Baby Your Baby

We had a class last night called "Baby Your Baby" and it was all about what to expect for the first couple of months after bringing the baby home. The class was taught by a woman with many years of OB experience who now does community education full-time. There were 4 other couple in attendance for the 3 hour class and one of the couples was actually in our birthing class as well. The teacher had all of the standard props there including a fake baby, diapers, swaddling blanket, etc. It was a good opportunity to freshen up on some stuff that we may have forgotten after a long lay-off of taking care of youngsters - me with my little brothers and Mandi as a babysitter.

Like Mandi has said from the beginning, "Whenever it was someone else's baby, I never worried too much about doing things 'just right' cause I knew at the end of the day, the mom would clean up my mistakes. Well, now we'll only have each other to clean up the mistakes, so it's a lot different". I actually shared that sentiment with the entire class and they all seemed to have a good laugh at it and I saw a few nodding heads.

I can't even recall what was covered first in the class, but I do have a few points that were made that are sticking with me:

- Don't allow your infant to sleep with stuffed animals, bumpers or blankets in the crib

- Don't under any circumstance leave them alone around any amount of water

- When babies have outstretched arms and are moving around quite a bit, that usually means they're done playing and are overstimulated

- Don't let your newborn sleep for over 4 hours at a time

- When they are infants, there is no such thing as spoiling them with attention

So those were the things that kind of stood out to me during the course of the class. I'm sure there would be others if I really racked my brain a bit, but at this late hour, that's all that I've got. My question is this however, are there any things that you may have never known or just kind of missed prior to taking your baby home that you wish you would have known sooner or just paid better attention to? Anything that caught you completely off guard? Any and all tips, insights, etc are always welcome around here!