You have just had your baby and are still in a haze of awe and wonder at the tiny little feet and hands your baby has. Life is just perfect and you look forward to feeding, changing, bathing and growing together as a family.
That is of course until the drugs wear off and reality of caring for a new born kicks in!
Suddenly, you feel overwhelmed by responsibility of getting your baby fed and correctly interpreting each cry, cough or snuffle. You begin to feel stress and anxious that your mistakes will have a life long effect on your poor poor baby…. and then the wheels come off. Is your baby getting enough milk? Are you feeding often enough? How do you KNOW when the breast is empty and that you need to offer the other side!?!
The truth is, that it is really simple. Just bear these few things in mind:
1. Look and listen for swallows. A visible sign is the deeper drop and longer pause of your baby’s lower jaw, usually preceded by 2-3 sucks. The audible cue is the little bubble popping sound you will often hear from your baby’s nose, similar to the nasal exhalation you do when you swallow.
2. Look at what and how much is coming out the other end. Are you moving toward the scrabled egg yellow everyone keeps talking about? If so, good! Remember from birth you have 5 colours of poo and 2 days for each colour…black, green, brown, orange yellow by day 10. Thereafter, it should be yellow all the way. How many? Roughly 8 by day 8 and then 8 everyday thereafter until the 4week mark where it reduces drastically!
Becoming a mum or dad for the first time is a little mind blowing, in a good way! Don’t put too much pressure on you, your other half or your baby. Just take each day as it comes. Before you know it, it will all be a normal part of your day.
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