Newborns are so deadass simple* to take care of. It’s a five step flow chart of possible needs, and 99% of the time you’re done.
Did I poop or pee my diaper?
Am I hungry?
Am I gassy?
Am I in some other form of pain?
Do I need physical or emotional human contact?
Then it’s sleep time. And as an absolute failsafe, if you’re at your wits end and nothing is working, you can always just… walk away for 5 minutes. A properly set up crib is as close to an absolutely safe environment as you can get. If they’re crying, they aren’t dying; take a minute to recompose yourself.
Note: being simple does not imply that this is easy. It isn’t.
My first son was really easy and my second had about four months of really bad crying fits I was so thankful I learned the walk away and decompress for five minutes with my first. A five minute break could hold my sanity for another thirty minute wailing session. I think I would have gone insane otherwise. But yeah, their needs are incredibly easy to identify and work through just like you said. It’s just exhausting. A couple times were pretty scary because I woke up in a jolt with that feeling like I was going to drop something. At some point I sat down in a rocking chair and fell asleep while holding our second without having any memory of doing so. After the second time I asked that we be able to remove the rocking chair from the bedroom because I obviously didn’t have the foresight to not sit down while holding him in whatever my mental cognition was during that period of time.
Newborns are so deadass simple* to take care of. It’s a five step flow chart of possible needs, and 99% of the time you’re done.
Then it’s sleep time. And as an absolute failsafe, if you’re at your wits end and nothing is working, you can always just… walk away for 5 minutes. A properly set up crib is as close to an absolutely safe environment as you can get. If they’re crying, they aren’t dying; take a minute to recompose yourself.
My first son was really easy and my second had about four months of really bad crying fits I was so thankful I learned the walk away and decompress for five minutes with my first. A five minute break could hold my sanity for another thirty minute wailing session. I think I would have gone insane otherwise. But yeah, their needs are incredibly easy to identify and work through just like you said. It’s just exhausting. A couple times were pretty scary because I woke up in a jolt with that feeling like I was going to drop something. At some point I sat down in a rocking chair and fell asleep while holding our second without having any memory of doing so. After the second time I asked that we be able to remove the rocking chair from the bedroom because I obviously didn’t have the foresight to not sit down while holding him in whatever my mental cognition was during that period of time.