The newborn baby’s bladder usually contains urine and this may be passed immediately after birth or not until several hours later. After the first urination the bladder may be emptied five or six times a day or oftener. =The Cord.= Within a few days after birth the stump of the umbilical cord that is attached to the baby’s navel, begins to shrivel and turn black and a red line appears where the cord joins the abdomen. By the eighth or tenth day, as a rule, the cord has shrunken to a dry, black string, when it drops off and leaves an ulcer or small red area which heals entirely in the course of a few days. Figs. 43, 44, 45 and 46 show these progressive changes. [Illustration: FIG. 44.—Appearance of cord four days after birth. ] [Illustration: FIG. 45.—Appearance of navel immediately after cord has dropped off. ] =Skin.= The soft, downy hair that may be remaining on the surface of the body usually disappears by the end of the first week and there is often a scaling of the skin which lasts for two or three weeks, while a delicate pink tint replaces the deeper color of the skin in the course of ten days or two weeks. The baby does not perspire until after the first month, ordinarily, when a very slight perspiration begins, gradually increasing until by the time the baby is a few months old he is perspiring freely. [Illustration: FIG. 46.—Appearance of a normal, well healed navel. ] =Tears.= There are no tears at birth and opinions differ as to whether they appear in the course of two or three weeks or three or four months. The absence of tears is one reason for bathing the baby’s eyes so carefully during the early days and weeks, for if dust or other foreign material gets into the eyes it is not washed out by tears as it is after their flow is established. =General Behavior.= During the first few weeks the average baby sleeps most of the time; that is, from 19 to 21 hours daily. He gradually sleeps less, as the special senses develop and will sometimes lie quietly for an hour or more with his eyes open, sleeping only 16 or 18 hours, daily, at six months and 14 to 16 hours at the end of a year. The baby begins to make noises and “coo” at about two months and to utter various vowel sounds when about six months old. By the end of a year these indefinite noises and sounds become distinct words. At about the fourth month he grasps at objects and smiles, and very soon even laughs. He holds up his head at about the third or fourth month; sits up and also begins to creep at six or seven months, while sometime between the ninth and twelfth months he will stand while holding on to something secure and begin to walk with assistance.