Great post, MrsF!

I found the first 12 weeks so boring, so hard, so tiring and so lonely. It really does get better though and unbelievably I am really looking forward to doing it all again with baby number 2 (due later this month)!

Try to get out of the house every day, regardless of the weather, as it does make you feel better, even if it's just for a walk down to the local shops or park or something.

And do look after yourself as well - for example I found I could manage to have a shower every morning with DD in her bouncer on the bathroom floor and it always perked me up and made me feel so much better than if I stayed in my dressing gown half the day.

Are you managing to catch up with your pre-baby friends at all? It might help to catch up on other people's non-baby related news and gossip.

YANBU- I was bored shitless. (Although smitten with dd was not smitten with copious nappies, washing and milk leakage.)

LOL at the driving analogy MrsF, so true

Great theory Morning Paper, am loving it.

Tiny hijack - I made the MN round up for - I believe - the first time, and am being pegged as a Daily Mail type. Very offended, am a Guardian/Indie reader and was just pissed when I wrote that pigeon pokers are future serial killers, ok? Just wanted to set record straight .It's still a bit weird and yukky though, the pigeon poking thing.

Congratulations on your baby! .

Don't worry, we're all here to tell you it's normal!

Just imagine spending 8 months learning to drive without ever actually getting into a car. You go to classes to learn all the theory, read up everything you can find on the subject, ask all the experienced drivers you know for their advice, and eventually feel confident that you understand the theory and basic mechanics at least.

Then one day, you are put into a car (after the most physically gruelling and scary experience of your life and after 72 hours with no sleep whatsoever) and sent out onto the motorway at 60mph AND YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO STOP DRIVING. AT ALL.

It will get better. I can honestly say I didn't "enjoy" my baby until he was about 10 weeks old, but as your confidence increases and you gradually get more sleep you'll be able to relax.

I went from a full-on demanding career to full-time motherhood aged 35 with a DP who was working long shifts. Thought I'd go crazy with loneliness and anxiety and had no friends who were SAHMs. Radio 4 was my lifeline. As a confirmed bookworm with a sucky demand-fed baby I nearly went mad. Couldn't hold a book to read 'coz I needed to support a huge nork with one hand while holding DS in the other.

This horrible hot weather doesn't help because it saps what little energy you have.

Ring your mates a lot. Try to sleep when the baby sleeps (Iknow, I know! but it does help!) and concentrate on getting your strength back.

Keep posting. Wish I'd had Mumsnet back then!

YANBU. I agree with everyone else here that getting out of the house every day is essential.

Also, listening to the radio helped to keep me sane.

Congratulations, by the way!

One small newborn can be boring and isolating, things definitely get more interesting once they are talking and walking and they can do more interesting things (art classes, library, music etc). More children also helps, (though it may not feel like it at the time) as you'll be too busy to be bored plus they entertain each other.

In the meantime:

-get an iPod and listen to stuff you're interested in while doing the chores
-take advantage of your baby being this small and immobile and do things you're interested in eg, grown-up museums and galleries. You have years ahead of you of child-centered activities.

With your first it does get a bit boring after the novelty wears off, but second and third babies are great because they are so much easier to look after than their rampaging older siblings who are hell bent on making a mess/ eating all the biscuits/ injuring one another.

CFC, You poor thing :-(

I really can't stand newborns/the newborn phase. I cried for about 8 months non- stop and then was pregnant all over again .

The loss of my life was such a shock to my system, I just felt like I'd died . I was depressed, tired, bored as hell, and anxious.

Then dd sarted to grow up, starting moving, interacting, talking, walking, becoming her own person and i was shocked at how I actually enjoyed being a parent.

I went out ALL the time and it helped, even if it meant bussing it to the city centre and walking around aimlessly, going for a coffee on my own, going for a walk in the park and enjoying the rain, just any excuse to go out kept me sane.

This will be all over before you know it, this too shall pass, chin up.