Once you have had your baby, you take the little one home with you. Fortunately, there is a maternity assistant who will give you all kinds of useful tips and teach you tricks to care for the little one. But after a week the maternity help is gone and you are on your own. Many parents say that this is when the “difficulties” begin.
Routine
Very important, and you will hear it very often from everyone. But what do they mean by this? Simple: Just a fixed routine during the day (and night). In the early days, your child still sleeps quite a lot (perhaps too much in your opinion, but that’s the way it should be!) and it is better not to wake a sleeping child!
During the day
It is during the day, your baby wakes up, you take the little one with you and breast/bottle him. Then you play and/or cuddle with the little one. In the beginning this will only be for about 5 minutes and you will notice that your baby is soon tired again. As time goes by and your baby grows, playtime will become longer and longer. But pay close attention to the signals: if your child gets tired (pay particular attention to behavior such as yawning, touching his/her ear with his/her fingers, etc.), put him/her back in bed. 1.5 hours of continuous sleep is the minimum for a baby to have slept well. This especially in the first year!
Do not
What you shouldn’t do: wake your child earlier, because you want to show it to the visitors or you want to play/cuddle with it yourself. That’s all well and good, but many babies will not appreciate this and will start to cry. If you do this often, the baby will follow this pattern and therefore wake up more often and sleep shorter.
In the evening/at night
It is in the evening/night, your baby gets hungry and starts to cry. You are going to feed again, but don’t play with your baby now, because he or she needs to understand the difference between day and night and the fact that nighttime is for sleeping. In the first few weeks you can accept that your baby will and may wake up every 3 hours to be fed. But after a month (especially if the baby is of normal weight and drinks well), you can let the baby sleep a little longer. If he/she does wake up, let the baby lie down for a while. If your baby is crying this will be difficult, but you can slowly build up to 5-10 minutes at a time. You will notice that after some time your baby will realize it and will therefore no longer wake up often or even at all during the night until the next morning.
Do not forget
Your own night’s sleep and that of your partner is also very important! You just need the rest to have enough energy during the day. If possible, try to alternate with your partner, even if it is for an hour, everything is included!
