first time mum question

[BeanyFTM80]

I know it's early days but I'm a first time mum so new to all this. My daughter is 2&half weeks old and sometimes won't settle even after being changed and fed. I'm normally up every 2 hours at night (which is fine) but last few days she won't settle at all between 5am and 10am. I guess this is normal but when does it start to get better? My hubby goes back to work next week and I'm worried I won't cope on my own. Xx

[plonkie]

Hello :-) congratulations. When you say she won't settle what do you mean exactly?

[Nemmaline]

Congratulations. This sounds very normal for such a little baby. I think we all felt the same when our hubbys/partners went back to work. You will cope and you will be ok however it might take a couple of days or week to get use to it. It will get easier and you will get more use to each other and will find ways to settle her. Does she settle on your front or in a pram? Or as plonkie said, what exactly do you mean? Just make sure that you sleep when your DD sleeps. Ignore the house, washing, etc and make sure that you get your rest. My midwife told me a very important thing when I first got home. You are number one and you need to look after yourself. As if you aren't fine then the baby won't be fine either. My partner would come home to a pile of washing, etc as I would try to rest.

[BeanyFTM80]

I mean she gets changed and fed but then can be awake for a few hours and everytime we put her down she screams. It can be different times of day, yesterday and today it's been between 4pm and 7pm, other days it early hours of morning. I know it's probably normal and will be a few more weeks til she starts some sort of routine. Guess I just need reassurance that it's normal. She seems to always want feeding to, evening it's only been 30-60mins since her last feed!

[Coconut0il]

Congratulations on your DD. She sounds pretty normal to me, she's so young and everything is new and she just wants to be close to you. Neither DS1 or DS2 liked to be put down, they liked to be held pretty much all the time at that age. Google the fourth trimester, it's quite an interesting read.
DS1 was quite settled between feeds but DS2 was constantly feeding at 2 weeks. He would only go about 20 minutes between feeds and he was not a very settled baby. He just wanted to be latched on. The evening cluster feeding could last from 4pm till 10 some nights. I would get water, snacks and a good film on and just feed. DP would cut my dinner into pieces I could eat with one hand!
At this age I wouldn't worry at all about routine, just follow your DD's lead. At about 3/4 months DS2 seemed to settle into a routine and he's pretty predictable now.
Enjoy the precious first few weeks, get your sleep when you can and don't worry about anything else. DS2 is 7 months now and I already miss those newborn snuggles!