To not enjoy lots of aspects of looking after my newborn

The first month is crazy. Don’t feel guilty for not enjoying every minute. It’s super hard work and you’re still healing. Things felt more manageable for me after 6-8 weeks, but everyone is different.

If you’re still feeling really crap in a few weeks, speak to your health visitor and/or GP.

I found it to be utterly awful tbh. It does slowly get better though.

@PopThatBench I realise your schedule was shared with good intentions, but my baby wasn’t sleeping anything like the hours at night that the schedule suggests. I blamed myself for it and thought something was wrong with me as a mum or my baby. Now I know that all babies are different and some don’t sleep in long blocks at night for a long time - and that is perfectly fine. Babies will just do what they need to do. The schedule you shared would have really upset me in my newborn mum state, I don’t think they are helpful at all

I just wanted to agree with others. It’s absolutely ok to hate the newborn stage (I did!) and still be a good mother. It’s tiring and relentless!

But then little stages creep in-they smile, they react to something you did, they sleep a little better.

For me, I didn’t love the first 6 months. With my second, I massively lowered my expectations and the knowledge that it gets easier and more fun kept me going and made me enjoy it a lot more

It’s crap and soul destroying, I find it eases at 12weeks when sleeping and everything else like feeding settles down.
You are not alone! I would say lots of first time mums feel the exact same way!

Also, make sure you are really getting the wind up, look for signs of reflux/ tongue tie / allergies etc in case these are reasons for the fussing. Mine just never wanted to be put down, they were like bloody limpets!

At 2 weeks in, you still have a swirl of hormones going through you which will be adding to your feelings. Everything has changed pretty much overnight and no wonder you are feeling overwhelmed

it does get easier like the PP say - but also keep talking to people - friends, family, your health visitor, other mums (baby clubs etc) and on Mumsnet of course - always someone online especially in the middle of the night when you are doing that cluster feed forever!

Newborns are relentless. I promise it does get easier. First off when you get a few smiles it all feels so much more worth it. Also as they grow and go for longer between feeds it feels less exhausting. Then by 6 months which will be gone before you know it, you will have a potentially sitting, babbling, rolling baby who is a lot more fun.

Hang in there, your baby is still so new, just cuddle, watch watch sets and sod the chores for this time.

Having a new born is hard work they are either asleep or crying once they settle into a routine and start developing a personality you will enjoy them more .

I think when babies are that small they are generally pretty miserable if they are not asleep or feeding. In a few weeks they become more interactive and it's gets easier. Its fine not to enjoy the newborn phase. You have 18 years (plus) of parenting and there are bound to bits of it you don't enjoy!

Newborn babies are exhausting. They cry, want almost constant feeding, nappy changing, burping sleep for a few hours then it all starts again. Some babies cry more than others. Some babies are intolerant to milk so scream a lot. My niece couldn't tolerate milk so had to have prescription milk. It was weeks before my sister found out. All the time my niece was screaming she blamed herself and thought she must be doing something wrong. She wasn't her baby had an allergy. Try taking them out in fresh air as it tires them out and they sleep more.

Roughly sticking to this helped me when my daughter was little.
It does get easier, hang in there 💛 the first 3 weeks were hell and terrifying for me with my first, I was so scared and anxious.
You’ll get there x

This. I found DC2 much better than DC1, partly because I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it. Hated the newborn phase. It gets better when they get a bit older, hang in there.

It’s not enjoyable. It’s a chore. Lower your expectations and just survive each day.

YANBU it's very hard. It gets easier.

I find the newborn stage is really hard going as u r so exhausted, relentlessly feeding, changing, adjusting to this new life and pouring all ur love into this child who’s only way of communicating is crying so u constantly feel like ur not doing enough at a time when you r doing more than ever ! I found once they r about 8 weeks they start to support their head a bit and interact a little bit more !