Bringing home your new baby can be a scary thing to new parents.
To help make your first days home together a little less overwhelming we have with us, Lori Nelson, Allina Health Home Health – Mother & Newborn nurse who is going to answer some of the most common questions parents have about their newborns.
Selected Podcast
Bringing Home Baby
Featured Speaker:
Lori Nelson, RN, Allina Health Home Health – Mother & Newborn
Lori is a Allina Health Home Health – Mother & Newborn nurse. Transcription:
Bringing Home Baby
Melanie Cole (Host): Bringing home your new baby can be such a scary thing to new parents. But to help make your first days together a little bit less overwhelming, we have today with us Lori Nelson. She’s a registered nurse with Allina Home Health Care Mother and Newborn. Welcome to the show, Lori. Let’s start with when a baby is born, then we’re feeding this little tiny little lump, how do you know that your baby’s getting enough food?
Lori Nelson (Guest): Well, the nurse in the hospital, she will show parents how to track. And the important thing to know is what goes in comes out. They will track the feedings, but they’ll also track the diapers. It’s going to be how many urines and how many stools. An example would be the second day of life, baby has two urines. Fifth day, you have five urines. Then the stools will change from this black tar, and it will get lighter and lighter—green, brown, and then to yellow by the fifth day. That’s how, and you’ll learn how to track that and you’ll be doing it at home as well.
Melanie: That’s such a lovely part of having a new baby it’s tracking their stools at the beginning. We love that. Now, as far as once they’ve eaten, sometimes babies, we need to burp them. Sometimes they get the hiccups or even a little bit of spit-up comes. Just give a quick lesson on how to burp a baby.
Lori: Yes. Typically, most parents they’ll show you as well in the hospital, but it’s fitting them up on your leg and your hand will be under their little chin and you just lean them forward and pat them on the back. You usually get a burp. Or sometimes, people, the typical is up on the shoulder where they’re up against your chest and you’re patting them on the back. Yes, we do want you to do that, burping. Sometimes they also have a little spit up, which is normal. That happens. It comes up sometimes with a burp. But if it’s a situation where the baby is throwing up pretty consistently after each feeding and it seems to be quite a bit, that’s something you need to talk to your doctor about. You need to call them. It could be reflux, which is a whole another situation that the doctor will need to coach you on as to what to do about that. Yeah, so that’s all normal in the beginning.
Melanie: Lori, if a baby is sleeping, God, that’s just such a great time for parents when the baby is sleeping. But what if they’ve slept through the night without a feeding or they’re sleeping in the day five hours and they need to be fed? Do you wake a sleeping baby to feed them?
Lori: Well, yes. And knowing this, the baby needs to be fed 8 to 12 times in 24 hours. So if you figure out even on the lowest, on eight, that would mean that the baby around the clock would need to eat every three hours, and we know that that a baby isn’t necessarily on that time frame. They show you how to look for cues for baby’s readiness to eat, and they call that feeding on demand. But if you have a real sleepy baby and isn’t eating by three hours, yes, indeed, you do need to wake the baby to feed, because they aren’t going to get enough to eat and it’s not going to increase our milk supply to get more milk in. It is important for that baby to eat quite frequently.
Melanie: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends back to sleep, baby sleeping on the back, Lori. What if a baby keeps turning on to their tummy? What do you do?
Lori: Okay, well, the baby that is turning on their tummy is older, first of all. It isn’t a newborn. By the time the baby can manage doing that, rolling to the tummy, the neck muscles are strong enough and supportive enough that they will maintain an open airway, so you do not need to worry at that point if they’re doing it themselves.
Melanie: How do you care for that umbilical cord before that little thing drops off? What should you do to keep it clean?
Lori: Yes. Well, there’s varying thoughts on that with providers. It will be basically what your physician says, but the gamut runs from using maybe alcohol a couple of times a day to the fact of doing nothing with it except keeping it dry, and if it gets damp with the bath, you just pat it dry and let it be and more open to air. And you fold the diaper down as well so that it’s not resting on that cord. More open to air is probably the most common now without using alcohol. It will fall off in about five to 10 days, but it can take a little longer, and you might also see like a little drop of blood or smudge of blood, and that’s normal. If it’s actively bleeding, obviously that is something you need to get the baby into the hospital or call the doctor for.
Melanie: We see these little pimples and red blotches, and new parents freak out about the little pimples all over the baby’s face. What are those things?
Lori: Yeah. Well, there’s two different things. One is it can be called neonatal acne. They feel that it’s from exposure of maternal hormones in the womb. You don’t need to treat it, and it lasts weeks, sometimes months, before it goes away and everything straightens out, and then the other thing that’s usually within the first days or weeks, it goes away sooner, we call it newborn rash. Erythema toxicum is what it’s called. It’s red blotches, and it will have a little raised white dot in the center. Neither one is there anything you need to do about it. It’s just time. It will go away on its own, no treatments.
Melanie: That’s really good information.
Lori: Yeah.
Melanie: We talked about caring for these babies and making sure to sleep when the baby sleeps. But give us some of your best advice, Lori, for the mothers, for these new mothers that are going through a very, very difficult time, an exciting time but an exhausting time.
Lori: Exactly. It is true, Make sure that when you’re pregnant, that you’re starting to rally up the group that might be helping you when you get home. Sometimes you need extra other than just the father or the baby there because you both are going to be exhausted and need to take a rest, and it isn’t business as usual when you get home. It is important as you can see by what we talked about how many times a baby needs to feed and you need to wake up your baby, those times are precious that you need to sleep while the baby sleeps. That also leads to the fact that you and your husband need to talk about how to manage the company that comes and how breastfeeding is going and how you’re managing. The baby will look the same in a week or two when you get things settled. Be aware of that. Yeah, that would be my advice is getting rest, eating well, drinking a lot of fluids so that you feel good.
Melanie: What other resources are available to new parents and their newborns?
Lori: Resources, well, Allina does have a wonderful book out, and I think it’s online actually, within Allina. It’s the Beginnings book. It has pages and pages of resources in there which are very helpful. I wanted to also mention, if I can, just back up a little bit, about one of the things that happens is baby blues with mothers, and that is usually within the first couple of weeks where there’s a lot of anxiety, like you were saying, and frustration and lack of sleep, all of those things. It’s usually a short-term kind of event in the first couple of weeks. Also, hormones changing. Then there’s also postpartum depression, which usually starts at about four weeks. And this is a little bit more intense. Same kinds of things go on, but it starts feeling like a loss of identity, less control. Sometimes people have experienced a sharp drop in your hormone level. And these are all things that a physician would need to know about. If you don't seem like you’re managing your daily life very well at four weeks out—and not that things will be perfect, but if you yourself are having some real big issues—you need to let your physician know about that. There are support groups for that as well.
Melanie: In just the last minute, Lori, your best advice for new parents on bringing home that new little bundle of joy.
Lori: Enjoy. Take it in and enjoy and just make sure that some of your stuff is taken care of before so that you don’t feel like you have all these things to do when you get home. It’s enough for you to just get your rest and take care of that baby. Get breastfeeding established and not have to worry about clean house and all those things. That’s where you have your support come in and help you with those things. So yes, enjoy. Don’t forget to enjoy. I think that’s the part that takes away from this big event at the end of this journey.
Melanie: Well, thank you so much, Lori. For more information on Allina Home Health Mother and Newborn Services and community resources to help parents become more prepared, CPR classes and baby classes, you can go to allinahealth.org\homehealth. Or you can call (612) 863-4478. That’s (612) 863-4478. You’re listening to the WELLcast with Allina Health. As I said, for more information, you can go to allinahealth.org. That’s allinahealth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
Bringing Home Baby
Melanie Cole (Host): Bringing home your new baby can be such a scary thing to new parents. But to help make your first days together a little bit less overwhelming, we have today with us Lori Nelson. She’s a registered nurse with Allina Home Health Care Mother and Newborn. Welcome to the show, Lori. Let’s start with when a baby is born, then we’re feeding this little tiny little lump, how do you know that your baby’s getting enough food?
Lori Nelson (Guest): Well, the nurse in the hospital, she will show parents how to track. And the important thing to know is what goes in comes out. They will track the feedings, but they’ll also track the diapers. It’s going to be how many urines and how many stools. An example would be the second day of life, baby has two urines. Fifth day, you have five urines. Then the stools will change from this black tar, and it will get lighter and lighter—green, brown, and then to yellow by the fifth day. That’s how, and you’ll learn how to track that and you’ll be doing it at home as well.
Melanie: That’s such a lovely part of having a new baby it’s tracking their stools at the beginning. We love that. Now, as far as once they’ve eaten, sometimes babies, we need to burp them. Sometimes they get the hiccups or even a little bit of spit-up comes. Just give a quick lesson on how to burp a baby.
Lori: Yes. Typically, most parents they’ll show you as well in the hospital, but it’s fitting them up on your leg and your hand will be under their little chin and you just lean them forward and pat them on the back. You usually get a burp. Or sometimes, people, the typical is up on the shoulder where they’re up against your chest and you’re patting them on the back. Yes, we do want you to do that, burping. Sometimes they also have a little spit up, which is normal. That happens. It comes up sometimes with a burp. But if it’s a situation where the baby is throwing up pretty consistently after each feeding and it seems to be quite a bit, that’s something you need to talk to your doctor about. You need to call them. It could be reflux, which is a whole another situation that the doctor will need to coach you on as to what to do about that. Yeah, so that’s all normal in the beginning.
Melanie: Lori, if a baby is sleeping, God, that’s just such a great time for parents when the baby is sleeping. But what if they’ve slept through the night without a feeding or they’re sleeping in the day five hours and they need to be fed? Do you wake a sleeping baby to feed them?
Lori: Well, yes. And knowing this, the baby needs to be fed 8 to 12 times in 24 hours. So if you figure out even on the lowest, on eight, that would mean that the baby around the clock would need to eat every three hours, and we know that that a baby isn’t necessarily on that time frame. They show you how to look for cues for baby’s readiness to eat, and they call that feeding on demand. But if you have a real sleepy baby and isn’t eating by three hours, yes, indeed, you do need to wake the baby to feed, because they aren’t going to get enough to eat and it’s not going to increase our milk supply to get more milk in. It is important for that baby to eat quite frequently.
Melanie: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends back to sleep, baby sleeping on the back, Lori. What if a baby keeps turning on to their tummy? What do you do?
Lori: Okay, well, the baby that is turning on their tummy is older, first of all. It isn’t a newborn. By the time the baby can manage doing that, rolling to the tummy, the neck muscles are strong enough and supportive enough that they will maintain an open airway, so you do not need to worry at that point if they’re doing it themselves.
Melanie: How do you care for that umbilical cord before that little thing drops off? What should you do to keep it clean?
Lori: Yes. Well, there’s varying thoughts on that with providers. It will be basically what your physician says, but the gamut runs from using maybe alcohol a couple of times a day to the fact of doing nothing with it except keeping it dry, and if it gets damp with the bath, you just pat it dry and let it be and more open to air. And you fold the diaper down as well so that it’s not resting on that cord. More open to air is probably the most common now without using alcohol. It will fall off in about five to 10 days, but it can take a little longer, and you might also see like a little drop of blood or smudge of blood, and that’s normal. If it’s actively bleeding, obviously that is something you need to get the baby into the hospital or call the doctor for.
Melanie: We see these little pimples and red blotches, and new parents freak out about the little pimples all over the baby’s face. What are those things?
Lori: Yeah. Well, there’s two different things. One is it can be called neonatal acne. They feel that it’s from exposure of maternal hormones in the womb. You don’t need to treat it, and it lasts weeks, sometimes months, before it goes away and everything straightens out, and then the other thing that’s usually within the first days or weeks, it goes away sooner, we call it newborn rash. Erythema toxicum is what it’s called. It’s red blotches, and it will have a little raised white dot in the center. Neither one is there anything you need to do about it. It’s just time. It will go away on its own, no treatments.
Melanie: That’s really good information.
Lori: Yeah.
Melanie: We talked about caring for these babies and making sure to sleep when the baby sleeps. But give us some of your best advice, Lori, for the mothers, for these new mothers that are going through a very, very difficult time, an exciting time but an exhausting time.
Lori: Exactly. It is true, Make sure that when you’re pregnant, that you’re starting to rally up the group that might be helping you when you get home. Sometimes you need extra other than just the father or the baby there because you both are going to be exhausted and need to take a rest, and it isn’t business as usual when you get home. It is important as you can see by what we talked about how many times a baby needs to feed and you need to wake up your baby, those times are precious that you need to sleep while the baby sleeps. That also leads to the fact that you and your husband need to talk about how to manage the company that comes and how breastfeeding is going and how you’re managing. The baby will look the same in a week or two when you get things settled. Be aware of that. Yeah, that would be my advice is getting rest, eating well, drinking a lot of fluids so that you feel good.
Melanie: What other resources are available to new parents and their newborns?
Lori: Resources, well, Allina does have a wonderful book out, and I think it’s online actually, within Allina. It’s the Beginnings book. It has pages and pages of resources in there which are very helpful. I wanted to also mention, if I can, just back up a little bit, about one of the things that happens is baby blues with mothers, and that is usually within the first couple of weeks where there’s a lot of anxiety, like you were saying, and frustration and lack of sleep, all of those things. It’s usually a short-term kind of event in the first couple of weeks. Also, hormones changing. Then there’s also postpartum depression, which usually starts at about four weeks. And this is a little bit more intense. Same kinds of things go on, but it starts feeling like a loss of identity, less control. Sometimes people have experienced a sharp drop in your hormone level. And these are all things that a physician would need to know about. If you don't seem like you’re managing your daily life very well at four weeks out—and not that things will be perfect, but if you yourself are having some real big issues—you need to let your physician know about that. There are support groups for that as well.
Melanie: In just the last minute, Lori, your best advice for new parents on bringing home that new little bundle of joy.
Lori: Enjoy. Take it in and enjoy and just make sure that some of your stuff is taken care of before so that you don’t feel like you have all these things to do when you get home. It’s enough for you to just get your rest and take care of that baby. Get breastfeeding established and not have to worry about clean house and all those things. That’s where you have your support come in and help you with those things. So yes, enjoy. Don’t forget to enjoy. I think that’s the part that takes away from this big event at the end of this journey.
Melanie: Well, thank you so much, Lori. For more information on Allina Home Health Mother and Newborn Services and community resources to help parents become more prepared, CPR classes and baby classes, you can go to allinahealth.org\homehealth. Or you can call (612) 863-4478. That’s (612) 863-4478. You’re listening to the WELLcast with Allina Health. As I said, for more information, you can go to allinahealth.org. That’s allinahealth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.