I’ve often heard from new dads that they feel a little disconnected and struggle to bond with their new baby after birth. Those early days, weeks, and months as a new father can be overwhelming and exhausting, but there are many things that you can do to build that precious and important bond with your baby. I’ve asked multiple people their thoughts on this and got such great responses that I wanted to share them with everyone. I will tell you that the overwhelming response was skin to skin contact and babywearing. “We begin before the baby is born, feeling kicks together, and talking to baby when he/she begins to develop hearing. We daydream about who they might be, what they might look like, etc. We discuss their name at length and name them together. After birth we try to do lots of skin-on-skin time and snuggle in bed together. We take turns taking care of the baby in the first week or so, as much as possible, so neither of us get too burnt out, and we both get some sleep. We try to take good care of our mental health, which sometimes means leaving the kids with Grandma for a date.” – Dani “With our youngest, he held him skin to skin while I delivered the placenta and got cleaned up. With all 3 boys, he changed almost every diaper in their first few days, including all the sticky meconium poops. He would change and burp the baby after l nursed so l could go back to sleep. Now that they're older, he usually does the bedtime routine and tucks them in.” – Melissa “Lots and lots of babywearing!! My husband wore my daughter for the first time while we were still in the hospital. He loves his Tula and my ring sling. I’ve even gotten him to wear a woven wrap a few times. He loved the satisfaction of helping her settle and sleep when she little bitty. Now she’s a busy toddler, so we don’t wear as much, but we love it and will definitely do lots of babywearing again next time!” – Madeline “My husband does skin to skin when our babies are tiny. He’s the diaper changer and bath giver as well. He also LOVES babywearing! He has his own customized Tula and he loves to hold our babies close!” – Rebecca “Skin to skin at birth and baby wearing.” – Kendra “My husband wore our baby and LOVED doing it.” – Jillian “The dad shirt! Basically it's a shirt with a pouch. My husband loves it.” -Abby “Lots of skin to skin time and once we started bottle feeding for me to return to work he would come in from work and take care of the next feeding. Our daughter that we did this with is much more bonded with him than our second that we didn’t. We will definitely plan on lots of daddy skin to skin time for any future children!” – Rebekah “My husband actually did a lot of skin to skin with our babies. They relaxed and slept! I ate, took a shower. It was great! He also did bath time and diaper changes. He would talk to them while I breastfed. It was nice.” --Shannon
"Bath time and bedtime. When she was a newborn he changed all the diapers too." -Meagan Comments are closed.
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HollieWife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. A passionate birth doula and childbirth educator. Archives
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