Your baby is finally here! Later nine months of waiting, wondering and anticipating, that sugariness-smelling bundle of cuteness is in your arms.

Perhaps you didn't expect your newborn to be puffy-eyed and wrinkled with a bit of a conehead, but it makes sense because her long stay in your cramped and watery uterus, followed past a tight squeeze through the birth canal.

Luckily she'due south beautiful to y'all, and happily she'll go even more photogenic as the calendar week progresses.

Remember to savor all those first cuddles, kickoff feedings and showtime skin-to-peel snuggles. Now's the time to showtime the bonding procedure with the newest member of your family unit.

Keep in heed, those feelings of love and attachment don't always happen automatically, simply sometimes have time to grow over the weeks and months ahead.

What can yous wait during your newborn's first week? Here's a glimpse.

Your newborn and 1-week-old baby's development

At a Glance

Sleeping basics

Newborns upward to 3 or 4 months quondam demand xiv to 17 hours of sleep in a 24-hour menstruum, usually waking every two to iv hours to eat.

Feeding nuts

Breastfed babies should eat as much as they want at this historic period, just a general rule of thumb is roughly xvi to 24 ounces of chest milk or formula in 24 hours.

Did you lot know?

Baby will lose weight after birth. Almost all newborns will get out the hospital or birthing centre weighing less than when they first checked in.

What will your infant exist able to do this week? She'll exist able to elevator her head briefly when placed on her tummy. She'll too exist able to focus on objects that are within eight to 12 inches away — exactly the distance your face will be when you're gazing at her, something you'll probable be doing a lot this week (and in the weeks to come)!

Just perhaps the virtually noticeable of her newborn behaviors volition be those built-in newborn reflexes that come standard consequence to all newborns, including the all-important rooting reflex (when her cheek is stroked she'll plough in that direction), which helps baby locate the breast or canteen, and the sucking reflex (nature's way of ensuring baby gets those feeds at the breast or bottle).

Don't be surprised if your baby seems very sleepy at kickoff. A long stretch of pronounced drowsiness the 2nd and even third solar day of life is to be expected — and possibly designed to give newborns a chance to recover from the exhausting work of beingness born. And you thought you were the only 1 who was tired!

She'll have longer periods of wakefulness every bit the weeks progress. For now, take advantage of her sleepiness and attempt to residual when she's resting.

Your newborn and 1-week-old baby's growth

The average newborn will weigh in around 7½ pounds and measure about 20 inches long. Is your baby bigger or smaller than that?

The vast majority of full-term newborns counterbalance between v½ and 9½ pounds and clock in between eighteen and 22 inches long.

Here'south something you may non accept been expecting: Your lilliputian 1 will lose some weight in the first few days after nativity. In fact, nearly all newborns volition exit the infirmary weighing less than they did when they first born, with an boilerplate loss of five to 10 percent of their birth weight during their first week.

Wondering when your little one volition compensate that weight? Breastfed infants — who take in just teaspoons of colostrum during the early days of feeding — won't return to their birth weight until well into their second calendar week. Formula-fed babies may come across their weight gain pitter-patter back up before than that.

Your newborn and 1-week-old baby'due south health

What's on the agenda for your newborn baby in the health department?

Baby Apgar tests and scores

Doctors will determine your baby'southward full general condition afterward using the Apgar score, which will assess baby's appearance, pulse, reflexes, muscle tone and animate. Read More

Vitamin K injection

While in the infirmary or birthing eye, the staff will administer a vitamin Yard shot to enhance your petty baby's blood-clotting ability. Read More than

Newborn screening tests

Other screenings on tap for your newborn include a test for metabolic and hormonal disorders, a built heart affliction test and a hearing test. Read More than

The 1-week well-baby visit

Baby'south first pediatrician appointment outside the hospital is normally scheduled for within a calendar week later nascency, where she'll receive a consummate test. Read More than

Postpartum & new infant tips

Understanding infant'due south weight

What makes your infant counterbalance more than or less than the newborn in the next bassinet?

Several factors come into play, including your ain diet and weight, both before and during pregnancy.

For example, if you're overweight, y'all may take a heavier baby; if you don't get enough nutrients while you're pregnant, your baby may be smaller.

Other factors that tin play a role include your prenatal wellness, your own birth weight plus genetics, whether your baby is a boy or a daughter (boys tend to be heavier), whether this is your firstborn (they tend to be smaller than subsequent children), whether your baby is a twin or triplet (multiples tend to be smaller than singletons), and your baby's race (white babies are sometimes larger than Black American, Asian American or Native American infants).

Your first postpartum poop

You've only pushed out some 7 (more than or less) pounds of baby — so why are you freaking out virtually having to push button out that first (probably small) postpartum poop? Maybe information technology'southward because you just pushed out that 7 pounds of baby!

Information technology's true — that marvelous milestone (your first BM later delivery) may be a fleck slow in coming. For ane affair, your stomach muscles, which help you go, have become stretched and weakened. For another, your bowel itself may exist reluctant to get back to work right abroad — especially if those muscles were traumatized during childbirth (give me a break, will ya?).

Aside from that, but just as powerful, is the fearfulness factor. You're probably worried almost splitting your stitches (don't worry, you lot won't), aggravating your hemorrhoids, experiencing intense pain (again, then soon?!!), or being embarrassed, especially if you're withal sharing a room in the hospital.

Just the sooner yous get your bowels moving again, the better all around.

Every bit always, fiber and liquids are your friends (though don't overdo either), and a little walking (easy does information technology at first) can assist too. If necessary, a stool softener and a mild laxative can team up to make that kickoff movement a footling less uncomfortable, simply enquire your practitioner first.

Your newborn's advent

The fine, downy pilus that might be covering your infant'south body is chosen lanugo, and it will fall out within the adjacent few weeks. Slated to go, also, may exist the luxurious mane your baby might be sporting.

That outset head of hair — if your baby has hair at all — is likely to be replaced by locks that are entirely different in texture and color.

And that swollen scrotum on your babe boy or those bloated labia on your little girl? Perfectly normal (they're due to hormones of yours all the same circulating in your newborn'southward body). They're besides temporary, and will be down to baby proportions earlier you know it.

Puffy eyes postpartum

If you pushed long and hard to get that cute little babe out, yous may feel as though you've gone a few rounds in the ring — and you may look that way, too.

Black, blueish and bloodshot optics are typical of make new moms, but this postpartum symptom is harmless and temporary, the result of straining the muscles in your confront when pushing.

The good news is that the beaten-up look will disappear and your eyes will return to normal in a affair of weeks.

What might linger a petty longer into the postpartum period are the bags underneath your eyes. Fatigue (which volition soon become your eye name) and extra bodily fluids (still left over from pregnancy) brand a stiff cocktail when it comes to puffy optics.

So what to practise? Y'all tin can try to speed upwardly the recovery by applying a common cold compress several times a day. Common cold tea bags work well, as well — tea contains tannin, a natural astringent that may aid reduce puffiness.

Yous tin as well effort an eye gel, which you can keep chilled in the fridge, that contains such depuffing ingredients as arnica, chamomile and cucumber, or attempt to forestall baggy eyes in the first place by sleeping on a couple of pillows to raise your head and by avoiding salty foods and booze.

And residual, residual, balance whenever you can!

Newborn jaundice signs

A mutual status that turns a baby's skin yellowish, jaundice occurs in 60 percent of all babies, typically showing up ii to three days afterward birth and lasting a week to 10 days (sometimes longer for premature babies).

In nearly cases jaundice goes away on its own (or sometimes with mild treatment) with no ill furnishings.

Although at that place isn't anything y'all tin can exercise to forbid jaundice, it's important to lookout man for the telltale signs, especially since the status may not develop until after y'all bring your baby home from the hospital, and seek handling if necessary.

Jaundice often appears on the face first and and then spreads to the rest of the baby's torso, including the whites of the optics.

A skillful way to check a lighter-skinned infant for jaundice is to put your niggling one in natural sunlight and gently press the forehead and nose with your fingers. In darker-skinned babies, the yellowing may be visible only in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, and so check there.

If the peel appears yellowish where you made the impressions, call your pediatrician.

The doc will probably desire to examine your baby and take a blood sample to determine the levels of bilirubin, a pigment that is produced in the blood when the body breaks down old reddish blood cells.

Gaining parent confidence

Parents aren't born — they're fabricated on the task: ane muddy diaper, ane marathon feeding session, i bath, one outing (including one outing when you forget to pack wipes and you all of a sudden need them urgently), ane sleepless nighttime at a time.

Luckily, babies are forgiving as y'all learn. And what might help about — likewise the passing of time and the aggregating of experience — is to know that you're in good company.

Every mom (fifty-fifty those seasoned pros you probably eye with envy) feels overwhelmed in those early weeks, particularly when postpartum exhaustion (teamed with recovery from childbirth) is taking its price.

So cut yourself plenty of slack (and cut yourself a piece of cheese and peradventure a piece of bread, also — low blood sugar can contribute to that overwhelmed feeling) — and give yourself plenty of time to adjust and get with the program of parenting.

Pretty presently (sooner than you think), the everyday challenges of baby care won't exist then challenging anymore. In fact, they'll come so naturally, you'll be able to do them in your sleep (and will often feel as though you are). You'll exist diapering, feeding, burping and soothing with the all-time of them. You'll exist a parent — and parents, in example y'all haven't heard, tin can do annihilation.

Breast engorgement

Around ii to five days later on delivery, when your milk comes in (earlier that your breasts are producing colostrum), your breasts get engorged and astonishingly hard — difficult as a rock, or rather two rocks. Two very sore, very agonized rocks.

If y'all're not breastfeeding, the engorgement should subside inside a few days. In this case, you lot'll want to wear a snug-fitting bra to minimize engorgement.

Yous'll also want to avert any kind of nipple stimulation or milk expression — otherwise, your breasts will continue to produce milk. Ice packs tin help with the discomfort.

If you are breastfeeding, you lot can expect engorgement to diminish within two to iii days. Just it may take a few weeks for your babe and your breasts to work out a proficient demand-and-supply relationship.

Until and then, in that location are some steps you tin take to minimize the pain and discomfort of engorgement, including using warm compresses before a feeding session and cold compresses after, expressing a little milk with a pump or by hand, massaging your breasts, and most of all by feeding your baby oft, every two to 3 hours.

From the What to Look editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, writer ofWhat to Expect When Y'all're Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such equally peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions and highly respected health organizations. Learn how we go along our content accurate and up-to-appointment by reading our medical review and editorial policy.

  • What to Look the First Yr, 3rd edition, Heidi Murkoff.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Newborns Screenings: What Tests Will My Baby Get in the Hospital?, April 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Baby Apgar Tests and Scores, April 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Vitamin K Injection in Newborns, December 2018.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Did You lot Requite Birth to a Conehead Infant?, May 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, What Will My Babe Look Like?, October 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, half-dozen Tips to Care for Your Newborn's Umbilical Cord, Dec 2018.
  • WhatToExpect.com, The 1-Week Well-Baby Visit, Feb 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Moro Reflex and Other Newborn Reflexes, June 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, How to Swaddle a Baby, June 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Jaundice in Newborn Babies, October 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, How Much Should My Infant Eat?, April 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Here'southward How Much Slumber Babies Need, June 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Newborn and Baby Sleep Nuts, May 2020.
  • American Academy of Pediatrics, Outset Month: Concrete Appearance and Growth, Baronial 2009.
  • American Academy of Pediatrics, Where We Stand: Administration of Vitamin K, November 2019.
  • American Academy of Pediatrics, Newborn Reflexes, August 2009.
  • American University of Pediatrics, Depression During and Later Pregnancy: You Are Not Alone, December 2018.
  • American Optometric Clan, Infant Vision: Birth to 24 Months of Historic period.
  • March of Dimes, Quick Stats: Birthweight, December 2020.
  • Academy of Michigan, Concrete Growth in Newborns, August 2019.
  • UT Southwestern Medical Center, What Parents Should Know About Newborn Tests and Vaccinations, July 2016.
  • National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Evolution, What Disorders Are Newborns Screened for in the United states of america?, September 2017.

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