1. After the first couple weeks of newborn-ness, start swaddling the baby JUST at night. It helps calm them down during the early evening fussy time and signal that it's night-time, ergo, sleepy time.
1a. The SwaddleMe Blanket is awesome. Buy multiples. So much easier than trying to get a regular blanket to stay in place, although regular blankets are also great for naptime and snuggling and tummy time and the like, so you'll want a ton of those on hand, too.
2. Never underestimate the power of a lullaby. Pick one or two and stick with them ad nauseum. Even if you can't sing, they'll like it. And they'll come to associate those songs with, again, calming down and signaling sleepy time. For Meredith, it's "Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel)" by Billy Joel and "I'll Love You Forever" from the eponymous children's book. Hum the tune if you can't remember all the words, or make up new words - it's the tune that counts the most. I sung both those songs a lot while I was pregnant, so Meredith heard the tunes and recognized them early on.
3. If you're not breastfeeding, caffeine is your BFF. If you're breastfeeding, drink caffeine WHILE you're feeding the baby so it'll be out of your system enough before the next feeding. Or so I'm told.
4. Keep hand sanitizer at the changing table, so you don't have to wash your hands after every diaper change (just the really messy ones). Also keep lotion handy, since hand sanitizer dries your skin out like crazy.
5. Don't try to introduce a new calm-'em-down thing when your kid is already fussy to the point of no return. It won't work. Start using it regularly when they're already calm and happy, and then it'll be more likely to help settle them when they're screaming.
6. Sometimes, you have to just strap the kid into the swing/bouncy seat/car seat/etc and let them scream for 5-10 minutes while you go to the bathroom or brush your teeth or take the world's quickest shower or take the garbage out. They will survive, and so will you, even if you feel like the World's Worst Parent at the time.
7. Get out of the house once a day, whether that's a walk to the grocery store with the baby in the stroller, a pediatrician's appointment, or whatever. GETTING OUT IS KEY. And babies often fall asleep in the car seat - BONUS.
8. Don't interact with them during nighttime feedings/changings. Simply focus on tag teaming with your partner to quickly, quietly change that diaper and get the baby fed & put back down to sleep in a dimly lit room before they have a chance to fully wake up. No cutesy singing to them at the change table or gooey silly faces during feeding time: Just git 'r dun. When Meredith wakes up, Dave goes and changes her diaper while I prep a bottle, a process that takes about 3 minutes for each of us. Then, I come back into the bedroom, get the baby settled on my lap, feed her, burp her, hold her for about a minute to settle her down, then put her back in the bassinet. 8 times of out 10, she's back to sleep in a flash and the whole process has taken under 20 minutes. We won't talk about the other 2 times in 10.
9. Keep a HUGE stack of burp cloths on hand. Seriously. I'm amazed how fast we go through them, they're probably 50% of the baby's laundry.
10. A sleeping baby is a beautiful thing. DO NOT WAKE THEM UP, even if it's time for their next feeding. Just let them sleep.
11. On the other hand, during the day, don't try to be quiet. Vacuum, run the dishwasher, listen to music, take them for walks in noisier neighborhoods. They need to be able to sleep through that stuff, and you don't need to tiptoe around your house 24/7!
12. If they're awake and happy, put down whatever else you were doing and enjoy them. So much of parenting a newborn is slogging through crying fits, diaper blowouts, spit-up and 2am feedings, that when they're cooing at you and making cute faces, it makes it all worthwhile. Making dinner can wait - your happy baby might turn fussy in the next 30 seconds, so enjoy it while you can.
You sound like a pro already :) We had one of those 2/10 times last night...it ended up requiring two nursings...'nuff said!
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