Your Baby Week By Week
Your unique baby will develop according to their very own blueprint. However, there are some typical stages which most full-term babies will progress through around the same age. Babies born pre-term will often reach the same stage when we adjust their age to gestational age.
Parents are often challenged at similar stages: as breastfeeding is established, as sleep evolves and changes, as crying and unsettledness occur.
So here we have gathered information you might find useful around about the stage you might need it.
Welcome to your baby, week by week .
Week Three: days 21 - 28
Sometimes the pathway to breastfeeding involves supplementing breastmilk with your own expressed milk, donor milk from another mother or infant formula. If exclusive breastfeeding was your goal then you might feel disappointed, frustrated or even angry that this hasn't been possible for now. However temporary mixed feeding doesn't mean you will need to do so permanently and it helps to understand you have options to try.
Week Two: days 14-20
This can be the week when you can hit the wall so be gentle with yourselves and call on any offers of help. But the help you need isn’t someone to sit holding the baby while you do housework and make them a cup of tea! So be selective about who you invite into your space and say no when you need to.
Week One: days 7-13
The first week of your baby’s life can pass in a bit of a blur. If you haven’t birthed at home, transferring there after a few days in hospital can seem surreal but in the second week you will begin to adjust to caring for your baby in the environment you carefully prepared for them.
Week Zero: days 0-6
After around 40 weeks, your baby has outgrown the available space inside the womb and relocated to the outside world! Pregnancy and birth retreat to the past as your whole focus becomes a week of firsts for this new person in your life.
From the vital first hour and the first breastfeed to the first nappy of around 2000 changes in the first year alone - strap on those training wheels as there is a steep learning curve ahead of you all!