Getting In Some Sleep With a New Baby

Getting In Some Sleep With a New Baby

May 23rd, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

You may have feel like you waited forever for your new little bundle of joy to arrive. Now that the time is here and you’re holding them in your arms, you feel so full of joy you can hardly stand it. After the reality of your new baby sets in a bit, you start to realize just how tired you are. All of a sudden, you may wake up one day and realize that you are just downright sleep deprived. This is a terrible feeling for all new parents. Though you love your new baby and want to give them the very best, you are also recognizing that their waking at night is leaving you feeling exhausted. This is rather frustrating for many parents and they may find that they need to get into some sort of pattern, or at least get more sleep and get it quickly.

Cut Down on the Damage

Your baby is going to get up at night, that much you can’t deny. It’s unrealistic to think that your baby will stay down for the entirety of the night when you lay them down. What you can do is keep your waking time and theirs to a minimum. Take a look at these ideas and you will quickly see that you can get into a sort of habit in the middle of the night. First and foremost, avoid the temptation to put them down in bed with you. This not only ensures that they will get used to snuggling up next to mom and dad, but will also ensure that neither of you are getting a restful night. Get them up, feed them, change them, and then put them back to bed. Keep it short and sweet.

You also want to do your very best to share the responsibilities however possible. So for example if you are bottle feeding, get into some sort of a routine or pattern whereby you and your partner are sharing the feedings. Let them take the late night feeding and you go to sleep earlier so that you can get up for the next one. Whatever you can do to get in a few uninterrupted hours of sleep will help both of you in the long run. Figure out a routine that works best for you, ensures that your baby gets everything that it needs, and that you get in as much sleep at one time as is possible.

Sleep Whenever You Can

It may seem that “me time” is hard to come by these days. With a bit of help, though, you can enjoy a bit of napping or at least relaxation with the proper planning. The first rule of thumb that many experts will tell you is to nap when your baby naps. This is often easier said than done because if you have another child or a job, this is just not a reality for you.

Whenever possible, you want to try to get some time to put your feet up, relax, and catch a few winks if at all possible. This will really do wonders to recharge your engines and leave you feeling energized. It’s important to be flexible enough to change up your sleeping patterns as necessary. Knowing that you are going to get up in the middle of the night, you may very well want to go to bed earlier. This may take some adjusting, but it’s a great way to ensure you get plenty of sleep and are ready to care for your new baby.

A Healthy Immune System for Baby

A Healthy Immune System for Baby

April 29th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

A healthy immune system is vital to helping your baby’s body to fight off infections and avoid illness. To keep her immune system working at peak performance, baby needs a little help from you.

In the womb, antibodies are passed to baby from her mother via the placenta. But after birth, their power will start to wane, and unless they are replace baby will be vulnerable to illness. A baby won’t start to produce her own antibodies until she is a few months old. In the meantime, there is a way to help her out.

Breastfeeding and Immunity

Breast milk is the only way to get vital antibodies to your baby in the first months of life. The AAP recommends that new mothers breastfeed for at least the first four months, but preferably exclusively for the first six months. This isn’t just because breast milk contains antibodies. It also gives your baby the optimum nutritional content she needs to be healthy. A body that is receiving all the nutrients it needs is a body that supports immune health.

Baby’s Diet and Immune Health

When your baby starts on solid baby foods, make sure to offer her a wide variety of healthy foods, especially fruits and vegetables. The nutrients in these foods will help to support her immune system and keep her healthy. Look for foods high in vitamins C and E, which are known to have immunity-strengthening properties. These foods include choices like applesauce, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli and more. Also, be sure to include foods high in zinc, which also supports immune health. This important mineral appears in proteins such as chicken and eggs.

Probiotics have recently been recognized as playing a major role in immune health. They are the good bacteria that our bodies need in order to fight off any number of illnesses. Probiotics can be found in foods like yogurt, but use caution. Many commercial yogurts have been flash heated to maintain shelf life – which kills many of the good bacteria. Look for an all natural yogurt that has not been heated. You can also use probiotic supplements; talk to your baby’s doctor about how to implement them into baby food diet.

The Importance of Sleep

It might not be the first thing to come to mind when you think of a healthy immune system, but making sure that your baby gets the sleep he needs is actually vital to supporting a healthy immune system. In the same way that adults can get run down and become vulnerable to infection when we aren’t getting enough sleep, babies need sleep to stay healthy – and they require a lot more sleep than we do.

During sleep, the body repairs and rejuvenates itself, making it better able to fight off illness. A newborn requires upwards of 16 hours of sleep, and in the first year of life that need won’t go down much. Make sure baby gets enough rest by sticking to a bedtime routine and a nap schedule as much as you can. If baby seems to be sleeping more than usual, he might be fighting something off. Let him get his rest, and watch for further signs of illness. Sometimes all the body needs is a little extra down time to let the immune system kick in and do its job.

A healthy immune system means a healthy baby, so do everything you can to support it from the day he is born. If you pay attention to his body’s needs, your baby’s immune system will stay strong and keep him strong too.

The First Days with Your New Baby

The First Days with Your New Baby

March 31st, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

There is nothing like the magical moment when you see your long-awaited baby for the first time. The first few days of life with baby are both the most wonderful and some of the most challenging for new parents. Suddenly everything has changed, and your world revolves around this tiny little person whose health and well-being are entirely in your hands.

What Your Baby Looks Like

Years of seeing babies being “born” on television and in movies have ill prepared new parents for the reality of a newborn. Your baby might not be the perfect bundle of joy you were expecting. The process of birth can be difficult on a baby, especially with a long vaginal birth. You might see things like a cone-shaped head, squished nose, and red marks on baby’s face and body.

Babies often have blotchy skin and still have some of the waxy white coating on their skin known as vernix, which covers a baby’s skin in the uterus to protect it from the long exposure to amniotic fluid. It is not uncommon for babies to be born with a little extra hair on their bodies as well. Both of these will soon be gone.

Your baby will also have a piece of the umbilical cord still attached, which will be clamped off at first. This usually falls off within the first few weeks of life. You may notice that your baby’s genitals appear swollen – this is a normal reaction to hormones passed from the mother, and will recede over time.

What Your Baby Needs

In the first days of life, what your baby will do most is eat and sleep. It is not unusual for baby to fall asleep not long after birth; after all, it has been a long and trying day. While it is tempting to stay awake and watch this sleeping miracle you have waited so long to see, new moms should take advantage of their newborn’s naps to get some much needed rest as well. Sleep in the first days will be erratic, so get it while you can!

If you are breastfeeding your baby, you may put her to the breast immediately following birth, but don’t expect much. She may be tired and has not yet mastered latching on, although the sucking reflex is well developed in full-term infants. When she is awake, you can try again. The first few days are a time for mom and baby to learn the ropes of nursing. Don’t be concerned if your baby doesn’t seem to be eating a lot at first. She is still being sustained by nutrients passed through the umbilical cord, and her appetite will soon grow.

It is entirely normal for a newborn to lose up to 10% of her birth weight within the first few days of life. Your doctor will monitor her weight to ensure it starts to climb again.

Bringing Baby Home

Depending on whether you had a vaginal birth or a caesarean section, you will likely be in the hospital for the first 2-4 days of your baby’s life. During this time you will have the assistance of the nurses in caring for your baby. Don’t be surprised if going home, that much anticipated event, feels a bit overwhelming or even frightening. This is a normal reaction to the realization of the monumental task before you.

In these early days, focus on caring for your new baby and yourself. Don’t worry about the housework, and if you have offers of help don’t be afraid to accept. The first days with a newborn are exhausting and challenging, especially for moms recovering from a difficult birth or from a c-section.

Remember that both you and your newborn are making a major adjustment to a whole new life, and there are bound to be some bumps in the road. You will soon settle into a new routine, and things will smooth out again.