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Going on Paternity Leave - Give Me Advice


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At that age it's honestly not too hard.

 

One of my favourite things to do at that age was to hand an unplugged Xbox controller to my son and we'd play video games together.

 

But basically keep anything dangerous out of her reach, interact with her a lot (it doesn't matter how, honestly), nap when she naps.

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I was up for the challenge but very much intimidated by the prospect of being alone with my son for long periods of time early on. He was nearly a month old the first time I had him for several hours. But like anything else, you get used to it.

Even though it's stressful having a baby, you can still kind do what you want as far as seeking entertainment freely. I'm pretty conservative about what media I consume in front of my child now, but from 0-2.5, I could watch or listen to anything without worrying about it impacting him in any way. I worked over nights during my son's first year, so I had it kind of easy. But when he was 10 months, his mom went back to work so I had him during the day by myself. I really think long periods of time of just he and I alone helped us bond and forged part of the relationship we have today.

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Enjoy every minute of it! I took eight months off when my second son was born and it was the best. He was six months old at the time and I was home until his daycare space opened up.

 

Develop a routine with your daughter. It will help both of you to have some structure in the day. Take her for walks in the stroller around your neighourhood, run errands with her, find group activities with other little kids.  You can nap when she naps or just enjoy the time to yourself.

 

 

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17 hours ago, Shitty Rambo said:

11 weeks?! Holy shit. Most I missed from work was 5 days total (including my rest day) when my middle girl was born. We only get 2 weeks max and don't get paid for it, we could float vacation days but fuck all that. That's another day you can miss later on lol.

Government job. 

 

I got tweleve paid weeks. Used the first week right away. 

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Even though you might not get a lot of sleep and things may get stressful you just have to make the most of it.  You may not ever have that much time again to straight up bond with your kid.  We had twins so my experience may be a little different, but as far as advise goes.. routine is key!  Both for your child as well as yourself.  Helps get to keep everything moving.  And venturing outside helped us a lot.  Even if it was just to take a walk in the park or grab a coffee or whatever.  The sooner everyone gets accustomed to being out and about the better.   You could also try picking one "other" activity for each day of the week.  So outside of the normal routine things you might go to the park one day, or grocery shopping one day, or visit the record store, etc.   We listened to a lot of music together so spinning some records together would be cool too!  At that age, as long as you keep them fed and diaper clean you can pretty much take them anywhere.  OHHH... and beer... have a beer with your lunch.  Something about a midday beer just helped me remain calm.  Enjoy man and good luck!  Congrats as well!

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1 hour ago, gabe005 said:

Even though you might not get a lot of sleep and things may get stressful you just have to make the most of it.  You may not ever have that much time again to straight up bond with your kid.  We had twins so my experience may be a little different, but as far as advise goes.. routine is key!  Both for your child as well as yourself.  Helps get to keep everything moving.  And venturing outside helped us a lot.  Even if it was just to take a walk in the park or grab a coffee or whatever.  The sooner everyone gets accustomed to being out and about the better.   You could also try picking one "other" activity for each day of the week.  So outside of the normal routine things you might go to the park one day, or grocery shopping one day, or visit the record store, etc.   We listened to a lot of music together so spinning some records together would be cool too!  At that age, as long as you keep them fed and diaper clean you can pretty much take them anywhere.  OHHH... and beer... have a beer with your lunch.  Something about a midday beer just helped me remain calm.  Enjoy man and good luck!  Congrats as well!

Thanks. This sounds good. I’ve gotten outside every day and started planning lunches with friends and family. Working on getting a solid routine in place. 

Edited by Tidal Wave
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