Newborn

Often the cry is tearless.  Babies will cry from                                                   hunger, pain, boredom, tired, over stimulation,                                                   discomfort.  Remember-they were under your                                                           heart for 9 months, and they are use to that sound                                                   a well as your other body sounds.  They miss hearing that when you are not holding them. They may be lonely and scared.

Mothers will begin to recognize her babies cry, often it is a bit different when they are hungry vs lonely for example.  Remember, a colic cry is different.

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NEWBORN

A new born baby sleeps about 22-23 hours out of 24. (usually) Some do not sleep as much. If you have trouble keeping your baby sleeping in the bassinet or whatever you choose beside your bed, try placing a baby blanket or small sheet on your pillow case for 24 hours, as you lay on it, then place it in your baby’s crib. Your scent will be comforting to your baby. This is why they sleep better in your bed with you- and even when you are not in the bed. Read about sharing the bed  Here with various views:  Link 1    Link 2   Link 3  Link 4     Link 5

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although some care providers do not agree with it, I support it.  There, that is my opinion. 

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DAY 2-3–Often baby will sleep about 16 hours a day.

DAY 5-7-up to week 2– Often babies are awake a bit more now

Week 3-4

If they are not sleeping well at night, this is often when they will begin to sleep better during the night.

BM’s and Urination

Urination

At first,the first day or two (or day 1-4) the baby                                                     will wet at least one time in 24 hours.  Once your                                         (second) milk has come in, (after the colostrum)                                                       and has been in for at least 24 hours, then the                                                     baby will wet from 2-4 times a day. But your baby                                                       may wet many more times than that.

Bowel Movements

~The first bowel movement that your baby will have is a very dark sticky stool, called meconium, This is what is left over from making the intestinal tract.

~The stool will go then to a dark green color, it will still be sticky-but soft.

~Then it will go to a yellow color. Looking like you mix mustard with cottage cheese. Because the breast milk is so easily digested, the baby may have a BM each time he eats. The stool smells sweet, cheese like.

~If the baby has had jaundice, the stools will often turn to a watery yellow consistency. This is not diarrhea. It is the bilirubin coming thru the stools.

Baby/ Stools

Day 1-2  –will have between 1-2 stools a day on average, but may have many more than that. May be meconium or changing to green in color

Day 3-4  —will have between 2-3 stools a day, but may have many more than that. Stool can be from meconium to the green in color. Stools may change to yellow -breast feeding stools

Day 5-7 —will not have as large of stools, usually the baby will go just a little bit in each diaper.  But the baby may only go a few times a day too. If the bay has had some jaundice, then the stool will be watery and yellow. Very normal, and this is not diarrhea.

Cord Care

After the baby is born, the cord is clamped and cut. In hospitals they clamp and cut the cord right away. We do not. Often we wait until the placenta is out, then clamp and cut it. If we do clamp and cut it before the placenta is birthed, then we do wait until it has stopped pulsating.

Rubbing alcohol is not the best to use on the cord. Many still recommend it. Peroxide on the cord is often recommended also.  I have also heard of using olive oil on the cord, and although I love olive oil for many things, the cord is not one of those things.  It can cause shrinkage with the cord pulling it out of the clamp before it is totally dry.  I have seen this happen too many times. This midwife does not recommend any of the above things to do. Golden seal is a better choice. Just put some golden seal powder on the cord to dry it and also prevent any infection. Golden seal inhibits the growth of bacteria. Plus it helps dry the cord. Olive oil does not dry the cord as fast as is needed and it does not inhibit the growth of bacteria. Rubbing alcohol can irritate the skin and by this can actually increase the chance of infection around the cord, not the actual cord it self. A 1998 study by the Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation in Ontario, Canada, found that untreated cords healed in eight days, while it took ten days for alcohol-swabbed cords to fall off. (None of the 1,800 newborns in the study developed an infection.)

Crying

If your baby cries, first check if they baby is cold, hungry, wet or had a BM. If not, they maybe the baby is just lonely. Remember that this child has been growing under your heart for 9 months, and is use to you as the mother. When you are not right there, the baby knows this. Try the following: offer the baby a feeding, offer the baby something to suck, rock the baby, swaddle the baby, hold the baby, walk with the baby, talk to the baby, just spend some time with the baby. If you have done all of these and the baby is still crying, sometimes the baby needs to cry. (as adults we sometimes need to cry) But that does not mean that you just lay the baby down and walk away! Remember, you as an adult will need to ‘vent’ and older children also need to ‘vent, ’ well so do babies! Some times they just cry for no reason! They are a baby and this is the only way they have to communicate!  I do NOT think that it is ok to allow your babies to “cry it out”.  BUT, sometimes they are frustrated and will cry! 

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