What you need to know
First of all in order not to make yourself stress out at home if you are a first time parent you shouldn’t rush out from the hospital. Make sure that all of your questions are answered about such things as bathing, dressing, diapering, breastfeeding, burping, etc… If you are not comfortable about how you will care about your child at home you can ask to stay another day in the hospital. Your nurse and lactation consultant should teach you how to give a proper care to your child. Don’t hesitate or be shy to ask your health care provider to repeat something in order to let you write something down, or ask to show it again and again if necessary. It is better to master everything there than come home and start calling your practitioner with questions about what to do with your baby.
How your life change
After the labor you will probably have some mixed emotions and may feel scared as you realize that you've given up a certain amount of control over your life. Now you are all the time will be tied to your baby. At first situation will be pretty much the same as during the pregnancy the difference are only that you will carry your child not in your belly but in front of you. Wherever you go you should take your child with you and no one knows when your baby might make hard time for you by crying while away from home. So, you should prepare your changing bag for such cases.
Normally first two weeks your child will sleep a lot up to 20 hours a day. If everything will be normal your child will wake up if he/she wet, hungry or both. You should keep schedule of feeding your baby whether from bottle or breast. You will need to do lots of adjustments and change your life style which can be frustrating. You will learn many things from your baby and he/she will learn a lot from you. You will need to take care not only about your child but about yourself and your partner also. You need to make sure that he learns with you how to take care about your baby. You should be patient to each other because different people learn differently. If the situation is out of control you should still try to negotiate instead of yelling at each other.
What you need to have
Normally parents even before the delivering their child buy many baby things like bed and beddings, strollers, bath for newborns, clothes, toys, etc…When you just come from the hospital you will still feel sore, tired, weak, and probably bleed heavily. Make sure that you have at home many nighttime maxi pads and one or two sizes big panties that you won’t miss when soil them. Your health care provider will prescribe you some pills to take. So, you need to go to your nearest pharmacy to get them or ask someone in your family to do it instead. For going out with your baby you need to be prepared and have in your changing bag such things as pacifiers, diapers, wipes, changing clothes, zip lock bags for diaper disposal, diaper rash ointment, bibs, and a few toys.
Medical Disclaimer
The author is not a doctor and the information in the article is general in nature with no medical advises given or imply. Talk to your doctor, nurse or medical advisor how to treat health related problems.