No one can really prepare you to have a baby. The physical changes in your body, the birth, the sight and smell of your new born and the emotional highs and lows and that’s just in one hour…it’s a beautiful change of a woman’s body and not everyone likes pregnancy. For women it’s a major change to mind, body and soul.
The day you have your baby is one of the most wondrous exciting days of your life. For women in most cases the shakes and the shivers start straight after birth and although you are madly in love with your baby, often it’s over an overwhelming feeling of love exhaustion and relief.
Straight after birth, even though you’ve been through an incredible process, your baby comes out wide-eyed and awake, ready to look around and see what the world is going to offer him. If you’re going to breastfeed, it’s important to offer the breast within the first hour. Babies are alert within the first few hours and they will suck and suck and suck. Then, after a nice feed, they hibernate and have a really good sleep. Its important to keep your baby wrapped when feeding and then let him sleep. Sadly, this gives the mother a false sense of security. You think, I’ve got the best baby; I’m so proud I’ve got a baby who’s going to sleep. But wait until week two – then we’ll discuss a wakeful baby!
The growth of a baby in utero is amazing. You have a fully formed, interactive healthy baby. The baby’s growth in the first twelve months is just as incredible. If you take a photo of the baby at birth, then at the baby’s first birthday you will see an amazing growth and development, the first six weeks of your baby’s life is hard work. You’re tired and sore; you’ve got full breasts and sore nipples. There are visitors coming and going. You are sleep deprived. Not to mention the entire world, as you knew it has changed dramatically.
As a midwife, I knew what to do with babies. I knew everything about babies. But it wasn’t until I had a baby that I realised how debilitating it is to be sleep deprived. It’s hard to parent 24 hours a day on three to four hours sleep. It’s incredible how you manage, but somehow you do. Remember to go back to food, love, and warmth. These are the keys of parenting. Be practical. Keep parenting basic love and feeding and keep your baby close to you.
For the first few hours after birth the baby is alert and looking around is an amazing time to not only look and examine your baby to see that he has always fingers and all his toes is cute little nose everything is there that you’ve been thinking about. It’s a perfect time to start breastfeeding your baby the baby will suck and suck and suck endlessly for those next couple of hours after that often the baby tends to hibernate for quite some time this is very safe with the baby to do and they are quite full of amniotic fluid so they will break remain hydrated with our enough fluid inside them even though the baby and even though the baby is sucking a lot will not have a huge amount of fluid but it from the colostrum but it is really rich in calories. It’s really important to wrap the baby after its birth to keep the baby nice and warm and feeling of security and safety.
When the baby is in utero it is in a very firm secure and buffered environment every time the baby moves the resistance it feels when moving is the uterine wall. So you can imagine when the baby is born it has never felt any space and they look quite frightened and insecure.
The physical reaction they have after birth when they are naked is a primitive reflex called the moro reflex. The moro reflex is the hands of the baby reaching out to try and grab hold of either the mother or somebody to keep them feeling secure, because remember the baby has only felt security by being inside the uterus. This is the main reason why you should always wrap your baby for all feeds and all sleep. I will describe at a later time how to do “Cath’s Wrap” that maintains your babies security during feeding and sleeping.
So the first few feeds after the birth are important. Important to have the baby attached to the nipple properly and important to let the baby suck as long as possible on both breasts. The baby’s alert wide-eyed looking around and sucking like a trooper. You feel extremely successful when the baby falls asleep after giving birth giving the baby breastfeed and then watching the baby have a nice sleep… The fun is about to begin
Once you have finished being checked in labour ward and the doctor and midwives are happy with your condition you will be transferred to a postnatal room this is where you will recover learn how to feed your baby change a baby bath your baby all the skills that you will need plus more to get through the first few weeks.
This book is to help you remember that looking after a baby you need a lot of common sense unfortunately we have complicated parenting far too much. We need to keep the baby fed lots and lots of food and by food I and I mean milk either breast milk or formula both are suitable for the newborn baby.
I encourage you to buy this as damp electric steriliser as I just get concerned using a microwave arm and boiling water especially if you’re tired and you get distracted it could cause some accidents. There are plenty of safe brands that have called electric sterilisers so do your shopping ask friends and by one its $150 well worth spent. The bottles again it doesn’t matter what type of bottle you get the baby does not care what type of bottle it gets the baby just wants to suck what I do suggest is that the taste is long and thick and thin rather than a short round that Tate so please look at the Tates and ensure that they are there that basically the old-fashioned type takes again the baby does not hear what the Tate is like how much it is its cost the brand all it needs to know is that it’s sucking to.
There are an abundance of baby monitors that are in the shops these days again it’s up to you how you wish to set that up not everyone wants or needs a monitor and most people have the baby in with them for the first 6 to 12 months again that is up to you most monitors come not only with voice recognition that also a video to save the baby sleeping.
The nursery needs to be fairly basic you need a change table a good strong change table that is at the height for you to change the baby that soccer to hurt your back. You’ll be doing a lot of changing so make sure that it is suitable for you it’s important to have everything on hand when you changing the baby so little pockets all trays to make sure that you have nappies lotions potions anything you need to change the baby a nice chair is a good idea in the nursery to ensure that the baby that the mother or whoever is feeding the baby is is comfortable
Clothes for the baby
Most hospitals will give you a list of things that are required to take you to the hospital for the baby. Remember people are very generous when you have a baby and you will receive lots and lots of gives Miami clients that people will give to you so it’s really important not to overspend on by too many clients. It also depends on when you having the baby so winter summer spring or autumn it depends on what clothes these days there is such an abundance of clothes that are well made and cheap and easy to our axis through important to buy some wraps for the baby I really encourages by t t that light muslin wraps it’s really important that they are large usually about 1.2 x 1.4 cm in in length and diameter and for a baby you need up to 10 rats you need at least 10 singlets and 10 change of clothes being a 1C and for practicality believe me slips are based.
If you are if you intend to breastfeed make sure that you buy and are fitted for a bra your breasts to enlarge and you need to make sure that they cover your full breasts when your milk comes in I see so many women with with a very small bra and be bulging engorged breasts it doesn’t comfortable so most big shopping centres have a trained bra fitter and it’s important to take those into the hospital with you and we’re after You have had the baby
Before you have baby it’s important to get the house organised the basics you need is a cot. The court should be approved by the strain standards and babies can be put in the cop from day one if you choose. A car seat that is safe strong sturdy and is put in by a registered car safety person to make sure that it is correctly positioned at the right side of the car and correctly inserted. You will need the car seat before you go to the hospital they can bring the baby home
A pram of your choosing and believe me there are thousands to choose from shop around and have a look at all the prams see the harsh and that it’s insured that it’s the right height for you and you can walk comfortably with the pram make sure there’s enough room for the baby accessories like bags and clothes etc and that you feel comfortable in putting it in and out of the car because that is one thing that you be doing a lot of walking with the baby. Always ensure that the pram is again fits the strain safety accreditation that there are safety straps in the pram to make sure the baby is sick safely and securely fastened in at all times
It amazes me now that there are so many different parts that you can buy for a baby really you need a large and complicated bath please don’t look at once with seats in them because this is one of the most pleasurable time to baby will have is sitting in the bath splashing away. Sitting a baby in the bath is not necessary and when you hold the baby correctly the baby will float and relax is one of the nicest times we baby I will discuss later in the book my 10 PM bath and how important it is to have a nice deep warm bath for your baby. Please note never shower with your baby it seems to be a trend that people are encouraging you to professionals are encouraging you to shower with your baby or people find that the baby thinks it’s nice is really dangerous for the baby because you in water have so slippery and you may fall really a baby’s bath is so relaxing for the baby there’s plenty of time in the charts last shower.
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