If you're planning to breastfeed but will also need to have the option to give the baby a bottle sometimes, practice giving the baby the bottle and choose bottles that look like, that are shaped like the breast, the nipples are shaped like a breast, as well as pacifiers. If they have that shape, it's going to be a lot easier to give them a pacifier or a bottle when you need to.
When I was a child, I kept all my instructions and all the Legos in their own box, and I liked to build the set over and over. But I was not a creative person. You sit me down in front of something, and I'm just all a lump. But my husband's Legos were all dumped together, and he grew up building things. And he's a really creative person these days. He creates a lot of things. So we adopted his method when we decided what to do with our kids. So here's how to be creative. You think of what you want to build, and you find the Legos to build it. And you teach your kids that process. And they make some pretty great stuff. Not as cool as the professional Lego builders, but it's their own creation. I think it's better for them.
I just wanted to share one of my favorite things that I did with each one of my kids when they were little. I always took time to read them stories. That was an important part for me. Whenever they would bring me a book just to sit down and read, it was just great. Just a one-on-one time with them on my lap and I thoroughly enjoyed that with each one of my kids.
If you're co-parenting and you're having a lot of difficulty because one of the parents are using the child in a way that's not healthy for the child in order to get back at the other parent, I say do your best to not keep it, not to take it personal and to really think of the child's needs and remind the other parent that this is about the child's needs and what's good for the child. It's not about what may or may not have happened to you and your personal relationship that has ended, basically, especially if it's ended many years prior. Do everything you can to communicate if it requires therapy, but make sure that your best interest is for the child and that you don't let your own personal feelings about the other parent, especially if you didn't part in an amicable way. Think of the child, always think of the child.