Read it straight.

When she tells you

She tells you she is pregnant. You might not know what you feel straight away.

The stress you think she cannot see

You can look fine at work and still be grinding your teeth in the car. Pregnancy does that. The changes do not queue.

When flat lasts past a fortnight

A bad day is a bad day. Two weeks of bad days, where work, sleep and her all feel out of reach, is something else.

Go to the appointments

A positive test is not a shopping list. The first useful move is a GP appointment. Raising Children is clear.

The scans, and the bloods

Two scans is the ordinary shape of it. One in the first trimester, at 11 to 13 weeks. One in the second, at 18 to 20 weeks.

When food will not stay down

She is sick at 6pm and someone still calls it morning sickness. Ignore the name. Nausea, dry retching and vomiting can hit any hour.

If the kicks change

You will hear men say the baby went quiet and they gave it until morning. Do not be that plan.

Her walk, not a boot camp

She does not need a program with your name on the clipboard. She needs the walk to actually happen, and she needs you not to turn it into a test.

No safe round

The round is the hard part, not the science. Someone will say a sip is fine. The Raising Children picture guide does not say that.

Smoke and vape, including yours

Your cigarette on the back step is not a private hobby once she is pregnant. Raising Children talks to the partner, not only to the woman.

The trolley is your job

The pregnancy diet becomes real at the supermarket, which is a place you can actually control. Raising Children's picture guide is a shopping list, not a personality.

When you do not wait

You are allowed to be the annoying one who calls. That is the job on a bad afternoon.

Book the class before it fills

You can read all week and still walk into a birth room unsure what you are for. A class is where that gets smaller.

Your half of the bag

Thirty-two weeks is the packing week, not the week she tells you it might be time. Raising Children says consider the bag packed by then, in case labour is early.

What she wants from you in the room

Do not improvise your personality on the day. Ask her, while you can still hear each other, what help looks like.

Say the jobs out loud

The baby will not arrive and discover that you have already agreed who does the 2am nappy. You have to say it while she can still sleep.

026 pieces

Birth

When you actually leave

The due date is a rumour. Very few babies turn up on it.

Pain relief, said in advance

Pain in labour is normal. That sentence does not mean she should hero it, and it does not mean you arrive with one correct method. It varies.

Who is allowed in the room

Everyone wants to be there for the beautiful part. Labour is not a party, and the wrong headcount can slow it down.

If it becomes a caesarean

A caesarean is an operation. Call it a caesar if you want.

Planned or unplanned

There are two clocks, and men mix them up.

The first hour is not for visitors

The hour after birth is busy, and everyone you know will want a piece of it. Your job is to spend it on the baby and on her, not on the phone.

0312 pieces

Newborn

Week one is smaller than you think

The first week is not a project plan. It is temperature, milk, nappies, and you noticing three things that should be said out loud.

Back, firm, clear, smoke-free

Put the baby on their back. Then look at everything else in the cot and take most of it out. Safe sleep is a rule, not a look.

Same room, own surface

Put the cot in your room. Not in the stylish nursery you painted at 30 weeks. In the room where you sleep.

1 min read

The cry, then your hands

A crying baby is a checklist, then a decision about your own head. Do the checklist first so you are not soothing a baby who is simply hungry.

There is no schedule yet

Throw out the timetable for a while. A newborn is not late for anything.

Yellow skin is a phone call

Yellow is not a colour you rank at home. Newborn jaundice is very common. It is rarely serious.

The bath is a two-hand job

A bath is optional on a bad day. Drowning is not. If you are going to do it, do it like a person who has read the boring page.

You are useful at the breast

You do not need milk to be necessary. The breastfeeding page for partners is a list of jobs with your name on them.

Formula without the fairy dust

If formula is the feed, buy the boring tin. The labels are built to make you feel careless. Raising Children is plainer than the marketing.

Leave the stump alone

The stump looks worse than it is, and it is still not a thing you tug.

A hot baby under three months

Learn the age cut-off before you need it. A baby from birth to three months with a fever needs immediate medical attention. GP or emergency.

Awake on the belly, asleep on the back

Sleep on the back. Play on the belly. You can hold both rules in one afternoon.

0410 pieces

First year

Food starts small

Milk is still the meal. The spoon is practice, iron, and a new texture. Do not rush it because someone else's baby is already on finger food.

The night will not match the chart

Someone will tell you their baby slept through at ten weeks. Smile and ignore the number. Your baby is not their baby, and the range on the page is wide on purpose.

Gums, then a toothbrush

The tooth is not a diagnosis. A miserable baby with a fever still needs a GP, even if you can see a white cap on the gum.

Hold them for the needles

The needle is two minutes. Missing the window is months of risk you cannot hug away.

When they will not let you leave

They were fine with anyone. Then one Tuesday you put them down at care and they will not let go of your leg.

The house is not ready

You can buy every lock in the hardware store and still lose a minute to a coffee on the edge of the bench. Watching them is the safety system. The locks are the backup.

Under two, the screen stays off

The phone is the easiest babysitter in the house, and for a baby under two it is the one the guideline tells you not to use.

Smaller than a 20 cent coin

Look at a 20 cent coin. Anything smaller than that can block a child's airway. Then look at the floor of your house as if you were the one crawling.

Rear facing, fitted, before you need it

Fit the seat before the due date. A box in the hallway does not restrain a baby, and the trip home is not the moment to learn the manual.

Arm's reach of the water

Stay within arm's reach of the water. That is the policy, even when it feels over the top.

056 pieces

Toddler

The tantrum is not a debate

They lose it in the fruit aisle and you feel every adult in the shop watching. Let them watch. Your job is the child on the floor, not the audience.

Pants when they are ready

Do not start because a childcare form has a box. Start because the child is showing you they can.

They will not eat the dinner

You cooked the thing. They looked at it and ate the bread. This is so common it has a page, and the page does not tell you to win.

Bed is a routine, not a fight

A toddler who will not stay in bed is not a mystery. They are a person with a new set of skills and a strong wish for you to stay.

The bite, then the boring no

They bite you and your first feeling is outrage. Fair. The useful move is smaller than the outrage.

The year they get loud and clever

Two to three is the year the toddler stops being a baby who wobbles and becomes a person with opinions and a small vocabulary to miss the point with.