Good things about the newborn stage?

[Anonymous]

Omg everything.

You lay in bed, skin to skin, with this precious squishy on your chest and a blanket over you. Watch shows. Cry with happiness.

Their smell.

The tiny bird legs.

Baby yawns.

Baby sneezes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They’re basically luggage, so you can go places and do stuff in a way you can’t when they’re older. Except pandemic.

+1 THIS IS SO ACCURATE! Going to Target with my 7 and 5 year old is 10000 times harder compared to when they were newborns

[Anonymous]

I think all stages are hard for FTM.

Newborn stage means that you may not be completely healed from childbirth. If you are trying to breastfeed the nursing may be hard. The baby is so tiny and the umbilical cord may not have dried and fallen off...

With DC2, newborn stage was a breeze. Everything was easy. I think. I could have forgotten because now DC2 is applying to colleges and I am feeling very nostalgic about the good ol days.

[Anonymous]

We took a vacation to Boston and stayed downtown when DD was 6 weeks old. It was like I was pushing a celebrity! We went in the fall, so it was nearly all elderly tour groups downtown and no one could get enough of seeing the baby. I really just enjoyed wandering with her. So portable! And we nursed so basically all I needed was diapers and we could do anything! Mine were great night sleepers though (they of course woke up, but didn't throw parties at night), just fat and happy.

[Anonymous]

I actually really like the newborn stage. Especially as a first time mom. They are so cuddly, they have such simple needs, and they can't move around the house wrecking things. I also love the feeling of a baby sleeping on me.

[Anonymous]

I did not like the newborn stage, I'll be honest. BUT - one thing that was nice was, for I think the first time in my life, for the twelve weeks of my maternity leave - I only had to do ONE THING: Take care of the baby. It was incredibly stressful - but there was no balancing or prioritizing. Take care of the newborn, take care of me. The end. No juggling work, or social commitments (you come when it's good for the baby, the end), trying to work on long term projects, scheduling, commitments. Nope. Take care of baby, take care of me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way they smell. The first time they smile at you. The clumped up little heap of baby that will sleep on your chest. Their portability- they'll sleep anywhere.

Except their cribs.

[Anonymous]

Oh it was the worst for me. It was so much worse than I imagined and I did not have high hopes.

But I l*oved* snuggling my babies and I was lucky enough to have a good experience breast feeding. Breast feeding was so sweet and such a good bonding time. It was also wonderful seeing my husband fall in love with his kids.

[Anonymous]

The baby snuggles with this warm, sweet smelling, tiny little person who is so precious and adorable (even if newborn baby is not adorable, as most newborns are a little goofy looking, your hormones will ensure you think they are)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the newborn stage was awesome. My babies were easy babies and I had tough pregnancies but recovered very quickly after birth so I honestly felt a lot better physically by the time we went home from the hospital than I did while pregnant.

This is me, too. Outside of breastfeeding woes, I had such a crummy pregnancy and such a sweat easy baby and supportive central cast in my house that I'm having a hard time thinking about what sucked about the newborn stage. Sure you wake up a lot every night, but I had that in my third tri too.

That said, a colicky or sick newborn would be very very difficult.

[Anonymous]

I found the newborn stage hard but pps are right. They will never be so little again. The way they smell and curl against you, it is to be treasured. Impossible to be there with them like that forever and there is so much of it that will be hard, but there is some real magic in the beginning that comes in different ways later on but never quite the same. And I say that as someone that is REALLY happy to NEVER have a newborn again.

Don't dread it OP! Embrace it

[Anonymous]

Eh, it depends. DOn't let anecdotal stories eat at you.

Personally, I'm sorta a low-key, no-fuss type of a person so I can function on little/broken-up sleep and didn't sweat the small stuff (sorta followed all my kids' cues and used common sense), and learn a few life-hacks along the way.

My pregnancies were all textbook and uneventful so the lochia/recovery/soreness was relatively short (never needed a sitz bath, for example) so easy recovery and I didn't really sit around and feel sorry for myself.

I also kept to my normal routine as much as I could - my daily walks, my weekly phone calls with my mom, Pizza Night on Fridays with DH (and subsequent kids as our family expanded), etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh, it depends. DOn't let anecdotal stories eat at you.

Personally, I'm sorta a low-key, no-fuss type of a person so I can function on little/broken-up sleep and didn't sweat the small stuff (sorta followed all my kids' cues and used common sense), and learn a few life-hacks along the way.

My pregnancies were all textbook and uneventful so the lochia/recovery/soreness was relatively short (never needed a sitz bath, for example) so easy recovery and I didn't really sit around and feel sorry for myself.

I also kept to my normal routine as much as I could - my daily walks, my weekly phone calls with my mom, Pizza Night on Fridays with DH (and subsequent kids as our family expanded), etc.

Yes, those of us who struggled clearly just sat around feeling sorry for ourselves. Hi, sanctimommy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can make lots of excuses to sit on the couch and read, watch tv, etc., withe the excuse that you’re feeding/holding the baby. I binge-watched multiple tv series during my maternity leaves while nursing, and once I figured out how to prop up my kindle so I could read books while holding my babies, read more books for pleasure during those months than at any time before or since.

I read the entire Game of Thrones series while nursing my second. She loved nursing, I loved reading and snuggling my baby. We would sit for hours. “Nope, sorry, baby is still eating! Can’t get up now!” Four hours later...

[Anonymous]

Didn’t enjoy that stage, but they stay where you put them. If you can deal with the crying, you can get a shower in and use the bathroom