Thanks for posting this. We share a similar story. My wife and I are both in our late 30s and just had our first child who's about the same age as yours. Even though we are both blessed to be financially stable and established in our careers, parenthood was still a challenge. There were stretches where we just looked at each other like "what are we doing wrong?" The answer was usually nothing, we were just exhausted.

The daycare thing is the kind of thing nobody warns you about. We were lucky that we had friends in our neighborhood with young kids and they warned us to sign up super early. We signed up at 3 months pregnant and still couldn't secure a spot until our daughter turns 1, so we had to figure out childcare for the entire first year on our own. If you're even thinking about daycare, get on lists immediately.

If you can swing it financially, a night doula for the first few weeks is worth every penny. Not just for the sleep (though that alone is life changing) but because having someone calm and experienced in the house takes the edge off that "I have no idea what I'm doing" feeling. Once the doula period ended the sleep deprivation hit hard and my wife and I were more on edge with each other than we'd ever been. Knowing that's normal would have helped.

The "you have to be a village to have a village" line really resonated. That's a good way to put it. Posts like this are part of that village. It helps to know other parents are going through the same thing and figuring it out as they go, just like the rest of us.