What its like to care for a newborn baby? Well, there is lots of poop and very little sleep. Your life revolves around his schedule or lack there of. A newborn baby doesn't differentiate between day and night. He needs to eat every 2-3 hours. He poops constantly. He naps for 1-2 hours at a time max. And in case he does sleep longer, you need to wake him up for a feed anyways. That's your life for the whole first month of the baby's life. Needless to say, it is exhausting. It does get better as the baby starts to sleep longer and you learn to understand what he wants and needs from you.
The first two month are tiring as the baby is not showing any emotions yet. After that however, my little one started to interact with people. He began to look me in the eyes and smile directly at me. That smile is priceless. He even recognized and smiled at himself in the mirror. By the end of his third month, the baby discovered his hands and started sucking on his adorable little fists. He is not grabbing his toys yes, but shows a lot of interest in them.
From very early on, we started taking our little one for walks close to home. He loved his stroller bassinet and was falling asleep as soon as we started walking. I tried to go out for some fresh air at least once a day. When I was still pregnant I posted on Facebook that I was looking for pregnant friends in our neighborhood, and one lady responded. She lived right across the street and our babies were born two weeks apart. We started chatting online and going for walks together, and became good friends. It's great when you have someone who understands the daily challenges you are dealing with.
People often ask me if the baby has a set schedule for sleep and food. I tell them, that after reading a few books on this, I decided that we will be following the EASY routine. I find that this is the least stressful way for both of us to get through the day. The EASY stands for:
E - eat. I follow baby's ques to see when he is hungry to feed him.
A - activity. After feeding there is play time. This can include reading a book, or taking a bath.
S - sleep. After activity, following baby's ques, I put him to bed
Y - yourself. This time is for me to do housework, take a nap, relax, etc...
By the end of the third month this routine takes approximately 3 hours end to end, and then we begin again.
Pooping. Oh my, there is no end to it! My little one has been pooping non-stop since day one. I have been using both Papmers and Huggies alternating between them for each diaper change in order to minimize rashes. Instead of a diaper cream, I chose to use organic coconut and almond oils on my baby's bum and both worked great for us.
Sleeping. I'll dedicate a separate post to our sleeping routine soon. In short, we swaddle the baby for every nap and also night time sleep. He sleeps in a bassinet next to us with a bit of a white noise. We usually rock him to sleep or let him doze off in a mamaroo, and then transition him to the bassinet.
Feeding. I am going to write a separate post on this subject as well. The baby is breastfed with some supplementation of formula. We've had some difficulties adjusting to breastfeeding, but lactation consultants were able to help us and the baby is now getting breast milk 6-8 times a day.
Overall, we've had a good start. In spite of some initial challenges with breastfeeding, the baby has gained 2 kilos in the first 3 months. We established our EASY routine for sleeping, playing, and feeding. My little one seems to be a happy baby and we love him to pieces.