Most amazing moments with a newborn?

[Lemonsqueasy]

Currently 36 weeks pregnant with first. Obviously wary about the bomb about to be dropped on my life but also v excited.. I reckon a lot of the time you must just stare at your newborn baby in disbelief.. is this true? Tell me about more beautiful moments pls!

Oh and now I quite regularly have moments of awe and wonder and look at her and think "I cannot believe I made you and you are so perfect and you came from me and you're mine" and it's magical. DH and I fall asleep every night talking about how precious she is. But none of that happened in the first few months.

For me yes, it was completely true. I used to just stare at him in amazement, thinking how the heck did we create something so amazing. And 2 years on I still look at him the same and wonder how 🥰🥰

I used to love getting up to feed him through the night, just us two in a dimly light room, both really peaceful and him just feeding....pure bliss !!!!

Dandelion mine are 20 and 17 years old and I am still winging it.

I remember reading in a book while I was pregnant that a mother spends six hours a day staring at her newborn. I was like, SIX hours? That's bonkers! I read the same chapter when he was about a month old and was like, only six hours?!

I'd've happily had both of mine in suspended animation (but where they learned stuff) for the first two years. Straight after birth I felt very claustrophobic - wanted nothing to do with them.

They are in their 30s now. At some point I became completely, totally besotted with them.

I loved the newborn days with both of mine. Didn't bond with my first immediately but still loved his smallness and having a baby. Physically I felt like I'd been run over but the key (which I learnt 2nd time round) is to rest, stay in bed, potter around doing as little as possible, watch tv your phone during night feeds and get people to look after you both.

I was also on a hormonal high for months. Oxytocin's is amazing stuff!

It's all a blur for my two but I do remember that the cuddles and head snuffling were ace. They smelt amazing!

Oh, it's beautiful. I have been very lucky with all my DC, my pregnancies are horrific but the newborn stage is exquisite. The happiest months of my life have included the first three months after each DC. I am happy and contented in general, but the level of joy I felt then was something else. I felt eternal, like I had been gifted my own life over again, and I was exactly where I should be. I'm done with babies now, but it's hard to think I'll never experience that again. I could live in that newborn baby bubble forever and never get bored.

My DC were obviously the most perfect and magical babies in the world. On saying that, it isn't like that for everyone and it's absolutely normal to find it hard and frustrating. I have just been incredibly and unusually lucky in my newborn experiences. My DC have been, er, challenging as toddlers, and you do tend to hear of difficult newborns being dream toddlers. So even if things are very tricky at first, chances are your baby will be a delightful two year old just as the other previously smug Baby Massage mums will be tearing their hair out!

And the staring is definitely true, my 3 year old still completely fascinates me.

Ds1 - horrible birth, felt quite numb for a while. No rush of love and was going through the motions. One night I was up feeding him and there was a huge thunderstorm outside. It felt like we were the only 2 people in the world and every was so calm, so peaceful and everything felt so right. I realised then I did love him and everything felt much brighter after that.

Ds2 - easy birth and loved him straight away. First night with him was amazing, just holding him, smelling his little head, drinking him in. Loved the whole newborn stage with him. How cuddly he was, how he would sleep on my chest, the little noises he would make.

My little girl was in NICU for two weeks after her birth so I was almost detached during that time. It was so hard. I was being told this was MY baby and what did I want to name her etc but all I could see was this mass of wires. She had her eyes closed for the first week so it was very hard to feel that instant bond.
The first time I felt it was when she was being changed/washed by the nurse and I instinctively just said "can I kiss her?! To which she replied "of course" . I picked up her little body still with the wires everywhere and just breathed in her smell and her skin. Then I knew she was mine. Then that love just grew and grew the minute we took her home. She's fine now btw and a typical feisty 2 year old!

Oh, wow, I felt the rush of love despite having an emergency c-section under general anaesthetic. It took a few hours till the anaesthetic wore off, but after that I was utterly, completely in love. I couldn't stop staring at DS despite being utterly exhausted, and I was petrified something would happen to him if I took my eye off him for a second - DH went home during the night to sleep and then came back in the day so I could sleep interspersed with breastfeeding and gazing at DS in amazement.

Not everyone gets it, particularly if it's a traumatic birth, but I sure did and it was epic!

Another "didn't really feel it" here.

I'm a great mum. And so will you be even if you don't get the overwhelming gushiness and adoration that we've been conditioned to expect as standard. It's really important you know that, many women don't admit it, or fake/exaggerate their true feelings in fear of being seen as not maternal or less of a mother. It's quite, quite normal.

Good luck on the start of the most amazing journey

my little boy came after 4 day induction which included failed epidural, forceps and a 3rd degree tear.. when he was placed on me I felt nothing.. I remember thinking I'm glad he's safe.. but not the amazing rush of love.. then everyone's rushing around trying to move you onto a ward and out of delivery and I didn't take much notice of him just held him feeling numb.. it was once everyone left, my partner went home the wards went quiet because it was late, when it was just me and him is when it hit me.. I felt the same at home, I struggled with the constant visitors and people around in the day but I absolutely loved night feeds.. just the 2 of us in peace!
It's hard and it's ok to admit it, and no matter what you feel it's perfectly normal!
It's the little things that are the best, when they look at you, smile, respond to you.. cherish them because before you know it they're stubborn little independent crawlers off exploring the world!

I was very lucky and did have an immediate surge of love for DS when he was born (but then went on to not really love the newborn stage, so it doesn't predict anything either way if you do or don't!) but my strongest memory of 'falling in love' with him was when the midwife did the heel prick blood test thing when he was a few days old - she started doing it and he cried and I really, honestly wanted to strangle her, I had never had such a violent, physical surge of hatred towards someone before (poor women, doing her job and trying to check my son didn't have serious illnesses! I did try and hide it!) and I was shocked at the depth of my feeling of protective love. I don't think I'd ever really got the phrase 'I'd kill for them' before, but I got it then. That's how I'd describe the whole newborn phase - intense love, but also scary and frankly disquieting. I was so obsessed with him and so scared something would happen to him but on the other hand I found much of it so boring (and felt so guilty about that).

He's one now, and I'd still kill for him but everything - above all me - has calmed down so much. I find so much more joy in him now, but I also find there's so much more room for me in the whole equation.

I do find myself increasingly rosy-tinted as I look back now - I think I have forgotten some of the worst bits. I think a lot of people do, which is why they tell you to enjoy every second - and at the time you think 'how?!'

A friend of mine who was already a mum of two at the time was very honest with me one day and it absolutely saved my sanity.

Not sure if she could see it in my eyes or whether she says it to everyone but in the middle of the usual cooing over the new baby etc she looked up and said, “look, I’m going to be honest, I’m not a fan of the first six months. After that it gets miles better and then you really love them...”

It was a massive release for me. It was like permission to admit it was hard, and thankless, and all a bit overwhelming.

After that I relaxed a bit and felt less pressure to have the lovebomb feelings everyone talks about.

Now I have a 2.5 year old I could squeeze into infinity because I adore them so much, and a newborn I know I will feel the same about once they start to develop their own little personality and can let you know how much they need you back.

Just saying this so you’re not disappointed when the amazing moments take a bit longer than you expected.

It’s cute having a newborn but the rush of love really comes when they say “luff ooo mummy” for the first time...

I was trying my hardest to breastfeed DS - when he was 9 days old he finally latched properly and had a full feed. That was an amazing moment.
But as others have said I can’t say I had that rush of love - I loved being close and cuddling with DS and I knew I had to keep him safe but I also looked at him and felt a bit like ‘who are you?’ He was just this brand new person in my life and we definitely needed time to get to know each other - but getting to know each other was great, lots of cuddles, skin to skin and box sets

sadie789 I tried to do the same thing as your friend for a friend of mine who had a baby recently and it went down like a tonne of lead balloons - I thought I was being so helpful, but she seemed to take it as such an affront!

Oh dear @NewAccount... genuinely it helped me enormously because I felt as someone else mentioned “numb” for the first few months and struggled to connect with this little bag of flesh and tears that someone had handed me at the hospital... but I know some people do immediately feel that connection. Maybe she was one of them - or in denial!

She started telling me it was all fine because her DS is 'a good baby', as if I'd accused him of being 'bad'

When you snooze with them on your arm and they're so peaceful and beautiful and you can feel their little breath and hear little content noises. Also the way they constantly, constantly stare at you and only you. No one else even gets a look in over the love they have for their mama.

literally,every little bit. Not everyone has the rush of love, i was lucky enough to experience it. First time he smiled, first look straight at me. just incredible. I grew that.

I look at my baby daily now months later and always know how lucky I am - when he's going off to sleep i get that beautiful look and reminds me all over again the moment i set eyes on him. Im high on love for my baby months later!.

Nothing I can remember in those first painful few weeks. Both of us being alive seemed pretty amazing at that point.

Puppies are so very much cuter. And the appalling stage is over so much faster.
Most human infants are meh at best and unfortunate at worst- to all except their mothers.
Usually.

3 rd night of baby Thomas being in our lives ... 3rd night of no sleep .... was trying to calm him down ... standing up walking him around singing ( prob not helping. As I am tone deaf ) when he started hiccuping ... so bloody cute ... was still crying but his tiny little hiccups just broke the tension and me and hubby were coping and giggling at his awesome cuteness ... he also smiled from day one pretty much ( picture of him a 24 hours old ❤️ Big congratulations