The first year of baby’s life is a precious, fun and challenging period to the parents. Babies in their first year of life are growing up very fast, and that’s a good and sad thing at the same time. The sad thing is that after they finish this year and become toddlers, you’ll miss that cute creature and you may feel regret for many things you didn’t do to your baby in his first year.
You Know that Listening to other people’s experience helps us to learn the lessons rather than reading a book. So, I asked several women about the things they regret NOT doing to their children in their first year.
My own opinion:
But before we see the ladies experiences, I’ll share with you my opinion about this topic:
I agree with all these ladies, but I love to add somethings as well.
- You may regret if you didn’t avoid these mistakes to protect your baby’s skin.
- You may regret if you didn’t produce the brain food that boosts your kid’s intelligence.
- You may regret if you didn’t know what do you really need for a newborn.
Let’s all read their answers to get the lessons:
1- just cuddling them:
This was the answer to a lady.
My own comment: I know that almost all the mums cuddling, hugging and kissing their children in the different stages of their lives. But, when your baby grows up and becomes a young boy or girl. You’ll wish you can return the time back to their first year. You’ll wish you can live these moments again when you were spending hours holding your baby while studying his/her peaceful face, watching him breathing and wondering what he is dreaming about.
I know that the time will never go back to the past, and I know that every stage of your children life is precious.
But, if you are a mom to a new baby, make sure to enjoy every moment with your little one. If you are suffering from postpartum depression, fight it by just cuddling your little one and smelling his hands. Believe me, it is HEAVEN !!
Related:
2- working fewer hours:
One lady regrets: ( working long hours and not being there).
This was the same opinion of another lady, she said : (I regret going back to work early. Nothing like a mother’s love).
3- getting them into a good sleep routine:
One mom said ( really prioritising getting them into a good sleep routine, especially self-settling. I’m paying for it years later!).
Another mom replied to her (yup, me too. Then took 22 months for her to finally sleep through the night).
4- Taking them to playgrounds:
A lady said: ( taking my first to playgrounds to watch older kids play! My second is getting so much benefit and happiness being around lots of older, very entertaining children! ).
5- Taking enough family photos:
One of the ladies regrets: ( not taking enough family photos all together).
A lady replied to her ( this is true. A lot of women feel self-conscious with their post-baby body and stake o avoid photos but honestly when you look back, it’s way more important to see you holding your little one and enjoying time together than having a perfect figure!)
6- printing photos and putting them up or in a photo album:
A lady said: ( actually printing photos and putting them up or in a photo album. Not professional ones but the fun ones! We live so much online we don’t print photos and have hard copy photo albums.
My eldest taught us this lesson when she started asking where all here photos are. We promptly printed a stack of photos and bought an album so we can flick through them together and not sit on the computer).
related:
7- making sure to set up icloud properly:
A lady shared her sad experience: (Not making sure -I was sure but I was wrong- my icloud was set up properly. I lost everything from first 18 months!)
A lady replied to her with the same sad experience : ( I’m truly devastated about it. I thought it was all set up properly and ended up disabling my iPhone. I thought I would be ok with data recovery but no one can get it. I’ve been in Apple bawling my eyes out and on the phone to so many data recovery companies bawling like a baby.
I was really the only one with photos and videos of her as we live away from family. It is so heartbreaking. I’m due with my second baby now and I have nothing to show my little girl of when she was a bub. It is so awful!
Another lady shared her similar experience : ( I’ve had a similar experience when my phone died. I’m a foster carer and so keeping track of the growth of the little bubs we have is so incredibly important. I was a mess, in tears and panic when my phone went psycho and just randomly lost all of the photos. I didn’t have the icloud or anything and I was consumed with guilt over losing such precious memories for the little one we had at the time. I had to go back to find every email I’d ever sent with a photo and save it again!
And contact anyone I thought I may have texted to ask them to resend pictures back to me so I could save them again!).
8- a print with his hands and feet:
A lady said: ( I always regret not making a print with his hands and feet).
9- Taking a journal:
One of the ladies regrets for not taking a journal. She said ( taking a journal. You think you will never forget when they go their first tooth or started walking, but you will!).
Many ladies agreed with her point, and here were the replies:
– ( I regret this too).
– ( same here, I forgot).
– ( I started and then it fill by the ways the months went by! I really wish I had written down exactly when he got teeth or said his first word. You are right, at the time it’s so precious you think you could never forget something so huge, but you do!)
– ( sometimes, just posting a photo on your Insta and writing a caption about what you did that day or what they started doing is good enough. And then backing up your Instagram account).
10- reading to them daily:
A lady said ( reading to them daily, so books were a part of life/ routine from a very young age. It’s never too early to start but very hard to encourage further on if there’s no habit- particularly when they are surrounded by so much technology-. My boys are 12 & 14 now and I really regret not having done this.
11- Not Listening to other people’s advice and going against what you feel:
One of the ladies said ( I regret listening to other people’s advice and going against what I felt was right. It took me until she was around 1 to tell people to keep opinions to themselves and feel confident in my own decisions as their mother).
Another lady said ( yeah, I regret listening to everyone else opinion and just take every day as they come. My kids are grown up now and I wish I could turn back time).
12- Being more adventurous with what they eat:
A lady said: ( I regret not being more adventurous with what she ate. She’s now 8 years old and still the worst eater ever. Not sure it would have made a huge difference, but maybe it would).
13- joining a mum and baby exercise classes
This was the answer of one lady.
14- speaking your native language with them
One lady said ( not speaking my native language with them. Started when they were older).
CONCLUSION:
According to these ladies experiences, If your baby is under 1 or if you are pregnant or planning for pregnancy, make sure to make these things so that you’ll not regret:
- Cuddle your baby as much as you can.
- Work fewer hours ( if possible).
- Get your baby into a good sleeping routine.
- Take him to playgrounds to watch older kids.
- Take enough family photos
- Print the photos ( the fun ones) and keep them in a photo album.
- Make sure to set up icloud properly so that you can recover your photos if the phone disabled or lost.
- Make a print with baby’s hand or feet.
- Write down every stage of your baby’s development.
- Read to him daily.
- Listen to your instincts.
- Be more adventurous with what your baby eats.
- Join a mum and baby exercise classes.
- Speak your native language with your children.
Read more:
If you see this post helpful, please pin it to help new moms enjoy the first year of their baby’s life. Thanks!!!
Hello!
This is an awesome post! I have a two year old and an 8 month old.
I was so scared that my son would choke on food, that I was not adventurous at all with the variety of foods that I fed him! I am regretting that now!
These are all awesome advice. Thanks so much for sharing.
Quick Tip: Make DAD’s write in any keepsake books too! My father passed away when I was 5 and when mum just gave me my baby book (i’m 27) it was the first time I read his handwriting and what his thoughts were while raising me in the early years. There were many tears reading is hopes for me as I grew up and such, he was so looking forward to being my father. (I saw this book before, but just didn’t realize as a smaller child his writing).
I completely agree about keeping up with photo’s it can be so hard, but it is so worth printing them out.
I found that Shutterfly or Snapfish have predesigned baby photobooks and all you have to do is upload the pictures. I did a page per month and it was fairly managable, I just put a reminder in my phone to do it each month for 12 months (aka in one go I made 12 reminders). They often have specials, so if you print/buy them when they have a special going you can get a good price. An idea is also to print 2, one for you to keep and one for them to have when they are an adult, so then you both get to keep the memories (we all know as mum’s that we will reminisce once they leave the nest.
My other tip for recording the special moments along the way. Just do it and BUY one of those books that you fill out about first steps, teeth, and personality, it might be $20-$30 but it’ll be some of the best money you spend when you look at it later. I also keep it on the top of my dresser so it is easily accessible and doesn’t get forgotten. After the first year then I can put it somewhere else, but for now I don’t want to forget to write in it and that is the best way for me to not forget, it’s under my planner. (10month old baby currently)
hi Bushra Al-asadi
your post is worth reading. You almost covered all things for parenting a baby under one year old. Another thing is bit challenging at this stage is feeding the baby, specially for the new parents.
I have a blog where I tried to discuss on Baby feeding for the very first year. If you have time you can read this on https://yourbabyneedz.com/feeding-the-baby/
I disagree with the sleep regimen my LO was incredibly difficult to sleep train. I don’t think I lost out on this as he got older. Not all babies are the same not all can be sleep trained. By stating that by not accomplish this early implies mom didn’t do something right.
Hi Bushra Alasadi thank you so much for your advices I hope I could doing all this with my boys but it is too late. I think it’s a good helpful to new mothers.
Thank you for reading my post. You were always a very good mother without the need for this post. Anyway, if you missed something with your boys,you can do it with your grandsons inshallah.