Life changes when your baby arrives, making you ask yourself several questions about what you must do. The following parenting tips can help make you feel more confident about caring for your newborn in no time. 

First-Year Survival Guide for New Parents 

An essential part of caring for your newborn is also caring for yourself. As your days can feel hectic and overwhelming, it may help to consider getting assistance during this period. You might receive help from relatives and friends. Although you may disagree with various things, their experience may come in handy. 

To ensure your baby remains healthy, anyone handling your little one must be up to date on their vaccines and must help only if they feel well. However, if you don’t like having guests or have other concerns, you don’t need to feel guilty about limiting visitors. 

How to Handle Your Baby? 

You will receive many parenting tips in the form of new mom’s advice. However, if you have not spent time around newborns, they will undoubtedly appear fragile, and any tips you receive may seem inadequate. Instead of relying on various tips offered by everyone as new-mom advice, remember the following basics when caring for your child. 

• Wash Your Hands: Before handling your baby, wash your hands or use hand sanitizer. Remember, newborns have a less robust immune system, making them susceptible to infections. Ensure that anyone handling your baby has clean hands, including first-time Dads. 

• Support: Your baby’s head and neck need support, making it essential to cradle the head when carrying the child. Supporting the head when carrying the baby upright or laying the baby down is also required. 

• Shaking: Whether playing with the baby or in frustration, never shake the child, as it can cause bleeding in the brain and occasionally death. If you must wake up your baby, do not shake them; tickle their feet or gently blow on their cheeks. 

• Car travel: always fasten your baby securely in a car seat or carrier. Limit rough or bouncy activities. 

• Rough play: It is best to avoid rough play with newborns, as jiggling them on the knees or throwing them in the air is dangerous. 

How to Bond Your Child? 

Bonding occurs during the first hours and days after birth, when parents connect deeply with their child. Physical closeness helps form an emotional bond that supports your baby’s development in other ways. Another way to think about bonding is to think of it as falling in love with your baby. Children thrive when they have parents or other adults in their lives who love them unconditionally. 

You can start bonding with your child by cradling and rocking your baby gently in different patterns. Another technique is skin-to-skin contact, also called Kangaroo care, which requires you to hold your newborn against your chest. The action helps calm and soothe your baby while also regulating their heartbeat. It is considered excellent practice for new moms and dads. 

Below are some tips to establish skin-to-skin contact with your child: 

• Refrain from using scented perfumes and lotions and avoid cigarette smoke beforehand. 

• Locate a dimly lit room and find a comfortable seat. Wear a shirt with an opening from the front and lay your baby in just a diaper on your bare chest. 

• Ensure that you sit quietly, hum, sing, talk softly, or read aloud. Your baby may likely sleep during this time. 

How To Soothe Your Baby? 

Helping babies relax makes them happier and more comfortable. Some tips to soothe your baby include the following: 

1. Massage: Infant massage helps babies born prematurely or have medical problems. Some massage techniques may enhance bonding and support babies’ growth and development. Numerous books and videos cover in one message, ask your doctor for recommendations. However, be careful, though, babies are not as strong as adults and do not need intensive body care. Therefore, massage your baby gently. 

2. Sounds: babies are fond of vocal sounds such as talking, babbling, singing, and cooking. Your baby may also enjoy listening to soft music. Baby rattles and musical mobiles are good methods to stimulate your child’s hearing. If your child is fussy, consider singing, reciting poetry or nursery rhymes, or even reading while gently swaying and rocking your child in a chair. 

Some children are unusually sensitive to touch, sound, and light. They might startle easily, cry frequently, and show signs of restlessness, making you wonder how to manage newborn sleep. If your baby displays these characteristics, keep light and noise levels low or medium. 

1. Swaddling: Another technique that works well for some babies in the first few weeks. Appropriate swaddling keeps a baby’s arms close to the body while permitting their legs to move. Swaddling helps keep a baby warm and gives them a sense of security and comfort. Swaddling may also help limit the startle reflex, which wakes up babies. 

The following are some tips to swaddle your baby: 

• Spread a baby blanket with one corner slightly folded over. 

• Lay the baby face up with the head over the folded corner of the blanket. 

• Wrap the left corner of the blanket over the baby’s body, tucking it beneath the back. 

• Bring the bottom corner of the blanket over the baby’s feet, pulling it toward their head but holding the fabric down if it gets too close to the face. Do not wrap the blanket tightly around the hips. The hips and knees are slightly better bent and turned out. Wrapping your baby too tightly increases the risk of hip dysplasia. 

• Wrap the right corner around your baby, tucking it back on the left side, leaving only the neck and head exposed. To ensure your baby isn’t tightly wrapped, slip your hand between the blanket and the baby’s chest. This will allow for comfortable breathing. However, you must also ensure the blanket isn’t too close to becoming undone. 

• It is best to stop swaddling when your baby shows signs of rolling over. That’s usually around after two months. At two months of age, babies can roll over while swaddling, which puts them at risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). 

How to Diaper Your Baby? 

Whether using cloth or disposable diapers, expect your baby to dirty them about 10 times daily or 70 times a week. When diapering your baby, it is essential to have all supplies you need within reach, wipe your baby from the front to the back gently using water, cotton balls, and a washcloth, apply diaper cream if required to treat diaper rash, and finally, after you’re done, ensure you wash your hands. 

Bathing Your Baby 

Your baby will get a sponge bath in the first few weeks. After the umbilical cord and the circumcision heal, if your baby was circumcised, you can bathe the baby in a sink or a tiny infant tub. 

When you feel your baby is ready for the infant tub, the initial bathing should be gentle and brief. If your baby gets upset, there is no harm in reverting to sponge baths for a week or two before trying the tub again. Bathing your baby 2-3 times per week during the first year is sufficient. More frequent bathing can potentially dry up the baby’s skin. 

How Often Should You Feed Your Baby? 

Whether you’re breastfeeding or bottlefeeding, you may wonder how often you should feed. Generally, babies need to be fed on demand, indicating that whenever they are hungry. Babies signal hunger by crying, putting their fingers in their mouths, or making sucking noises. Newborn babies need to be fed every 2 to 3 hours. 

You can consider a feeding schedule appropriate for your baby if they seem satisfied after breastfeeding and have approximately 6 diapers per day with several poops. Well-fed babies also sleep well and gain weight gradually. 

Another method to determine whether your breast-fed baby is getting sufficient milk is to notice whether your breasts feel full before feeding and less full after feeding. If your baby is receiving formulas, you can easily notice what your baby is getting to eat. Talk to your baby pediatrician if you have concerns about their growth and feeding schedule. 

Information To Have About Your Baby’s Sleep 

It might surprise you to know that newborns sleep approximately 16 hours or more daily. Typical sleep patterns are 2 to 4-hour periods. Numerous babies sleep through the night, getting 6 to 8 hours of sleep at three months, but if yours doesn’t, it is not a cause for concern. Similar to adults, babies develop their own cycles and sleep patterns. 

Always ensure babies sleep on their backs to avoid the risk of SIDS. Other safe sleeping practices include: 

Avoid using blankets, sheepskins, bumpers, quilts, stuffed animals, or pillows in the cave because they can suffocate the baby. Parents can share a bedroom but not the baby’s bed for the first 6 months to a year. 

Change the position of your baby’s head every night from right to left and so on to prevent a flat spot developing on one side of the head. Start following all the tips mentioned in this article during postpartum balance to ensure you start parenting like a professional. If you have questions or concerns, do not hesitate to talk to your doctor or the baby’s pediatrician for the best advice. They can recommend sources that can help you appropriately.