When our first daughter was born 2 years ago, we were obviously first-time parents who had NO idea what we were doing. I was so nervous about dealing with a baby that was small. This was even more so for me changing the diapers of this fragile little creature that was the opposite sex. In my mind, if she would have been a boy, it would have been easy. Simply move the plumbing (the same layout as me) around and make sure everything was clean. With a little girl, this wasn’t the case.
First, she was the size of my hand. I thought with every little move I was going to hurt her. Turns out, little kids are extremely resilient when they are young. I was always extremely careful with her, so I don’t have anything major to report regarding injuries, yet. I will say, this feeling of fragility passes with time and sleep deprivation. For any fathers out there reading this, just be careful and be involved. Repetition builds comfort. By the time our second daughter came around, we felt like professionals. We aren’t. There was still this hesitation for the first week and after that we were off to the races. Our kids are mostly injury free to this day. I say mostly because they are kids. Our youngest isn’t mobile yet, but her sister keeps her involved. This includes bringing and playing with her toys on top of her. It also includes her sister throwing stuff without control and hitting her (maybe she has great control and did it on purpose). Additionally, our oldest plays bumper bodies with all our furniture. She is constantly on the move and thinks she can plow over heavy pieces of furniture that haven’t moved in 3 years. She loses every time, falls on the ground, gets up, and keeps going. Kids our tougher than they appear.
Lastly, the difficulty of changing diapers. I think most people in general feel uncomfortable when cleaning another human’s butt. That feeling is worse when you don’t know what you are doing and unsure of the situation down there. For me, I just didn’t feel comfortable changing diapers. Regardless of if I was doing it correctly, I felt like it was wrong for me to be doing it. There are so many crevices to make sure you get all the poop out. Then you get those explosions that come out the diaper. I can say after some time, I’m now comfortable and efficient doing it. The newest experience was as our oldest continues to grow and eat real food, she now takes legit human poops. Sometimes I believe her poops are larger than mine. It is disgusting, and I can’t wait until she handles it all herself. My number one recommendation is to have more than enough wipes out and ready to go. You can never have too many, and they are relatively cheap. One day you’ll have poop on your finger and be glad to have plenty of wipes prepped.
LETTERS TO MY DAUGHTERS 