For all their delicate appeal, newborn babies can hardly be called beauties. There is a rather gnomish look to them, with the "oversized" head (one-fourth of their entire length), narrow chest, large round abdomen, and short-bowed legs. The baby’s appearance when they arrive is wet and slippery coated with vernix caseosa the white creamy substance that protects the skin before birth. The baby is cleaned up a bit in the delivery room and warmly wrapped. Later, you'll notice a downy fuzz of fine hair on the newborn’s body, called lanugo, which will gradually wear off. Whether born with a thick mop of head hair or only a fuzz, this will also be shed while being replaced by the permanent hair. The baby's head is likely to be elongated and rather pointed at the back, due to being "molded" during passage through the birth canal. This makes a newborn’s appearance far from ideal.
Aside from plump or skinny variations, the new baby looks are remarkably uniform in body build. But each little face is somehow distinctive, even though similar in a "mashed," pudgy way. Whoever the baby looks like, she will be more like her own self in a week or two. The molded head re-forms to its normal shape, ears that may have been folded askew take their proper place, eyelids lose their puffiness and let the eyes look interested in looking.
It's no wonder that parents need a little time to get used to their baby and his appearance. But what must the baby get used to? Try to imagine the impact of birth: the amazing, immediate shifts in physiological functioning that enable the baby to maintain an independent life, the drastic change of environment with its barrage of new sensations. The baby's senses are assaulted by bright light and noise (including his own shrill voice); the feel of air on his skin, in his nostrils and lungs; the clasp of hands on his body; contact of instruments used to examine and ensure his welfare; the strange feel of clothing on his skin; even the sensation of his own weight on a solid surface; for his body has known only yielding surroundings.
The baby cannot be expected to adjust suddenly to this new life. It takes time for the new functions now required of his body to become stabilized. Meanwhile, all these new activities sucking for food, digesting it, emptying his bowels and bladder tax his energy, and he'll spend a lot of time in sleep. Even when he's awake he'll periodically demand protection against stress and overstimulation.
