What to Expect During Your Newborn’s First Week After Birth

The first week with your newborn is unlike anything else you’ll experience. Time moves strangely, blurring together in a cycle of feeding, diaper changes, and stolen moments of sleep. Your baby is adjusting to life outside the womb, and you’re learning to read their cues and meet their needs. Understanding what’s normal during this first week helps you feel more confident and recognize when something genuinely needs medical attention.

This guide walks through the physical changes, medical procedures, feeding patterns, sleep expectations, and developmental milestones of the first seven days, along with clear guidance on when to call your pediatrician.

Important Medical Screenings Every Newborn Receives in the Hospital

Before you leave the hospital, your baby will undergo several routine health screenings designed to identify treatable conditions early when intervention is most effective. These screenings are required in all U.S. states and have dramatically improved outcomes for thousands of babies each year.

Newborn Blood Spot Screening

Within the first 24 to 48 hours after birth, a healthcare provider will prick your baby’s heel to collect a few drops of blood on a special card. This blood spot test screens for dozens of serious but treatable conditions including metabolic disorders that affect how the body processes food, hormone deficiencies like congenital hypothyroidism, blood disorders such as sickle cell disease, and other genetic conditions that may not be obvious at birth.

More than 4 million U.S. infants are screened annually through this program. About 1 in 300 babies is diagnosed with a treatable health condition through these screenings. Early identification means treatment can begin before symptoms develop, often preventing intellectual disabilities, serious illness, or even death.

The specific conditions screened vary slightly by state, with some states testing for more than 50 different disorders. Results typically come back within one to two weeks and go to your pediatrician. If any result is abnormal, your doctor will contact you immediately for follow-up testing.

Hearing Screening

Newborn hearing screening identifies babies who may have hearing loss so they can receive early intervention services. The test is quick, painless, and often performed while your baby sleeps. A small earphone or microphone placed in the ear measures how the ear responds to sound.

Early identification of hearing loss is crucial because the first few years of life are critical for speech and language development. Babies who receive hearing services by 6 months of age develop language skills on par with their hearing peers.

If your baby doesn’t pass the initial screening, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have permanent hearing loss. Fluid in the ears from birth or other temporary factors can affect results. Follow-up testing will determine whether intervention is needed.

Critical Congenital Heart Disease Screening

This simple test uses a pulse oximeter, a small sensor placed on your baby’s hand or foot, to measure oxygen levels in the blood. Low oxygen levels can indicate serious heart defects that may not be obvious through physical examination alone.

Critical congenital heart disease affects approximately 1 in 100 babies. Some heart defects cause symptoms immediately, while others don’t become apparent until after you’ve left the hospital. This screening catches defects that might otherwise go undetected until a baby becomes critically ill at home.

The test takes just a few minutes and is completely painless. If results are abnormal, your baby will receive immediate evaluation including an echocardiogram to examine the heart’s structure.

First Well-Child Visit

Your baby’s first pediatric checkup typically occurs within 3 to 5 days after hospital discharge. This visit allows your pediatrician to check weight and feeding, examine the baby for jaundice (yellowing of the skin), assess how you’re managing at home, answer your questions, and review the results of hospital screenings.

Don’t skip this appointment even if everything seems fine. Some conditions like severe jaundice develop after hospital discharge and need prompt treatment to prevent complications.

Why Your Newborn’s Appearance May Look Different Than Expected

Many new parents are surprised by how their baby looks in the first days after birth. Movies and television typically show older, cleaned-up babies, not the reality of what newborns actually look like immediately after delivery. Understanding normal newborn appearance prevents unnecessary worry.

Head Shape Changes After Delivery

Your baby’s head may be elongated, cone-shaped, or uneven immediately after birth due to passage through the birth canal. Babies’ skulls consist of several bones connected by soft areas called sutures, which allow the head to compress and mold during delivery. This temporary change helps your baby fit through the pelvis.

The head shape should round out over the first week as the skull bones gradually return to their normal position. If your baby was born by cesarean section and didn’t go through labor, their head shape will be more rounded from the start.

Some babies develop swelling on the scalp called caput succedaneum, which appears as a soft, puffy area. This swelling crosses the skull bone lines and typically resolves within a few days without treatment. Another common condition, cephalohematoma, causes a firm, raised bump that doesn’t cross skull bone lines. This results from bleeding between the skull bone and its covering, often from pressure during delivery or use of vacuum assistance. Cephalohematomas take longer to resolve, sometimes several weeks or months, but rarely cause problems.

Bruising and Swelling from Birth

Mild facial bruising or swelling is normal, especially if your baby’s face pressed against your pelvis during delivery. Some babies are born with petechiae, which are tiny red or purple dots caused by broken blood vessels from pressure during birth. These typically fade within the first week.

Babies delivered with forceps or vacuum assistance may have more noticeable marks including temporary indentations from forceps or swelling where the vacuum was placed. These marks usually fade completely within days to weeks. However, if you notice increasing swelling, firmness, or if your baby seems unusually irritable, contact your pediatrician.

Skin Appearance in the First Week

Newborn skin goes through several normal changes during the first week. Your baby’s skin may peel, especially on the hands and feet. This is completely normal and more common in babies born after their due date. The peeling reveals fresh, healthy skin underneath and doesn’t require any special treatment.

Many babies have birthmarks visible at birth or that appear in the first days. Common types include salmon patches (also called stork bites or angel kisses), flat pink or red marks usually on the forehead, eyelids, or back of the neck; Mongolian spots, flat bluish or gray-green marks on the lower back or buttocks, common in babies with darker skin tones; and tiny white bumps called milia on the nose, chin, or cheeks caused by blocked oil glands.

Most of these birthmarks are harmless and many fade over time. Newborn rashes are also extremely common including erythema toxicum, a harmless rash with red blotches and small white or yellow bumps that comes and goes during the first week, and newborn acne, small red or white bumps typically on the face.

Umbilical Cord Care

The umbilical stump, the remainder of the cord that connected your baby to the placenta, gradually dries and darkens over the first week. It typically falls off within 7 to 10 days, though sometimes it takes up to three weeks.

Keep the stump clean and dry. Fold diapers down below the stump to prevent urine from soaking it. You don’t need to apply alcohol or other solutions unless your pediatrician specifically recommends it. Current evidence suggests allowing the stump to dry naturally works as well as or better than applying substances to it.

Watch for signs of infection including redness spreading around the base of the stump, swelling, foul odor, yellow discharge, or bleeding beyond a few drops when the stump falls off. These symptoms require medical evaluation.

How Often Your Newborn Should Eat During the First Week

Feeding occupies much of the first week as your baby’s tiny stomach requires frequent refills and your milk supply establishes itself if you’re breastfeeding. Understanding normal feeding patterns helps you ensure your baby is getting adequate nutrition.

Feeding Frequency and Schedule

Newborns need to eat 8 to 12 times in a 24-hour period, which translates to every 2 to 3 hours around the clock. This frequent feeding serves multiple purposes including meeting your baby’s high caloric needs for growth, maintaining blood sugar levels, establishing milk supply if breastfeeding, and preventing excessive weight loss.

Your baby’s stomach is incredibly small at birth, roughly the size of a cherry, holding only about half an ounce. By the end of the first week, it expands to about the size of an apricot, holding approximately 2 ounces. This is why newborns need to eat so frequently, even though it’s exhausting for parents.

During the first week, you should wake your baby to eat if they sleep longer than 3 hours between feedings. Once your baby has regained their birth weight and your pediatrician confirms they’re gaining appropriately, you can allow longer sleep stretches at night if your baby naturally sleeps longer.

Expected Weight Loss and Gain

Nearly all newborns lose weight during the first few days after birth. Weight loss of up to 10% of birth weight is considered normal. This happens because babies are born with extra fluid that they lose through urination, bowel movements, and breathing. Babies also don’t take in much volume initially, especially breastfed babies whose mothers’ milk hasn’t come in yet.

Your baby should stop losing weight by day 3 or 4 and begin gaining. By the end of the first week or within the first two weeks at most, your baby should return to their birth weight. After that, expect weight gain of about 5 to 7 ounces per week on average.

If your baby loses more than 10% of their birth weight or isn’t gaining by the end of the first week, your pediatrician will evaluate feeding thoroughly to ensure your baby is getting enough nutrition.

Signs Your Baby Is Getting Enough to Eat

Rather than focusing on exact ounces or minutes spent feeding, watch for these indicators that your baby is eating adequately:

• Increasing number of wet diapers each day, reaching 6 or more wet diapers by day 5
• Transitioning from dark, sticky meconium stools to yellow, seedy stools by day 4 or 5
• Your baby seems satisfied after feeds and will sleep for 1 to 3 hours between feedings
• You can hear swallowing during feeds
• Breasts feel softer after breastfeeding
• Your baby has good skin tone and isn’t excessively sleepy

Breastfeeding Challenges in Week One

The first week of breastfeeding is often the most challenging as both you and your baby learn this new skill. Your breasts produce colostrum, a thick, yellowish fluid packed with antibodies and nutrients, for the first few days. Though the volume is small, it’s exactly what your baby needs.

Most mothers experience their milk coming in between day 2 and day 5. When this happens, breasts become noticeably fuller, firmer, and sometimes uncomfortable. Frequent feeding helps relieve engorgement and establishes a good milk supply.

Sore nipples are common in the first week, usually resulting from improper latch. If feeding is painful beyond the first few seconds or your nipples are cracked or bleeding, seek help from a lactation consultant. Most hospitals have lactation consultants who can evaluate your baby’s latch and offer solutions.

Formula Feeding Guidelines

If you’re formula feeding, start with 1 to 2 ounces per feeding in the first few days, gradually increasing to 2 to 3 ounces by the end of the week as your baby’s stomach capacity grows. Your baby will likely eat every 2 to 4 hours, usually 8 to 12 times daily.

Prepare formula according to package directions, using the exact ratio of powder to water. Never dilute or concentrate formula, as this can be dangerous. Always prepare a fresh bottle for each feeding and discard any formula left in the bottle after one hour.

Watch your baby’s hunger cues rather than forcing them to finish every bottle. Babies know when they’re full, and overfeeding can cause discomfort and excessive spit-up.

Understanding Normal Sleep Patterns for Newborns in Week One

Sleep during the first week looks nothing like adult sleep or even what your baby’s sleep will look like in a few months. Setting realistic expectations helps you cope with the exhaustion and recognize what’s normal.

How Much Newborns Sleep

Newborns sleep 16 to 18 hours per day on average, but this sleep comes in short bursts of 1 to 3 hours throughout the day and night. Your baby doesn’t yet understand the difference between day and night and needs to wake frequently to eat.

Some babies sleep slightly more, others slightly less. What matters is that your baby wakes easily for feedings, seems alert during brief awake periods, and returns to sleep between feeds. A baby who is extremely difficult to wake for feeds or who seems excessively sleepy needs medical evaluation.

Safe Sleep Practices That Reduce SIDS Risk

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is rare but devastating. Following safe sleep guidelines dramatically reduces risk:

• Always place your baby on their back to sleep for every sleep period including naps
• Use a firm sleep surface such as a crib or bassinet with a tight-fitting sheet
• Keep the sleep area bare with no blankets, pillows, bumper pads, or stuffed animals
• Room-share but not bed-share, keeping baby in your room but in their own sleep space
• Avoid overheating by dressing baby appropriately for room temperature
• Consider offering a pacifier at sleep time once breastfeeding is established

These recommendations come from decades of research identifying factors that reduce SIDS risk. While safe sleep can feel restrictive, remember that this is temporary. As your baby grows older, the rules relax.

Swaddling Your Newborn Safely

Many newborns sleep better when swaddled because the snug wrapping mimics the security of the womb and prevents the startle reflex from waking them. If you choose to swaddle, do so safely by leaving the hips loose enough to bend and move naturally, stopping swaddling as soon as your baby shows any signs of rolling over, and never placing a swaddled baby on their stomach to sleep.

Tight swaddling around the hips can contribute to hip dysplasia, a condition where the hip joint doesn’t develop properly. Your baby’s legs should be able to bend up and out at the hips when swaddled.

Some babies don’t like being swaddled and sleep better with arms free. Watch your baby’s cues and do what works for them.

Day and Night Confusion

Many newborns have their days and nights mixed up, sleeping long stretches during the day and staying awake for hours at night. This happens because day-night rhythms haven’t developed yet.

Help your baby gradually learn the difference by keeping daytime feedings social and bright with normal household noise and light, while making nighttime feedings quiet, dark, and calm with minimal interaction. This teaches your baby that daytime is for being awake and nighttime is for sleeping.

Day-night confusion usually improves over the first several weeks as your baby’s circadian rhythm develops.

Common Newborn Reflexes and Movements You’ll Notice

Your newborn’s movements and behaviors are governed largely by automatic reflexes rather than intentional actions. Understanding these reflexes helps you recognize normal development and respond appropriately to your baby’s needs.

The Startle or Moro Reflex

This dramatic reflex causes your baby to suddenly throw their arms out to the sides with fingers spread, arch their back, and then bring their arms back in, often accompanied by crying. The Moro reflex triggers in response to sudden movements, loud noises, or the sensation of falling.

This reflex is completely normal and actually serves a protective purpose, though it can startle parents as much as it startles babies. The Moro reflex gradually disappears around 3 to 6 months of age. Swaddling helps reduce startling and can improve sleep for babies with a strong startle reflex.

Rooting and Sucking Reflexes

When you stroke your baby’s cheek or the corner of their mouth, they automatically turn toward that side and open their mouth, searching for something to suck. This rooting reflex helps babies find the breast or bottle for feeding.

Once something touches the roof of your baby’s mouth, the sucking reflex takes over, causing rhythmic sucking movements. These feeding reflexes are strongest in the first few months and gradually fade as feeding becomes a voluntary action.

Grasp Reflex

Place your finger in your newborn’s palm and they’ll automatically curl their fingers around it with surprising strength. This palmar grasp reflex is present from birth and lasts until about 5 to 6 months of age when it’s replaced by intentional reaching and grasping.

Your baby’s hands are usually clenched in fists during the first week with thumbs often tucked inside the fingers. This is normal positioning. As your baby matures over the coming weeks and months, hands will gradually open more frequently.

Stepping Reflex

If you hold your newborn upright with feet touching a flat surface, they’ll make stepping movements as if trying to walk. This stepping reflex disappears around 2 months of age and reappears later as actual walking develops around one year.

Normal Jitteriness and Twitching

Many newborns are jittery or have brief episodes of twitching, especially during sleep. You might notice trembling of the chin, arms, or legs. This jitteriness is normal in the first week as the nervous system matures and is usually more noticeable when the baby is crying, cold, or after a startle.

However, if the jittery movements don’t stop when you gently hold the affected limb still, or if your baby has rhythmic jerking movements, contact your pediatrician. These could indicate seizures rather than normal newborn jitteriness.

How Your Baby’s Senses and Social Awareness Develop in Week One

Even in the first week, your newborn is learning about the world and forming attachments. Understanding your baby’s sensory abilities and social development helps you interact in ways that support bonding and brain development.

What Your Newborn Can See

Babies are born with working eyes but limited visual ability. Your newborn can see clearly at a distance of about 8 to 10 inches, which happens to be approximately the distance from your baby’s face to yours when you’re feeding them. This isn’t coincidence but rather evolutionary design that promotes bonding.

Your baby sees best in high contrast and is particularly drawn to faces. They prefer looking at human faces over any other pattern or object. During the first week, your baby is learning to recognize your face and will begin showing preference for it over unfamiliar faces.

Objects at distances beyond 10 inches appear blurry to newborns. Vision develops rapidly over the coming weeks and months, with full adult visual acuity developing around 6 months of age.

Hearing and Sound Recognition

Your baby’s hearing is fully developed at birth. During pregnancy, your baby heard your voice, your heartbeat, and other sounds from outside the womb. At birth, your baby already recognizes your voice and finds it soothing.

Newborns turn toward sounds and startle at loud noises. They prefer higher-pitched voices, which is why most people naturally speak to babies in a higher register. Talking, singing, and reading to your baby during the first week supports language development even though they don’t understand words yet.

Smell and Taste

Newborns have strong senses of smell and taste. Breastfed babies can smell their mother’s milk and will turn toward the breast even with eyes closed. Your baby is learning your unique scent and finds it comforting.

Babies are born preferring sweet tastes, which makes sense since breast milk is naturally sweet. They can distinguish between different flavors in breast milk based on what you eat, though formula taste remains consistent.

Early Bonding and Attachment

The first week is a critical bonding period. Holding, cuddling, feeding, and talking gently to your baby teaches them trust and security. Your baby is learning that when they have needs, someone responds and meets those needs. This forms the foundation of secure attachment, which impacts emotional development throughout life.

Skin-to-skin contact, where your baby lies on your bare chest, provides numerous benefits including temperature regulation, stabilized heart rate and breathing, better sleep, successful breastfeeding, and enhanced bonding for both mothers and fathers.

Your baby may not smile intentionally yet (social smiling typically begins around 6 weeks), but they show facial expressions and respond to comfort, calming when held and soothed.

Warning Signs That Require Immediate Medical Attention

While most babies have uncomplicated first weeks, certain symptoms require prompt medical evaluation. Trust your instincts and don’t hesitate to call your pediatrician with concerns. It’s always better to check something that turns out to be nothing than to ignore something serious.

Jaundice That’s Getting Worse

Jaundice, or yellowing of the skin and eyes, affects about 60% of newborns to some degree. It results from elevated bilirubin levels as the baby’s liver learns to process this substance. Mild jaundice that appears after 24 hours and gradually improves is normal.

However, call your doctor if jaundice appears in the first 24 hours after birth, spreads from the face down to the chest, abdomen, or legs, seems to be getting worse rather than better after day 3 or 4, or if your baby is difficult to wake, not feeding well, or unusually fussy.

Severe jaundice requires treatment with phototherapy (light therapy) to prevent complications. Left untreated, very high bilirubin levels can cause brain damage.

Breathing Difficulties

Newborns normally breathe faster and more irregularly than adults, sometimes pausing briefly between breaths. However, certain breathing patterns require immediate evaluation:

• Persistent rapid breathing with more than 60 breaths per minute
• Grunting sounds with each breath
• Flaring of the nostrils with breathing
• Pulling in of the chest between ribs or below the ribcage
• Bluish color around the lips, tongue, or face
• Long pauses in breathing lasting more than 10 seconds

Call 911 if your baby has blue coloring or significant breathing distress.

Feeding Problems

Contact your pediatrician if your baby refuses to eat, goes more than 4 hours without feeding and is difficult to wake, vomits forcefully after every feeding (small spit-up is normal), or has fewer than 6 wet diapers by day 5.

Fever or Temperature Instability

Any fever in a newborn requires immediate medical attention. Rectal temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher in a baby under 3 months old is a medical emergency requiring immediate evaluation. Newborn immune systems are immature, and infections can become serious quickly.

Also concerning is a baby who is too cold with a temperature below 97°F (36.1°C) that doesn’t improve with warming.

Excessive Sleepiness or Lethargy

If your baby is difficult to wake for feedings, doesn’t wake on their own at least every 4 hours, seems extremely floppy or limp when awake, or doesn’t respond to stimulation, seek medical attention.

Umbilical Cord Infection

Signs that the umbilical stump may be infected include redness spreading from the cord base across the abdomen, swelling around the cord, foul-smelling discharge, bleeding beyond a few drops, or fever. These symptoms need same-day medical evaluation.

Unusual Color Changes

Bluish coloring around the lips or face indicates your baby isn’t getting enough oxygen and requires emergency care. Pale or gray color, especially with lethargy, can indicate serious illness.

Persistent Inconsolable Crying

All babies cry, and newborns are often fussy in the evening. However, crying that cannot be soothed for hours, seems painful, or is accompanied by other symptoms like fever, vomiting, or poor feeding needs medical evaluation.

What Developmental Milestones Happen During the First Week

The first week involves mostly basic survival skills rather than obvious developmental milestones. However, your baby is learning and developing every day even if changes aren’t dramatic.

Physical Development

By the end of the first week, your baby’s movements remain primarily reflexive and involuntary. Arms and legs move in jerky, uncoordinated motions. Hands stay mostly clenched in fists. When lying on their stomach, some newborns can briefly lift their head or turn it from side to side, though tummy time is difficult and most babies protest.

Your baby cannot yet support their own head, which remains very floppy. Always support your baby’s head and neck when holding them.

Feeding Progress

By the end of week one, most babies are feeding more efficiently than in the first day or two. Breastfed babies have typically figured out latching, though it may not be perfect yet. All babies are showing better coordination of sucking, swallowing, and breathing during feeds.

Sleep and Wake Cycles

Your baby’s sleep remains irregular with no predictable schedule. Brief wake periods may last 30 minutes to an hour before your baby tires and needs to sleep again. These wake periods are opportunities for gentle interaction, feeding, and diaper changes.

Social and Emotional Growth

Your baby is learning to recognize your voice and smell. They may calm more quickly to your touch than to strangers. Brief eye contact may occur during alert periods, though sustained eye contact doesn’t develop until later.

Bonding progresses each day as you respond to your baby’s needs, learning to interpret different cries and comfort techniques that work for your baby.

Communication

Crying is your baby’s primary communication tool. Over the first week, you’ll begin noticing that cries sound slightly different depending on whether your baby is hungry, tired, uncomfortable, or overstimulated. This is the beginning of learning your baby’s unique language.

Practical Tips for Surviving and Thriving in the First Week

The first week home with a newborn is overwhelming for even the most prepared parents. These practical strategies help you manage the adjustment while taking care of yourself and your baby.

Accept Help When Offered

Let people bring meals, do laundry, wash dishes, or hold the baby while you shower. This isn’t the time to prove you can do everything yourself. Accept specific offers of help and don’t hesitate to delegate tasks.

Sleep When Your Baby Sleeps

You’ll hear this advice constantly because it’s truly important. Forget housework and use your baby’s sleep periods to rest yourself. Sleep deprivation is cumulative and makes everything harder.

Trust Your Instincts

You know your baby better than anyone else, even in the first week. If something feels wrong, call your pediatrician. Good doctors never make parents feel foolish for calling with concerns, especially about newborns.

Lower Your Expectations

The first week isn’t about maintaining your pre-baby standards. It’s about survival. A successful day is one where everyone is fed, relatively clean, and safe. Everything else is bonus.

Track Feedings and Diapers

Use a notebook or app to record feeding times and wet/dirty diapers, especially in the first few days when you’re exhausted and everything blurs together. This information helps you identify patterns and provides helpful data for pediatric appointments.

Take Breaks

It’s okay to put your baby in a safe place like their crib and walk away for a few minutes if you’re feeling overwhelmed. Your baby will be fine for 5 to 10 minutes while you collect yourself, use the bathroom, or take deep breaths.

Remember This Phase Is Temporary

The intensity of the first week won’t last forever. Each week gets a bit easier as you and your baby learn each other’s rhythms and your confidence grows.

Finding Support and Resources for New Parents

No one should navigate early parenthood completely alone. Multiple resources exist to support families during this transition.

Your Pediatrician

Your baby’s doctor is your primary resource for medical questions and concerns. Don’t hesitate to call the office with questions. Most practices have nurses who answer questions during office hours, and many have after-hours nurse lines for non-emergency concerns.

Lactation Support

If you’re breastfeeding and experiencing challenges, lactation consultants provide invaluable support. Many hospitals have lactation consultants on staff who offer follow-up support after discharge. The La Leche League and other breastfeeding organizations offer free peer support.

Postpartum Support

If you’re experiencing overwhelming sadness, anxiety, anger, or intrusive thoughts, reach out for help. Postpartum depression and anxiety affect up to 20% of new mothers and can also affect fathers and partners. Your obstetrician, pediatrician, or primary care doctor can connect you with mental health support.

Postpartum Support International provides resources and support groups for families experiencing perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

Online Communities

Many parents find support in online parenting groups, though be cautious about medical advice from unqualified sources. These communities can provide emotional support and practical tips but shouldn’t replace medical advice from your healthcare providers.

CDC Milestone Tracker App

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers a free Milestone Tracker app that helps parents monitor development and track appointments. The app provides age-appropriate activity ideas and allows you to share information with your child’s doctor.

Looking Ahead Beyond the First Week

The first week is just the beginning of your journey with your baby. While this initial period is intense and challenging, it passes quickly. By the second and third weeks, you’ll feel more confident, your baby will be slightly more predictable, and the initial shock of newborn life will start settling into manageable routines.

Every baby is unique, and your experience with your baby will be different from anyone else’s. Some babies are naturally easier than others. Some families adjust quickly while others struggle longer. None of this reflects on you as parents or on your baby as a person. Give yourself grace, ask for help when you need it, and celebrate the small victories.

The exhaustion and overwhelm of the first week don’t last forever, but the love you’re building with your baby does. These early days of meeting your baby’s needs, learning their personality, and forming your family bond create the foundation for a lifetime relationship. Trust yourself, trust your baby, and know that you’re doing better than you think you are.