Try to remember to spend time with your partner - you'll both be tired, and every time something "goes wrong" you'll panic. Relax, this is normal. Try to take it in turns to sleep, if you can.
Honestly though? The first few days are largely "eat, piss, and sleep". It's only later when the baby starts to scream, move around, and so on. You can place him/her in a cot, cartboard-box, hammock, or even on the floor near you.
Newborns don't move around, so if they're asleep you can just sit there reading a book, relaxing, watching TV, etc, etc. They are a lot of work, but the harder parts come when they're more mobile, and need constant attention. Swaddling helps keep them in-place too.
Beyond that, good luck! The first smile, the first laugh, the first word? All of that makes any pain 100% worth-it. Even if there are times you want to scream, and throw the damn thing out of the window. (I'll pretend I didn't say that.)
Don't hesitate to ask for help from people you know both of you will appreciate getting help from.
Don't take too much time for tidying up the house yourself, you need energy for the baby and take time to get to know him/her.
The first week was a complete change in our life, we were exhausted and so much had changed. But you get through it with help from others if you need it ( I know we did need a lot of it ).
The more important I think is take the time to get to know your baby, take the time to appreciate and share those moments with your SO, and do things the way you want (as long as it's secure).
Firstly: There is nothing wrong with supplementing if breastfeeding is not enough.
Don't make rash decisions like "no pacifier" or "no formula" just because you want to be the best parent ever. The baby's (and your) comfort is more important than any of that.
All the stuff in this application is fine to measure, if you need it, but it's not necessary. The most important thing is your own sleep/sanity, the baby will tell you if it needs anything.
For instance, the baby's weight. You will likely go to a few checkups in the first few weeks and get the weight right there. You don't need to know it daily. A good rule of thumb for instance, is that the baby is doing well if he has fatty legs. There you go.
A D-Link Wi-Fi camera came in handy, I remember it costing around $50. The application tinyCam Pro is good, as are a few other more baby-oriented apps which alert you when the noise level is past a certain threshold.
The amount of sleep needed between me and my wife became much more apparent after the baby came, so we had to change sleeping arrangements a lot until we found something that worked for us.
Oh this is a good one: Croup sounds like a barking cough. It is very scary the first time baby gets it, because he will have trouble breathing, but don't panic. There are 2 home remedies, both seemed to be effective, so I'm not sure which one is "recommended": The first is to take the baby out into the cold night air (bundled up of course). The cold air will treat his inflamed vocal cords. The other option is kind of the opposite: Go into the bathroom and turn on a hot shower, filling the room with steam. That should also help baby's breathing. If home remedies do not work then you will want to go to the ER, but only a small percentage of cases really need that. They will give baby a nebulized vapor of epinephrine and some corticosteroids, and charge you hundreds and hundreds of dollars. I wish there was some middle of the road option between "home remedy" and ER, but I don't know what that would be. Anyway, don't panic, the baby can tell you're panicking and will react with even more trouble breathing.
OK one more tip: Luv's are the best. They don't leak, you don't even need overnight diapers, just Luv's. They are owned by Pampers so you're basically getting premium diapers for rock-bottom prices. Conversely, Huggies suck, they are overpriced and can't touch Luv's on any level.
In the first week especially, track feedings and diaper output closely. Breast feeding can be tough to get going and you don't have a better method on finding out if they're getting what they should.
For our first-born I bought a cheap digital fish weighing scale (1 gram resolution, I think I paid 1-2 USD for it) from Taiwan because I found it incredible that the midwives/nursing staff was basing their assessments on either low-resolution analogue scales or a single readout from a digital scale. You can weigh the baby once or twice each day and track whether they're gaining weight or not.
But don't fret - overthinking this can lead to everything turning sour and frightening, even if the baby is fine. You don't want to be frightened, you want both baby and mother to relax and get some sleep so they are motivated to try again.
We've always had babies that were relatively awake the first week - that means relatively more grumpy that there isn't yet enough milk. Last time, my wife gave the baby a little bit of the breast milk substitution you can buy to get through that period. That really helped. Baby happy and asleep for longer and the mother didn't have a baby chewing up her nipples all the time.
Haha, good luck! Due in week may mean you get a baby tomorrow (:
If you are becoming a new father, I very highly recommend The Expectant Father and The New Father. Really great books about what you and your partner will go through.
Can verify that these books are quite good. We ended up with a very easy baby, although slightly preemie and we were worried about her weight for a while. She's running around like crazy now though!
