While some of this information turned out to be accurate, some of it did not hold true for our baby.
Here are those misconceptions:
1) All babies LOVE car rides. Get an infant seat so you can carry them from the car to your destination while they are asleep.
False for Andrew. More than false. He HATES either his car seat, the car... or possibly both. I have yet to carry a sleeping Andrew from the car in his seat. There are rare occasions where he might entertain himself for 15 minutes (even more unlikely) fall asleep, but most of the time this is not the case. Last night he cried for the duration of a 45 minute trip. It is awful, mostly because I cannot pick him up and feel horrible. I also feel like I, seriously, am a danger on the road as I attempt to get home at a record pace.
We have tried everything: pacifiers (he also does not like those), music, rolling the windows down, sun shields and dangling toys. The other night, I frantically ordered a convertible seat on Amazon because I read some babies dislike the angle of the infant seats. We have yet to put it in, but plan to this week!
Hopefully he outgrows this. Until then, I am getting quite a bit of exercise walking everywhere with him in the Ergo.
2) Babies like to sleep in the bedroom with you in a basinet.
We did try a few nights in the bassinet, but our active buddy needed more room. Even at a few days old, he was kicking the sides of it and waking himself up. After that, we put him in the crib and he seems to enjoy his space. Let's hope we can get him out of there when he needs to move to a "big kid bed."
3) Babies like pacifiers and being swaddled
Andrew looks at us like we are stupid when we try to give him one. He might suck on it while somebody is holding it, but then he spits it out. I have ordered (again on Amazon) about 10 different kinds, but to no avail. Now my hope is that he finds his finger/thumb to help with the hellacious car rides.
As for swaddling- he broke out of the swaddle even when they were done by the professionals at the hospital so we kind of gave up on it. He regularly broke out of our swaddles too and then it was dangerous to have him in the crib (where the blanket could suffocate him). I know swaddling calms many babies and perhaps we should have worked on it more?
4) A rocking chair is a necessity in a babies room
I think I used the rocking chair for a week and then realized the couch was must more comfortable when he work up in the middle of the night. Here I could relax and catch up on my 80's sitcoms.
5) Newborns are super easy to take places, because they just sleep all of the time
Perhaps some newborns do. Mine? Not so much. He has slept through several dinners out in the carrier, but other than that, he up most of the day. Rather than taking long naps during the day, he prefers 20 minute naps and then will wake up ready to play. Or cry. Or both. Regardless, we have no plans to take him to a wedding or movie any time soon!
My mom claims this as Karma because I never slept during the day either.
I guess the consensus I have come up with is that "all babies are different." What works for one baby may or may not work for another. My friend Alicia also told me that just because they dislike something one day, does not mean they will not like it the next. They are constantly growing and changing as well. Good advice.
