It’s true what they say … you’re never quite prepared for parenthood.

I am a student. I love school, and I love to learn. This year I took a workshop through my employer, and we were asked to take an extensive test to discover our top 5 strengths. One of mine was Learner. So when I found out that we were pregnant, I started researching. I read books, blogs, online articles … basically anything that I could get my hands on. I read about baby sleep, newborn behavior, bathing, nursing, and the birth. My husband and I also took a prenatal course at the hospital. The course was 4 weeks long and I remember when we were driving to the first class I mentioned that we should grab some dinner before it began. My husband commented that we could eat after the class, as it was only an hour. Oops! Somehow I had forgotten to warn my husband that the course we were enrolled in was 3 hours a night – 12 hours of learning about the birth and first few days with our baby.

Yet, even after all of this preparation, I can’t say that I was ready for the life that began when Baby E was born. I truly believe that with parenting, much of it must be learned on the job! Over the first few months I have learned many things, but here are the top 10 little things that I have learned over the past 7 months:

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