Are you still coping well as a parent-to-be or a first-time parent? Turning as parents is such an unfamiliar journey but this is completely normal. Since you are reading up this, you are ready to learn and grow with your child! Here are some tips that might get you prepared on what to do and what not while adapting to your new role and responsibilities.
Dos:
1. Interact and respond to your baby
Babies will reach out to you in different ways for different needs. Usually, they will need your attention when they are hungry, tired or just want a hug from you. These are the reactions that you will need to recognize and give them a response to make them feel protected. If you can respond and interact with them consistently and lovingly, they know that they can rely on you.
Babies require a healthy space for them to learn and grow. You can interact with them by singing, reading, talking or have some fun games with them. You can interact with babies throughout daily routines like show them interesting things and help to develop their senses.
2. Seek advice and accept help from others
Seeking and accepting support from friends and family is important in your parenting journey to reduce trial and error. Don’t think that it is shameful to ask for help. Baby care and development are so important thus accepting advice from experienced parents and experts is necessary.
As a first time parent, you might not be familiar with what to buy, how to train your baby to sleep and so on. In fact, there are online mummy groups that you can seek support for. Not only to ask questions when you have, but you can also learn along the way when other parents share their problems and solutions. Buying baby products online is also easier when you can refer to others’ opinions as platforms like MumChecked encourages moms to leave a genuine review of the products.
3. Be ready to adapt
Since babies grow and change very quickly, you need to have a flexible parenting style. It is because babies are mentally and physically developing as they change from month to month and even from week to week. Just keep in mind that things don’t always go as planned, and don’t feel desperate when you keep facing challenges along growing up your baby. But do have confidence in yourself – you are learning together with your little one!
Don’ts
1. Ignore your baby
Babies are born to be connected with their caregivers. Imagine if you are left alone when you don’t understand what happened plus you are unable to take care of yourself. This might lead to negative outcomes where they will become either whiney or torn up inside. Also, don’t ignore when a baby cries for pain or asks for help. Babies are unlikely to have tantrums so crying is the only way to communicate their needs. If they are regularly distressed, they will easily get anxious later when they grow up.
2. Punish baby
It’s very important not to slap, hit, or spank your baby, even if you just want him to remember the lesson. But for babies, they cannot make a connection between the punishment and their behaviours so they will only have the feeling of pain at that moment. And punishment would negatively influence babies as they are learning by watching the behaviour of the parents.
3. Compare yourself to others
Just stop comparing yourself with other moms that you think they did a good job to successfully train their babies on sleeping or eating. By always comparing yourself with others, you will lose your confidence as a mother, and easily feel frustrated. But how can we replace it with something else? Show more understanding and love on how other moms do that – but not comparing. Just remember that you shouldn’t worry too much as long as your little one is developing well.
4. Overstimulate baby
As mentioned above, a newborn needs your response and to entertain with him. However, don’t overstimulate. Sensory overload in babies will result in unsettled behaviour like turn away from you, kick, wave, or just shutting down because of being too overwhelmed. So if that happens, you need to calm the baby down to return their stress hormone to a normal level.
If you are not familiar with a proper way to take care of your newborn, enquiring for a nanny service in Singapore might be a good choice. They will guide you on babycare as most of the nanny are trained and they have experienced in taking care of the newborn. In all, don’t stress yourself up and just learn along with your baby!
