Does your baby come with a manual?

When the doctor placed my new born onto my chest, what I felt was indescribable. Feelings of joy, excitement, happiness and love for my baby engulfed me. It was truly the happiest moment of my life. But my baby did not come with a manual. So how do I handle it?

Even if it came with no manual, I slowly learnt a few things about how to handle my baby and take care of it the proper way. The first thing I learnt perhaps was not to take everyone’s advice seriously. Of course, some of it may be helpful advice, but the major part is things that would only stress me out more when I already had too much on my plate. For instance, whenever my baby cried, my mother- in-law would say that I was starving it by breast feeding it. It drove me nuts. I had to say strictly to her that since she had never breastfed any of her children, her knowledge about it was particularly limited. So could she stop bothering me?

I also learnt that trusting my motherly instinct is the best way to go. It is what will alert me if something goes wrong with my baby. Also, learning to relax and asking for help from friends and family so that I could just rest and get some sleep is a good idea.

So even if my baby didn’t come with a manual, I developed one by myself through trial- and- error.