As a new-first-time Dad, I am learning a lot about what to do when the baby is crying. LuLu is darling and precious, and has the lungs of a 20-year-old opera singer. When she wants your attention, she will get it.

My wife does 90% of the reading and learning about new parenting for us. She was on bed-rest for the second half of the pregnancy- and had the time needed for reading these things. But there is so much out there- so much to read up on- and what you need to read for a newborn doesn’t always apply to what you need to read for a 3-month-old.

But the book “The Happiest Baby on the Block” by Harvey Karp has proved very useful to me from her birth up until this point so far (3mo)

When the baby cried- it was the most frustrating thing to me as a new parent. I often felt like it was my fault, or she didn’t like me, she would rather be with her mom… Now when she gets fussy, her mother will often ask me to use some Daddy Magic to get her quite. This involves some Swaddling, holding her on her Side, LOUD SHHHHHHing, and Swaying back and forth. Sometimes in the absence of SHHHHHH I’ll turn on the vacuum cleaner. I can normally get her quite in just a few minutes- ten at the most. And then she is good to be held, fall asleep- or even today, I was able to set her back down, and she was happy playing by herself for a short while while her Mother and I got some much needed things done.

There is nothing more frustrating than the baby crying. There is nothing more pleasant than the baby cooing. After some Daddy Magic- I get the latter.