Moms Talk Q&A: How Do Parents Survive the First Year?

Moms Talk is a new feature on Arcadia Patch that is part of a new initiative on our Patch sites to reach out to local moms and families.

Arcadia Patch invites you and your circle of friends to help build a community of support for moms and their families right here in Arcadia.

Each week in Moms Talk Q&A, our local Moms Council of experts and been-there-done-that moms (and dads!) take your questions, give advice and share solutions.

Moms, dads, grandparents and the diverse families who make up our community will now have a new resource for questions and ongoing discussion about local  schools, the best pediatricians, pharmacies and the thousands of other issues that arise while raising children.

Moms Talk Q&A will also be the place to drop in for a talk about the latest parenting hot topic. Do you know of local moms raising their children in the Tiger Mother's way and is it the best way? Where can we get information on local flu shot clinics for children? How do we talk to our children about the Arizona shooting? How can we help our children's schools weather ?

We're working with our new and still growing Moms Council to generate questions that we think will help local moms, but we also want to hear from you! If you've got an answer to the question of the week that you'd like to share, join the conversation in the comment box below. And if you've got a question you'd like to put out to our Moms Council and readers for a future installment of this series, send an email to matthew.burch@patch.com and we'll get right on it!

This week's question is about that magical, and exhausting, first year of a child's life.

So parents, how did you survive the first year of parenthood? How did you manage to get sleep amidst all the crying, the feeding and the pooping? What are your tips to soothe a crying infant? How do you ensure your baby is developing properly?