Your first day at home with your newborn baby as a first time mum - what did you do?

[Saffra]

I'm now 38+2 and trying to imagine what it will be like to come home for the first time with our new baby. Would love to hear what you did on that 1st day, how you felt and whether you had ANY visitors at all....!

[Clayhead]

Err...cry.

Probably not what you wanted to hear! I was very overwhelmed and feeling sore. My parents visited very briefly.

[mymumdom]

Slept, fed my DD and tried to sum up the courage to do a poo. I left my DH to deal with the visitors.

[missnevermind]

Sat on the sofa feeling lost. The house felt so different even though I had only been away 2 nights.
Parents also came, visitors made things seem more normal.

[pozzled]

Got out of hospital about 5pm, so first day was pretty short! Ate take away, watched DD sleep. Tried to sleep and then spent all night desperately trying to calm a screaming baby, with no real idea what to do.

Next day was all feeding, sleeping, nappy changing. MW and my Mum came over but no other visitors.

[Justfeckingdoit]

I honestly can't remember. And it was only 3 months ago!

I think I sat propped up in bed and fed DD (had emcs) and slept. And emailed everyone I had ever met with photos

[Starshaped]

Got home late afternoon and spent the rest of the day feeding and cuddling DD. My parents called round with lots of yummy food that I hadn't eaten during pregnancy so I spent the evening feeding both myself and the baby! Not sure I'd have wanted any other visitors though.

TBH the first day at home was the quiet before the storm. I spent the next few in tears wondering what the heck I'd let myself in for!

[ditavonteesed]

first day home, we had loads of visitors and generally slouched around in pj's feeding baby and staring at her. first day on my own when dh went back to work, stayed in pjs and watched friends videos while feeding baby.

[Greythorne]

Stayed in pjs.
Stayed in bed.
Breastfed intermittantly.
Slept.
Ate breakfast cereal.
Cuddled baby.
Cuddled DH.

Definitely the first day back was the calm before the panic the storm.

[Greythorne]

Oh, no visitors except my mum but that's because we live abroad without family close by.
Quite glad about that actually.
No pressure.

[Carrotsandcelery]

I remember dh and I spending a long time staring at dd in her car seat wondering what on earth we had done

I had been in hospital a while so we didn't have visitors that night but had a steady stream over the next few weeks. They helped a lot - not on a practical level but they made me have conversations etc which help you to feel normal.

I spent a lot of time on the sofa feeding or cuddling dd and visitors spent a lot of time cuddling dd too.

I remember the house was immaculate and dd sleeping a lot.

Couldn't say the same about the house now

[BikeRunSki]

First day home after a week in hospital, we had got used to looking after DS a bit. Got home about 4pm, asked neighbours (it is a cul de sac, all good friends) over as they'd all been very concerned about us. Then eating, sleeping, chilling, mw visited the next day.

DH had three weeks off, then mum came for a week (I'd had a CS).

First day home with DS by myself, I went to a mum and baby group. It was cancelled due to building work. One of the other mums adopted me and we went for coffee. I thought she was so grown up because her son is 2 months older than mine!

[Firawla]

had visitors on the first day with all of mine, i know some people seem to hate vistors but i think its nice! just family on the first day, like parents, inlaws, sister, bros, sometimes sil, bil, neice and nephews...
first day on my own with dh back at work, i cant actually remember with ds1 i think my mum might have been staying over. with ds2 on the first day by myself with them both one of my friends was having a party (not like a wild party, more of a big gathering with kids..) on the other side of london, so i decided to just go so that i got used to travelling with both of them. with ds3 on dh 1st day due back to work from paternity leave he ended up having to go into hospital to have his appendix out so just spent the next week going in to hospital to visit him, and not much else!
i dont do a lot of the slouching around in pj, cos for me it makes me feel more tired if i do that and feel better if i try to get on with things, see people etc

[Bootcamp]

Congratulations. Slept and fed baby. Spent most of the night awake as she was unsettled, by 2nd night she was calmer and feeding better. Good luck, make sure you try and enjoy because it goes by so quickly.

[broomformychin]

I really can't remember and it was only 8 weeks ago. I lost a lot of blood though during the birth so that may be why. I remember being very very ill the first evening we were home and we didn't leave the house for 3 days. Probably best just to stay in bed, eat all the snacks you want (I remember eating lots of pate the first few days as I'd really missed it while pregnant) and cuddle the baby as much as possible congratulations btw

[ll31]

remember clearly thinking this is the best day of my life - 11 yrs ago now but v clear memory! Spent day on my own with baby, delighted to be home

[Meglet]

Scoffed pain relief including morphine that the hospital let me take home (it was 4 days after an EMCS).
Cried.
Got screamed at by XP (I was a 'shit mum' apaprently).
Tried to keep on top of all the poo-y laundry.
Hooked myself up to the breast pump as DS wouldn't latch on.

I think it's safe to say the first couple of weeks after I had DS were the worst of my life . (XP is long gone)

[StickThemWithThePointyEnd]

was received by 10 visitors as I got home, who promptly took DS1 off me for about an hour and completely ignored me. When they left I went to bed with DS1 while DH made dinner, then MW came round.
Same thing for pretty much the first week.

[ShootinTheBreeze]

Same here, worst time of my life.

Tonnes of visitors, people moving furniture (my BED!) around, interfering mother, even more interfering MIL - nightmare.

I WISH WISH WISH I had that time back to lock the door and just get to know my baby in peace.

Do it your way OP. Very best wishes.

[stressheaderic]

Great idea for a thread.
I was discharged from hospital at 10.30pm so we went home and straight to bed and slept as much as we were able.

Next day, we just cuddled lovely new DD in bed with us for a while, then she went to sleep for a couple of hours so I had the best shower ever, attempted a poo, got dressed and tidied round a bit for the midwife coming!
My mum and dad popped in in the afternoon with some food for us and we spent all evening looking at and cuddling her again. It was wonderful, would love to have that first brand new day all over again. Enjoy it, OP.

[Bumpsadaisie]

We got home at 11am.

Went straight upstairs to TV room, plonked ourselves on sofa with duvet and watched box sets of the West Wing! DH staggered out for a chinese at lunch time.

DD woke up about every 4 hours for a feed, otherwise she was conked out recovering from birth, lying on a soft pillow next to us on the sofa.

It was lovely!

My parents came for the day the following day, which was nice. But they stayed in a B&B which worked really well.

[georgesmummy11]

In got in bed with my oh and ds while mother in law cleaned the house as oh didn't have time due to visiting us in hospital.
Had tea and relaxed and had a nice long shower. We had a great weekend as a family had no visitors as oh had to go back to work, my mum had week off work while oh was working an we went shopping and out for the day and she did tea for us, cleaned and did our washing didn't want her to go back to work x
Just enjoy being home and don't have too high expectations of what it's going to be like I takes a bit for you all to settle in an get sorted, and if people offer to help DONT turn them down an only have visitors when your ready. X

[zeeboo]

I was a lone parent living alone so I changed him, put him in the pram and went to the Co-op to get bread, milk and the telly guide! Then came home to cook tea and tidy up, put away all the new outfits he'd been bought etc

[SeniorWrangler]

Put a posh new nightie on, put my feet up, and held court while people gave me presents and cooked me steak to get my strength up.

[herecomesthsun]

hubby took me straight to breastfeeding group, then I went home and slept a lot.