CindySwartz.com

Full term newborns have an inborn reflex to suck. They will do this after birth, but not because they are hungry. Most full-term babies have packed on a layer of fat and water in preparation for birth. Their birth weight can be deceptive, particularly if you had a lot of fluids during labor. Some of that fluid will come off, so your baby will lose some weight—up to 10 percent of his newborn weight. You don’t need to worry. In fact, after an earthquake in Mexico that demolished a maternity hospital, one newborn was found alive after eight days under the rubble. Newborns typically lose between 5 and 10 percent of their birth weight during the days after birth, then begin to gain again. By the end of two weeks, most of them are back to their birth weight or close to it.

If you can get into the Zen of breastfeeding, it’ll be easier to sit down when you have dirty dishes, a hundred errands, and seventeen phone messages to return. This is good practice for your brain. Sometimes, being a mommy is—geez, dare I say it?—boring. It’s helpful for your child if you can put your worries aside in a big imaginary glass bowl while you’re together. Instead of thinking about all of the things you didn’t do, should do, and have to do, look at your baby’s sweet little rosebud of a mouth. Hold his tiny fingers. Brush your hands through his wispy hair, if he has any. Stop worrying about what’s going to happen to your career if you don’t go back in six weeks. Keep telling yourself your baby will only be a baby for a few years of your life.

And stop worrying about what will happen to your baby when you do go back to work. Give yourself a break. Working everything out hard. It takes time and usually help from other people. Give your baby the time you do have right now instead of worrying about the time yo-.: won’t have later.