This refers to maintaining your personal sanity, and capability to step up to your baby’s needs. This is the big issue, as even colicky babies get beyond the crying like it never happened in a matter of months. But you won’t if you start off feeling like you failed your child in the first months of being a dad. There are a few things you need to know:

• While it can take a while to get used to it, you will or can with a few proactive steps.
• Frustration is the big hurdle; it inhibits a constructive approach and just breeds more stress, which your baby picks up on and makes his crying worse.
• Dads report that it can seem like their baby is angrily screaming at them. They are not; it is just how they communicate, and taking it personally is very counterproductive.
• If they cry a lot, it can seem like you are doing something wrong, which you are not and feeling this way is also counterproductive.
• Significant crying may get on your nerves and generate high degrees of frustration and even anger; this is affirmed by most of the dads who return to Boot Camp. When you feel it, you need to play tag team with mom, or just put your baby down and walk away. More later.