By Jenny Hemsley
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A NEW PARENT...
n the early days try to spend time getting to know
your baby and learning to recognise and respond to
their feeding cues as this can make feeding a calmer
activity for all. Early cues include smacking or licking
lips, opening and closing mouth, sucking on lips/ tongue/
hands/ fingers/ toys/ clothes. Later cues include rooting
around the chest, trying to position for feeding, legs
and arms circling. If you miss or don’t respond quickly
enough to these cues your baby will most likely get
quite frantic in their movements and start crying. At
this point, you’ll probably need to calm your baby
before attempting to feed them.
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Expectant parents are often keen to know what their day will
look like with a newborn and what they should expect in terms
oftheir baby’s feeding and sleeping patterns.
In the first few weeks, there is unlikely to be any reliable
observable pattern but you’re quite likely to find caring for a newborn a full-on experience.
ewborns have tiny stomachs (5-7ml i.e. a teaspoon) at birth, increasing to the size of a small orange (80-150ml) by 1 month which
helps to explain the need to feed frequently and why they are incapable of sleeping through the night.
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