First Week Home with a New Baby
Congratulations! You’ve welcomed your new baby home, and the anticipation is over. You did it, you carried a baby for 40 (ish) weeks, and you have birthed your baby. Now what? Today we are here to talk about the first week home with a new baby.
How will it all go?
Your baby will sleep a lot.
We hear that newborns sleep a lot, but don’t truly understand the meaning of this until we have our own newborn. Newborns spend so much of their first weeks asleep, on average a newborn spends approximately 13-16 hours a day sleeping, although all babies are different. It may feel like all your newborn does is sleep and eat!
Your baby will eat very often.
New babies eat on average 8 to 12 times every twenty hours. Newborns eat very often, but they eat tiny amounts at once in their first couple of weeks. It is usual for a newborn to eat an average of 1.5- 2 ounces at each feeding during the first week. At this age a newborn’s stomach is the size of a marble, so 1-2 ounces is the most food they can hold. This is hard work, we want to recognize that right off the bat, but babies do begin to eat more and go longer stretches quite quickly!
You will be tired.
For such adorable little beings that sleep so much of the time, newborns sure are tiring. This may be a level of tiredness you haven’t felt before in your life. Remember to breathe; it will pass. We recommend trying to take shifts with your partner when possible so that you can get some solid hours of rest throughout the day and night. We realize this isn’t always possible.
Remember to be kind to yourself
You may feel emotional.
You’ve just welcomed a baby, and with this new baby comes a huge responsibility! It is normal to feel a bit overwhelmed at first and have emotions come up during this time. Also, your hormones! Your body is going through a huge hormonal shift and just went through an even bigger one during your labor. Please remember to be kind to yourself. We recommend talking with a friend, or postpartum doula, journaling, and sitting in the sunshine for 10-20 minutes a day in your yard or on your porch if possible.
Baby cues can be hard to read.
There may be moments where you are unsure what your baby wants or how to comfort them; this is normal as well. Try and remember that this is your first week home with your new baby! Even top baby experts need time to learn your individual baby, signs, cues, and what they like. When your baby is inconsolable, and you feel like you have tried everything (feeding, diaper change, bedtime), try this.
- Take a few deep breathes and calm yourself down first.
- Go to a dark space with a sound machine or begin to loudly shh.
- Rock your baby back and forth
- Give them either a pacifier or finger to suck on.
- Be patient; this could take a couple of minutes!
There will be amazing and beautiful moments to!
Celebrate these! There will be moments where you feel like you are getting this newborn thing down like you are getting into a routine, and moments of bliss. Postpartum is wildly different for everyone. You may feel most of your day is blissful, and you may feel like most of your day is hard. Different feelings will come up at different times, that is okay!
It’s okay to ask for help
Its okay to need additional help
If at any point you or your partner are feeling like you may be experiencing more severe postpartum feelings, such as anxiety or depression, please reach out to your doctor. There are resources and people who can help with this. Please remember to be easy on yourself if this is the case too, and congratulate yourself for getting additional help.
Additional support.
The newborn phase can be overwhelming; our culture in America doesn’t help prepare families for this life stage. We highly recommend having additional support lined up or numbers of additional support people ready that you can call at any time. Postpartum doulas are an amazing option and can help with both baby care and your recovery and transition. Our team at Bay City Doulas is here for you. Call us today to learn more about the services we offer.
Thank you for reading this week’s blog, “First week home with a new baby.” For more helpful tips on all things pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and parenthood, please check out our weekly blog.
