Games to play with your newborn baby, Oh Happy Days!

Once a little angel comes in your life, you are surrounded with lots of questions. How to keep them healthy, how to make them feel happy, what to feed them and the most important how to play with them? If you grab the opportunity once your newborn infant is awake, you'll be amazed by the interaction that is actually possible. Babies learn through playing games and watching you. Games are more than just fun.

They teach babies to: Use their bodies. Learn the language. Develop their thinking. Feel good about themselves. Feel good about the person taking care of them.

Play with your baby by talking, singing or reading to her, or just by smiling at her. Even though she is a newborn, she will respond by listening to you and will love the attention. As she grows older, she will reward you with a smile, a coo, or a gurgle and will try to reach for you. Once your baby gives you that first smile, you just melt away!

Funny games to play with your newborn baby include:

Floor Time Baby Games: Belly time is an important precursor to crawling, helps develop back muscles used in sitting and walking as well as helping to prevent flat spots from too much time spent on the back. Lie down on the floor in front of your baby and encourage her to look at you. "Peek a Boo" becomes a fun exercise game as she lifts her head to look at you. Always put your baby to sleep on her back - play this game during awake times. You can also put a few of this favorite toys around him as well.

Imitation: Something that is very much attractive about infants is that they can imitate. Choose a moment when your infant is attentive and comfortable. Lift your baby up and keep nearer to you. Then do any activity in front of your baby. Do anything and watch...pull out your tongue, say mama or papa, smile, laugh, cough.

Vision games: Usually, a newborn baby can look about 8-10 inches from his/her face. Help your infant to use his/her eyes through stirring an object in front of her eyes. You can also use a black and white object, because newborn babies cannot distinguish the color. Do the activity slowly; moving the object too fast makes your baby to get confused. In order to perform both hearing and vision, it is better to choose a song or rhyme that you use often when you play with these vision games with your infant.

Hearing Games: Your baby is likely to at least recognize mom's voice from the time before being born. If dad and siblings spoke a lot and close to mom's belly, you child might also recognize their voices. Hearing any of you talking or singing and at the same time look into your eyes is fun for a newborn baby. Within a month or two, he'll start showing his appreciation by smiling back and even start "talking" to you. Talking to your baby will also make him feel safe despite his new, strange surroundings outside the uterus.

Face to face expressions: Whenever your infant is looking at your face, slowly move your head from side-to-side. Watch at your infant and stick out your tongue. Then, slowly close the eyes, and again open and smile. Repeat it. Your baby will learn through repetitions. Let your baby know how much you love her. Repeat her name. You can never give your child enough love l say!

Fun Foot Baby Games: Newborn babies have a stepping reflex that is fun to play with. Hold your baby under the arms (grasping around the chest firmly) and "stand" him in an upright position on the floor. When the baby's foot touches the ground he'll lift it up, lowering the other foot as though walking. This baby reflex fades after about two months so enjoy the baby game while it lasts.

Hand Baby Games: Newborns have a strong grasp reflex and love to play hand games. Lay your baby on her back (floor or lap), and let her grasp your fingers. Lift her arms gently, describing your motions in sing-song voice, "Up, Down. In, Out". She loves your higher-pitched voice. She'll begin to associate the word with the motion as you play variations of this game over the next several months.

Bonding Games: Rock your baby and sing a gentle lullaby. Even take your top off to allow skin contact. Newborn infants have a well developed smell and a sensitive skin, so being close to you, hearing your voice and smelling MOM (or dad!), is heaven!

Sing songs: For every moment with your baby, you can sing beautiful songs. When you are feeding, changing the diaper, while bathing, etc, you can sing based on the moment. Usually babies love to listen to the music. Play any of your favorite tunes and sing along with them. Introduce your infant to nursery rhymes and lullabies. Gently rock your infant while you are singing and looking into her eyes. Doing like this will greatly impact your child's development and he/she will definitely learn the skills quickly.

Looking, listening, feeling: Use the baby gym and objects in her crib or pram to talk to your baby. Describe everything she can see. Point to things, let her feel them and try to hold them. She'll begin to use her hands and feet a bit more to express emotion. Let her look at her hands. Stroke them, tickle them, kiss them and start to play "round and round the garden, like a teddy bear"! Let's not forget "this little piggy" either. At diaper change, hold her feet up in the air and do the same. At bath time you can sing "this is the way we wash our feet" and so on. After the bath you can clap her hands together and her feet too, and blow some raspberries on her tummy.

 Get moving: Hold baby firmly and rock her back and forth or swing her from side to side, to get her used to the sensation of moving around. If you are still feeling a little tender, sit in a rocking chair and sing a song.

Touchy-feely: Soft baby books that can be attached to the side of the crib will give your baby something to look at, and she may be able to try touching it and holding it. Her hands are slowly becoming more flexible, and you can start introducing textures to her - cotton wool, a wooden spoon, the inevitable blankie, soft toys and plastic bottles.

Heads up: Lay your baby on her tummy. Hold a colorful toy near your baby's head, just a little higher than you normally would, to encourage her to raise her head to see. Give her lots of praise when she lifts that heavy head - she's working hard!

Who's that? Pictures of faces will fascinate your child. She can look at herself in a safety mirror and wonder who that beautiful baby is! Stand in front of a large mirror holding baby and talk to her, pointing at your reflections. Give names to some of her cuddly toys and repeat the names as you play with them and touch them.

You'll find that many of these newborn babies' games will come in handy for the months to come. Children up to the age of three or even four still delight in many of these activities and will relish their familiarity - and they have you to thank for nurturing them in such a fun way! Newborn babies can be so lovable and yet so frustrating. It's easy to imagine that they are in a world of their own, not paying much attention to you - apart from when they want their feed. But as you progress together to the next three months, you'll find that your tiny newborn starts to develop into a much more sociable bonny baby! Always remember you are your baby's favorite toy. So re enjoy your childhood with your baby. 

(Sources: Suite101.com, Prudent press agency, saint john's health care)