Newborn advice

marco_79

Hi All

I know there is loads of experience here after reading a lot of the baby posts, I have a few questions I would like to ask if I may.

Background - Our lovely little girl Kimberley was born just 6 days ago and has been home for 4 of them. The first couple of nights she didn't sleep at all during the night just howled whenever she was put in her basket. We then tried to get her into a routine feeding every 4 hours. This seemed to work better. We bath her before her 7pm feed her then put her in her pram untill we go to bed, we then feed her at 11pm and put her down in her basket in our room, she then sleeps till just before 3am (last two nights anyway) then wakes up just before seven. We change her before each feed because we still arn't sure if she is clean till we check. She sleeps most of the day we thought this might not be good for her sleeping at night but we don't want/ know how to waken her. My main question is do you think we are on the right track we know its early days but want to start off the best way.

My other questions are (if you don't mind)

1. We are making up enough formula for 24 hrs. (Breast feeding not an option Im afraid) We bought a kettle just for doing it. Is it ok to boil the kettle maybe 3 hours in advance so the bottles are cold enough to put straight into the fridge when we make them?

2. She is a really sicky baby any ideas how we stop her being sick so much, she takes her bottle 90ml in about 10 mins, I know this quick but if we take it away she falls asleep and won't take any more. Sometimes she is too sleepy to even take it.

3. She has been sick in the inside of her basket any ideas how to clean this without wasing the whole thing as you can't tumble it and we don't think it would be dry in time for the next night, also is it ok to put a muslin square in beside her to stop her doing this again?

4. What kind of play can we do at this very young age and whens best to do it?

Any other hints and tips appreciated.

Signed

Inexperienced parents in the deep end but learning quickly. :-)

tru

Congratulations, I think you're doing brilliantly :T

1. I was always told to make the bottles as soon as the water boiled.

2. My 2nd used to guzzle the bottle too, I'm sure she thought the food would disappear if she didn't LOL. She was sick a lot, but that didn't last long.

3. I used to put the mattress in a pillowcase so it was easy to change.

4. I would talk to them

nearlyrich

marco_79 wrote:

Inexperienced parents in the deep end but learning quickly. :-)

I can't offer any advice as my "babies" are 18 & 20 and the advice changes all the time but just wanted to say congratulations and best of luck to you both, enjoy your little bundle of joy:j

beautifulgorgeous_2

Congratulations
If you put a pillowcase on the matress you get four clean head areas before washing and it it stays flat and not untucked. Try to feed at night as dark as possible, talk to her as little as possible and try not to change her nappy in the middle of the night. When she is a little older you will know if she is dirty. I would try to put her in her own room as soon as you can as you will disturb each other. She can call loud enough if she wants you and you will cope in the day if you are getting as much sleep as you can.

iwanttosave_2

right first question- babys that age literally do sleep all day, and she is just too young to "understand" a rountine, best to implement that about 4 months, if she sleeps better in the pram (sounds stupid) but take the pram upstairs and let her sleep in that, or the car seat whichever she prefers.

Q2-boiling the kettle that long is fine, just don't repeatedly boil it.



Q3- i know baby seems to be being sick alot but it is just positing, try feeding her in a more upright position and make sure she is properly winded

Q4- just clean basket with a slightly damp cloth and leave to dry, it is ok to leave a square there, or under the matress cover

Q5 she at this time will most like looking at faces, the furthest she can see is about 30cm (length from your breast to your face) so just nice smilely faces and sing songs

best peice of advice is cherish every moment, they really do grow up fast. If someone offers help, take it, don't be a marter you are no good to her tired. When she is up in the night crying and it gets too much ask your patner to take over and sit down stairs for a while just to calm down. And most of all enjoy her, big kiss to baba and be good to your mummy tonight

balgobin

Congratulations- can only advice on what to give her to play. Very young babies like to look at black and white thing,its the contrast you can get a black and white cloth "book" also some cubes- had them for my little one who is now nine.! don't know about bottles, and night times yuo seem to be doing well, it is a continual changing pattern, and i think you have to go wiht what works for you all. Most of enjoy!

Becles

marco_79 wrote:

She sleeps most of the day we thought this might not be good for her sleeping at night but we don't want/ know how to waken her.

I picked up on this point. She might have night and day mixed up.

During the day, put her to sleep in the pram in the living room. Don't close the curtains, and don't keep quiet. Keep watching TV, using household appliances, or whatever noise you normally make! Make day feeds and nappy changes fun. Talk or sing to her, play peekaboo, tickle her - that kind of thing.

Move her bath time till just before bed time. A good night routine, is a warm bath, then you might like to give her a soothing massage as you dry her and put her nightclothes on. Make the last feed a fairly quiet one, then put her to sleep in the dark.

When she wakes in the night, change her nappy silently and in low lighting. (If you haven't got a dimmer switch, try a low watt bulb in a lamp or try and manage with just the landing light on). Night feeds should be done in low lighting and in silence, then pop her back into bed.

She should soon associate dark and quiet with night time, and noise and light with day time. It worked with my two!

Good luck!

Kimberley

Congratulations :T These things get better each day. Talk to your health visitor as well as getting advice on here.

mellyp

First of all congratulations.

You sound like you are doing a fantastic job, with the sleeping.

One thing to note with sleep, newborns do sleep a LOT during the day, don't be tempted to wake her up, she obviously needs it. The common belief can be that if baby sleeps a lot in the day, they won't sleep at night. But the opposite is true, if baby doesn't get the sleep she needs in the day, she could get very overtired and hard to settle at night.

1. Bottles - i always boiled the kettle and then left it about half an hour before making the bottles and then let them cool down before putting in the fridge

2. Newborns do bring milk back up a lot in the early days, its called 'possetting'. I wouldn't worry about it for now. Obviously if she was a few months old and still doing it, then have a word with your Health Visitor.

3. Agree with 'beautiful gorgeous' on the pillowcase, you can turn it over and around 4 times before having to wash it.

4. Keep play to a minimum at this age. There are so many toys on the market now aimed at newborns. All with gizmos and flashing lights etc etc, but i found my 2 never really appreciated 'baby toys' until about 5/6 months. From about 2 months a rattle sufficed, until then as 'troo' said just talk/sing to her.

Enjoy the lovely newborn stage, as everyone says, they really don't stay that small for long. My oldest (3) is now a big girl in school, and my son is turning 1 in a couple of weeks

mrcow

marco_79 wrote:

3. She has been sick in the inside of her basket any ideas how to clean this without wasing the whole thing as you can't tumble it and we don't think it would be dry in time for the next night, also is it ok to put a muslin square in beside her to stop her doing this again?

How about folding a towel up and putting it under the sheet to protect the basket? The you can just change the sheet and towel in the morning?

The best advise I could offer any new parents is to just take each day as it comes, trust your instincts and not try to put pressure on yourselves (or the baby) when it coumes to routines (or other people's advice for that matter!). What works one week can fall apart the next.

I think you are right not to wake her. Babies differ greatly with their sleeping patterns, she'll just sleep (and feed!) when she needs to. As long as you are both there for each other and making sure that each of you are getting enough rest, then just carry on with what you are doing. Four hours between feeds is great, but don't be surprised if this changes over time too.

My second baby (now four months old) used to bring up milk when lying down. I was lucky that her pram could tilt slightly, so I used to lay her with her head elevated slightly which solved the problem. I also had to ensure that she was winded fully, as this can help.

Congratulations btw. Six days old! How sweet. Good luck.

Rikki

I did the same as becles. Daytime sleep always downstairs in the pram with normal daytime noise. At night all dark, quiet and silentl. Bath before bed and then into carrycot.

I used to warm the cot with a warm hot water bottle so it wasn't too cold.