Essentials 10/10

I remember reading a list such as this when I was pregnant. It helped me a bit and also made me conscientious, during Ev’s first year, of our needs. Without further ado (since it’s 3 months late anyway. Who am I to make my readers wait?)… I present the ten things we could NOT live without for our first year of parenthood. I’ll post them one at a time because they’ve turned into quite lengthy little guys!

10. Pacifiers. I tried to follow all the rulebooks on when the best time to introduce the ole nuk into our boy’s life. If I recall correctly, you aren’t supposed to introduce the paci to breast fed babies for at least 2 weeks. Something about nipple confusion. I could’ve recited you the entire article a year ago, with references. Oh, how things change. I lectured Wade and anyone else within earshot about NOT giving my baby a paci. Well, we did fine the first week and he was pretty good at self-pacification with the hand or fist. Then, week two began and our boy had his first growth spurt. By the third day, I was nursing every 30 minutes. I remember meeting Wade at the door when he got home from work. I was exhausted. Five o’clock could not have come fast enough. Ev had a paci in his mouth and was just as quiet and angelic as ever. “I give up,” was all I had to say. He was happy and so was I. Turns out he just needed SOMETHING to suck on, regardless of what it was. A monster was created that day, as our boy is now a big fan of the “noonie”. In fact, we are working on weaning it and this SUCKS. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.