Newborn Care, Sleep, Feeding and Routines (The Doctors Bjorkman)

Grounded in: the topics covered by The Doctors Bjorkman on YouTube (search their channel): 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.

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.

Themes

The Doctors Bjorkman, before baby, preparing for baby, hospital bag, pediatrician, car seat, newborn care, umbilical cord, bath, thermometer, fever, newborn sleep, day night confusion, awake windows, feeding cues, burping, spit up, routine, bedtime routine, schedule