Your baby's eyesight is still pretty fuzzy. Babies are born nearsighted and can see things best when they're about 8 to 15 inches away, so your baby can see your face clearly only when you're holding him or her close.

Don't worry if your baby doesn't look you right in the eye from the start: Newborns tend to look at your eyebrows, your hairline, or your moving mouth. As your baby gets to know you in the first month, he or she will become more interested in having eye-to-eye exchanges. Studies show that newborns prefer human faces to all other patterns or colors. (Objects that are bright, moving, high-contrast, or black-and-white are next in line.)

Give your baby plenty of opportunities to study your features by looking at him or her up close. As you or your partner do feedings, move your head slowly from side to side and see whether your baby's eyes follow you. This exercise can help strengthen the eye muscles. (Don't be alarmed if your baby looks at you with crossed eyes: It's normal for a newborn's eyes to wander or cross now and then during the first month or so of life.)

Getting enough to eat?

If you're breastfeeding, you may be wondering whether your baby's getting enough to eat because he or she may seem to be hungry all the time. Your baby probably is, since he or she is digesting breast milk within a couple of hours of consuming it.

Some signs that your breastfed baby's getting enough milk: Your breasts are being emptied and feel softer after nursing, your baby has good color and firm skin that bounces right back if pinched (if you pinch a dehydrated baby, the skin will stay puckered briefly), your baby is growing in both length and weight, you can hear him or her swallowing while nursing (if the room is quiet), he or she is passing mustard-yellow stools or frequent dark stools, and he or she has at least five to six wet disposable diapers a day (or seven to eight cloth diapers).

Whether you're nursing or formula-feeding your newborn, keep in mind that all babies grow at different rates and that their rate of growth tends to slow down at certain times. If your little one is hitting developmental milestones pretty much on time, relating well to you, and looking otherwise happy and healthy, he or she is most likely doing fine.

Number two

In the early days, your newborn's bowel movements are thick and dark green because of meconium – a substance that was building up in your baby's intestines while he or she was in the womb. As your baby starts to feed and the meconium is cleared out, his or her stools will start to turn yellowish, but they may vary in color daily depending on your diet if you're breastfeeding or the quantity and type of formula you're giving, as well as how hydrated your baby is. (For more detail, see our visual guide to baby poop.)

A newborn can have as many as eight to 12 bowel movements a day, but as long as he or she is having at least one, your baby is probably all right. (If you're breastfeeding, your baby's stools may look softer, like diarrhea.)

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