The year they change every month.
Solids, sleep that will not match a chart, needles, and a house that suddenly has edges. You do not need to know year two yet. You need this month.
Start here
Food starts small
Not before 4 months, and around 6 months if they can sit with support, hold their head, and open for the spoon. Start with 1 to 2 teaspoons once a day, after a milk feed, not instead of it.
The night will not match the chart
At 2 to 3 months, many babies still sleep 14 to 17 hours in a day, in short cycles, and wake between them. By the first birthday, 11 to 14 hours is a common total, and a content baby who is awake is not a baby you must knock out.
Gums, then a toothbrush
Teeth often arrive between 6 and 10 months, sometimes from 3 months and sometimes near 12, and a fever or diarrhoea is not something you blame on a tooth. If they are unwell, see a GP, and clean the first tooth with water only until 18 months unless a dentist says otherwise.
Hold them for the needles
Birth is a hepatitis B injection, and around 6 to 8 weeks there are two injections plus a rotavirus dose they swallow. You can be the chest they cry on, and you write the date before you leave the clinic.
When they will not let you leave
Clinging from about 6 or 7 months is common, and it often peaks around 14 to 18 months. Say you are going and say you will be back, because sneaking out makes the next goodbye worse.
The house is not ready
Supervision beats a cupboard lock, because they will still fall, and next month they will climb to a hazard you fixed last month. Keep them away from hot drinks, heaters and the bath you forgot to empty.
Under two, the screen stays off
Current guidelines, as Raising Children states them, say children under 2 do not have screen time except video chat. A parked baby in front of your phone is the thing the line is about.
Smaller than a 20 cent coin
If it is smaller than a 20 cent coin, it can block an airway, so they sit to eat and you sit with them. Whole nuts wait until 4, and grapes and sausages get cut lengthways into quarters.
Rear facing, fitted, before you need it
From birth to at least 6 months they must be in a rear-facing seat with an inbuilt harness, and that is the legal minimum, not a suggestion. Fit it before the birth, because capsules are outgrown fast and hiring one is a normal plan.
Arm's reach of the water
If they are near water, you are within arm's reach, including the bath, because drowning is quiet. Under fives die in pools, baths, buckets and dams, so empty the bath, and a swimming lesson does not replace you.