Rookie Mistakes

VexedMommy

STM's had all the advice and funny stories during the pregnancy stage, but by this point everyone can probably join in on this thread.  What are some of the rookie parenting mistakes you've made with your little ones?  What have you or they gotten up to that you just look back and shake your head at? 

(Let's keep this fairly trigger free please.  There are obviously some mistakes that have lasting and significant consequences, but the majority of them lead to a bad hour or few days tops.)

MargaretC5

With my son every time he peed his back would get wet.   No one told me to point it down, it was about a month of constant laundry before I figured it out.

kdoak2015

DD had bad "colic" for the first few months. Pretty sure if we would have started a bedtime routine earlier she wouldn't have been so bad.

MoRay05

kdoak2015 said:

DD had bad "colic" for the first few months. Pretty sure if we would have started a bedtime routine earlier she wouldn't have been so bad.

Same thing happened to us with DD! My stepdad was consistently saying she was colic. Around 3 months we decided to give the Moms on Call schedule a try. That day the "colic" disappeared! All DD wanted was more of a routine. 

rachswi

I keep trying to fix things that aren't broken. Like I was getting no upset that LO would only ever take 45 minute naps. Turns out that's normal. I thought LO wasn't sleeping well at night. Turns out it's common for kiddos his age to wake up 1-2 times a night still. I kept trying to get LO to take a pacifier. He wasn't interested and there's nothing that says he needs one. Things like that. 

poupoule

The big rookie mistake I did was sleep related. She was nursing to sleep as a newborn, and when I placed her in the crib she would not wake up (I was waiting for deep sleep) if she woke up she cried an I picked up, nursed a bit more to sleep.... One day she woke up when I placed her in the crib-every ttime-and I would pick her up, start again to put her to sleep on me. Well one day I just left her because I had been trying for too long and she woke up every time. Well, she fell asleep on her own in a couple of minutes with absolutely no crying. This is now what happens everytime. I had just not understood the newborn phase was done, and that she would always wake up when I transitioned her to the crib from my arms, and that it was actually OK ! Lost so much time and sleep over that !

ShianeNicole

Elliot is 20 weeks and loves to touch EVERYTHING. With that being said I have to hold her hands up while I buckle her in. Well, last night she slipped off of my hand and I clipped her finger in the buckle. I felt like THE MOST horrible mother on this planet. & I cried way longer than she did.  Apparently my friends have done similar things. Clipped a nail too short, zipped up their childs leg in their jammies.. so I guess these things happen, but it still didn't hurt me any less. My heart still hurts from it. Rookie mother!! 

rachswi

@ShianeNicole I snapped Zeke's finger into his high chair tray the other day because his hands were all over the place and I didn't keep track of his fingers well enough! The kid likes to move. 

As for another rookie mistake - I didn't realize laying on my stomach (and therefore my boobs) could cause clogged milk ducts! No one told me before it was too late!

kmd91

ShianeNicole said:

Elliot is 20 weeks and loves to touch EVERYTHING. With that being said I have to hold her hands up while I buckle her in. Well, last night she slipped off of my hand and I clipped her finger in the buckle. I felt like THE MOST horrible mother on this planet. & I cried way longer than she did.  Apparently my friends have done similar things. Clipped a nail too short, zipped up their childs leg in their jammies.. so I guess these things happen, but it still didn't hurt me any less. My heart still hurts from it. Rookie mother!! 

A few weeks ago I was clipping the little dudes nails while his daddy was distracting him. I was doing it super quick to get it over with and then we left to go get some breakfast. While waiting on our food I look down and his finger tip is bloody. I accidentally clipped a bit of skin and he didn't even react! I felt sooo bad, but my husband was like "okay, but he didn't even flinch, I think he's alright." But of course I still feel a bit bad about it. 

bellie1223

Another tally for clipped hand in buckle. My husband actually did this one this week and oh my god he felt so bad about it, poor thing, she had forgotten about two minutes later and he was still apologizing the next day. I would say my biggest rookie mistake happened when she was first born. I assumed she would wake up/stay awake for feedings if she was hungry, so I wasn't feeding her enough. She lost a lot of ounces at her first Dr appt, and that's when I realized I needed to keep her up to eat, we spent the next few days doing nothing but nursing and got her back on track but it really hurts my heart to think she might have been going hungry. 

onebadmotha

When LO was 10 weeks, we flew to visit my family. When we landed, and were waiting to deplane, I went to put him back in my carrier and bonked his head on the ceiling as I lifted him up. Of course, he cried and everyone looked in our direction...just to see me do the same thing on my second attempt! Really glad I had an audience for that. LO was perfectly fine, as neither bump was all that hard, but I felt like such a terrible mom.

ETA: I have also clipped some skin while trimming his nails. Baby nails are the bane of my existence. 

nycmommy13

My husband and I ordered a pizza with some friends who were staying with us to be eaten after my baby went to bed. I knew this pizza gave my baby bad gas but knew it would be okay as long as I ate it after he went to bed. The next day I ate the leftovers without thinking. Yup. Bad gas that night.

helsbels222

It's always a little awkward getting LO into her frog chair. One time I plopped her in and realized her left left was bent back in the seat part instead of through the holes in front of her. She didn't cry or fuss but it freaked me out. Luckily she's flexible but I was almost in tears and apologized like 100 times. 

kmd91

Not necessarily a rookie mistake, but still. Today I was out to lunch and had to change the little guy. So as I walked into the bathroom I saw that the changing table was already pulled down and I figured someone had just left it. I change his diaper and gather everything up and close the changing table. As I'm turning to walk away it comes falling back open, hitting Waylon right in the head. Not hard enough that he even cried, but oh my gosh I felt like the worst mom in the universe. 

rachswi

I didn't really realize that my son could change preference in sleeping position. It took 5 weeks of trying to get him to lay on his back to realize that he's a belly sleeper. Now after days of trying and fighting to get him to sleep (he's still needing to be bounced to sleep usually), I laid him on his back in our bed yesterday and played "strong hair dryer." He put himself to sleep. I did it again this morning (again on his back) and again he put himself to sleep. Apparently he's currently more comfortable on his back and didn't want to put forth the effort to roll over on his own. Go figure. Hopefully this will be the start of him being able to put himself to sleep and therefore getting better sleep! (Though that may be a rookie hope lol)

VexedMommy

rachswi said:

I didn't really realize that my son could change preference in sleeping position. It took 5 weeks of trying to get him to lay on his back to realize that he's a belly sleeper. Now after days of trying and fighting to get him to sleep (he's still needing to be bounced to sleep usually), I laid him on his back in our bed yesterday and played "strong hair dryer." He put himself to sleep. I did it again this morning (again on his back) and again he put himself to sleep. Apparently he's currently more comfortable on his back and didn't want to put forth the effort to roll over on his own. Go figure. Hopefully this will be the start of him being able to put himself to sleep and therefore getting better sleep! (Though that may be a rookie hope lol)

Bridget sometimes seems to "forget" one skill while she's focused on another.  She had a similar problem even though she's been rolling over both ways for over two months.  She's now got some of crawling figured out and so she's back to rolling both ways to help her get where she wants to go.  (She can only crawl backwards.  It's adorable to watch, but she gets frustrated because she is trying to move forward.)

rachswi

@VexedMommy I'm not sure if he's forgotten or not. He's always been picky about when he chooses to roll over (for example he's pretty much only ever done it in the crib - he doesn't care to do it on the floor... I'm guessing partially because the crib is softer/more comfortable). 

I tried the same procedure for getting him down for another nap this afternoon and was met with screams until I picked him back up and bounced him fully to sleep. It's a process. 

Silly me for thinking we were getting somewhere finally with nap time lol

cupcakesforbreakfast

My biggest rookie mistake remains cutting off my hair. I really thought that it would keep LO from grabbing at it. It didn't. Now it's still a big source of amusement for him (ouch!), is too short for a ponytail, and I hate it.

AmoLovesAud

My rookie mistake is ignoring a cough.

Well I didn't actually ignore it.  I took her in to the doc over a month ago for a cough that I'd noticed for at least 2+ weeks at that point.  Doc said it was probably one cold on top of another, and/or the drool from teething bothering her throat.  So I figured it'd go away.  It occurred to me the other day that it never stopped.  So I finally went in again and doc saw that her nose was kinda clogged and inflamed on the inside, and her mucus is thick.  She basically has a sinus infection, and has to go on antibiotics.  I feel like the worst mom ever for letting it go this long.  She'll be fine after a week or so of the antibiotics, but I still feel terrible.  Especially bc it was effecting her sleep and I was getting angry about it (not at her, at the situation), but it was bc my poor baby doesn't feel well!!!!!

queenwog

My biggest rookie mistake so far was bedsharing for as long as I did, thinking it was the only way he would sleep, even though it meant I was losing sleep. One day it just occurred to me to try putting him to bed in his rock n play, so at bedtime I plopped him in it, he smiled up at me, talked for a few minutes, and went to sleep. No big deal. He even slept through the night. He's been sleeping in it ever since and while the duration of his sleep varies, he sleeps better in there than he did in bed with me. I can't help but wonder how much sooner he would have been sleeping through the night had I tried the RnP sooner.

VexedMommy

I think my biggest rookie (to having multiple kids) was insisting on doing with this little one what worked with my first child.  I kept saying to myself and other's DD1 did this and it put her right to sleep, or DD1 did tummy time this way and loved it.  Each little one is their own and just because something was guaranteed to work with your first child does not mean it will work with this one.