When you find out that you’re having a child and you decide that this is a journey you want to take, you will find yourself exposed to all sorts of thoughts and information that you may never have experienced or heard of before. Becoming a parent completely changes your entire world. Your priorities change. Your responsibilities change. You find yourself having to take on a whole person, ensuring that they are well cared for and catered to. This can be daunting. It can be overwhelming. It can be difficult. But all in all, when you see them grow into independent adults, you will find it all worth it. Of course, it would be nigh on impossible to tackle everything you need to know about becoming a parent here. But we will highlight some key areas of consideration to help you get the ball rolling in the right direction.
Learning the Basics
There are a few key skills you’re going to need to pick up to care for your little one – often ones you won’t have tried out before. From changing a nappy to learning how to bottle feed, swaddling, sterilising bottles, using baby monitors and so much more, you’re going to have to pick up a wealth of new habits that will help you to meet your baby’s basic needs. You can pick these up through books, watching online tutorials and more.
Maintaining Your Own Wellbeing
Most parents put themselves and their needs on the back burner in favour of focusing fully on their children. This is understandable and something that many people do. But at the end of the day, you need to look after yourself to look after your child as best possible. Make sure you regularly review your own health and wellbeing to ensure that you’re in good shape. You need to consistently eat a healthy and balanced diet. This means planning meals and eating well. You need to make sure that you maintain a healthy exercise routine. This should entail 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise a week. You need to find ways to incorporate this around your little one, whether that’s finding childcare while you work out, doing home workouts, or trying walks and jogs with appropriate stroller wagons for babies.
Managing Exhaustion
Most new parents are exhausted. Between learning how to look after a baby, hormonal changes, postpartum recovery, and then the general lack of sleep that comes hand in hand with a little one who has no understanding of day and night, you are going to get tired. Find ways to cope with this that suit you. This may mean split shift parenting where responsibilities are shared through the nights, seeking support from friends and family for rest breaks, and more.
This may seem like a lot to take on board, but we’re barely scratching the surface. At the end of the day, every moment from now on is going to be a big learning curve. Brace yourself for the adventure!
