People who don’t have kids tend to think that looking after a baby is not that difficult, right until the time they are handed that little bundle… You will be kept awake constantly (and sleep deprivation is really hard to deal with), you have to deal with all the crying, the changing of nappies all the time and worrying about any little cough or rash. Yet it is not all bad, you get to see their first tooth, hear their first words, see them struggle to walk for the first time, see them smile as you make funny faces at them, so is it worth it in the end.

Keeping your baby safe, healthy and happy is a 24/7 job though, so below are 3 tips to help you:

Make sure you get their ears checked: If your child has hearing problems then it will affect how they develop, and also how you should help them to develop. The problem is if you don’t catch it early then you could waste years wondering why your baby does not react like other children, and why he/she is having trouble starting to talk, before you have some tests done and discover the problem. Instead get them checked out before you leave the hospital.

Take time out to talk and play with them: Some people will just leave their baby to amuse themselves throughout the day, playing with toys etc, while they keep an eye on them to make sure everything is ok. But even though your baby can’t respond to you yet, it is still really important that you take the time to talk to them, it helps them pick up our language. It will also form a close bond between you when they see your face and listen to your voice.

The best way to get some talking into your day is to tell them as you do things, describe what objects are, point things out, and if they react in anyway then congratulate them and encourage them so that they want to try and make noise again, eventually that will turn into words. If you have a nursing rocking chair then you can talk to your baby as he/she is feeding, and also read to them as you rock them off to sleep.

Try swaddling your baby: Swaddling your baby is where you wrap them up in a blanket, you don’t want to do it too tightly so watch out with this technique as you can restrict their breathing. Yet if you do it right then you stop them moving around a lot and waking themselves up, and the East Carolina University mentions some research that shows babies between 6 and 16 weeks old slept for longer and woke up less when swaddled, which helps you both out.