Most people feel anxious bringing home their first baby. Susan Grant, a writer and commercial airline pilot, said she wondered, "Where's my checklist?" A pilot's perspective! But even those of us who aren't typically quite that competent and organized may feel at loose ends.

So how do you prepare for bringing home a newborn? The other day I overheard a pediatrician instructing new parents about taking their baby home from the hospital. He said, "Happiness is inversely proportional to your expectations."

As an example, he told them that most newborns cry for four hours a day. If you think your baby is going to be the one who never cries, you will probably be disappointed. But if you expect four hours a day of crying, and your baby only cries two hours a day, you will think you have the best baby.

I don't usually give such a concrete example, but I do quote my own mother who says, "The secret of happiness is low expectations." Now this doesn't mean that you should be a pessimist. You can set great goals for yourself, and hope for the best possible pleasures with your new family. But lowering your expectations, particularly what you expect of yourself, can be very helpful.

Those first few weeks at home are tiring, and you can't believe how much time a newborn eats up. For great help with the practicalities of new parenthood, check out Laura Jana's book From Birth to Reality: Heading Home With Your Newborn.

When my parents brought me home, they were so terrified they didn't enjoy it at all. Suddenly they realized they were walking around like a life had been lost, rather than like a new life had joined their family. Writer and pastor, Chuck Swindoll, gave us this wonderful quote:

"Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes."

So how do you get a better attitude? Although much of our outlook towards life is deeply rooted in us, we can learn to approach life differently and treat ourselves more kindly. I don't have a simple answer here, but I am working on my attitude all the time.

One trick I have recently learned is to get centered in the current moment and try to experience it fully, rather than dwelling on what is already past, or what is in my future. It is pretty cool to bring home a new baby. Groove on it!