I haven't had much experience with infants and I want to be involved in my daughter's care, but every time I try to pick her up, she starts to fret.
Few things can make a man feel less like a man than feeling incompetent.
And nothing can make a man feel more incompetent than a baby. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to overcome these feelings. Mom may be able to get her to stop crying a little quicker than you do, but the truth is that whatever your wife knows about children, she learned by doing just like anything else. And the way you're going to get better is by doing things, too. Research shows that lack of opportunity may be one of the biggest obstacles to fathers' feeling more comfortable with their children.