To mark my son’s first birthday, which was earlier this week, I thought why not write a post about a few of baby’s first milestones/events. These include baby’s first night at home, first bath, first immunization, and first vacation (I’ll save that for another post, though, since there’s a whole lot to talk about!).
Baby’s First Bath
Like most babies, my son entered the world drenched in blood and smeared with vernix (that waxy white coating only seen on newborns). As cute as he was, he needed a bath. Big time. The quick wipe-down they gave him after he was born just didn’t cut it. There was still a lot of gunk stuck in his full head of black hair.
We were pretty stressed out about how we would give him a bath, seeing how newborns are so fragile. We held him with the utmost care and took our sweet time picking him up from his cot and putting him back in. Luckily, we didn’t have to worry about giving him his first bath because a nurse dropped by our room the following day to show us how it’s done. She was very quick in her movements, most likely from all the practice she had handling newborn babies. And she was very confident, which really put us at ease.
She brought a small circular water basin to put baby in, another water basin filled with warm water, and a clean white towel. She also brought baby shampoo and a freshly-laundered receiving blanket to wrap him in after his shower. She held onto baby firmly with one hand and poured some water over him with a small bowl. She did that a few times to get the gunk out of his hair. Then she added a little bit of baby shampoo into the water basin and dipped the towel in it and rung it out a bit. Then she wiped him down gently with the towel. After that baby was clean as a whistle. Or so we thought, until we went to his first well-baby checkup the next day and the doctor pointed out that there was some white stuff under his armpits; some left over vernix. I guess the nurse missed a spot. And being new parents, running low on sleep, we didn’t even notice it. What a fail! Haha. But when we got home that day, we wiped him down with a clean wash cloth (we were still too afraid to give him a bath on our own—more on that later).
Baby’s First Night At Home
After spending 24 hours in the hospital and getting all the necessary tests done, we were ready to be discharged. Baby was doing just fine, minus the fact that he wasn’t latching properly when I tried to breastfeed him. We managed to find a solution, which was for me to hand express milk and then feed it to him with a spoon. I was shocked that he knew how to drink from the spoon, given that he was only a day old. But of course, the hand expressing was just a temporary solution and we needed to figure out why baby wasn’t latching properly. The nurse suggested that we have a lactation consultant look at baby the following morning, or book an appointment with a lactation consultant for a later date. Hubby and I hadn’t gotten much sleep and really missed home, so we opted to head home that evening and were able to book an in-home visit with a lactation consultant for the following week.
By the time we got packed up with all of baby’s belongings (including the big box of baby and mom supplies the hospital had so generously given), it was 10:30 p.m. Then we headed to the reception desk to get baby’s car seat checked. The hospital has a policy that babies have to be buckled in right before they can leave the hospital. It turns out, we didn’t have him buckled in properly. Nope. Not even close. I had wrapped him in a swaddle blanket since it was a bit chilly outside and didn’t want him to catch a cold. And then we had buckled him up, with the swaddle still on. We didn’t realize it then, but that was a big no-no. The seat belt had to be holding baby’s limbs in place, but with the swaddle in the way, the buckle wasn’t going around him correctly. So we had to take him out of his swaddle, fasten the seat belt, and then put a blanket on top of him.
By the time we left the hospital it was 11:00 p.m. It took us another half-hour to drive home, so we got home at 11:30 p.m. My mom had made some rice, curry, salad, and beef stew and brought it along when she came to visit us at the hospital earlier that evening. Hubby and I warmed up the food and dug in. Baby was still sound asleep in his car seat. We put his car seat at an angle so that his chin wouldn’t be digging into his chest, which could obstruct his breathing. After we finished our super late dinner, we took baby to our room, where we had set up his crib.
We were really big on having baby sleep in his crib from the get-go. So, after I changed his diaper and breastfed him, I put him down in his crib. Boy was that a mistake. I didn’t sleep one bit. I just kept worrying about him, even though our bed was right next to his crib. Was he okay? Was he still breathing? Was he cold? I also set a series of alarms at 2-hour intervals so I could change his diaper and feed him milk. Every time the alarm went off, it felt like I had only slept for 2 minutes. And everytime I tried to change baby’s diaper he would cry inconsolably. I was so exhausted.
I asked hubby if we could switch sides. I thought if he slept on the side next to the crib, he could keep an eye out for baby and I could get some sleep. But that didn’t work either. I ended up watching both of them sleep like babies. The next morning, I used my electric breast pump to make a bottle for baby that hubby could feed him while I caught some shut-eye. Thankfully, I was able to get 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Baby’s First Hair Csut
On baby’s 7th day, we decided to shave his head. He was born with a full-head of thick hair and it was quite the mission to shave it all off. We were nervous as usual; hubby more than I, since he’s the one who had to take a razor to baby’s head. Thankfully, baby slept through the entire thing. I held him in my arms, while hubby shaved his hair off, bit by bit. I set a long barber shawl on my lap, so that the hair wouldn’t be all over the floor.
I think it took us a good hour to shave all of baby’s hair off. He kind of woke up near the end, but didn’t cry much, luckily. He just got hungry so we finished up as quickly as we could and then I fed him some milk. He’s a really sweet kid and it made it much easier for us to shave his head while he was asleep.
When I was done breastfeeding, hubby and I gave baby a bath in his baby bath tub, which we placed on top of his change table. It was the perfect height—we didn’t have to hunch over while we bathed him. I held onto baby while hubby gently poured some water over him and applied baby shampoo on his head. Every time the water touched him, baby would let out a cry. He didn’t like it much. But we tried to talk to him and let him know that he was safe. When we were all done, we took him out, wrapped him in a hooded-towel and clothed him.
Baby’s First Immunization
When baby was 2 months old, we took him to the doctor for his first immunization. We hoped he wouldn’t feel too much pain. I kept chanting prayers in my head as the doctor prepped him. There were 2 vaccines he received that day: one for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B (DTaP-IPV-Hib) and another one for Pneumococcal Conjugate 13 (Pneu-C-13). The doctor asked us to hold onto baby’s left leg firmly and then she quickly inserted a needle into his thigh. Baby didn’t feel any pain. But as soon as she gave him the second vaccine, he started crying immediately and his face turned tomato red. He bled a little bit and the doctor covered the spot with a small cotton ball and a bandage.
I felt so sorry for baby and my heart ached watching him cry so helplessly. I tried to console him by pacing back and forth with him in my arms. Thankfully, he quieted down within 5-6 minutes. The doctor told us that vaccines sometimes sting babies. The third and last vaccine was rota virus, administered as an oral dose. Baby didn’t mind that and I was glad he didn’t have to get jabbed again.
The doctor then recorded which vaccines she had given, on a yellow immunization card (which is what every child receives as their personal immunization record in Ontario). She told us to keep it in a safe place and bring it with us to each immunization appointment. We were also given a phone number to call in order to notify the municipal health ministry of the vaccinations so they could update their records.
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