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I didn't give him a bottle until he was 3 months old and then he wanted nothing to do with it! Also, I picked him up every time he made a noise while sleeping. I now realize I was probably the one waking him up and creating sleep problems.

I think the only thing that I would do differently with the next one (if there is one) is working on introducing a bottle and letting DH handle bedtime. LO was literally attached to me all night long until about a year and I was unable to do anything without fear of her waking up screaming for milk. We tried to get her to take a bottle and it rarely, rarely worked. Maybe twice when she was about 6 or 7 weeks old and then no more.

Oh, and I cut the tip of her finger off when I was trying to cut her nails. Next time I will use the safety nail scissors from the start and not even bother with the tiny baby nail clippers.

Not sure if this is a rookie mistake, but I won't be letting the next baby fall asleep at breast/bottle. Chloe would NOT sleep unless she had a bottle, and weaning her & breaking that habit was pure torture.

I'd like to skip that problem all together.

I will be more open to co-sleeping as well. Although we did try with #1, I just realize how much better she sleeps when she's with you.

I didn't understand that she might just need to breastfeed the whole damn day. And because it seemed so implausible to me, I spent a lot of energy trying to placate her when I think she was often just hungry. I think if I'd resigned myself to this, it would have saved us both a fair amount of grief. I had this "eating every two hours" thing in my head, and it was not helpful.

@Mrs. Jump Rope: yep, we're having the same issue. If she's not totally asleep from her last bottle when we put her down, cue hysterics. Blegh!

I'm sure I made a lot of mistakes (and will continue to make some!), but I think the biggest one was not accepting more help in the beginning. I had some baby blues and felt very isolated and helpless on maternity leave. I wish I had gotten out, visited people, or at least just asked someone to come over so I could shower.

Her pjs were way too warm. It looked and felt right to me but she was way too sweaty.

@mjane: +1! This is the advice I give all of my friends who are having new babies. If they're crying, try feeding them first. Even if they just ate 30 minutes ago. I didn't know about cluster feeding until WAY too late, and it meant 1 or more hours of trying everything else before I tried feeding him, which was the problem all along!

Also, I wish I had pumped more in the early stages when I had an over-supply. My supply regulated around 8 weeks and I could barely pump anything, which meant that leaving DS with his grandparents for a date night meant an entire week of pumping just to get one bottle. I could have stored that stuff early and been golden for months!

I'm going to try not to worry so much and not listen to the "guidelines." It's not wrong just because he doesn't fit the mold! I spent way too much time wondering why he wasn't sleeping, etc. I won't worry about creating bad habits. Babies change so much that no habit lasts forever. I just want to enjoy babyhood without worrying about doing something to screw him up! He's alive, growing, & learning - he's doing great!

Pump earlier! It was hard building a stash to return back to work because I started so late. I hope to have a better supply this time so breastfeeding is less stressful!

@matador84: I'm hoping my transition to two goes as smoothly as yours! I will find out in about 4 weeks!

@bpcmarj: I cut the tip of DS's finger too!! OMG!!!!!! There was so. much. blood!!! ahhhhh! For the first time, I felt so nauseous that I would faint. I still shudder thinking about it!!! And still cringe when I need to cut his nails now. Why do they grow so dang fast any way?!

What are these safety scissors you talk about?!

@edelweiss: This. I was obsessed with writing down everything he did during the day (feeds, poops, sleep) in an effort to figure out how to get him to sleep better. I was so stressed about it, and in the end, he STTN when he was ready and there wasn't much I could have done to change that.

Next time I will also let DH do more of the feeds, even if it means pumping more. I'm going to try not to micromanage everything this time around

Not letting anyone else do bedtime. Which also ties to pumping earlier. I will definitely be having DH split bedtimes with me which means I will need to start pumping earlier to build up a stash. It took almost a year before LO would let anyone else put him down for bedtime!

I actually don't regret nursing to sleep one bit and am happy to do it with my newbie, but I do think I over-thought/ worried about things too much with DD1. For example I felt like I constantly had to nurse her before we went anywhere, even if she wasn't acting hungry. I also woke her to nurse every 2 hours all day long. This time I'm way more laid back about it and have a much more settled baby, that I nurse when she lets me know she's hungry. I also realize that sometimes she wants to be nursing all day long, sometimes she will nurse one side for 5 mins, other times both for 20, and I just go with it rather than worrying she should be nursing both sides for a certain amount of time, and only be nursing every few hours.