Wednesday, May 26, 2010Newborn Tips

Newborn Tips – Bringing Baby Home
Congratulations, new parents. You just spent the last nine months in eager expectation of this day that has finally come: bringing baby home! You’re in for many wonderful and challenging experiences in raising your kids with good parenting, but for these early days, let’s look at some newborn tips that will make this new merger effective.

You have just been through a challenging birth experience and you need to recuperate. Hopefully, you’ll have made preparations before the birth that will help you to recover.

Visiting Relatives: Your relatives (and friends) will want to be part of the Welcome Baby Home party and to congratulate you with a show of their love and support for the well-done birthing job you did. Discuss this ahead of time with your spouse to see how you both want to see this handled. Should they use hand sanitizer before they hold the baby? What if they have a cold? Would a face mask be enough or should they wait until they are over the cold?

The Baby’s Symptoms: All babies do the things human beings do – they burp, they pass gas, they urinate, they eat, they sneeze, cough and cry. They also smile and coo and wiggle their fingers and toes. Spend some time observing your baby’s activities. If there is something that puzzles you, the internet is a great resource.

Swaddling: Your baby has just spent the last nine months of his life in a warm, compressed area. Swaddling helps to duplicate that warm compression on the outside. Swaddling is wrapping the baby in a receiving blanket snugly. He will feel much more secure swaddled than not. If it seems to frustrate your baby, stop swaddling and let him have more freedom.

Temperature and Your Baby’s Clothes: If you’re hot, so is your baby. Put fewer clothes on her. If you’re cold, so is your baby. Put more clothes on her. If your baby seems hot when swaddled, just swaddle her wearing only her diaper.

Bedtime – Same Time Consistency: Babies respond well to schedules, but be flexible until the two of you can find a common meeting ground.  If you can dim the lights, play soft music, sing to the baby, or give him his bath around the same time each night, then settle in for the last nursing, he should sleep well after all this.  Be consistent.  It might take a bit of time and repetition to establish a pattern.

Burping Your Baby: Babies always swallow some air when nursing or bottle feeding.  They feel better after they burp it up.  You can hold him on your shoulder, sitting upright on your lap, or lying face down on your lap.  Just pat his back gently until he burps.  There may be times when she doesn’t need to burp, but it’s always nice to offer the option.

Bathing Your Baby: Babies can be bathed daily, but skipping a day won’t harm the baby.  Keep the room warm, and lay the baby on her changing table on a towel until the umbilical cord heals.  After that, it’s up to you.  There are baby baths of all shapes and sizes.  Some parents take the baby into the shower with them.

Sleeping Positions: Pediatricians today recommend that babies sleep on their backs (supine) as a precaution against SIDS. The incidents of SIDS seems to occur when a baby sleeps face down (prone.)

Trust Yourself: With all due to respect to licensed professionals,  a mother’s instinct and common sense should be valued when it comes to caring for the child she and her mate have created. These newborn tips should be helpful when bringing baby home to her new surroundings.