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There must be a lot of things you have heard or read about newborns. A few things you would know out of your personal experience. Some information comes as advice (mostly unsolicited, but might be worth knowing), and some might come through hard learning. Is there anything else you would want to know? Perhaps you want to leave no stone unturned to know more about newborns – perhaps it would come handy when you want to care for your newborn!
Here are a few things you would love to know about newborns:
1. Your newborn will teach the realities of parenthood
Until you had your babies, you could never stand the sight of other parents cleaning off their babies nose with their hands. So it is with cleaning their poop. But here you are joining the brigade of parents who you thought did disgusting cleaning jobs. And you thought those pacifiers were things of stupid parents who made their children all the more stupid by smacking their little mouths with them – until you had a baby of your own who kept crying and you discovered that pacifier was your only savior.
2. Your baby can take away a lot of your time
It may seem like babies are so small that they have no cares in the world. So you can do your own thing. You will be appalled that it turns out otherwise. The fact that babies are so tiny that they can’t take care of themselves will take away most of your time. That little sleepy creature is a giant of an effort, mind you, as you trudge through endless feeding, burping, diaper changing, laundry, and try to get your sleep amidst all this.
3. Babies can be the spit-up menace
Spit-up is more common in newborns than you can imagine. Don’t be surprised at the number of times you have to change your clothes because of baby spit-up. The valve between the stomach and the esophagus is immature in babies. Therefore it’s easy for the food to go up the food pipe again. Hence the spit-up occurs. The spit-up phase could prevail till about the fifth month of your baby’s life.
4. Newborns look funny
The truth is that they don’t look so pretty. Their features look bizarre like they have just landed from a different planet (not to mention that people will already tell you how they resemble you! All the squeezing in the birth canal renders your baby the squished features. You can also expect your newborn to have a cone-head owing to the pressures in the birth canal. There is a certain slackness in the skin of the newborns because of the amount of time they spent in the amniotic fluid with little chance to develop their muscle tone.
5. Newborns would smile or coo after six-week mark
Your baby is too exhausted and is not socially responsive yet. But your mollycoddling and cooing will not go waste. After the six-week mark, you baby would eventually start to respond. In the meanwhile, you continue to pamper your little one because it gives it a sense of security and helps in bonding.
6. That cord stump falls off faster when dry
If you have begun to give your little one its baths, then just pat dry umbilical cord stump area. Cord stump falls off faster when it is dry. There may be mild bleeding when the stump falls off which is normal.
7. The soft spot pulsates
Also called the fontanel, the soft spot is that part of your baby’s skull that helps it maneuver its way through the birth canal. It is safe to touch your baby at the sot. Since this spot is close to the blood vessels, you can even see it pulsating.
8. Taking your baby out
It’s perfectly fine to take your baby out, but you need to ensure that the baby is well-covered. Warm clothes and swaddling is the rule.
9. Touching your newborn
Always have a hand sanitizer handy. While newborns are susceptible to infections, you must take the responsibility that a friend or visitor or her older siblings do not touch the face or hands. They can touch your baby by her feet.
