I can still remember the moment when the nurse brings him to me. It’s my first meeting with my son. I can’t stop my tear, and I cried out gladly. I am complete. From the beginning of pregnancy, we are preparing for this day. We take several session with our Doctor for taking proper care for him.
He cries loud and I feel like heaven!
As he is my first baby, I want a vaginal delivery. But, it’s a C-section to bring him to the world. We have stayed for two days to the hospital before discharge. On Monday morning, my husband takes us to our home. The doctor advises me that the first six weeks with a newborn are crucial for my baby.
It is his opening meeting with the outer world. I put him on the stroller. My husband pulls it toward the car. I am not comfortable and pick him up. All the way he is sleeping and I hugs him softly. I am wondering about this little spongy being is my responsibility.When we reach home, I take him to the upstairs and put him on the cradle. He is still sleeping. I don’t take my eyes from him.Our pediatrician advises us that the first six weeks with the newborn are vital. We have to be careful about the main ups and downs!
It’s extreme and done!
I always want to share my experience during pregnancy with others for helping people. But I am in tension and don’t get sufficient time to write something on my PC. Fortunately, I take some notes on my tab. Now my newborn is a healthy growing kid of 11 months. I get much time to share my experience with you about the first six weeks with my newborn.
FIRST WEEK WITH MY NEWBORN
After two days of my C-section, we left the hospital. At the time of birth, he is a healthy baby of 3.1 kg weight. He sleeps about all the time in a day. He wakes up only for hunger and few times for urination and bowel movement.
His Day one at home: My sun’s third day
After an hour I take my eyes off from her. It’s painful for me to travel after a C-section. I have decided to take a bath. My doctor says that I can mop the wound. But I am a bit suspicious. I want to wet my hair and save my wound and breast from the water. It’s quite impossible.
My mom gives me a good idea which works. I put my raincoat without the hood and tie near my neck. I start blowing the shower on me and wet hair without soaking my wound and breast.I have then started my main task as a mom: started feeding my son. It sounds simple. One can’t understand the difficult if she has never experienced. You may read a lot of publications that claim breastfeeding is not hurting you. Practically it hurts for few days of starting although you do the things utterly. There is some charity who teach new mom how to breastfeed your newborn. I have attended two of the sessions and planning to continue the class.
His Day Two at home: Don’t Cry, Close your eyes
My husband takes the days off as we don’t sleep last night. Our boy wakes up all night and doesn’t close his eyes. When he sees no one of us, he starts crying. We heard parents became exhausted without sleeping. However in this early days our adrenaline and other mysterious parent’s hormone win over exhaust and restlessness.
We doze him with us according to our schedule. My husband dozes him and is afraid to lay him on the bed thinking that the baby may awake.
His Day Three at Home: Breastfeeding Insanity
I start my days by feeding him. Often he wakes up with a hiccup. I am so scared but goes away within a week. I fear to make a small move so he might hiccup.My husband makes breakfast for me and I gobble up the food. After my breakfast, my son feels hungry again. During feeding, he relaxed and I don’t want to put her down. I think he is still hungry.I am not feeling well for the sickening Infusions in the hospital. My thirst increases and I have the idea to take plenty of fluid. I start taking the extra.
I can’t believe to get my innie back in the early shape. During pregnancy, the belly bottom became a concave called outie. Now it becomes normal.
We visit the pediatrician and his weight is a bit low. He was 109.35 ounce at birth and 95.24 ounces while leaving the hospital. Now he is 102.29 ounce. The doctor wants him back to 109 which is feasible.
His Day Four at his home: Toughest Time
My hubby has some urgent issue and goes out for a couple of hours. I start losing my nerve. My young boy starts scramming after an interval. I don’t understand how to deal with. Once I think he might be hungry. I try to feed him but he is not taking anything. After a while, I discover he wants I doze him and keep walking.
It’s really amazing!
However, it is not possible for me to walk for a long time. I have just come from a C-sec and my wound is not still revoking.
Thank god!
My younger sister comes to my house with her husband. They doze my baby for hours and I get a chance to take an effective nap. I have never felt so glad to see her before. They stay at my house for a whole evening from noon. By this time my husband comes back.
I wish my mom to be with me. Fortunately, before my sister leaves my mom comes to my house for two weeks to support me. This feels like my soul return to the body. I start feeling to have a complete sleep at night which is crucial.
His Day Five at his home: Grievance
I know this is a tough day for husband he has to face an audit whole day and have to be prepared for the next day. He has come to the home around 10:30 pm and I sit with my son. I wish he could take the baby for a while and I get some rest. But I am in the grievance.Interestingly, my hubby dozes our sun and tell me to take rest for a while. After an hour father and son gossip, my mother takes my baby for the night and allow some time for us.
His Day Six at home: We again go to the pediatrician
At the first day of his second week on the earth, we again go to the pediatrician. Now my son back to his birth weight and we are happy. The doctor tells about the blood spot test for my baby. At first, my husband doesn’t convince for taking blood from the baby. However, after a nice consultation, the pediatrician convinced us to go for a blood spot test.
His Week Two in the Earth: Starting a Routine Life
His feeding is going in a schedule. He sleeps two to four hours at a time. He eats for a long time and sleeps during eating. Therefore it a bit difficult for me to calculate the exact time for his sleep or eating. During daytime, he eats constantly but at night he sleeps more.
Although the doctor advise me not to do much movement or chore, I try something. It is not feeling well as I expect. Till now I am not able to walk faster or doing chore. I often feel tenderness in my chest.My husband starts going to his office. In this week my son’s umbilical cord falls down. Now he has a nice belly bottom, though it needs more time to dry out. My mom and I collect the cord to show my husband.
He cries out hard!
I am planning to put him on the wicker cradle. He sleeps around two hours without me. Swaddling is very supportive and it’s miracle. It’s the daytime. But things become worse at night. After the hour of sleeping, he starts crying very loudly and nothing becomes helpful.
All my daydream become faint!
At first, I think he becomes colic but the crying pattern is not a common one. We try a lot trickier. We light the bulb, we put the water tap on and drops of water fall on a steel bowl. But nothing works. After a while, my husband makes him calm by taking the baby on his arm. It takes my husband to hold my baby as the nurse do.
More of family come!
My father in law comes to visit us. He is stunning by thinking that he become a grandpa.In this week, my son gets out from the home first time for a walk. He is in a sling. My son, husband and I make a small tour around our home. It’s amazing.
His Week Three in the Earth: Change in the hormone
My son can grasp things with his tiny hands. I am so glad to see him holding my clothes while feeding. This week, my body starts relaxing. Feeding is not so much difficult for me to nurse him. He becomes a user with the feeding time and other things.
By this time, his eyes become slightly yellowish and we visit the pediatrician. He advises to keep my baby warm and put him under the sun within 10 am if possible. Within three days of continuous putting under the sun for an hour from7:45 am to 8:45 am the yellowish color disappear and we become relive.In his third week, I attend a nursing course. It’s very helpful for me. Now he gets more feed and his weight improves naturally.
My husband and I leave him to his grandma and go outside for an hour. It is bit embracing after a couple of months but all the time we talk about the baby.
I gain about 35 pounds weight during pregnancy. I have already lost 20 of them. I am feeling quite happy. But it is the time to say goodbye to my mom. I have never felt so alone after my childhood days. It seems we might never meet again and my life is ending.But things do not end here. My husband and I are very excited because we are going to give him a bath. We are careful about the warmth of the water. It takes a minute to give him a bath. We wrap him with a soft towel and make him dry.
His Week Fourth in the Earth: Become companion
This is the first time when we are alone. All of our relatives leave their place and my husband goes to the office. We go to the take a picture of him for the birth declaration. This is the first success of our mom and son. The ultimate feeling comes later this week. I start realizing that my time is no more mine alone. Someone already arrives to share it.
As my hubby start fulltime office, he needs a good sleep. On the other hand, my son and I awake most of the night and crying by holding each other. I often bark on my husband even while he wants to help me.My baby is now a grown-up kid who gets his first diaper. He also starts knowing people and reacting for known and unknown faces.
His Week Fifth in the Earth: Change in the hormone
I have started to take him outside of the home in his stroller. First time this week a feed him in public and proud of myself for doing something really big and impossible. Now I go outside and talk with my friends while he sleeps in his stroller.At last on five and half a week ago, he smiles first and round his head. It seems he wants to talk with us. Now I become with dealing with his activities and understands his trick. My son is now at a good weight. We have visited to the pediatrician for a routine check-up. The doctor warns me to continue nursing my baby.
His Week Sixth in the Earth: Life Getting Normal
Now the mama’s big boy sleeps in a routine at night. He sleeps at around 12:00 am and wakes up 5:00 am. He sleeps wearing diapers which help to complete the sleep. My son is paying attention to toys.Finally, my husband and I start enjoying the parenthood. We are now more confident about raring our boy with complete care and support.
Special Tips for New Mom
There are few events a new mom should not worry but careful. All of the events, you may find in separate websites but I’ve faced them together. Therefore, I share the most important ones, I have faced earlier-
Blood Spot Test
This test is not a mandatory one but it’s very helpful to early detection of 1- 9 serious health issues. The blood sample is taken at the age of 5-8 days. Most of the babies do not have the issues but it’s very important for those who are positive to the tests. The early finding can help to prevent them or save from death.
At the age of five days, a health professional will prick four drops of blood from his hill in a special card. Your baby might scream loudly but don’t worry. It’s very rare when a baby has a fever for this blood picking. You have to make sure his nursing. You also have to ensure the comfort. It’s better to swaddle him. Sometimes a second sample may need which doesn’t mean your baby has the disease.
The blood screen test is for one of the 9 life-threatening issues. If you or your husband has a history of the disease inform the health professional. The diseases are-
- Sickle cell disease: People with this disease often attacked by severe life-threatening infections. During the early stages of pregnancy, there is the routine screening for disease. Treatment of this disease is simple like vaccine or antibiotics if diagnosed early.
- Cystic Fibrosis: A baby with cystic fibrosis doesn’t get good weight and have a lung infection. Treatment like high energy diet, medication and therapy can improve the life quality at the early stage.
- Congenital Hypothyroidism: In this inherent disease, the thyroid doesn’t produce sufficient thyroxine hormone. Therefore, the baby doesn’t grow properly and have a learning disability. Additional support with thyroxine tablet can be helpful for him to grow properly.
- Genetic Metabolic Disease: There are six different types of metabolic disease a baby might have. All of them have different symptoms. Based on the severity of the attack, it might be life-threatening. Selective diet and sometimes medicine become helpful to control this diseases.
If you don’t want to conduct the tests, you have the options to test them with 12 months of his age. You have to perform all the test together or none because the amount of sample is the same for a single test or all.
You will get the result by email at his age of 6 to 8 weeks.
Average weight and Size
The average weight of a newborn usually ranges from 96 to 144 ounces. Within the first two or three days the baby weight reduces slightly. It’s common for all. At this time meconium gets out from his gut. Most importantly, your baby recovers with the second week.
There are a few factors that may affect your baby weight. The factors are-
- Duration of your pregnancy: Most often the premature babies are smaller and have less weight. However, babies born after the expected date are larger and have more weight.
- Gestational Diabetes: If you have gestational diabetes, there is a high chance that your baby will be larger in size and weight. More often the doctors suggest some treatment to control diabetes if there is a chance of early pregnancy termination or you have twin or more. Don’t worry! Often gestational diabetes disappears within a week of your pregnancy termination.
- Tobacco Smoking: Mothers who smoke tobacco have a smaller baby.
- Mal or poor nutrition: If you have poor nutrition or deficiency during pregnancy, your baby has a good chance to grow small.
- History: Family history is very important for having a large or small size baby. Ask your mother or mother in law?
If you were small in birth or your husband, your babies have higher chance to be small by birth. - Multiple Pregnancy: If you are having more than one baby at a time, your babies will be smaller than the single pregnancy.
- Gender: The baby boys are comparatively heavier and larger than the baby girls.
Normal weight loss regains within few days but if it’s not regaining, there might be some issue. If your baby is breastfeeding, he might not get sufficient feed or not nursing properly. Naturally, the weight of a baby taking formula is higher than the breastfeeding.
Urination and Bowl Movement
Urination at 1-3 hours interval is quite normal for a newborn. Don’t worry, if your baby has frequent urination in the colder weather. His urination can be a drop in hot weather. Baby urination should never be painful. If your baby cry at the time of urination, you should ask your pediatrician. It can be a symptom of urinary infection.
The color of urine could be dark to light straw. As your baby is not taking water, this color is normal. Often, you may find the pink color on a baby diaper which is also for concentrated urine. Don’t worry! Check twice to see the color is reddish or pink. If it’s pink, you don’t have to worry. However, if the pink color sustains for a day or two, contact your pediatrician.
Usually, a baby soaks four diapers in a day. If your day soaks one or two more diapers in a day, you don’t have to worry.
Now come to your baby bowl movement. Can you image what will be the color of your baby stool?
It’s dark green or black!
Meconium is the name of baby stool which comes to his gut before birth. It begins getting out from his opening on the world. Meconium passes from his gut in two to three days. Soon the color of stool will be greenish yellow.
During the days if your baby takes breastfeed, his stool will be like the mustard seed. The feces might be liquid to extremely soft. However, if your baby takes formula feed, his feces will be a bit harder but not more than sunflower butter.