In dressing the cord, wrap it in a bit of absorbent cotton four inches square. Cut or tear a hole in the middle of this, draw the loop of cord through, wrap the cotton about it and turn it up and hold it in place with the band pinned only sufficiently close to hold the cord and its dressing in place. The cord will need no further attention until it has dried and dropped off, unless the band in slipping up pulls upon the dressing and irritates the little one. Dressed in this manner the navel heals smooth and clean, and will need nothing further than a dusting with calendulated boracic acid, should it not be perfectly dry when the cord drops. An excellent blanket to receive the child from the bath is made of coarse Germantown yarn, knitted into a strip three-quarters of a yard wide, and a yard and a half in length. This is sufficiently large to wrap the baby well in until it is dry and ready to be dressed. Some prefer the receiving apron. This is made of coarse, heavy flannel, and worn by the nurse at the time of the bath. The baby is lifted from the tub, and wrapped in the apron as in the blanket. Now the little one is ready for its first suit, as described in the chapter on baby’s dress, and then to be put into its basket-bed for a long nap. The cradle-basket hardly needs further description, but a few words define it. It is simply a well padded clothes-basket, and may be ornamented as much or as little as the fancy dictates. It serves as a snug nest for the little one, as deep in the folds of the soft blankets and dainty pads it is securely sheltered from any draft, and artificial warmth can be easily applied by hot water bottles at the sides and foot. This basket should be its bed for months, or until it is outgrown. “But,” mothers sometimes say to me, “it is so difficult to reach over and get the baby for feeding in the night;” and I respond, “A well trained baby will have no night feeding.” Remember that more can be taught the little one in the first few weeks, than it can unlearn in the next few months without very diligent effort and patient persistence. Should the little one make its advent in the night, it is more easily broken to good habits, than when it comes in the daytime. Why? Because it will sleep the remainder of the night and wake to be put to the breast some time during the day, and then again toward night, when it will be ready for another night of sleep. Of course this may seem a theoretical baby, and not at all real; and I will admit that some of these perverse little specimens of humanity put to flight every theory that has been or can be made, while a few are models from the beginning.