A kaizen approach to learning into becoming a better dad

How many bottles is enough? When we first brought James back, we had maybe 2 - 3 bottles as we thought that would be more than enough. We figured, that James will be breastfed most of the time and we’ll only use the bottles a few times during the day. Like with most of our earlier assumptions, we were very wrong. Since it took a while for my wife’s milk to come through, we had to bottle feed James almost 8 times a day. Having 2 - 3 bottles was definitely too little as it then required me to constantly wash bottles almost two or three times a day. ...

Stay healthy I’ve never liked getting sick, and I bet most people would agree with me when I say getting sick is never fun. Getting sick when I didn’t have a baby is one thing, but getting sick when we have to take care of James is a whole new different ballgame. I recently got a combination of the flu and sore throat, which is annoying by itself. This caused me to cough incessantly throughout the night. It became a big problem because James was room sharing with us. When I coughed in the middle of the night, it woke up him up and he was unable to go back to sleep. This in turn made me even more sick since we had to get up and rock him and calm him down, which led to less sleep overall. Without enough sleep, I then even got more sick which then became a vicious cycle. ...

To formula or not to formula In the beginning, we weren’t sure whether to get formula or not. We had this flawed expectation that babies will come out all calm, and feeding will not be a problem. Boy were we wrong. In the first few days in the hospital, we were given a bit of formula to top up after every meal. This is because my wife’s milk hasn’t come through yet. After giving birth, it might take a few days for the milk to come through. Until that comes through, the baby will feed on something called colostrum. It’s essentially a thick liquid filled with nutrients that will satisfy a baby for the first few days. Even in a normal birth, babies might lose up to 10% of their body weight in the first week because the mother’s milk hasn’t come through yet. ...

Define jaundice? Before having James, I’ve never heard of the word jaundice ever before. No, it doesn’t mean bitterness, resentment, or cyncism; but instead is the medical condition where the skin and eyes become more yellow as the liver tries to clear out bilirubin, which is a waste product from breaking down red blood cells. In adults, this can indicate liver issues but can be quite common for newborn babies to have. ...

Bring more clothes The first tip in being being a good father is to make sure that you bring enough clothes to the hospital. James was born via a c-section and we originally had planned to stay in the hospital for 5 days. Since we weren’t planning to leave the hospital during the stay, we figured that having 1 pair of clothes per day for James would be enough. Having 5 pairs of clothes (singlets and onesies) should be more than enough. ...