To ask if you counted fingers and toes when your baby was born?

Sort of, but with DD1 I was more distracted by her unusually shaped head which looked slightly rugby ball shaped. I hadn't realised how much their soft heads can compress and then change later. With DD2 I was surprised at how different she was from DD1, all elongated and hairless. Whereas DD1 was so small and dark haired. At their full adult height now, DD1 is 5'4" with long, thick, dark hair, and DD2 is 5'10" with fair, curly hair.

I didnt with 1st but dp noticed something was up when she had an extra toe on each foot. I remember mw was very focused on it not being a big deal and just said oh they will sort that out later. In the 3 dc afterwards we've always counted just to make sure

The midwives did. She had 12 fingers.

It didn’t even occur to me!

I don't remember counting fingers and toes - all I remember is dd's alarming colour, navy and purple head to toe! I think she was whisked away pretty quickly to be 'pinked up'. Looking back I think it was a miracle she survived. When I Google blue babies none are even close to dd's vivid hue. Maybe time has warped my memory.

Dd was born without a hand.

Some variation of limb loss happens for about 60 babies a year in the UK (and no she isn't a thalidomide baby nor is it connected to pollution - 99% of them they don't know why, most of the rest are genetic/chromosome abnormalities. Yes, I'm sure you know someone who was missing a hand/leg/random other body part and I'm sure I'm delighted to be run down how they did everything <in a surprised tone of voice>. It really helps knowing that, you know.)

When I was pregnant with ds (my next baby) someone (who knew dd very well) asked me if I knew "what I was having". When I said no, they replied "as long as they have all their fingers and toes". There was not a flicker of thought that might be inappropriate.
But I didn't count his fingers and toes when he came out. I was too busy admiring my baby. I didn't count dd's, even though I knew from the scan. Once they were out those things weren't important at that moment.

Edited to say: People who are saying "checking that they're perfect" are actually being quite offensive.
Dd was and is still perfect.

Nope. The midwife mentioned it with one of them (just in a ‘and all 10 fingers and toes!’ way) And I remember saying ‘Oh I hadn’t even thought to check!’. With the other it didn’t even cross my mind. I’ve still never checked but think we would have noticed by now.

I didn’t but the midwives did.

Never occurred to me. I assumed the midwives and paediatrician did this. I had c-sections and there were a lot of people in the room.

Yep because my partner was born with 6 fingers on each hand!

My partner says he did in the moments after our girl was born, while they were examining and weighing her. Not sure if he means it literally or whether he was just gazing at her perfection 😄

Checking fingers and toes isn’t a jokey or superstition thing there are conditions in the womb that can cause severe deformities in the hands and feet that people have to live with

I counted eyes. Was convinced that she had only one. She was fine.

No just sat in awe looking at the baby

Not that I recall. It’s something I associate with tv/ movies. IRL ever since I’d had my first scan and heard things like “Excellent- two kidneys” or “great - four chambers in her heart” I don’t think I was thinking much about fingers and toes.
I didn’t notice that she had severe hip dysplasia until a doctor saw it and looking back on photos it was clearly visible.

My youngest had 14, which was 2 more than my other 2 had, so was not surprised. I must admit I had a quiet smile watching the midwife count twice

Haha, when DD was born I was so exhasted that when the midwife handed her to me I saw her umbilical cord and thought she was a boy....

I don't know if anyone ever counted her fingers and toes but when she was about 9 months old I took a photo where it looked like she had 6 toes on one of her feet, so then I did double-check just in case everyone had missed an extra one 😆.

Not sure which way your voting goes! But no, I didn't. I think i would have noticed before too long if they weren't the expected amount.

Same!

That’s as may be but I didn’t. I didn’t notice until hours later that she had fingers fused together, so no, not all mums do it or at least not soon after birth. Was about 12 hours later when I noticed.

Nope I didn't care if he was "perfect" or not, he was just my baby. I hoped he would not look like his father and he didn't. Still doesn't.

Yes I did with my first born, I waited a long time for him

No.

DC2 has 2 completely different coloured eyes (complete heterochromia) and we didn’t realise for 2 weeks.

There's been studies on it, researchers have recorded mums with newborns and instinctively without realising, fingers, toes, head, and spine are checked.

I literally pushed my baby out and as the nurses took him away I asked my dh to check he had all his fingers and toes. I was 40 having him and convinced I wouldn’t go to term as I’d had lots of miscarriages before him. Then when he was born safely my first instinct was he would be missing something. My dh calmly told me “he’s perfect” and that was the moment I knew our baby had truly arrived. I had another one at 45 and wasn’t nearly so frantic 🥰