What are the biggest challenges of having a newborn?

So you have a newborn, or you’re having a newborn. Congratulations! Parenthood is so rewarding…blah blah yada yada. We both know that’s not why you’re here. Newborns can be hard. Especially if you don’t know/understand babies. We polled some local new parents and combed internet- and these were touted as the biggest challenges of having a newborn.

Top Challenges Reported From a Survey of 2000 Moms

This article (it’s from 2012) lists the top 50 challenges of motherhood — so not necessarily just having a newborn. Also, can we please acknowledge that it’s not only moms that parent newborns?

There were actually 50 responses, but these were the top five.

1. Sleepless nights (definitely accurate with a newborn)
2. Tantrums (babies totally do this. Colic anyone?)
3. Maintaining patience (that checks out. It’s okay if you need to take a breath or take a break)
4. Keeping on top of household chores (Nobody tells you how many burp cloths these little ones use!)
5. Getting your kids to eat the right foods (What is the right food? Breastfeeding? Bottlefeeding? How much is too much?)

That’s a good baseline, I’d argue. The sleep issue is our bread and butter, by the way. We love giving families the gift of knowledge and sleep!

Top Challenges Reported From our Friends, Clients and People of the Internet

1. Struggle with breastfeeding (We can try to help with that)
2. You hate your husband (whoa! Going back to not only moms parent newborns. The load is so often unbalanced on new mothers who are often feeding and caring for a little human when they may be healing themselves. Dads, what gives?)
3. Pervasive exhaustion (There we go again. Newborns don’t sleep through the night, so parents don’t either!)
4. There’s no way you can possibly keep working (We don’t talk about this enough. With the age of working from home some new parents think they can balance it all. Spoiler alert- you can’t. Babies require constant attention and engagement. And if you are leaving to go to work, the act of actually leaving your baby can be emotional torture…and even if you CAN leave your baby, often the cost or the logistics make it unsustainable to keep working.)
5. Understanding your baby (Ding ding. We have a winner. This is what we hear constantly, and why we put together our video series. We want new parents to be able to understand their baby’s needs to be able to respond appropriately and have everyone be happier, healthier, more rested and less stressed!!)

Does having a newborn have to be challenging?

We’d love to shout no from the rooftops, but the truth is that parts of parenting will always be challenging. Our goal is to make it enjoyable. The good should outweigh the difficult. When you have the tools to care for and soothe your baby, you can have a baby that is less fussy, eats better and sleeps better.

As for husbands- give them clear jobs. The diaper changes, overnight wakeups, washing bottles- whatever it is. Generalizing in a very sexist way- we find that heterosexual men tend to feel lost in the process of early parenting, especially if the other partner is breastfeeding. Direct tasks can help them feel a sense of purpose and contribution.