"Playing" with a newborn?

LawLove08 · March 2009

Anyone else find it hard to play with a newborn? ?DS is 5 weeks old, and I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to play with him. ?I sing him songs, read him little books, and just talk in silly voices to him. ?But he just stares at me (he's not smiling yet). ?It's hard to play when he doesn't really react to anything.

Any tips on playing with a newborn? ?Did it get easier once your LO started to smile??

laurandjim · March 2009

There's a good link in a post earlier today about that very thing!

I also read to DS since he was born--simple baby books like Goodnight Moon, and now Dr. Seuss books--and he loves that.
Also, just dangling his toys around him made him happy.
Another thing I did was get a big book of songs (w/lyrics and sheet music) and sang to DS. I bought him a little drum and other instruments and play along on those.
Every day we do little exercises--bicycle kicks, flutter kicks, boxer punches, doggy paddle hands, etc.--that he loves, too. Just the motion helps build more pathways in his brain!

laurandjim · March 2009

PS--Everything is more fun once they start to smile, but I enjoyed playing with him even before then because he looked at the books, toys or me so intently (other times he gazed into space) that I knew he was benefiting from it.