If your baby has an odd lump on his head, chances are it’s a cephalohematoma.  The name sounds ominous, but it’s just a collection of blood on the outer surface of the skull, beneath the skin.  It usually comes along with birth trauma (most commonly from vacuum-assisted deliveries), but it can happen with any type of delivery.  A cephalohematoma will appear on one side of the head, around the second day of life, and can be quite hard.  This one takes a while to go away; around two or three months.  The middle will generally disappear first, followed by the edges, which can leave the spot feeling – at least for a little while – like a crater.  Eventually it will disappear completely, so be patient.

The soft, mushy area on the top of your baby’s head is the fontanel, more commonly known as the “soft spot.”  If you look closely enough, you will see it pulsate with each heartbeat (creepy!).  It seems frighteningly fragile, as if you’d cause major damage if you so much as ran a finger over it, but it’s safe to touch (although poking your finger in it isn’t a good idea), so there’s no need to invest in a tiny helmet for protective purposes.  The fontanel is there to allow for the rapid growth of the brain that occurs within your baby’s first year.  Within twelve to eighteen months, the bones of the skull will fuse together and the soft spot will be history.

Your baby’s hair might be one of the biggest surprises at birth.  It isn’t uncommon for a baby to have a completely different hair color than expected.  If you’re a light blonde, for example, you may be shocked when your child emerges with a head of jet black fuzz.  But a newborn’s hair color – and even texture – has little bearing on what her hair will look like as she grows.  Also, you may notice your baby’s hair falling out a few weeks after birth.  This, too, is perfectly normal – hair has two phases: the growing phase and the resting phase.  It falls out after the resting phase.  In newborns, all of the hair follicles enter the resting phase at once, so it stands to reason that all that hair will fall out at approximately the same time.  Changing hormone levels can cause the resting phase to “kick in” … so don’t be alarmed at your temporarily bald baby.  By the time the baby is six months old, the permanent hair will have grown in.

Have you ever been holding a perfectly contented baby, only to realize that her ear has been folded double against your arm?  Ouch.  It looks painful – but newborns’ ears are soft and floppy because the cartilage hasn’t hardened yet.  Because of this, the edges of your baby’s ear may be folded over.  But the outer ear will assume its normal shape within the first few weeks when the cartilage begins to harden.  Another occurrence, appearing in 1% of babies, are earpits.  This is a small dimple (or pit) in front of the outer ear.  It’s a congenital defect, meaning that it is permanent, but it’s unimportant – it doesn’t affect your baby in any way (unless it becomes infected, which is fairly uncommon) – and barely noticeable.