Building a secure attachment with your baby happens through everyday interactions. Respond to their needs, mirror emotions, and practice sensitivity to foster trust and connection.
Key Concept: Attachment
- Secure attachment: when a child receives consistent, sensitive, and responsive care by a primary caregiver. This is built through small everyday interactions that you have with your child.
- Having a secure attachment relationship doesn’t mean that you immediately love your baby. You can build a secure attachment and also take time to get to know your baby, with plenty of room for ambivalent feelings.
- Baby blues is compared to an exaggerated PMS. Symptoms might include: crying for no reason, anxious, irritable, easily set off, impatient, and mood changes. Baby blues are common (50-80% of mothers) and usually goes away within the first few weeks.
What to Try: Attachment
- Practice responsive parenting by responding to your baby’s needs. This teaches your baby, “When I need her, she comes.”
- Mirror baby’s emotions. For example, when they cry, make a sad face. When they coo or look at you, make a noise and respond to them. This helps them feel seen and understood.
- Label and acknowledge their feelings. Labeling emotions can promote perspective taking later on.
- d support in the early days, weeks and months (and forever after). symptoms of concern regarding postpartum anxiety and/or
- depression, please seek help via your baby’s medical provider.
Key Concepts: Feeding
- Feeds can last anywhere from 20-45 minutes, depending on how baby is being fed.
- Remember that your baby’s stomach is small. On average, newborns drink 1.5-3 oz every 2-3 hours.
- Burping and spitting up is generally normal at this age and often has to do with an immature gastrointestinal system. If you notice consistent vomits, discomfort, or refusal to eat, check in with your pediatrician.
- Nipple confusion - can occur with breastfeeding and bottles, but there is little evidence that supports nipple confusion with pacifiers.
What to Try: Feeding
- To keep baby awake during a feed, change their diaper halfway through. Make sure to use newborn nipple size on bottles (unless instructed otherwise).
- Practice paced bottle feeding to help regulate the flow of the milk. Hold your baby upright (or close to upright) and hold the bottle at an angle. Tilt the bottle so the nipple fills with milk.
- If you’re breastfeeding or combo feeding, make sure you schedule time with your
- co-parent/partner to get a few minutes to yourself after a feed. A quick shower or a cup of coffee with the door closed can help you feel less handcuffed to the couch.
Key Concepts: Sleep
Newborns should be sleeping in a crib or bassinet at this age. Avoid swings or car seats for nighttime sleep.
Room sharing is encouraged for the first 6 months of life.
Keep your baby swaddled during naps and nighttime sleep. Swaddling supports self-regulation and will be around until 3-4 months of age (or when baby starts rolling over).
Nighttime wakeups are developmentally appropriate at this age due to immature sleep cycles and the frequent need to feed.
Naps are not established yet and can take place anywhere that is safe and convenient.
What to Try: Sleep
- Even though you can’t have a clear schedule, work on identifying a few routines that matter to you. This helps you and your baby. Start with a sleep routine, as your baby is taking frequent naps during the day. Every time you go to put them down for a nap, try to run through a similar routine. Shades down, white noise on, new diaper, swaddle, book, and a quick song. That’s just an example, so choose a routine that works for you.
- Offer your baby the chance to sleep every 1-1.5 hours to avoid an overtired baby.
- It’s totally normal for your baby to have extensive movement while asleep (wiggling, grunting, twitching). This has to do with an immature nervous system. It might seem like baby is awake but they really aren’t.
- Make sure that nighttime feedings are happening in the dark. Keep the environment quiet and calm, which helps your baby to establish nighttime versus daytime.
- During daytime feeds, keep the room bright and talk/sing. This helps them to differentiate daytime from nighttime.
- Practice Safe Sleep Habits to reduce the risk of SIDS
- Back is best
- Flat, firm sleep surface
- Separate sleep space in the same room
- Comfortable temperature
- Avoid products that claim to reduce the risk of SIDS
- Use a pacifier to help self soothe
Key Concepts: Development
- Tummy time is an important activity to do for your baby’s long-term motor development. It helps to strengthen the muscles in their neck, back, and shoulders. Your baby needs practice be able to sit, crawl and eventually walk.
- Tummy time can help prevent flat spots that can appear on a baby’s head (called positional plagiocephaly).
What to Try: Development
Do tummy time 2-3 times a day to begin for a few minutes. Try to do it when your baby is fed and content. The more your practice, the more comfortable they will get. That being said, tummy time is HARD. Expect that they won’t like it. Think about practicing your ability to support them through the hard stuff.
Key Concepts: Relationships
- There is plenty of unwanted advice that comes in the early days of parenting. Be prepared for this so it doesn’t catch you off guard.
- New responsibilities add up and it is normal to feel unprepared or overwhelmed. Stress between you and your partner or co-parent is expected during the time.
- Saying NO is an important part of maintaining your sanity and wellbeing during this time. Setting boundaries and prioritizing your needs is essential to your recovery and to your ability to care for your baby.
- Now that baby is here, it’s a good idea to set up a visitor policy that feels like the right fit for your family.
What to Try: Relationships
- Sit down with your partner/co-parent and consider the boundaries you’d like to set with friends and family. For example, are there certain times of day you want to avoid visitors?
- Try your best to divide and conquer the responsibilities that pile up at home. Who is owning what? This can help with the overwhelming feelings that come in these early weeks.
- Ask any friends/family who are sick to delay their visit until they are feeling better. Keep hand sanitizer and masks available for visitors.
- Encourage all kisses to be on top/on the back of baby’s head. Avoid kisses on the face.