. Should you get a light little umbrella-style, or a heavy-duty ATV looking job? What about a jogger or one developed by some young cutting-edge designer? There are so many different choices available today that a parent can get to feeling quite overwhelmed with the amount of research there is to do. Here are a few things you can do to help you narrow down your search more quickly.

1. Get a car seat-frame for the first few months.

For the first few months your baby will spend a lot of time in a car seat. Those car seats are heavy, bulky and hard to handle. Taking your baby in and out of a car seat can be difficult and frustrating for you both, so you may want to get a stroller frame that you can simply attach your baby's car seat to. They are lightweight and inexpensive and can save you both a lot of time and effort.

2. Evaluate your lifestyle.
If you are the type of parent who will be heading out for long outings on a fairly regular basis, you will want a stroller with a big basket, and easy turning capability, if you are more of a fashionista, a cutting edge design will suit you better. If you are really outdoorsy, an all-terrain style will be best, joggers will benefit from a jogging stroller (obviously) and impulsive families who like to travel a lot or run out for a quick visit to the park at a moments notice would be better off with a lightweight umbrella-style one. Of course it is possible to find strollers which straddle a few different categories, but if you take a good look at how your stroller needs to fit your lifestyle before you start shopping you will save yourself a lot of confusion.

3. Prioritize your most desired features.
There are certain features that most parents look for in strollers, like awnings, easily collapsible, weight, size, food tray, cup holder, fully recline-able and quality of construction. Some of these features are available on at least a few types of every style of stroller, but not all of them, so it is good to know which ones are less important, and which ones you cannot live without. For me an awning and fully recline-able seat are paramount because napping is so much easier with these two features. For many parents a food tray may not be very important because they don't anticipate needing to feed their child while she is riding in the push-cart. Whatever your personal list of important features are, if you have the ones which matter most to you in mind while shopping, it will greatly simplify the process.

4. Shop within your budget.

The perfect stroller is almost always available for hundreds of dollars. It sometimes seems that the more perfect it is the more expensive it is. However, with a sharp eye for the most important features, and a preferred style in mind, staying within your budget should be completely attainable. Besides the top designer brands, there are knockoffs available which nevertheless have a wide range of features and styles to choose from. You don't even need to sacrifice style in many instances because there are several sites where people sell covers for all kinds of strollers made from beautiful and creative fabrics.

5. Let durability be your deciding factor.
I think the single most important thing to keep in mind when shopping for a stroller is durability. Durability translates into monetary savings and safety for your precious little passenger. If you can find a stroller that will grow with your child as well, it will also save you money, but only if it is durable enough to last through the abuse that it is likely to suffer as it is tossed in and out of trunks, tumbled through the airline baggage system and taken on countless excursions through every type of terrain. A quality brand I can recommend which is on the less expensive end of the spectrum is "Safety 1st", they use high-quality materials, and have a fairly good range of features available as well.

After you have a short list of a few contenders for the title of burp-buggy-extraordinaire, you might find yourself at an impasse between two similar push-carts. This site http://strollers.baby-gaga.com/reviews.php is great for helping to differentiate between similar strollers in your price range. It rates strollers on durability, has honest parent reviews and makes quick easy comparisons between strollers based on size, weight, price and design. This site is the best resource I have found for choosing the right stroller, though there are more out there, as well as many review blogs and of course Consumer Reports. I hope these tips prove helpful (for my personal choice in strollers look here). I've received so many requests for stroller advice over the last couple of weeks that I wanted to give parents some really good tried and true ideas for how to make the right decision for them when it comes to strollers. Please share these tips with any new or expecting parents you might know, and feel free to leave questions or comments. Happy parenting!