# Newborn Care and Routines: Sleep, Feeding and Everyday Care

> Getting ready before baby, everyday infant care, and simple routines, from the Doctors Bjorkman.

Stage: newborn - Topic: Everyday care - Page: https://www.askcladle.com/guides/newborn/bjorkman-newborn-care-and-routines

Grounded in: AAP HealthyChildren newborn care guidance (cord care, bathing, fever, safe sleep, feeding), inspired by the topics covered by **The Doctors Bjorkman** on YouTube: getting ready before baby arrives, everyday infant care, sleep, feeding and building routines. This card is a plain-language summary of mainstream pediatric guidance on those topics, written for Cradle; it is not a transcript and does not quote them. Watch their videos for their own explanations.

## TLDR

- Before the birth: choose a pediatrician, install the car seat and set up one safe sleep space.
- A rectal thermometer is most accurate; 100.4°F (38°C) or higher under 3 months means call right away.
- A predictable order (feed, awake, sleep) helps more than a strict clock, and routines will bend with growth spurts and illness.

## Before baby

- Pick a pediatrician before the due date, and know how to reach them after hours.
- Install the car seat before the birth; rear-facing, and have it checked if you're unsure.
- Set up one safe sleep space (a bassinet or crib with a firm flat mattress and a fitted sheet only).
- Stock the basics simply: diapers and wipes, a few sleep sacks, a thermometer, and feeding supplies for the
  plan you have, with a backup plan that's okay to use.
- Line up help for the first weeks: meals, night support, and someone who can take the baby while you sleep.

## Everyday infant care

- Umbilical cord stump: keep it clean and dry until it falls off, usually within a few weeks.
- Baths: sponge baths until the cord falls off, then a few baths a week is plenty.
- Temperature: a rectal thermometer is the most accurate for young babies. A fever of 100.4 °F (38 °C) or
  higher in a baby under 3 months means calling the pediatrician right away.

## Sleep

- Newborns sleep in short stretches around the clock. Day-night confusion is common and fades over weeks:
  bright, social days and dim, quiet nights help.
- Safe sleep every time: alone, on the back, in a crib or bassinet.
- Watch for sleepy cues (yawning, staring, fussing) and the short awake windows of the early months.

## Feeding

- Feed on cue. Early hunger cues are rooting, hands to mouth and lip-smacking; crying is a late cue.
- Wet and dirty diapers and weight checks at the pediatrician are the best signs of enough intake.
- Burp during and after feeds; spit-up is common and usually harmless when the baby is growing well.

## Routines

- A predictable order of events (feed, awake time, sleep; a short bedtime routine such as bath, feed,
  song, bed) helps more than a strict clock in the early months.
- Routines are a scaffold, not a test. Growth spurts, illness and developmental leaps change them.