5th trimester is a reasonable book about the first few months coming back to work after taking maternity leave. While not as good as Here’s the Plan, still a decent amount to be learned.
“Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them, they remember who you are“
Plan your first year of childcare, and treat it like the work it is.
- Start early with childcare, and think about visiting daycares while pregnant.
- Have an oncall plan for the baby - who takes over if your primary caregiver cannot?
- Write up a job description for the nanny, it’s work afterall.
When ramping back to work
- vimts (Very Important Missed things) to ramp back by focusing on what is important.
- Don’t even try to toggle (ie family and work at the same time). Do one or the other.
- Even if you stay at home, in 5 years the kid will go to kindergarten, and it’ll be time to think about a career again anyways.
- Book your back to work haircut, even before you give birth
- Don’t call it an accommodation
How to help your wife
- most women have unrealistic expectations about their body after pregnancy
- way to help wife: “what do you need right now”
- Screen time at night is associated with post pardum depression
- Dad: aim for 1 bottle a day in the beginning to ease the burden