Being a parent is a learning experience. It's about learning to take care of someone who is unable to care for themselves. Above all, being a parent teaches you about yourself. Here are a few things you may not have known about your new baby.
Tears contain stress hormones, so we cry to release stress. No other animal does this. Your baby can't cry tears for at least three weeks, sometimes not until they are four or five months old.
Kissing has origins in primitive practices of weaning. Originally people would chew their baby's food and then pass it from their mouth to their baby's mouth. You can obsere primates doing this.
Nearly all mothers will carry their baby's on their left side so that baby's head is next to mother's heart. Hearing a mother's heartbeat soothes a baby.
We instinctively rock our babies at a heartbeat pace. Again this soothes them. When inside the womb, the mother's heartbeat was the one constant noise a child heard. Hearing a mother's heartbeat reminds them of the womb; a place of refuge and safety.
During her first six months of life your baby can distinguish more sounds then she will be able to in later life. This is so that she could adapt to any human language. As time passes she will become 'tuned' to her native language.
When a baby is full she will turn her head away. This is the origin of shaking one's head to say no. Different human societies have different words to say 'no' but virtually all human societies turn their head from side to side to express 'no'.
Sticking out you tongue is considered rude and childish in most countries because this is the way that babies reject food.
A newborn baby can only concentrate on one thing at a time. When a baby first begins breastfeeding she will have her eyes closed but as she learns to do more one thing a time she'll begin to open her eyes and smile at you.
Babies become self-aware sooner than you might think. Very young babies love looking at themselves in mirrors but they may not realize who they are looking at for quite some time. If you put some lipstick on your baby's nose and then show her her reflection, it is not until about 15 months that she will touch her own nose when she sees it.
Babies don't have kneecaps when they are born. They only develop during the latter half of the first year.
The more stimulating experiences you can give your baby, the more circuitry is built for enhanced learning in the future. So get stimulating!
Children born in the month of May are on the average 200 grams heavier at birth than children born in any other month.
