This is in continuation to last week’s write up because there is just so much to do and learn when a baby is born! Believe me, you are learning something new practically everyday and it is such an amazing experience.
Last week, we discussed the basic essentials needed for the baby in the house.
This week it is more related to what all we can do and should avoid to do.
Swaddling the Baby
Have you noticed that you wrap your baby tight and somehow she manages to remove her hand? This is because they are curious and want to explore things starting with their own body.
We swaddle (wrap) the baby tight to keep them secure. However, we should try and give them some amount of open/free time daily to exercise their reflexes and explore themselves, their surroundings. We need to basically allow them Freedom to Movement, which will allow them to fulfill their developmental needs.
Sleeping at Night
"The newborn simply does not have any experience of night and day and takes a certain time to enter this solar routine. The child must experience this difference for a certain amount of time before the problem is naturally corrected." - Dr. Montanaro.
From the beginning, I wanted to try my best to make sure Siyana did not keep me up all night. I had heard so many stories of how children kept their parents up all night and that was a big worry for me. I understood the fact that she needed to realize the difference between night and day. She adapted well to it and slept well at night (of course, waking up for feeds). Even now at 13 months, she sleeps through waking up twice generally to feed and back to sleep.
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What I did from Day 1 is:
1)During the day, I exposed her to daylight. She went out for a stroll; the curtains were open so daylight/sunshine could come into the house. When she slept during the day, I did draw the curtains but made sure that some light did come in the room.
2)Similarly, at night, once I took her to sleep, the lights went off and stayed off. For the initial 2-3 months I had a dim light on through the night. Even to change her at night, I would use the bathroom light that came into the room.
3)Every night we wash up, change her into her nightclothes, play for sometime, a light massage, she feeds and falls asleep. This is our daily routine and she has totally adapted to it now.
Talking to a Newborn
A few things I would suggest to keep in mind are:
· Use grammatically correct language to speak to the child from the start. There is no need for baby talk; babies enjoy when adults speak to them properly.
· Maintain eye contact when speaking with them. The child should be able to see you speak to them. · Always tell them what you are doing, about things in the house, their body parts, etc. For example, “I am going to change your diaper now.”· Read to your baby regularly. They are never too small for it.
· No need to use an artificially high-pitched voice (very often done by adults when talking to a baby).
· I have noticed most people speak to their babies only in their mother tongue, so that the child learns it. This is a great thing to do but do speak to them in another language as well (like English) so that they learn both languages and later becomes easy for them to talk in school and other places.
Cuddle, cuddle and some more cuddle.
Montessori is all about respecting the child, giving them opportunities to do things, showing love for the child.
So go ahead and show your child lots and lots of love with all the cuddles, kisses, warmth you can possible give her.