First few days with a newborn

Everyone will have different experiences. My little girl, who's 2 in April was not happy on her first car journey, at least the getting in the car. She was a bit up and down her first couple of nights too. Once we got more used to each other it got a little easier. There are going to be days when it will be hard, but you've got this!! Learning and loving your baby every step on the way

I’m 3 weeks postpartum and it’s super exhausting lol but it honestly gets easier. First few days aren’t tooo bad but the first two weeks are a little draining as baby is getting used to being out the womb and it’s constant feeding and nappy changes. I’m breastfed so she’s attached to me. But like heather said. Everyone’s experience will be different xx

Hey girl. I think everyone will have different stories but this is how it went for me; We came home to a spotless house as I arranged a cleaner to come in and do a deep clean, make up our bed etc and dust everything! This was money very well spent!!! The moment we got home I put bubba straight into his Moses basket in the living room and just sat down and took a moment to let it all sink in!!! My mum and my partners mum came over and they stuck the kettle on and started making us some food. I had about 3 hours sleep across the 4 days in hospital so I wasn’t in this realm lol! My partner took me upstairs to have a shower to help me (I’d had a c section) whilst our mums looked over the baby. I got into clean fresh clothes after my shower then came downstairs to do another feed. From there on I was feeding him every 2-3 hours with ready made milk as my brain couldn’t figure out how to do formula .. I eventually went to formula once I could get my brain to work and figure it all out.

Sorry I ran out of space! - then it was months of learning about my baby and getting no sleep etc .. it’s very overwhelming and I was extremely anxious .. I also watched a lot of films and Netflix whilst he slept pretty much all day x

I was a single mama with my first and felt like wow this is so easy, no sleepiness nights, no stress, I couldn’t understand why all the mums at baby group were saying how hard it was, maybe because they had a partner to look after too! 😭😭😂😂 I’m sure my ADHD probably helped with the multitasking. I was out the very next day, walking baby, going shopping and lunch in my pre pregnancy jeans, I was 29 and I’m not sure this will be the case at 41 🙏 I found it hard from 18 months - 12 years old 😂 the newborn stage was 💯 my favourite ❤️ Be kind to yourself, don’t compare, happy baby happy mama ❤️

Thanks for asking this, I’m also expecting in April for the first time and am so worried about the first few days!

Honestly, we came home and stood there… “now what?” 😂 It’s fine though, you’ll sleep and fall into the roles and rhythms together. Get out, the sooner you go out to the shops and do normal things the easier it feels. Don’t stress too much about schedules, babies make their own up. Enjoy not working and the light warm nights with a newborn.

@Gemma same, I think my adhd made the whole thing easier both times. It’s the toddler phase that’s rough

My daughter was an amazing sleeper as a new born. Litrally awake for 10 to 15 minutes before asleep again. We had to wake her up to have awake period for the first 4 weeks. Which helped me because I had an emergency c section and couldn't do a lot. I binge watched Brighton. Not gonna lie the new born stage was easy for us. I exclusively pumped so every 3 hours I pumped and gave a bottle. Hit 3 months old and totally different story. She's now nearly 11 months and is chaos reincarnated

Here’s our story 🫶🏻 I gave birth at 7:40pm and was kept in overnight with baby just waiting on blood results and some checks in the morning. Dad was sent home at around 12am when we went up the the ward and he was allowed back in at 8am. The night was pretty good, I managed to feed baby and get her back to sleep myself when she woke up at 1am (I felt so proud of myself 😅) and we both slept well, I woke up just before 8 and baby was still snoozing, breakfast was served, dad came in and then we changed baby and dad gave her hair a clean with some cotton wool and water while I went to the bathroom and got ready. We had all of our checks and got discharged at 3pm. Dad carried baby in her car seat to the car, she wasn’t a big fan of the car on the first drive home. We got home and called both our families over. My mum cooked everything dinner and then they left around 8pm. The first few days were okay, we had family in and out for the first week helping us, cooking and cleaning for us.

Continuing - I loved having the help in the first week, a few days in we even left the baby with my parents in the living room and we got to have a snuggle and snooze for 2 or 3 hours, then when baby needed feeding I would get up and leave dad to sleep, then we’d switch and he’d look after baby when my parents left and id get another couple hours in and then switch again. When everyone left it got a bit harder. Baby was clusterfeeding the day after and that day was super tough but it got easier as we got more used to it. At just 8 days pp we got a call that my partners nan is in hospital and we really wanted her to meet our daughter so we took a 5 hour road trip with an 8 day old baby and we stayed at his parents house for a week. It was pretty crazy but I think being out and about was really good for us. The few days we just stayed home alone all day were definitely the toughest.

honestly live in the moment and enjoy every second because I don’t remember those days it was such a blur and I wish I could relive them baby’s really do grow in a blink of an eye even if you have a baby that cry’s a lot for certain reasons it’s not forever and you’ll never get that tiny new born back just ride the waves and remember every second of it believe in a mother’s instinct it’s real and take all the cuddles I was really ill before birth and for about 4 weeks after but the adrenaline kicked in and I got on with it I slept alot because baby slept alot my mum would come and watch him whilst I slept and partner was at work in the first few weeks they are on your schedule so enjoy it and it doesn’t last long 🩵🩷

I'll be honest I'm not fond of the newborn stage. Ny daughter is adorable but it's hard. She enjoyed her first car journey and wasn't too bad the first night but the first couple of weeks were rough lol. Sleepless nights, feeding constantly, only sleeping on me, then the screaming.. shes 8 weeks and she's got silent reflux and is just a "fussy" baby. My first wasn't as bad and she's 10 lol. Just be kind to yourself x

It’s a major life adjustment, that’s for sure. I feel like those first six weeks are all about discovery and getting to know each other. Making routines, adjusting to the change. Once you get through those six weeks, it really does start to feel easier. You get your confidence up and you start to figure out what they need. There’ll be times when it’s hard for sure. The sleep deprivation hurts. BUT there’ll also be times when you feel more love than you’ve ever felt and you realise it’s all worthwhile.

Honestly, I don’t think anyone has written down what HONESTLY happens with a newborn. I love my baby and I’d do it again but the first week or two was a living nightmare😂 Sleep deprivation will get your ass😂 everytime you feel like you can get into a deep sleep, the baby goes off and that’s on cluster feeding. Don’t even get me started on how noisy newborns are! You’ll be on edge for a solid month and every sound your eyes will fly open because wtf is going on. After a while they will settle though BUT HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS BECAUSE HERE COMES A SIDE OF SLEEP REGRESSION😂😂😂😂 I’d do again though😂 Signed: A first time mum

@Amanda this I had brain fog for at least 2 weeks couldn’t focus to do anything that required concentration

cluster feeding no sleep lucky if I got 2 hours or sleep a night at the start and baby would only sleep on me so there were nights I got zero sleep as baby was just laid sleeping on me laid in bed so couldn’t sleep myself , also my experience I had terrible nightmares of loosing baby , and baby being lost in the bed , baby not breathing alsorts baby blues tend to last 2 weeks the slightest thing would make me emotional and cry when it got to over 2 weeks of still feeling same and having anxiety midwife referred me to the perinatal mental health team , so if you feel the same after the first 2 weeks reach out to your midwife health visitor there’s help out there

My experience with my first born was awful, we got home and everything seems ok, but then got a call to come back to the hospital to check my baby, because he had a bit of jaundice when we left the hospital day before. Unfortunately had to stay there for a night and he had to be put under the blue light with potential that he’ll need blood transfusion. Doesn’t seem too bad now, but me being so emotional after giving birth, I just thought the worst and I did struggle with the whole experience. The next day we had to come back for check up and I was just crying the whole time. So definitely everyone is different, but I just didn’t expect to be so emotional after birth which kind of set the tone of how it looked in our house for couple of weeks. Nothing you can plan or get ready for. Wish you all the best and hope everything goes well for you and your baby 😊

@Sarah 🙌 thriving in chaos helps! If you like control then you may struggle, my friends autistic and really struggle where as a few ADHDers have thrived ☺️Xx

Best bit of advice I got was; don’t think about ‘sleep at night’ think about ‘sleep in 24 hours’ so if you can get 5-6 hours sleep in 24 hours you should feel ok, but overnight in the beginning a lot of babies don’t really sleep and my son cluster fed from 11pm-5am quite a bit, but if I managed to sleep 8pm-11pm and then 5am-7am the day was just about manageable. And make sure you get people to take pictures of you with baby- everyone who comes to meet baby- ask them to take pictures of you with your baby, even if you think you look awful, you’ll want them when your baby is no longer a newborn

The first 3 days I was still in hospital and it would have been a dream had I not been woken up constantly by nurses! Baby just slept a lot Once we got home the first night or 2 again was okay, but we started getting pretty tired so we switched up our routine. I would sleep downstairs with the baby (it was summer so cooler downstairs) and do all night feeds and pump milk, napping when I could. Once my partner was awake, we agreed 8am, he would come downstairs and take over while I got a good few hours of uninterrupted sleep. It was exhausting and I didn’t shower as much as I would have liked😅 but come week 6 everything settled and he was sleeping better compared to waking every hour and a half. We had my partners sister round once or twice to do night feeds so we could have a full nights sleep together which really helped!!x

@Amanda exactly what I was looking for, thanks 😄

@Sarah I'm 100% sure ill be like that too. Like “Right, what do we do now??”

I had a home birth, so right after giving birth in the pool, I went straight to my bed lol. My doula ran me a candlelit bath and prepared a nourishing meal. I could not sleep the first night from all the adrenaline and excitement. The baby nursed every 1.5h-2h so I was catching up on my sleep during the day. We spent the next few days snuggled in bed. My husband took care of all the cooking, and we also hired a cleaner to help out. I focused on recovery and bonding with the baby. I went out for the first time after a month. I did feel ready the same day, but I deliberately took my time, as it's very important to rest after such a major event like birth. I highly recommend reading The Fourth Trimester by Kimberly Ann Jones (also available as an audiobook).

First - what I did not consider was my own recovery! Please please invest in some postpartum recovery goodies to be at home waiting for you from the hospital. I did not even think about recovery before I went into labor and ended up ordering so much stuff from my hospital bed! I’m talking perineal ice packs, a good peri bottle (I still use mine most days because why not!), disposable underwear, etc! We were honestly so exhausted by the time we got home from the hospital. We had my parents meet us at our place to drop off food and then fell asleep shortly after! My partner and I would take turns on who had “night shift” (who would wake up for baby between hours of 10pm to roughly 3/4am ish). I would just make sure to pump beforehand if he had night shift. For those first few days though, we were still trying to decrease our baby’s bilirubin levels so he started on formula so he could poop as much as possible.

YouTube is good for watching 24hrs with a newborn I love them 😂

I hated the newborn stage. All I remember about the car ride home was that I was anxious about the roads, because they were icy from a huge snow storm. No one told me how terrible the sleep deprivation is. Also, Prepare meals ahead of time or have a plan for food that involves zero cooking!!!! I was starving all the time, because there was no time to prepare food. It gets so much better though. Note that my daughter was a tough newborn. She came out with a super pissed off look on her face and the nurses were like, "good luck with that..." 😂 I enjoy her as a toddler though. It's easier because I sort of know what to expect.

I gave birth via emergency c section on Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon I was home. I think one thing you need to mentally prepare yourself for is how tired you’ll most likely be and how much pain you’re in depending on how labour and birth went. The going home part is nice but it’s a bit like “what do we do now” 😂 A lot of that afternoon / evening was making baby’s bed, getting prep machine ready, cuddles and feeding. For me, I struggled with the sleeping on the first week or so due to the pain I was in and how tired I was and the anxiety because I was constantly checking if baby was okay. Enjoy the baby bubble 🥰

First, I would suggest staying in the hospital for as long as they let you. That was the highlight. As long as baby is being fed, don't stress about breastfeeding. If you're someone that can't take naps during the day, then you're screwed. I'm not a nap person so sleeping was very hard for me. I also had to elevate my feet because they were still swollen. The first night home, our baby pooped on his bassinet. The first or second night, we had to call my boyfriends mom to come and help so I could get some sleep. If you have someone that can help at night then I would suggest that. A newborn is super hard but it does get better. I would definitely suggest getting a lot of changing pad covers and blankets. If you're having a boy, they will pee on you, themselves, everywhere. Good luck momma! Congrats!

We stayed in hospital for a couple of days after the birth. The nights were very long and I was absolutely exhausted, and I was torn between wanting to go home and wanting to stay and be surrounded by people who knew what they were doing lol. The postnatal ward was very busy, so once we got home everything felt so quiet and calm. The first thing I did was have a proper shower and something decent to eat. There was a definite feeling of 'what now...?' once we were on our own at home. But I found the scheduled midwife visits during that first week really helped. The newborn stage is definitely something you look back on and appreciate, even if it feels very intense at the time. Enjoy ❤️

It’s a very leaky time, emotionally and physically. Make a self-care basket for when you’re feeding baby with one-hand food, phone charger, book or anything else you might need close by while feeding. Basically, create a cozy nest! Also, if you have anyone asking to pitch in, ask for help with housework and meals. If baby is having trouble sleeping (totally normal for the first couple years), use the time to do tasks so you don’t have as much to do the next day. I just put my baby in a wrap while I worked. It helped them sleep. Baby is going to have struggles. Going from a warm place with muffled noise, no needs since everything was immediately done, to this intense world is a huge change. Comfort them—they just got evicted from the best place ever. ❤️ https://www.npr.org/2021/08/08/1024674033/theres-a-name-for-the-ups-and-downs-of-new-motherhood-its-called-matrescence

honestly it was a lot more chill than i expected. what i remember most from the early days is lots of snuggles and cuddles, just sitting staring at my baby haha. she was very calm for the ride home, super calm in general. obviously you’re gonna have to adjust to not sleeping as much, but don’t let yourself feel victimized by it and just accept it for what it is. and it’s temporary! i know people get annoyed by this statement but nap when the baby is napping. hopefully you have support so you won’t have to worry about anything but baby and healing ❤️‍🩹

My husbands comment after the first few days was that this is easier then everyone made it out to be 😊

Cluster feeding, sleep deprivation, being sore or hurting, feeling lost. Etc Take help however you can. Food drop off, parents staying to help, partner handling diaper changes. And do the 5 days in bed, 5 days on bed and 5 days near. Helps with healing. Also a shower seat helped with showers at home.

Pure survival mode 😅

I was eager to get home with my first newborn, i have 2 and 1 in the way. I did not want him to sleep lol, just kept staring at him and enjoyed picking him up all the time. I had a csection but didn't focus on the pain as it wasn't that bad after. Everything came naturally i was excited as a first mum at 24, what didn't make it easy was my mum constantly coming over trying to take over loool. I just wanted the alone time. However when he got older I appreciated her coming over and taking over lol.