Once you are home with your new baby, make a list of the priorities in your family’s life. At this early stage, it is natural that the baby should come first, but you must come next. You owe it to your family to keep well and happy so that their time with you and your new baby can be a positive experience and not one on which they could look back with negative feelings because everyone is stressed, disorganized and irritable. Do not try to do too much – set yourself just one main household task each day, such as putting washing in the machine or going to the laundrette, or ironing, or cooking to stock up the freezer, or shopping.
Category: Young Parent
Young Parent, Young Mother & Father
Educating your child on matters behavioral is most certainly your job, and it really shouldn’t be delegated to anyone else. Sadly, because we are given so little training on how to be parents, this necessary activity can often be very badly done. Let’s investigate it now in the light of recent research about how the brain works.
There are ways to control or even change the behavior of your child, but there’s one way that is sure to fail – retelling your child not to do something. After that sinks in, you need to think back and calculate how many times in the past month you have said to your child, perhaps with your voice raised: “Don’t do that”.
The fairy stories that you had read to you as a kid, and later maybe read for yourself, almost always ended with the words – “and they got married and lived happily ever after”.
Since you have been married, you may be wondering what on earth the fairy story writers were talking about!
How many people do you know – including yourselves – who live happily ever after?
But let’s not be cynical. One of the reasons we get married is to have children, right? But even that does not necessarily lead to living happily ever after, does it? In fact, it is likely that if you are a ‘normal parent’ living a ‘normal life’ – mortgage, medical bills, school fees, having to deliver and collect children from school, tuition classes, sports etc, etc, – and trying to hold down a job – overtime, home late, missing birthday parties, etc etc – you may begin to wonder whether it is all worth it. Problems with time, problems with money, sex life not being like it was… … You know the feeling I am sure.
Before a nap, after lunch, after bath, and before bedtime are all good reading times. The basic idea is to capitalize on periods when baby is receptive. Do not force your child to sit still when he wants to practice walking or when he is too tired or hungry. This will only frustrate him and make the reading experience unpleasant.
Erika recommends reading to baby regularly, twice a day, every day. Start with a short span of five to six minutes for each reading session and as your baby’s attention span increases, lengthen the reading time.
Your baby‘s inability to speak doesn’t stop her from expressing herself to you. Instead of words, she uses body language to communicate her feelings, thoughts and desires.
Look for language in her physical movements. Your baby tells you she has a tummy ache by drawing her knees tightly up to her stomach. You can tell she is relaxed when she lies flat on her back, gazing wide-eyed at the musical mobile.
Facial expressions are her way of communicating emotions. Psychologists have identified seven basic facial expressions that adults are capable of generating- unhappiness, joy, surprise, interest, disgust, terror and rage. Your baby too has enough control over her facial muscles to create all of these facial expressions herself.
As the birth of my third child approaches, breastfeeding anxiety is setting in. It’s not that I had problems feeding my two boys. On the contrary, my milk supply was ample and both of them were sucking away in no time.
What’s haunting me is the latter part of the love-hate relationship I have with nursing: leaking breasts the size of watermelons; feeling like I belong on a meadow among the cows; constantly smelling of breast milk; horrible cotton pads stuffed into bras that look like something from Grandma’s underwear drawer; and being the only one who can feed the baby in the middle of the night.
Reality Checking Your Body
The first shocking realization comes when new mothers realize that they still look six months pregnant after being wheeled out of the delivery room! I remained quite plump for the first two months, and only started to regain my figure in the seventh month.
According to doctor research explains that the amount a mother loses immediately after delivery would depend on the weight of the baby (usually 3 to 3.2kg), placenta (1/7th of the baby’s weight) and amniotic fluid (1 to 1.54); on average, 7kg in all.
“How long she takes to lose all the weight from pregnancy will depend on how much she has gained. So, don’t put on too much weight; 10 to 12kg is just perfect,” says doctor, who recommends total breastfeeding, dieting and exercise after the first six weeks of birth as good ways to regain your svelte pre-birth figure.
You want your baby to have a head start in life, to be an interested learner who is full of curiosity. And there is no doubt that your baby’s development depends on the level of stimulation he receives at home. For instance, he is more likely to babble loudly if you speak to him, play with him, sing to him, and tell him stories in the early months in life. Likewise, he is more likely to show an interest in his surroundings if he is given exciting toys that will attract his attention. Your baby responds positively to this sort of stimulation — quite simply, it helps him thrive.
But finding the balance between too little, too much, and just the right amount can be difficult. Under-stimulation of your baby eventually causes him to be passive and lethargic — lack of toys, games, attention from parents, songs and other play activities has this effect. He quickly adjusts to the status of inactivity. And when he does receive stimulation, he doesn’t know how to react.
Shortly after John’s first-month celebration, we received a belated present from my husband’s boss – two children’s books and a card that said, “Read to John. Give him a head start.”
My husband and I were delighted with the present because we ourselves were avid readers who had more shelf space for books than clothes, pots and pans, and sports equipment combined. I recalled the warm memories of reading when I was little – skipping along beside my mother as she led us to the Bordland Community Library where my sister and I would spend hours sitting cross-legged on the floor, devouring books of all kinds. As I wanted John to start building similar memories, I began reading to him immediately.
There is nothing better than having our kids playing outdoors, making new friends, feeling the breeze blowing through their hair and exercising without even realizing it. But even as our kids are having the time of their lives, studies show that we have a reason to be cautious and careful — after all most children rack up 50 – 80 per cent of their sun exposure before the age of 18. How many of us can keep our children indoors during the recommended hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.?