Raising Happy Kids: 5 Newborn Parenting Tactics That Make All The Difference

This post is part of a parenting series focused on raising happy, resilient children. Read more about this series HERE.

How precious are these pictures? They both look so happy and proud! I demand a family picture ASAP.

Husband’s sister, Harm and her husband, K-Love, had their first baby last week *woop*. I’m an aunt again. He’s adorable, mom is a champ, and I’ve never seen K-Love so proud. I can’t wait to meet babe in a few weeks.

Over the next few weeks I am going to dedicate the Raising Happy Kids Series to brand new parents, considering this exciting event in our family and that we are so far away from each other now. My plan for coping is just sending advice and tips over the blogosphere!

My magic fairy godmother wish for my new nephew would be a content and happy temperament. This would provide a foundation for happy kid traits, with the added benefit of allowing his parents to really enjoy parenthood…and therefore, they will be happy to bear me more nephews and nieces.

So let’s start here: I wholeheartedly believe that the girls’ happy and resilient temperaments are primarily based on a foundation we built with intentional parenting in infancy. At the time, I had NO idea how influential some of those early decisions would be, but with some thought, I’m going to list 5 parenting tactics I would do over again to raise happy and content babies (and parents).

5 Newborn Parenting Tactics That Make All The Difference

(in no particular order):

1) Flexible Schedule

2) Teamwork

3) Sleep

4) Nursing

5) Falling In Love

Flexible Schedule

I know that the word SCHEDULE, at least when discussing infants, is horrifying to certain groups of parenting gurus. But hey, this is my blog (attachment theory and demand feeding peeps, let’s be respectful).

Disclaimer: For the first couple of weeks you should really only be getting to know each other and perfecting nursing, then comes a schedule that works for both of you. Wait, let’s back this disclaimer up even more: as a general rule, moms and experts agree that you should ignore any advice that does not feel right for you. That said, let’s get back to my advice on adopting an infant schedule…

I would have to say that the nudge I had from a friend to operate with a schedule in mind was hands down the best piece of information I received as a brand new parent. Having some idea of how much Raine should have nursed and slept was invaluable to us because we had no idea what we were doing. It also gave me a bit more confidence as a parent while I was learning her baby cues for different needs.

And I have to say, with the schedule I was able to learn her cues SO much faster because I knew what was coming next and could associate her cues with it, whether it was a diaper change, nap or whether she was hungry. Under these conditions both of the girls thrived. They both slept through the night at 6 weeks (with one sleepy nursing) and rarely cried because I was able to anticipate all of their needs. A schedule helped me to get to know my girls and what they actually needed vs. what I might have thought they needed.

As they got older, we were able to recognize some perks of having babies that were predictable, with the biggest perk of all being that it was so much easier to pass them off to someone else! They were easy babies…with a schedule!

If you are interested in what we based our babies’ schedules on, I can vouch for the Baby Wise schedule, but keep in mind that it should always be used in a way that is flexible to circumstances and baby’s cues.

Next week we will move on to: Team Work. Stay Tuned!