Some Facebook acquaintances of mine, while expecting a new baby (congrats, y'all!), shared some rules for "visitation" to be followed once the child is born.

Not being a parent myself, when I read the rules, they made perfect sense.  Some things that I would not have thought of that would easily make the first few months of parenthood smoother!

Here is the list, edited for privacy:

As the time is getting closer for our baby to make her arrival, my husband and I wanted to set a few house and baby rules to insure daddy, mommy, and baby have a successful start to being a new family. Please read these before visiting us:

 

1. If you or anyone in your house is sick in any way please wait and get better before coming to visit. Our baby will have a tiny immune system and we want to keep her and ourselves healthy especially in the winter season

 

2. Please call us before planning to stop by. If we don't answer, we are resting or busy so please don't come by. I am going to be trying to breastfeed and we all need the time and patience to develop a routine for our new baby. We have three dogs and if anyone shows up, they will bark like crazy and wake everyone up.

 

3. Please do not get upset if we do answer and say we would not like visitors at that time. We know everyone will want to meet the little one, and you all will. Please remember we are new parents and we will be trying to work together to learn our baby girl.

 

We will appreciate the help we will get from family and friends but please remember we are new parents and having too many guests in a short time will be hard on us all mentally, physically and emotionally.

 

Thank you for reading this and I hope that everyone can respect our wishes! The little one will be here soon!

 

Also, since we will are not anticipating being in the hospital for longer than 2-3 days, and I will be breastfeeding, we will only be asking immediate family and close friends to visit at the hospital. There is a policy at the hospital that helps the new parents and baby say if they want guests or not. Again, please call if you plan to visit. Same expectations would apply.

At the time of this writing, the couple at the hospital; baby should arrive soon!

How do you feel about this list?  Is there anything you would add?  Is this something you wish you could have "put out there" or posted before you had your first kids?

Good luck to the new couple; from what I can tell, they have a great network of people that they can depend upon for help with the new baby, and a sense of organization that, if it lasts through the chaos of a new baby, will go a long way in keeping a sane household!

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