• Little Regent Nursery
  • Baby Care

30 Tips for the First 30 Days With a Newborn

The first month with a newborn is not a project to be optimised. It is a strange, tender, exhausting stretch of time in which almost nothing goes to plan and almost none of that matters. What follows are thirty small things that make it easier - gathered from our infant room team, who between them have settled a great many two-month-olds.

Take what is useful. Ignore the rest without guilt.

In the first thirty days there is no schedule to fall behind on. There is only a baby, and you, learning each other.

The first week

  • Sleep when the baby sleeps, even at eleven in the morning.
  • Keep the room dim and quiet at night from day one - it teaches the difference between night and day sooner than you think.
  • Skin to skin, often. It steadies a baby's heart rate, temperature and mood.
  • Feed on demand rather than by the clock in these early weeks.
  • Learn the early hunger cues - rooting, hands to mouth - so you are not always starting from a full cry.
  • Keep a simple note of feeds, wet nappies and dirty nappies. It is the fastest answer to "is everything alright?"
  • Accept every offer of food. Decline every offer of an unannounced visit.
  • Set up one nappy-changing station downstairs and one upstairs.
  • Trim tiny nails while the baby is asleep.
  • Take one photo a day. You will not remember how small they were.

Weeks two and three

  • Get outside for ten minutes daily, even just to the doorstep.
  • Wear the baby in a sling to get both hands back.
  • Swaddle for sleep if your baby likes it, arms in, hips loose.
  • Try white noise - a fan or a rainfall track - at a low, constant volume.
  • Winding takes longer than you expect; give it a full five minutes upright.
  • Expect a growth spurt around two to three weeks and feed through it.
  • Batch-cook or accept meals. Standing at a hob at 6pm is nobody's friend.
  • Keep a full water bottle wherever you feed.
  • Let the housework slide. Genuinely.
  • Say yes when someone offers to hold the baby so you can shower.

Week four

  • Start a loose bedtime sequence: bath, feed, dim light, same song.
  • Watch the awake windows - many newborns are ready to sleep again after 45 to 60 minutes.
  • Talk and sing to your baby constantly; language starts long before words do.
  • Give short spells of tummy time while they are alert and content.
  • Do not compare your baby to anyone else's, or to a chart on the internet.
  • Share the night load if there are two of you - split it into shifts rather than both waking.
  • Book and keep the health checks and immunisations.
  • Trust your instinct: if something feels wrong, call your doctor rather than searching online.
  • Check in on how you are feeling, not just how the baby is feeding. Persistent low mood is worth mentioning to your health professional.
  • Remember it is temporary. The month that feels endless is the one you will later describe as having gone in a blink.

Thinking a little further ahead

Many families in Al Ain start looking at nursery care long before they need it, simply to know the plan is in place. Little Regent Nursery welcomes babies from two months old into our Waddle Ducks room, with small groups, a Key Person for every child, a full-time registered nurse on site and daily records of sleeping, feeding and nappy changes shared with you. When you are ready, contact us to arrange a visit - there is no hurry and no obligation.

A newborn baby sleeping peacefully in a softly lit room
A parent holding a young baby skin to skin at home