Develop a consistent bedtime routine.
Setting a consistent nighttime routine—such as a warm bath and bedtime story—can be a helpful sleep trigger for your baby. It may not work right away, but after a couple of weeks your child will likely fall asleep easier and stay asleep longer. According to Dr. Robert Jacobson, MD, chairman and professor of pediatrics with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, this bedtime routine should include creating a peaceful setting in the home. “As twilight comes and the house gets quieter, probably the most important thing in this modern age is to turn the TV off an hour before the baby is going to fall asleep,” he says, explaining that the TV tends to charge the air and keep babies awake.
Pregnancy and Birth Category
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Thursday Tip
Tags: bedtime routines, newborn tips
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Raising an Organic Child
Keeping your baby on healthy natural products is not as easy as it appears at first.
Ideally cooking homemade meals for your baby is the way to go but often with our crazy lives it is easier to grab a bottle of ready-made food. There is an organic option though and one that offers you dairy and gluten free options.
Faithful to Nature is a South African website dedicated to providing you with organic alternatives!
The offer a range of organic baby food as well as ingredients for gluten and dairy free diets.
Following an organic diet from when baby is born is easier to maintain and introduce than if you decide to start baby on it when they are older.
So check out the website or consider the home made options over bottled food that contains preservatives, gluten and dairy!
Tags: dairy free diets, Faithful to Nature, gluten free diets
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Due date – what to expect
Giving birth is often glamourised in the media. One moment you are screaming in pain and the next minute your beautiful pink clothed baby is being handed to you. It all appears rather simple and tidy.
The reality is it is not always that simple, easy or tidy.
A few of the things I learnt about what to expect when you go in to have your baby (from a caesar point of view)
- You will be able to feel them working on you. It’s not sore or uncomfortable but you will feel movement.
- When baby comes out, she is not pretty and pink and cute. She will be covered in vernix.
- You will be separated from baby while they sew you back up and take you to recovery.
- You will be sore. Take the pain meds.
- Chances are strong that baby will scream – a lot.
- They will encourage you to feed as soon as possible. Try. You newborn is more than likely not going to latch perfectly and suck like a champion. Be patient.
- Let the nurses help. You are in the hospital for 3 days so let them help as much as they are willing to.
- Bathing a screaming newborn is frightening. Let the nurses help you. And if you wipe baby down for a few days thats also ok
- Baby blues normally arrive on day 3. You will cry, feel inadequate, feel overwhelmed and cry some more.
There are also a few emotions you really can never be prepared for.
- You will feel love like you have never ever felt before.
- You will feel pride like you have never felt before.
- You will feel a protectiveness that you have never felt before. (When your baby has their first set of injections you will imagine ways to kill the nurse)
- You will feel an intense contentedness.
No matter how much you read or ask about the day you give birth, nothing really prepares you for what happens that day. It is truely one of the greatest things you will ever experience.
Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone
Tags: birth, bringing baby home, Journey2Joy, labour, newborn
