First Days at Home With Your Newborn Baby

Your day has finally arrived as you bring home your newborn baby from the hospital. As all other parents do, you must have prepared for that moment the last nine months. You may already have prepared a baby room full of many things your newborn baby could possibly want. You may also already have read many books on broad topics from what name to be chosen for your baby to when you can expect your baby deliver its first words.

Now that moment has finally arrived. There in the crib lies your sleeping baby and one of the most exciting adventures of your life is about to begin. The first one week home from the hospital is just as important to you as it is to your baby. Being new parents, you will have gone through an exciting birth that will have made you breathless and exhilarated.

During your first days at home you will likely have many visitors to come, especially if you are from a big family. However, it would be wise if you limit the amount of visitors that you welcome into your home. You will need time to recuperate and settle into the routine that a sleeping, feeding, and often bathing baby brings into your life.

As a new mother you will need to really pay specific attention to the way that you are feeling. This is to prevent those "baby blues" feeling from making you creep up and surprising you unexpectedly. However it is understandable to feel a bit out of sorts and sad for the first couple of weeks after giving birth. Just don't get drowned into it.

From physical point, your body is going through some major physical changes after the birth of your baby. Changes will be made to your hormones and you likely will be feeling a lack of sleep. You need to be more patient towards yourself and understand that all these feelings are normal. If you do, in a couple of weeks things will feel better for you.

But if you find that your feeling gets more and more depressed and you find it difficult to care for yourself and your family then you should consult your doctor. He/she can judge if you are suffering from a condition called postpartum depression. Though not serious, postpartum depression can cause a new mother to be despondent, tired, and subject to emotional swings and loss of appetite.

During the first week at home, your whole family will be adjusting to a presence of additional member of your family. And if you have other child/children at home, you may be dealing with feelings of jealousy from your new baby's sibling(s) as the new baby takes center attention.

Just make sure that you involve your other child/children in the day-to-day activities that are part of the new baby's routine. Let older sibling(s) help you with diaper changing, feeding, or just sitting and holding the new baby if possible.

Now is your time to adjust to the changes in your life (though you might have experienced it before with your older child/children) and settle into an enjoyable routine.