There’s nothing more wonderful than planning the nursery for your new baby. If you’ve decided to find out the gender of your baby, you can have the room all ready for him or her when you come home from the hospital.
What kinds of things do you need to create a safe haven and optimal sleep environment?The trend for awhile was to have bright, stimulating colors in the nursery or mobiles in black and white to help the baby’s eyes develop. This faded from popularity pretty quickly as parents found out all that trendy stuff wasn’t conducive to sleep!
Make sure your crib conforms to all the guidelines for safety and that you have a good, firm mattress. Keep to softer pastel colors – blues, greens, pinks and yellows. Any color you like is good, although some, like blues and greens, are more restful.
Make sure the bedding and the entire room is clean and fresh. Until your baby is at least a year old, a quilt or comforter should be for decoration only. You can buy specially made quilt clips to hang it on a wall. Your baby’s bed needs to be unobstructed by blankets, pillows or sheets, so that her face is clear at all times and there’s no danger of obstructing her breathing. You might want to have a small foam wedge that’s positioned to keep the baby from rolling on her stomach. You should also keep stuffed animals or other toys out of the crib until the baby’s older. In addition, you may want to purchase a baby monitor to hear your baby throughout the night. These days, some monitors actually show your baby on a screen or video, amazing!
Make the room a pleasant one. If you use a scent, like lavender, keep it light. Nothing overpowering. Keep it as dust-free as possible to avoid sneezing and stuffy noses. The nursery should feel like a safe and cozy place that your baby associates with restfulness and security.
Showing posts with label lavender. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lavender. Show all posts
Monday, May 24, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Baby Stress
Congratulations! You may be pregnant or maybe you just had a baby (and lucky you if actually have time to read this)! There’s no feeling more incredible than when you’ve just had a baby. So why don’t you feel wonderful all the time?
Well, even the best events in life have stress attached to them. Having a baby is exciting for everyone. You’ve been flooded with company practically from the moment of delivery. If you’re a first-time mother, hospitals don’t give you very much help or advice; they send you home with this new little creature with an array of demands that you have to try to interpret. And new babies don’t sleep much. At least not long enough to allow you to get some much needed rest.
Add to that the hormonal changes in your own body, and you have a formula that’s guaranteed to be stressful. Sometimes you think you’ll never get a full night’s sleep again. Until the baby settles into a routine, you probably won’t!
To get through those first few weeks and months, here are a few tips to help you get at least a little more sleep.
First of all, don’t try to be a supermom. When the baby goes down for a nap, take a small nap yourself. The laundry can wait and so can the dishes. You don’t need to have a perfect house. There will be time for all that; give yourself a break whenever you get the opportunity.
If you have a good friend or relative to help out, by all means take advantage of that for an afternoon. Grandma would probably jump at the chance to have the baby all to herself for a few hours!
When you put the baby to bed for the night, take some time to decompress and relax so you have a better chance of falling asleep. Take a bath scented with lavender; put on some soft music and baby yourself a little. Sometimes it’s hard even without a new baby to fall asleep right away. There’s a lot to get used to!
Well, even the best events in life have stress attached to them. Having a baby is exciting for everyone. You’ve been flooded with company practically from the moment of delivery. If you’re a first-time mother, hospitals don’t give you very much help or advice; they send you home with this new little creature with an array of demands that you have to try to interpret. And new babies don’t sleep much. At least not long enough to allow you to get some much needed rest.
Add to that the hormonal changes in your own body, and you have a formula that’s guaranteed to be stressful. Sometimes you think you’ll never get a full night’s sleep again. Until the baby settles into a routine, you probably won’t!
To get through those first few weeks and months, here are a few tips to help you get at least a little more sleep.
First of all, don’t try to be a supermom. When the baby goes down for a nap, take a small nap yourself. The laundry can wait and so can the dishes. You don’t need to have a perfect house. There will be time for all that; give yourself a break whenever you get the opportunity.
If you have a good friend or relative to help out, by all means take advantage of that for an afternoon. Grandma would probably jump at the chance to have the baby all to herself for a few hours!
When you put the baby to bed for the night, take some time to decompress and relax so you have a better chance of falling asleep. Take a bath scented with lavender; put on some soft music and baby yourself a little. Sometimes it’s hard even without a new baby to fall asleep right away. There’s a lot to get used to!
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