Babies vary from the beginning in how much sleep they need; a really wakeful baby may never sleep for more than 12 hours. You can’t care for a wakeful baby in short bursts and ignore him in between; he makes himself felt all day and maybe most of the night too. ⢠If he starts […]
Most small babies love to be carried and cuddled, but some do not. If yours is an uncuddly baby, he may seem to resent the physical restriction of being held. • Instead of molding himself to the curves of your body, he probably wriggles and fights. He may hurt your feelings; you may have to
Baby’s muscle control improves rapidly in the second to fourth months, moving down from neck and shoulders to include the upper back. If you pull him gently into sitting position, he can support his head and shoulders and the upper part of his spine, the remaining sag is from the waist down. ⢠By now,
Getting moving opens up a new world of fun for your baby, but a hazardous one. – Check and recheck your safety precautions. And remember the floor is now his natural habitat, so whenever you lift him off the floor and into any kind of seat he must be strapped in, and it must be so
Sometimes a baby seems to come out of her mother’s womb and into her arms and heart in a single move. Parents sometimes describe a feeling of instant recognition, so that all the waiting and wanting of pregnancy and labor culminate not just in a baby, but in this baby. But that kind of instant
After three months, your baby will cry much less than before, because however often she starts, picking her up will usually stop her. The nature of her crying changes too, and although you might not be able to describe her cry language in words, you’ll certainly find yourself reacting differently to different cries. You know
Physical development goes in fits and starts, and a baby’s common sense is nonexistent. It isn’t enough to be careful about what you do, you have to foresee what he might do. These are some of the things that often catch parent unaware: ⢠Babies who aren’t crawling yet can wriggle and roll themselves off
Many six to nine month old babies won’t sit on a lap at all. They grab for clothes or hair and haul themselves to use the adult’s knee for a trampoline. It’s another couple of months before your baby is able to support his full weight, though. But once he can, it won’t be long
Babies can’t be immunized against every kind of infectious illness, but they can and should be protected against the killer diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough or pertussis, tetanus, and polio, and then against the common illnesses like measles, mumps, and rubella which can be serious in themselves or dangerous to certain groups (as rubella is
New babies don’t need to be kept nearly as clean as most parents keep them. It’s adults who like them to smell of baby powder. If you and your baby enjoy the ritual of daily baths and shampoos from the beginning, fine. But if yours is one of the newborns who hates being undressed and
