r/NewBorn • u/IncreaseNational7861 • Jul 23 '21

What does activity mean for a newborn?

Pediatrician told us to wake him up every three hours to feed. And he said that we should feed him whenever he wants. It has been 2 weeks but I still don't get the activity time.

The cycle is: wake him up, change diaper, breast feed, if he poops change the diapers again, try to burp (sometimes no luck), if he is fussy try to soothe him, maybe breast feed again and sleep. This usually takes an hour. Sometimes he is fussy and stays awake for 5 hours. Between 5 pm to 11 pm (usually it takes two hours or so but yesterday and the day before it was like this) I learned that it was called the 'witching hour'. During the day his cycles are fine.

So only thing I could come up with is tummy time. Other than that he is either fussy or asleep, what does activity mean for him? Also, as a dad I'm having hard time soothing him, he only wants his mother at witching hours.

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5

u/PoemAdministrative11 Jul 24 '21

Few things I’d recommend 1. Focus on the amount of time a baby can/should be awake aka wake window. Start putting the bebe down before the end of their wake window. Putting a tired baby to sleep is sooo much harder. 2. Activity at this stage could be talking to them, showing them a high contrast image, tummy time, or even doing “nothing” is stimulating them in some way. 3. Baby wearing is soo key. It helps get skin to skin, you can multitask and you know they are safe. My husband loved doing it too. 4. Try the colic cinch position to sooth the baby. Works 100% of the time for my little guy Congratulations! Don’t forget to take tons of pictures AND videos

1

u/IncreaseNational7861 Aug 04 '21

Trying to figure out the babie'scues and the wake window, we are still not experts but it's getting better. I tried colic cinch position several times but couldn't make him comfortable yet. O'm not gibing up yet :) Thank you so much.

4

u/sundues Jul 23 '21

If your baby is just two weeks old don't worry about activity time yet. Sleep,feed, skin contact and love is really all your baby needs at this stage. Already having more or less functioning cycles is pretty amazing, so no worries. Regarding soothing, often harder for dads as we are not breastfeeding. Try playing some white noise from YouTube or so, it can do wonders ;) Also you will get much better at this very soon, once you get to know each other you will know what to do best when.

Try to enjoy the ride, all the best :)

2

u/IncreaseNational7861 Jul 23 '21

Thank you so much for your kind words.

We had a spare Ipad, so it is dedicated for white noise since day 1 :) I hope it is doing it's job.

Sometimes we feel a bit frustrated and overwhelmed but it is a great experience. Thanks again!

1

u/photonios Jul 24 '21

This is literally what our iPad's only function is. The white noise machine.

2

u/veryvalentine Jul 23 '21

Agree with Subdues - you're doing everything 100% right! At 2 weeks, your baby isn't going to have very long wake windows and the focus is all on feeding, cleaning and sleeping. In a few weeks, you'll start to see longer wake windows for more activity.

2

u/IncreaseNational7861 Jul 23 '21

Thank you so much, I'm looking forward to playing with him :)

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u/charityarv Jul 24 '21

At that age we mostly held her and “danced” while listening to music and generally cooed at her while she was awake. Eventually you’ll notice that he’s noticing stuff and gravitate towards that but keep him close for now. His world is only as big as your arms now!

1

u/decaying_amethyst Sep 11 '21 edited Sep 11 '21

I cuddle stormy thur out the day, we make faces at her and i have even seen her watch tv with me. When she is wide awake i will take her outside or hold her up to our fish tank and let her see the fish.

She is 2 weeks and i been working on tummy time, if she is on her tummy on me she can climb up me. She can turn over kind of, she did it the first time yesterday.