10 things you didn't know until you had a baby

January 3, 2024

These days, we can get all sorts of answers on the Internet. Google "Why my baby isn't sleeping" and you will have approximately 357 million results. What you find largely depends on what your search terms are, so, in a way, you will always get an answer for everything.

Now that Neo is 18 months old, I realized how much "Googling" I have done. Though I know I shouldn't believe everything I read on the internet, there are a few interesting facts that I've learned from my experience as a first-time mom.

Here’s a list of 10 things which I didn’t know about until I had Neo:

Whale-tailing
When Neo was about 4 months old, he was lifting his legs and ‘slamming’ them down a lot when he was sleeping. It used to freak me out. I thought he had fallen out of his cot as it was such a loud ‘thump’ in the middle of the night. I later learned (Googled, of course), that this is a common self-soothing technique, known as Whale tailing. Neo eventually stopped doing that a month later.
The ‘roast chicken’
It is extremely cute to see Neo sleeping with his butt in the air, which we have coined as "The roast chicken." While the safest position for a baby to sleep is on their back, this position is common once a baby learns to roll over. It is safe to leave them in this position if they have mastered rolling both ways. For babies, sleeping curled up on their stomachs probably feels more secure and comfortable as it reminds them of being in their mother's womb.
Stork bite
I noticed some redness at the back of Neo's head one day and thought he had a rash. It turned out to be Nevus Simplex, commonly known as "Stork bite," which can show up around a baby's forehead, eyelids, or back of the neck. It is a common birthmark and typically fades over time.
“Blood” in pee
When Neo was just about two days old, I noticed some redness in his diaper. It wasn’t exactly blood, but it was still alarming for any new parent. I quickly found out that these are urate crystals, also known as ‘brick stains’. They aren’t a cause for concern and are essentially a by-product of concentrated urine. However, if this symptom lasts for more than three days, it could be a sign of dehydration, so please speak to your GP or health visitor as soon as possible.
Constant poop…or lack of poop
Neo was breastfed for the first 6 months, and I've always thought that breastfed babies would have very frequent poos. The longest that Neo didn't poop was for 10 days. Yes, it was a scary moment for us. We went to the GP when he didn't poop after 4 days but were told that it was probably because he had no 'waste' to pass out from his body. We tried different methods to get him to poop (from massaging his bum to doing more bicycle kicks) but to no avail. I remember a visit to the GP who said that breastfed babies don't poop a lot, but when I asked him that I was told otherwise, he confessed that there isn't exactly a definite rule to it. Neo finally did a blow-out on Day 11 while sitting on his bouncer. This is definitely not normal, and if your baby hasn't pooped in 2-3 days, please speak to a medical professional.
Rooting
When Neo was still a few days old, it was quite unsettling to see him "twitching" a lot. I initially thought he had some issue with his nervous system (the constant worrier as a new parent...). Apparently, this action is called "rooting" and is an instinctive reflex of newborn babies to find milk.
The ‘tuck’ of the nappy
This was a tip given by a more experienced parent, and it has been very effective. Whenever we put a diaper on Neo, we tuck the back of the diaper by folding it inwards. It helps to prevent any potential blowouts.

The 'tuck'
The dummy trick when applying teething powder
Teething is one of the toughest challenges for any parent. It is really heartbreaking to see our little ones go through the pain and discomfort, and there’s very little we can do apart from providing comfort and methods for soothing them. One method is, of course, teething gels or powder. We used Ashton and Parsons, and one of our close relatives who works as a nanny, suggested dipping the dummy in the powder instead. (We were using our fingers and rubbing the powder on his gums, and he hated it...) This little trick worked very well for us, and now, whenever Neo feels achy or in pain from his gums, he’ll point to the powder and his dummy, gesturing for us to apply the powder to him.
The bald patches
Neo was born with a full head of hair, but by the time he was six months old, he had lost most of it. He had bald patches around his head, and I was given advice to shave his head so that new hair would grow. Babies losing hair is supposedly quite common, and this could be a result of them being on their backs for long periods. Silk sheets can help prevent bald spots and are gentler on sensitive skin.
Everything goes into their mouth because…..
That is an instinct for them! There is recent French research that suggests that, and I quote, "infants are born with an instinct to put things in their mouth as part of a survival-of-the-fittest mentality to make sure they're fed."