Research help - Calling all mommies and daddies!

[zinnith]

So, I'm writing a fic in which there is a baby. Not having any children myself, I know absolutely nothing about them other than that when you have one in your lap and she's smiling and gurgling at you, it might be because she's happy, but it could also be because she's in the process of pooping on your new pants.

The baby in question is about three months old. Where would she be in her development? Would she smile at strangers? Would she let a stranger hold her without fussing? What about eating and sleeping habits? I know there's a lot of general info out there, and I know all children are different, but it would really help me to get some info from real mothers and fathers.

How about baby sitting? Would you feel comfortable running off to the store for an hour or so and leave your napping child with two guys who don't have a lot of experience with small children? (And by 'two guys' I mean John and Rodney, who'd rather die than let anything happen to her...)

Then there's also the issue of breastfeeding and alcohol. If the mother used a breast pump in advance, would she be able to have a little wine with dinner? I know there's a big debate on this and I don't judge anyone - I just want to know your opinions and feelings!

So... help please? *makes puppy dog eyes and offers Entangled Particles-fic*

Comments

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, this helps a lot! That's really interesting about the colic. I think cultural differences can be observed for the alcohol issue too. Here in Sweden, it's been very frowned upon to even look at a beer while you're breastfeeding, until a report came a while ago that stated that it wasn't so dangerous after all. I can't really relate - my mother barely drinks and the mother of my goddaughter doesn't drink at all so I can't ask them...

The cultural thing seems to go for smoking too btw - here it seems to be considered socially acceptable behaviour to walk up to a pregnant smoking woman on the street and tell her what a terrible mother she is (and I kind of agree with them, speaking as a sometimes smoker myself...) but in a documentary about young Danish mothers I saw a while ago, they were smoking all the time, both while they were pregnant and while their children were small, and no one commented on it.

So the rules for baby care seems to differ a lot depending on where in the world you are.