[seanrrwilkins]

I'm in the same boat right now. Our first is due at the end of October.

Generally, my wife and I feel as prepared as we can be. We've been fortunate to see most of our friends have children over the past 5-6 years. Like @Lastofus mentioned below, we saw a huge variance in both the children and the parenting styles.

For me, the best things I've learned come from our friends that are teachers. We've seen a level of patience and consistency with them that we haven't seen in others. They also made a concerted effort to regularly engage with questions, quizzes, reading and playing music. It did a lot to keep the kids engaged and learning early.

We've also been happy with how supportive and generous our friends have been. Definitely lean on them with questions as you're prepping. And they'll also likely have a ton of stuff to pass down, so take advantage of that. Just trying to pick a baby seat is one of the most confusing exercises, and our friends saved us hours of hassle with some simple advice and recommendations between two.

Good luck to you!