Veteran moms: Tell us what the first month is like...

[Anonymous]

I am the OP of this thread and I just had my healthy baby boy one week ago. I wanted to thank everyone for their thoughtful responses and amazing advice. My husband and I have referred to this in our brief moments of downtime and gave found many helpful tips!

I think this information would be very beneficial to every FTM out there! There are a lot of things in this thread that my friends just didnt tell me about. The first few days were rough but reading all this advice over again has been so very
helpful.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Big hugs, OP! Congratulations on your new baby. Thanks for coming back to update us.

[Anonymous]

Great news!!

I'm glad we could help. I remember this thread. congrats!

[Anonymous]

Congrats OP. I'm a FTM not due until May and loved reading every single post in this thread. Thanks so much for starting it and thanks to everyone who wrote in sharing their experiences. Now I have to just figure out a way to tag this thread so I can refer back to it when the time comes.

[Anonymous]

PP - I just emailed the link to myself and kept it in my baby folder.

Anyone else gave ideas on how to save this thread?

[Anonymous]

Don't do anything but sleep and feed your baby. That's enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sucks.

Pretty much. I didn't have to read further than this, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sucks.

Pretty much. I didn't have to read further than this, lol.

Any suggestions as to how to make it suck less?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sucks.

Pretty much. I didn't have to read further than this, lol.

Any suggestions as to how to make it suck less?

Honestly no! And this is coming from a mother of three, expecting her fourth! Lol. It really all depends on the personality/disposition of the baby. My first and third were both colicky/reflux babies who had seriously bad witching periods every night. My first was a horrible sleeper (didn't sleep for longer than three hours until five months). My second however was a happy, easy going baby who was a great sleeper from the get go, probably because he didn't have the tummy troubles that the other two did. He was the kind of dream baby that suckers you into having another one, lol.

There are things you can do to mitigate the crying and try to prolong sleep (Happiest Baby on the Block 5 S's) but you really just have to ride the rough patches out. And keep reminding yourself: this too shall pass!

[Anonymous]

Your experience will be its own - some things that other PPs found awful were not bad at all for me, and vice versa. Remember: Everything bad is a phase, and everything good is a phase. I thought the first few weeks were awful, and i would never just get to sit on the sofa with my husband, watch tv and have a glass of wine ever again. That came sooner than I would have imagined in those dark, early days. And when your child is doing something so adorable, cherish it, because it won't last forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your experience will be its own - some things that other PPs found awful were not bad at all for me, and vice versa. Remember: Everything bad is a phase, and everything good is a phase. I thought the first few weeks were awful, and i would never just get to sit on the sofa with my husband, watch tv and have a glass of wine ever again. That came sooner than I would have imagined in those dark, early days. And when your child is doing something so adorable, cherish it, because it won't last forever.

I felt the exact same way...I had made a mistake. I was sad and missed my dh. He stayed up later to watch our dvr'd shows and I went to bed earlier than EVER - just to get some rest. I miss my old life and I'm only 3.5 wks in. How long until I can put baby down to sleep and have wine and gang with my husband???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sucks.

Pretty much. I didn't have to read further than this, lol.

Any suggestions as to how to make it suck less?

Have your partner take as much time off as possible, and make you sure you feed yourself. Eating's just as important as sleep. Stock up as much as you can ahead of time.

[Anonymous]

it hurts and is hard. Month 2 not much better but things improve rapidly for most in moth 3. month 4 brings you a delightful, interactive baby.

[Anonymous]

They key to happiness for me was having DH take a full month off. You are not meant to do this alone, and it really works in helping DH bond with the baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get a sling. Stuff the baby in it. Go for walks if you can. I went all Swedish on our baby and put her outside constantly. She probably spent like7-9 hours outdoors as a newborn. I wanted her to learn to sleep surrounded by noise. This is NOT one of those houses where people tip-toe around during naps, and I have created a baby who can sleep anywhere. In a restaurant, in the mall, on a walk, etc. We are not slaves to the nap, rushing home for it.

When was your baby born? I would love to do this -- well, first have to figure out the sling, which keeps getting pushed farther down the to-do list -- but our pediatrician, who is admittedly a bit conservative, thought we should not take the baby outside much in winter. He is 2 weeks old now. I'm not really ready to take him out much anyway since I still can't walk more than a couple blocks myself without feeling some discomfort from the stitches from labor. But I figure in another 2 weeks I will be going crazy. I would love to bundle him up in the stroller (still have to put that together too!) or the sling and walk a mile to the bookstore or something.