There are so many milestones in a parent’s life and welcoming your newborn into the world is one of them. It’s a joyous occasion and parents usually feel overwhelmed with happiness.
Bonding with your newborn can add more joy to this stage of life and it is important for the whole family. It helps to establish a stronger bond between parent and child, fosters new family traditions, and teaches children how to express themselves.
Some of the most crucial bonds that we can create with our children are those that happen during the first few days after they are born.
Bonding activities can be a simple yet powerful way to connect with your little one. It is an extremely important activity that can help your newborn become more attached to you, trust you fully and become more responsive to you.
4 ways to bond with your newborn:
One way to bond with your newborn is to spend time with them from the moment they come home from the hospital. This helps them feel calmer and establish trust between you two as well as provides comfort for you both, a no-sleep stage that new babies experience.
New parents can bond with their newborn babies in many ways. There are a lot of things that a new mother can do to make the bonding process easier.
1) Skin-to-skin:
Skin-to-skin contact helps babies regulate their temperature while also establishing a sense of trust between child and parent. Skin-to-skin contact is the most important way to bond with your baby. This is because babies need constant touch for proper brain development and physical growth.
The birth of a baby is one of the most emotional experiences in human life and as emotion gets more intense, it is important to let your newborn feel your warmth and love, by embracing them and putting their chest on yours in a warm room.
Make sure that their nose is not blocked against your chest or shoulder, when you put them on your chest. Also, make sure that the room temperature is good enough for the newborn to be undressed or to be only wearing a nappy.
2) Doing activities together:
Your baby needs your attention and care so he can grow up healthy and strong. He needs your love and support during the first two years of his life. You may think there’s not much to do together when they’re just one or two days old.
However, putting him against your chest in a baby carrier and going for a walk or to the mall can be very entertaining and bonding for both of you. Putting on tv for him or babies’ songs can also be a good thing to start doing at 3 months old.
A great way to bond with a newborn is by playing games like ‘womb ball’ or ‘rainbow’. You can also get some other ideas for bonding such as singing lullabies (children love music), reading books, or watching videos of animals in their natural habitat (this helps them learn about the world and how they fit into it). By having these activities, you can bond better with your newborn so that they grow up.
3) Talking to them:
Some new parents find it helpful to create a list of words or phrases that they should use when talking or singing to their infant. These can be easy terms like “hay” or “dada” or more complex terms like “I love you.”
Playing with your baby is a wonderful bonding experience and there is no better way to do so than talking to your baby. Even if your baby does not understand you. Try to look at them and be happy and explain what you’re doing and why.
For instance, your baby can be securely seated with all his belts fastened in a baby rocker next to you in the kitchen, while you bake. In this case, you can take the time to tell the baby exactly what you’re doing and that he or she is going to love your cakes once they’re big enough to try them, in the future.
4) Start a baby diary:
Start a journal for your newborn and write down all of the things you want to remember about that first year together. You can go as far as to write one little paragraph a day about what you made them do that day. For example; if you took the baby for their first walk if you sang a song while bathing them or if they said their new word, etc.
You can write it all done and immortalize these amazing and once-in-a-lifetime moments. This is also a great way to reflect back on what you’ve learned from parenting so far!
Other ways to bond with your newborn:
These are more ways to bond with your infant: 1) Hold hands, 2) Sing a lullaby, 3) Tell a story, 4) Give a kiss, 5) Tickle him/her, and 6) maintain eye contact with a smile.
Bottom line:
Babies are so adorable and we can’t get enough of them. They make us smile and this is the reason why we want to bond with our children from a very early age.
The way to bond with your newborn baby depends on you, as a good parent, how important it is for you to do so, and how much time you have at hand.