4 Evening ‘Routines’ for a Newborn Baby…

Dr Iya Whiteley - 11 Feb 17

We prepared ourself… well, no, not really. We had no idea what life is really like as parents to a newborn, we had to roll with the punches somewhat and that included making the most of our evenings together, including the very first Valentines Day or Birthdays celebrations.

The reality is that you’re unlikely to be able to sit down, enjoy a two hour dinner and a few glasses of wine or champagne but you can do some simple things – mini celebrations – during the first few years and make the most of it.

Here are a few ideas which can help you to plan ahead your fun evening with your newborn bundle of joy and your partner and to give you time with your partner to celebrate.

Idea 1: Light up candles!

If your baby is fidgety, the flickering flame in a dimly lit room will attract their attention and mesmerise them. Newborn babies are naturally attracted and greatly benefit from observing high contrast objects, images and surroundings.

If your baby is anything like our daughter, you will have twenty minutes of peace every hour and a half and even then it will be while she breastfeeds! Dining out was not an option for us, nor a bedtime routine!

It took a little planning ahead to enjoy our first celebration with our baby girl but we managed it. I found some candles that we did not end up using during labour, put them on the table with matches ready to light them and I earmarked my favourite china. Meanwhile, my husband cooked and froze loads of my favourite spinach lasagne and a delicious shepherds pie with sweet potatoes before our baby girl was born. We took that out the night before to defrost in the fridge. Our menu might not have been your typical romantic dinner, but I needed all the iron I could get from our meals. You might decide on a takeaway, it doesn’t really matter what you eat, it’s more about who you’re with and making time for it!

We calculated that in one hour and a half we would have a twenty minute window for our dinner. We started the oven, set the table and had the candles ready to keep our newborn baby girl engaged while we savoured our time together.

What we now realise is that babies are like air. These tiny and captivating creatures rush into our lives and fill every molecule of space and time we have available. Of course, we willingly gave to both our daughter and son every spare moment and LOVE that we have!

It’s important though, to remember to give our partners the same love and attention and share activities that we enjoy. Valentines Day, Special Occasions (invent one, like a ‘burp free t-shirt day’!) and Birthdays are those opportunity to do exactly that!

Idea 2: Play a game of draughts, chess or backgammon!

Games, especially competitive games are highly recommended for couples. It is a great way to keep happy, to interact with your loved ones and to engage the mind – something beyond your new routine of nappies, feeding, burping and obsessing about every tiny spot that inevitably surfaces somewhere on your precious newborn.

It is not about if, but rather when your game will be interrupted by your little bundle of joy. When it happens you can easily distract him by showing the contrasting colours of alternating squares and figures on the board.

Newborns and babies are mesmerised by black and white images. Your baby is naturally drawn to your loving face that appears to her as a high contrast of black and white. The ever changing shape of your eyes, nose, mouth and hairline offer spots of contrast against your skin and is captivating to your baby too.

Don’t have the board game at home – find an app. It will also come handy when your baby will start to squirm during your first outing with friends or parents-in-law. Your baby will be instantly glued to the black and white pattern of the board and you can show your friends and family that your baby is already on the way to becoming the chess genius!

Idea 3: Just Dance!

We are born to dance! Our baby girl and boy danced and enjoyed music way before they spoke and were able to build big towers. Movement to the beat is natural for us and beneficial in so many ways – improves the mood through reduction of cortisol – the stress hormone and generates happiness hormones, makes us connect with our dance partner and facilitates generation of new connections in the brain, if you decide to tango for the first time. Valentines or any Special Occasion Day, or in fact any day, is perfect for putting it all to the test with your partner.

You can melt in the dance together to your favourite tune and if your baby needs to be held – she would gladly join in and love being cuddled between you.

Babies enjoy rhythm and smooth rocking all through the nine months. Your heartbeat, sound of your voices, rhythm of walking and muffled sounds of the music your listen or danced to – all prepared your little dancer to love it.

Babies are literally born to dance, scientists tested 120 babies, who responded by smiling and rhythmical moving to music and drumbeats more than to speech.

Make it a resolution this Valentines Day to listen to more music and to dance more together. You never know, your baby may well become a great dancer or a musical genius!

Idea 4: Game of Cards to Make You Laugh!

Any deck of cards can instantly create tonnes of entertainment. Cards were originally invented in China, modified to the four current suits in the Middle East. The suit of Hearts actually does represent – Love. Faces of kings eventually were added to cards in France, representing four Kings: Hearts – Charlemagne; Diamonds – Julius Caesar; Clubs – Alexander the Great, and the King of Spades – King David from the Bible.

Now, the history fun fact is out of the way, play any game either of you remember from your childhood. If you haven’t played for a while, try our favourite, lets call it – the Cosmic Baby Love card game. Assign an action to each card, for example, give a salute to the card with a King, say, ‘Madam’ to the Queen, slam your hand on the pile of card when you spot any of the Aces, touch your ear for any card of ten, your noise for nine and so on. As a special Valentines or Newborn Baby Love twist either give each other a kiss when you see any card with a suit of Hearts or send a kiss via the air.

Begin the game by dealing all the cards face down evenly to all the players. Game is played by taking turns and putting in the middle face up one card from your own stack of cards. Each player trying to be the first to act out the card facing up as agreed. You may want to keep scores and give one score to the first person to do the action correctly or just keep going until one of you slams the hand on the Ace and takes all the cards that lie in the middle and put them all under their own stack of cards. The game is played until one person ends up with all the cards or the first person to reach a score of 50 or you are laughing so hard that you can’t see the cards anymore.

Let me know how the game went if you are trying it for the first time!

I am sure you will wake up the baby, so let your precious one join your Special Occasion fun and games, engage her by showing her individual cards about 20 to 30 centimetres away from her eyes. That is the distance that babies would naturally have between their eyes and your eye, when they are cradled in your arms or enjoying some breastfeeding. Your baby always studies your facial features intently soaking up every pixel in your expressions and surrounding circumstances creating them. They are very quick learners.

The cards are perfect for newborn babies and infants developing vision. They offer just the right size and the level of detail that a newborn baby would be able to appreciate. The cards are also in perfect contrasting colours of black, white and red. Initially, the newborn baby can mostly see high contrasting colours – black and white being the most contrasting, followed by the colour red. Introduce them early, I would say, and enjoy their developmental leaps. Before you know it, they will be slamming that card of Aces ahead of you and winning the game.

Have tonnes of fun with your newborn baby ‘evening routines’, otherwise known as ‘mini celebrations’ for a new Mum and Dad!

With LOVE from Cosmic Baby Books

Iya and Graham

Dr Iya Whiteley and Dr Graham Whiteley

Dr Iya Whiteley

MOTHER of TWO (... & yes Selfish at times...) - Clinical Psychologist, Astronaut Training Designer, Aircraft Cockpit Designer, Director - Centre for Space Medicine, UCL, now also - BABY BOOK ARTIST and AUTHOR. DESIGNS visually harmonious and symmetrically beautiful, calming and captivating - greatly beneficial for young babies images. These images are based on the latest research about newborn and young babies perception. Drawings are inspirited by patterns occurring in nature, architecture, astronomy and engineering (... EARTH DESIGNS) - gently introduce your newborn baby to our fascinating and mysterious Universe we live in. Your newborn BABY BRAIN MAKES around 1000 connections EVERY SECOND. Make it count! Nurture the nature by showing your baby beautiful images about our world. Love from Cosmic Baby Books.

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