New babies: a primer on communication

When Baby Mojo was first born my greatest fear was ‘how will I know what to do?’  Even though you have nine months to prepare for their arrival the pressure about what to do and when to do it is the underlying albatross for most parents.   We were talking one day and Daddy Mojo said something along the lines of my greatest fear aloud. 

It was then that my lovely wife summed it up very succinctly by saying:  “If they’re crying then they’re either hungry, sleepy or have to be changed.”

Well that’s rather simple and in hindsight his first year was much easier than I thought it would be.  Don’t get me wrong, the first year of being a stay at home dad was exhausting, but the biggest fears that I had, and you may have too, never happened.

Out adherence to a schedule with our son also helped us understand the noises he was making.  At two hours after the last bottle if we heard a noise it’s probably a diaper change.  If it’s in the middle of the night and it was between bottles then we’d eliminate the ones that it wasn’t.   He was only sick a couple of times and that cry always had a moaning quality about it.  However, as we suspected he was under the weather we took his temperature and got him sorted out on Pedialite immediately. 

For the first five months my wives’ golden rule held true.  It was around the fifth month that I would amend it by adding, “or they need a change of scenery. “   Around five months old we could also start to tell the difference in his cries and yells.   His noises were just slightly different when he was wet, hungry and sleepy.  When they’re sleepy it’s really quite easy to tell because they become irrational.

Baby communication stressed me out at first, but with the sage saying of my wife and the natural guidance of our child it was just a tempest in a teacup.