by Brandi Riley posted in Pregnancy

In the nine months before our son was born, my husband and I did everything we could to get prepared. We toured the hospital where he was delivered. We took an eight-hour baby class on a Saturday. We read dozens of books and articles, and asked our doctor every question we could think of. Also, it's not like it was our first child. After going through parenting a newborn once, the second time had to be a breeze, right"
Well, even with all of that preparation, since our baby boy has arrived we're relying heavily on our instincts to get through the first month of parenting a newborn. Anything can sound good when it's just a theory. When you're just reading or talking about taking care of a baby, you might make the mistake of thinking it's not really as hard as folks make it out to be. Unless you're in the thick of it, or have just moved past the newborn phase, it's easy to forget what it's like. I know I did. For example, 2-3 diapers a day for a newborn seems manageable, right" That's what our baby book told us to expect. The reality is, our sweet boy once went through 50 diapers in a 7-day period.
Our pediatrician said newborns don't follow any sleep patterns. Interesting. Our son crying at the top of lungs every morning at 2:13 a.m. sure feels like a pattern.

I'm even guilty of expecting the same newborn experience with my son that I had with my daughter. She didn't use a pacifier, so no way would I introduce one to my baby b...