Being a parent is something rewarding and pleasant, although it takes time to fell comfortable with this new role. Both new parents and the babies are learning together. You don’t have to expect to know everything at once.

A new born sleeps more on the first few weeks; usually either in deep sleep, feeling sleepy, awake, cranky, half sleeping, and crying. Watch how your baby change from one situation to another. Every baby is different. A communication between the parents and the baby is very important. Each baby is born as a unique individual. Don’t give up if you baby doesn’t behave as how you wanted him/her to be.

Watch your babies closely, and see how they’re actually giving clues/hints about how they wanted to be treated. Crying is the only method for them to communicate their needs. They usually won’t stop crying until you fulfill their needs. Many parents are confused about what cause the crying?

Baby cries usually because of:

1. Hunger. On the first few weeks, newborn babies get hungry more often. Feed your baby when he/she showing some signs of hunger (looking for something, try to reach to anything that touch the baby’s cheek, sucking the finger, cranky, etc) The best time is to feed your baby in between full and hungry, so your baby doesn’t get too cranky.
2. Feeling lonely. When a baby stays calm and peaceful right after you hold your baby, means your baby misses you. It’s not about pampering your baby, but it’s a need for every baby to get some love from the parents.
3. Feeling hot/cold. Touch the back or the tummy area and check if you feel some heat or cold. Adjust the clothing to make your little angel feel more comfortable.
4. Too much distraction. Too many people around making noise at one time can make your baby feel exhausted. Your baby needs some quiet and peaceful time as well. When this happens, bring your baby to a quieter room to sooth him/her.
5. Shocked. Have you seen your baby suddenly moves, shocks, and cries? Wrap a warm blanket around the body and carry her to calm your baby.
6. Wet diaper. Some babies actually don’t mind about this, but some do.
7. In pain. There’s a possibility that your baby is in pain or feeling uncomfortable, maybe there’s a safety pin poking the skin or the label in the outfit irritate the skin, or a sharp zipper.
8. Sleepy. Some babies get really cranky when they feel sleepy.
9. Behavior. Certain babies are more sensitive than others. Don’t give up, it might needs longer time to adjust themselves to their new environment outside the womb.

Tags : hungry baby, milk, parents, Why does your baby cry?

Breastmilk is like the best milk ever. Each drop of breast milk that you give to your baby contains the exact amount of fat, amount of immune system, and the exact amount of other nutrition you baby needs. Besides that, breast milk also has a lot of benefit. Here are some of the benefits

1. No Menstrual Cycle or Ovulation During Breastfeeding
The choice to breastfeed will effect your reproductive cycle. Nursing your baby can cause your body to stay in a state of amenorrhea longer after giving birth. This means that you have no menstrual cycles or ovulation, nice right?

2. Lower Risk for Osteoporosis
There is some evidence that nursing a baby lowers your risk for osteoporosis later in life. Your body takes calcium from your bone reserves during lactation - but once your baby begins solids and weans your body replaces the calcium at an increased rate. Studies also have shown that women who breastfed their children are at lower risk of hip fracture and other bone problems.

3. Saves You a Lot of Money
Breast feeding definitely will give you economic advantages for you as well. To give you a picture, using formula can cost anywhere between $1,160 and $3,915! Even if you receive assistance from the United State’s Women Infants and Children program (WIC), you will still have to pay for some of your baby’s formula. This is true with other nations’ assistance programs.

The cost savings of nursing your baby are also seen in your baby’s good health. You pay less in medical bills, prescription costs, and insurance co-pays because your baby stays healthier than she might if she were being fed artificial baby milk.

4. Less Stress
Nursing allows you to feed your baby while lying down. You can nap with your baby - and you should - and if you choose a family bed you can nurse your baby right in your bed at night. You don’t have to get up, and after the first few weeks you’ll hardly notice your baby waking at night. This results in a far more rested you, and a happy baby.

5. Other Natural Benefits
Your body and your baby expect to breastfeed. Nursing is a natural continuum moving from pregnancy and birth. By breastfeeding your baby, you have access to an instant mothering tool that will help you grow more confident in yourself and your mothering instincts. And you will have a happy baby!

So don’t quit breast feeding your baby, be patient and keep doing it until your baby is 6 months old!

Being a parent gets even busier when you have to take your baby back and forth to the hospital go get some immunization. Immunization are important for your baby’s health, so let’s take a look at the common immunization schedule for your baby (age 0 to 1 year)

immunization can be given starting at age:
1 month : Hepatitis B
2 month : Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis
3 month : H Influenzae type B
4 month : Inactivated polio, Pneumococcal Conjugate
12 month : Measles, Mumps, Rubella ; Varicella (Chicken Pox)

Tags : baby immunization

If you are having your first child, you might wonder when you can start introducing your baby solid food. Here’s some information about it

Solid food is usually introduced to babies when they are between 4 and 6 months. Until then, breast milk or formula provides all the calories and nourishment your baby needs and can handle. Baby’s digestive system simply isn’t ready for solids until 6 months old.

Nevertheless, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be breastfed exclusively for at least six months although babies already eat solids earlier.

Below is the list of signs hinting that your baby is ready for solid food:

• Head control. Your baby needs to be able to keep his head in a steady, upright position.

• Losing the “extrusion reflex.” To keep solid food in his mouth and then swallow it, your baby needs to stop using his tongue to push food out of his mouth.

• Sitting well when supported. Even if he’s not quite ready for a highchair, your baby needs to be able to sit upright to swallow well.

• Chewing motions. Your baby’s mouth and tongue develop in sync with his digestive system. To start solids, he should be able to move food to the back of his mouth and swallow. As he learns to swallow efficiently, you may notice less drooling. He may also be teething around the same time.

• Significant weight gain. Most babies are ready to eat solids when they’ve doubled their birth weight (or weigh about 15 pounds) and are at least 4 months old.

• Growing appetite. Your baby seems hungry — even with eight to ten feedings of breast milk or formula a day.

• Curiosity about what you’re eating. Your baby may begin eyeing your bowl of rice or reaching for a forkful of fettuccine as it travels from your plate to your mouth.

Now that you know that your baby is ready for solid food, here are types of solid food that is suitable for your baby:

4-8 Months
“Baby” cereal and soft cooked thinly pureed fruits and veggies should be baby’s first solid food experiences. Single ingredients only and at a space of 4 days apart with introducing each new food. You may skip the cereal and begin with a fruit like avocado or begin with a veggie like butternut squash or sweet potato

8-10 Months
Bring on some spices and the softly mashed, or chopped into fine pieces of fruits, vegetables, meats, pasta and dairy such as yogurt and cheese. Pasta, veggies, and fruit should all be soft cooked and possibly mashed with a fork or masher. Raw fruits are often introduced at this stage. Meats and proteins such as egg yolk, should be cooked and pureed or chopped into small soft bits. If offering Tofu, you need not cook it first. Ensure dairy offered is easily manageable.

11-12 Months
By this stage, your baby should be just on the brink of or is already eating “table foods”. Your baby may already love self-feeding and may enjoy a variety of spices in her cuisine. Encourage a healthy exploration of foods, tastes and textures as well as eating utensils. However, always keep in mind that certain foods may still pose an allergy or other type of reaction risk.

Tags : baby food, baby solid food

In the old days, the only baby bottles available were made of glass. However, due to glass’ heavy and breakable properties, plastic bottles came along with lighter and shatter-proof benefit compared to glass bottles. Nevertheless, recent reports that a type of plastic found in baby bottles might cause potentially harmful changes in developing babies has left parents wondering if perhaps old-fashioned glass wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

Glass Bottles

Glass Cons:
- easily shattered: drop one on the floor in the middle of a late-night feeding, and you’ll have a roomful of shattered glass to clean up. Glass is also heavy and cumbersome.

Glass Pros:
- glass bottles are sturdy
- glass doesn’t contain any chemicals that could potentially get into the baby’s formula.

Plastic Bottles

Plastic Cons:
- concerns have arisen about the polycarbonate type of plastic bottles because they contain a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA). Bisphenol A is also used in everything from compact discs to the lining of cans, as well as other consumer products. A 2007 report by the organization Environment California showed that when heated, five popular brands of BPA-containing plastic baby bottles leached high levels of bisphenol A.
In studies of lab rats, low levels of BPA were linked to changes in the brain and reproductive system that researchers say may contribute to an increased risk of prostate and breast cancers, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, and early puberty.

Plastic Pros:
- Plastic baby bottles are lightweight, strong, and unbreakable. However,

Having known the facts, it would be wise to just choose plastic bottles which does not contain the Bisphenol A. If you want to avoid any bottles that contain it, look for the #7 recycling symbol or “PC” on the bottom. That’s usually a sign that the bottle contains BPA. However, not all plastics labeled with #7 recycling code contain BPA. Some bottle brands, such as Born Free, explicitly say that their products are not made of Bisphenol A.

Here is the list of Bisphenol A free plastic bottles:
bottles by Born Free, MAM and Adiri, breast pumps and supplies by Medela and Mother’s Milkmate, and sippy cups by Born Free, Klean Kanteen, Thermos, and SIGG.

Tags : newborn baby bottles, plastic bottles, plastic or glass bottles

You are a smoker and after delivering your baby you still can’t stop smoking. Will smoking have any effect on the quality of breastmilk? Is it safe to give my baby my breastmilk if I am a smoker?

First, some fast facts about breastfeeding and cigarette smoke:

- It is far from ideal to smoke and breastfeed–but it is worse to smoke and not breastfeed.

- The half-life of nicotine is two hours, meaning that two hours after smoking a cigarette, half of the nicotine released into the body remains in the body.

- Nicotine decreases production of prolactin, the hormone that stimulates milk production.

- Women who quit smoking during pregnancy were more likely to breastfeed for six months or longer.

- The breast milk of smokers during pregnancy contained less of healthy fats than milk produced by non-smokers.

Now after knowing all those facts in conclusion, can a woman breastfeed while she is a smoker?

The short answer is yes. However, it is advisable for a mother who smokes to continue breastfeeding and attempt to quit smoking. Some mothers may mistakenly believe that if they are smoking it’s better for their babies if they switch to formula. In reality, smoking and formula-feeding is the worst case scenario.

There are also consequences in breastfeeding your baby if you are a smoker:
- breastfed babies of smokers are more likely to experience colic (excessive crying) compared to breastfed babies of nonsmokers.
- nicotine can alter the taste of breastmilk. Babies may dislike the taste and expresses their distaste by being cranky
- If the mother smokes more than 15 cigarettes a day, infants can exhibit symptoms of nicotine poisoning . These symptoms may include vomiting after a feed, grey skin colour, loose stools, an increased heart rate and restlessness.

Also don’t forget about secondhand smoke will affects your baby?

Babies who are “smoked over” are more likely to be hospitalised and to suffer from respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses. Studies show that these infants are more likely to be colicky and irritable and to experience a wide range of problems from apnoea (short periods when the baby stops breathing), vomiting, poor growth, squint (strabismus, cast or lazy eye), hearing impairment and unexplained death. Smoking depresses the immune system, leaving both the mother and infant more vulnerable to infection, allergy and other immunodeficiency problems.

So in conclusion, it is ok for a smoker to breastfeed a baby, however, it is best to try to quit smoking as nicotine may do harm to both you and your baby.

Tags : can a smoker breastfeed?, smoker breastfeeding

As a new parent, you might wonder why your baby sleeps for a very long time. And the biggest question of all is : Why is my baby keep waking up at night and keep sleeping during daytime? Lovelymotherhood.com is here to help you with a general guideline of how many hours of sleep your baby requires

This is the chart of the baby’s age along with the nighttime sleep, daytime sleep, and total sleep the baby requires

Age Nighttime Sleep Daytime Sleep Total Sleep
1 month 8 1/2 7 15 1/2
3 months 10 5 15
6 months 11 3 1/4 14 1/4
9 months 11 3 14
12 months 11 1/4 2 1/2 13 3/4
18 months 11 1/4 2 1/4 13 1/2
2 years 11 2 13
3 years 10 1/2 1 1/2 12

Keep in mind that most children need lots of sleep (lots and lots). Often times, if a child has poor sleep habits or refuses to go to bed before 11 at night, parents will think that the baby just doesn’t need sleep. Well actually that’s false, in fact, it’s likely that such a child is actually lacking of sleep.

Look at the questions below, if your answer is “yes”, then your baby may need more time to sleep.

• Does your child fall asleep almost every time he’s in a car?

• Do you have to wake your child almost every morning?

• Does your child seem cranky, irritable, or overtired during the day?

• On some nights, does your child seem to crash much earlier than his usual bedtime?

To change this pattern, you’ll need to help him develop good sleep habits and set an appropriate bedtime.
Eventually your child will stop napping and start doing all of his sleeping at night. Preschoolers and young elementary school students still need up to ten or 11 hours of sleep a night, however the hours will gradually diminish. A teenager will need only about nine or ten hours of sleep per night.

Tags : Add new tag, baby sleep patterns, baby sleeping hours

Things you do and not do during the whole pregnancy period can effect the health of your baby. Even pregnancy actually can be a period to improve your health through a healhty lifestyle, which could be a habit after the childbirth.

Here are some simple tips to have a healthy baby during pregnancy:

• Visit your doctor regularly
• Don’t smoke and consume alcohol or drugs
• Consume prenatal vitamin daily
• Follow your doctor advise
• Avoid any poisonous chemical products
• Keep a healthy lifestyle through eating healthy food, regular exercise, avoid any stress mind, and enough sleep/rest

Tags : childbirth, healthy baby, pregnancy, prenatal vitamin

The most common reason of why human hiccups is because of the cold weather. It doesn’t always happen that way on babies. Babies, especially newborns are often hiccuping. It’s normal and usually there’s nothing to worry about. This hiccup begin from early pregnancy, and you can feel it around the late second or early third trimester.

As we all know, baby grows really fast. In one-two months, you need to get a new set of bigger clothes. The baby’s internal organs are still immature and growing. It increases the tendency of hiccups. So, these hiccups may be a sign that your baby is developing

My own experience:

My little angel is 41 days old. She hiccups quite often. Sometimes I just let it be, time wil pass her hiccups. Another time, I breastfeed her (only when she wants it) to help to relax her diaphragm or 1 teaspoon of water. Don’t worry too much about it, but if you do, there’s no harm to ask your docter :).

Tags : baby development, hiccup, new born