Starting Life With a Newborn
When you first look at the little puckered face of your newborn infant, you are seeing a brand new little person who is just starting their entire life. You, as the mum, have the privilege of helping your little one during these first weeks and months, making sure that your baby has everything they need and giving them lots of love.
As you are probably very tired, sore from breastfeeding, and still trying to come to grips with the reality of being woken several times a night, you may be too numb to consider what a wonderful, challenging, and exciting task lies ahead of you.
Understanding newborn babies
During the early weeks of life, your little baby is learning about the big, outside world, that there is a life outside the womb, and how to become part of it. Remember that a new baby is like blank page. They can see, but only indistinct colours and shapes. Babies can also hear, and can even recall sounds from within the womb, but they are unable to understand what these noises all mean. Your baby may even be able to recognise your voice from before birth, but does not yet know what “you” means.” A baby can’t even distinguish where “you” end and “they” begin.
Keeping all of this in mind will make it much easier for you to understand your baby and will relieve your frustrations during those early weeks when your little newborn infant can’t smile yet and seems to cry interminably.
Newborn baby care
Babies usually follow a cycle of feeding, playing, and sleeping. As they grow, their behaviour will form a pattern, but in the beginning, as they get used to the world around them they will be somewhat erratic. Most babies feed once every three hours, but your baby might want to eat more often, especially if you are breastfeeding and need to build up your milk supply at the beginning. Feeding babies involves giving your baby something to eat whenever they seem to be hungry and just going with the flow. As long as your baby is gaining weight, makes wet nappies, and is generally healthy, don’t worry about whether they are eating too much or too little.
For more information on feeding schedules, click here.
At the very beginning, infants still have a piece of the umbilical cord attached to the navel, sometimes with a clip. When you change your baby’s nappy, clean the area with a cotton ball dipped in alcohol to avoid infection. After a few days, this will dry out and drop off by itself. Don’t be worried when it does.
You can stimulate your newborn baby by putting coloured items and mobiles around them while they are lying in the crib. Their eyes are drawn to bright colours and it helps them to learn to focus better if they receive visual stimulation.
Even at this age, it is good to chat to your baby while you are handling them. Babies love the sound of your voice. Singing gently to them is also good. It takes about five weeks or so until your baby will smile, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make them happy. You can gently rock your baby, but you should never shake them as this is extremely dangerous.
And remember – there’s no such thing as spoiling a new baby. Crying is an expression of your baby’s displeasure and is never manipulative. A little infant cannot tell you that they are tired, hungry, dirty, or bored. All they can do is cry. So if your baby wants lots of cuddles at the beginning, don’t worry about it and just give your little one some more love.
Newborn advice
If you are a first-time mother, or it’s been a while since your last birth, you may be feeling somewhat overwhelmed. You may be enjoying dressing your new baby in the cute baby clothes that you received as gifts, but you can see that there is a lot more to parenting than that. Add some restless nights and the times when nothing seems to make your baby happy apart from being held, but you have other important things to do and you may feel totally helpless.
For this reason, it’s always a good idea to get in touch with your local baby clinic. There, you can get plenty of good advice and baby information. The doctors and nurses there will monitor baby development and health. If your baby was premature health professionals at the clinic can tell you what your baby’s rate of development is supposed to be as it may differ from what is written in the usual baby books. The clinic is always there to give you good advice.
If you are feeling too depressed after birth, you should also never hesitate to seek help. Consult with your doctor or therapist rather than pretending that these feelings will go away.
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