Tips For First Time Dad's

Remember those baby books your husband never read? Or those classes that he would rather have stayed home and watched football than go to? Yea, me too. The truth is we as Mother’s spend 9 months preparing for the baby. We budget our finances, we buy the crib and diapers, we take Lamaze classes, we read numerous articles, we talk to other Mom’s and ask for advice, WE PREPARE. Most guys aren’t like us, they won’t read the books and they won’t feel prepared. If your husband is the guy that reads the baby books, consider yourself lucky. Do you blame them, though? After all, you will be the one going through labor, which the anticipation of the most painful day of your life can make you want to be as prepared as you can be.

You know that saying.. “Women become Mother’s when they find out they are pregnant, and men become Father’s when the baby is born.”

It’s true. For some men, it will take a week or a month for those “daddy instincts” to kick in. These are a few tips for new Daddy’s. If your hubby won’t read this, just try to explain these things to him. Good Luck!

1. Take Time Off Work. Be prepared to leave work for at least a week. You will need to be there when your wife and baby are in the hospital. It is also important for you to spend bonding time with your baby. Take a week to help the mommy out and get to know your little baby.

2. Stay At The Hospital. For all that she just went through, don’t leave your wife alone while you go home and sleep. If you have kids try to get someone to watch the while you’re at the hospital.

3. Clean Up Around The House. A new mom will be going through a lot. They will need to rest and recover from labor. She won’t have time to do the laundry, vacuum, do the dishes, or take care of any pets you have. Her time needs to be dedicated to learning how to take care of her baby, bonding with her baby and recovering from labor. If you are horrible at cleaning, or just hate it, try buying disposable dishes so you don’t have to do the dishes.

4. Get Her Food. A new mom shouldn’t drive for 6-7 weeks after labor. Go to the store for her, ask her what she wants and make sure to pick up lots of food. A breastfeeding mom needs to eat just as much as a pregnant woman. She is still eating for two, if she’s breastfeeding! Make sure she has time to eat, watch the bay for her so she can relax and eat dinner. If all else fails, order take out!

5. Offer to Help. There might not be much you can do, but always ask. Even the little things count, so if she asks you to just hand her things or wash her breast pump for her, do it. Trust me, she will be exhausted.

6. Take the Night Feeding. If you are bottle feeding your baby, try to take turns during night feedings. Everyone needs sleep! If you are breast feeding, ask if she can pump before she goes to bed, so you have one bottle for a night feeding.

7. Bond with Your Baby. You may not think that they will remember this, but bonding as a baby is very important. It lets the baby know, that you will meet their needs too, not just mommy. Take the baby and let the new mommy get a nap, or a shower, or go out by herself for an hour (even if it is just to the grocery store). Take these opportunities as bonding time with your baby.

8. Be Prepared to Make Emergency Store Runs. Even if that means going in the middle of night. Trust me, there will be a time when your wife or the baby needs something now and you need to go get it. Be prepared to buy the stool softeners, pads, diapers, or diaper rash cream.

9. Be Supportive. If all else fails, be supportive. A new mom might cry, or be mad, or be stressed.. just go with it. Be there, be supportive. Don’t argue with her. Even you being next to her will probably make her feel better. Talk to her; ask her how her day was. Take her for a date night when you’re ready to leave the baby. But the most important thing to remember is to be supportive!  

I would love for you to comment! What is your best advice for a first time dad? 

Cool Whip Paint Play

 I had no idea just how many toys I would buy within my daughters first 2 years, and I’m only half way through! It never really occurred to me when buying these toys that she would grow out of them within weeks. I never used that swing I got, she hated it.  I got super excited when she started holding her teething toys and went out and bought a ton of them. She had her favorite one or two, and the rest hardly got used. The Bumbo was useful, but only for the first few months. The walker I bought, she will probably never push again since she can run perfectly fine, that lasted about 3 weeks. Basically, there are toys for every developmental stage, and the older she gets, the more toys there will be. My living room has now become a bright play room.

I was going through Emma’s toys the other day, seeing what I could get rid of. She didn’t like this one bit. She held out her little hand to the 7 or 8 toys I had collected and looked at me like “Excuse me, those are mine”. I told her they were baby toys and she was too big for them, but I guess she had to see for herself. I handed the first toy to her, a teething ring, she looked at it and threw it on the ground, holding her hand out for the next one. We went through all the teething toys, rattles, wrist bracelets and car seat toys, with her throwing each one onto the floor. Then when there were no more toys in my hand, she walked off and went to go play with one of her “big girl” toys. Just for a laugh, I picked her up and put her in that saucer that sits in the corner and we haven’t used in months. I put her in there and my little girl acted like I just put in her jail. She tried to get and out and the started to whimper, tried to get out again and then let out her big “I’m really mad now” scream. She was only in there for about 45 seconds..

Now, that I’m mostly past that “Everything I find will go into my mouth” stage, I’m excited to try some of the sensory activities with her that we can do together. Most of these are fun dollar store activities. I found this cool whip paint play on Pinterest, and since it was fine even if she did eat it, we tried it. I did this activity when Emma was almost 11 months old. It only lasted about 5 minutes, but that was probably because I was scared she was going to get the paint everywhere, and she was mixing all the colors, that the paint turned black, and I was scared it was going to stain her skin. I loved this, and we will definitely be doing this again, with one thing different. I recommend doing this in the bathtub, it gets messy! I definitely didn’t like cleaning black, blue, and pink paint off my couch and floor!

Here’s what you need:

Lite Cool Whip (just in case they eat some), Food Coloring, Muffin Pan

We did this in the living room and I just laid a towel down to catch any mess. I gave her a spoon, the cutest little girls 1^st spatula and a silicone basting brush. I highly recommend doing this in the bathtub. 

Trust me, it gets messy! 

And here is where we ended.; when the paint started to turn black, and she decided to eat it.

There is another variation I have heard of before for older kids. It uses shaving cream instead of whip cream. But whatever you use, I hope you had fun with you kids, I know I did!

Pound Cake with Raspberry Sauce

So I made this cake for a Valentine’s Day surprise for my boyfriend. He had mentioned to me that he loves pound cake. So, I searched the internet for a great recipe. I decided to make a raspberry sauce to go with it to give it some color and a fresh taste! Of course I topped it with a homemade whip cream! The pound cake is a Paula Deen recipe, and it is yummy! I cut the recipe in half and used a bread loaf pan, since it was just for us two! I hope your sweetie enjoys this cake, I know mine did!

Ingredients:

For the Pound Cake:

1 sticks of butter, plus more for greasing

¼ cup of vegetable shortening

1 ½ cups of sugar

3 eggs

1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour, plus more for greasing

¼ tsp of fine salt

¼ tsp of baking powder

½ cup of milk

½ tsp of vanilla

For the Raspberry Sauce:

12 oz package of frozen raspberries

3 tbsp of sugar

For the Whip Cream:

2 tbsp of sugar

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream the butter and shortening together in a bowl, with a mixer.

3. Add the sugar, ½ cup at a time and beating in between.

4. Add each egg one at a time and beating in between.

5. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking powder together.

6. Add the flour mixture and milk into the butter and egg mixture, by alternating flour and milk and mixing in between.

7. Blend in the vanilla.

8. Use butter and flour to grease your pan.

9. Bake for 30 mins-55 mins, or until a knife in the middle comes out clean.

For the Raspberry Sauce:

Divided the bag of raspberries in half and blend half of them in a blender. In a bowl, stir in the liquid raspberries, whole raspberries and sugar.

For the Whipping Cream:

Place a metal mixing bowl and metal whisk attachment in the frezzer for 15 minutes before using, Place the sugar in the bowl first and then the cream, then whisk with a mixer until soft peaks form.

I cut the pieces of pound cake out with a heart cookie cutter to make it more festive for Valentine’s Day!

Enjoy and have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Photo: saraleedesserts.com