“Yes but, what do I *do* with him??”

Yesterday I found myself asking what on earth I’m going to do about the baby once he’s here. I made the mistake of asking my Mom and Grandma that question over the phone, and my Mom said, “Well, I guess you shoulda thought of that 28 weeks ago!”

Har dee har.

I mean, obviously, I’m going to have to take care of him. I know that. But I also know that babies don’t come with instruction manuals (“I don’t know nothin’ bout birthin’ no babies!”).  I’m lucky enough to have my Mom and my Mother-in-law to ask for guidance and help, as well as a handful of friends who’ve been there before (thank goodness).

I mean, how will I know which cry is which? Is that wail a “Feed me, Seymour!,”, or a “Get in here and change this diaper!”, or “Pay attention to meeeeee!”

What about feeding time? Will I even be able to successfully breastfeed? Will he accept the bottle when it’s time for Oscar to feed him? Lots of women have had serious complications with breastfeeding, and I hope that I’m able to provide the baby with what he needs.

How will I know once he’s older to let him just cry it out when it’s time for bed? Will I even use the cry it out method? (It’s kind of a touchy subject for some people – they believe co-sleeping is the way to go for much longer periods of time.)

That’s just the tip of my worrying iceberg. There’s a Titantic-sized amount that goes through my head each day about the baby, and I won’t go into serious detail on this blog, because it’s not really a Mommyblog, but uh, there’s a lot of crap I get to deal with post-partum. Lots of drippy, messy stuff that I’m not really sure I’m looking forward to (and I’m not talking about poopy diapers and infant spit-up). Other women have gone through it, so I suppose I’m strong enough, too. If you’re interested, there are two extremely well-written post-partum posts here and here.   I’m so thankful that there are other Moms out there who are comfortable sharing the not-so-lovely parts, because now I know what to expect, no thanks to What to Expect. There’s no detail in that book like I can find by scouring a couple of Mommyblogs on the Internet, and that has really been the most helpful tool I could ask for.

Today, however, I get to push aside the thoughts of the drippy, messy stuff and get to go look for a glider for the nursery with one of my favorite people in the world – my grandma. Hooray for cute baby things!