What was the most first-time mum thing you did?

[ChefsKisser]

On the back of another thread what’s the most ‘first time mum’ thing you ever did with your child?

we were at a relative of my husbands for a family bbq and relative had bought their lovely newborn along. I’d held her plenty through the few hours but later I was upstairs doing something. When I came down everyone was a bit tense and baby was fractious- his relatives had wanted to leave but wanted to ‘make sure I got to say bye to the baby’ before I left. Of course I did but internally I thought bloody hell you really didn’t need to stay for that…!! and it made me remember all the mental things I did with my first.

I know it’s been done before but any good ones? Light hearted- we’ve all been OTT FTPs and this isn’t a criticism!

Took my baby to a doctor when she was 3 months old because I was convinced she had a hernia.
Dr looked at her belly button, I was nearly hyperventilating with fear, then he pulled out a bit of fluff nestling in there.
Absolutely mortifying, still go hot and cold when I think about it, she’s now 21 🤣🤣🤣

These all sound very reasonable to me. 😂

I did this too! Batshit.

I bought the first one a series of random Reggae for Kids CDs thinking a change from normal bedtime songs would be good. I still don’t know why….

I didn’t take notes then felt like such a bad mum when the midwife asked me how many wet or dirty nappies they had, before the next visit i went through the nappy bin opening every one to check as I had forgot to note them down!

Downloaded the Huckleberry app and promptly went insane tracking every blinking thing 😳

Not assertive and too willing to listen to others constant but unsolicited advice. The thing that really sticks in my mind though is:

This is stupid but I feel I let DS down! I was a young Mum and the Consultant Obstrician singled me out on the ante-natal ward to get poked and prodded at by a huge group of student Doctors. All circled round the bed staring at me and poking my belly like I was a specimen in a jar.

Giving birth with a student nurse in the room, like 2 midwifes wasn't enough people staring up my muff.

Then after DS was born, Consultant Paediatrician turned up with a entourage of Student Doctors but this time it was DS being used for training, so many trainees set upon him to do that hip check. His little body ended up bruised by them as they repeated it so many times.

I was clearly targeted as I was young, can just imagine them in the staff room suggesting me as an easy target that was too scared to say no. I have no issue with people learning but thinking back theres no way 'normal' married Mum's were treated like teenage me with no man to advocate for me.

TLDR - I was weak and not assertive! Wouldn't make that mistake again.

😆 Reminds me of my niece when she got a dummy "we're going to be strict..bedtime only...". Five years later she's playing outside with a dummy in her mouth refusing to ever give it up and now has really crooked front teeth in her 30's.

When DS was a toddler I used to disinfect his shoes because I was worried that he'd go blind if traces of dog poo parasite got in his eyes (trauma from 90s public health messaging).

Edit: didn't mean to quote

If it was sunny I would loosely drape a large muslin over mine and the babies head whilst walking the 5 metres from the front door to the car, to avoid any sunlight burning him in that 10 second walk, same if it was spitting rain.., neighbours must have thought I was barmy

If I walked to the local supermarket with DD in the pram, I used to speed walk/run past the designated smoking area owing to my fear of her inhaling cigarette smoke.

I even did this if the smoking area was empty.

I suffer with cold feet so would put socks under my DDs babygrow in the winter.
Later as a toddler after hours of trying to get her to sleep we ended up on the sofa. She then decided that she would only sleep in a large cardboard box which was turned on its side on the lounge floor with both our heads inside the box. I was so desperate by this point I did it. When DH came down and I told him to take over and he said “im not sleeping in a cardboard box”, I realised I had lost the plot.

The first time we took our baby DS to stay with my
parents for a weekend, I literally took every piece of baby equipment we owned - just in case - and
didn’t pack a single thing for myself. Not so
much as a change of pants for me, but I turned up with the baby bath because I forget that my parents had a bath in their house! My Mum thought I’d lost the plot! I had to wear her clothes all weekend 😆

No. It’s a bloody dog ffs and you’re not it’s mum 🙄

Sooooo many!
Found a fledgling on a walk with the newborn in pram; sobbed because I thought it looked like my baby and would be missing it's mum.
Rang cry-sis (a baby helpline) because of colic.
Weighed baby formula because I thought the slightest error could cause serious harm, and threw out any contents if I lost count.
Sterilised everything that went near him.
Had a near panic attack when a grandparent slipped him some cream.
Cried over fictitious scenarios involving him being a teenager and getting bullied by classmates.
Snuck off to strip and bathe him after a smoking relative gave him a cuddle.
Genuinely felt confused as to why/how I had birthed the world's cutest baby.
Tried to encourage a love of ballet and classical music (big fat failure, he likes cars, loud machinery and metal music).
Obsessively studied the 4th trimester and sleep regressions. Knowledge was not power in this case.

I used to use cooled boiled water for nappy changes with cotton wool. Getting perfect temperature, not cold, not too warm.

Water wipes for baby no 2

Religiously recorded feeding times, length of feed and from which side they fed from (was breastfeeding) for the first few months with dc1. To be fair this all started after they ended up slightly jaundiced and sleepy as I was constantly told during pregnancy that babies would “wake when they’re hungry” and I took this incredibly literally and ended up letting them go a little too long between feeds for the first couple of days after a long and complicated birth and I was a clueless first time mum. So I swung completely the other way and became obsessive about ensuring dc didn’t go longer than 2/3 hours between feeds and had a little notebook that I kept near me at all times to record everything after that. I’m sure everyone thought I was bonkers and I was. Chilled out a bit more with the second and to be honest, knew what I was doing and there was no jaundice unlike with poor dc1.

Also made a detailed birth plan for dc1, birthing pool if available, gas and air, epidural as a last resort etc, which went completely out of the window as I had to be induced and had complications throughout the labour. I screamed for that epidural as soon as possible. Don’t think anyone even looked at it, didn’t bother with one for dc2 after that and just went with the flow with no pressure for it to go a certain way.

Being a first time mum is a trip honestly. The strangest things seem totally normal at the time but then you look back and think wtf.

Bought a ‘top n tail’ bowl

Only bought 3 babygros...........thought would stay in one set of clothes all day and I could wash the others, didn't even have a tumble drier, he'd dirtied them all within 2 hours of being home so husband had to dash out to local shop for emergency ones which were hideous (neon yellow and orange) but as we were not very well off had to use them til he'd grown out of them🥴

Spent the first week trapsing down the stairs, out the back door, into the creepy dark garage in my Pjammas in the middle of the night. To keep turing the very old boiler on/off untill my baby room thermometer showed the optimal temperature.

Temperature. Bought a whole expensive temperature kit with these bits I left round the house which connected and told me what every bit said the temperature was - because I was obsessed she was either too cold or too hot. I gave birth when it was about 85 degrees f and I was worried she’d be freezing to death. Utterly ridiculous

When ds was 1 we went to stay at my mil's and he wouldn't be sleeping in a cot, so wasn't going to be contained, so to speak. I was so convinced of the possibility of him waking in the night, finding his way to the toilet (he was in nappies obviously so would have no need to), lifting the lid of the toilet and then somehow get his head wedged in the toilet bowl. Dh found me searching around the house for a "heavy item" to place on top of the closed toilet seat and I can still remember his face when I told him what it was for.

I bought and paid for a sleep training bible and followed it meticulously. Was absolutely rigid about it and then spent years being astounded at all my friends who went out for a full day without a care with their babies who would sleep anywhere without being swaddled in a perfect temperature, dark room with white noise on 🙄

Think I thought I was being FTM about wet wipes but fast forward 3 kids and we're still on the first packet. I just don't like them! Found reusables way more effective.

So many people mentioning the meticulous notes, I really think we need to hold the NHS/HV slightly accountable for that one! I wasn't paranoid about it till the HV started turning up asking me exactly when the last wet/dirty nappy was and how much he'd fed from each breast (how the frick are you meant to measure that unless you bottle feed?!), pretty sure she said something like 'we do need to know these things mummy!'. I felt so awful that I started tracking everything and seriously considered pumping so we'd know the volume he was getting. Super bad for my sleep as it meant I used a phone all blooming night tracking stuff on an app. Glad that experience taught me not to take their tick box exercises so seriously.

Standing in the baby aisle in Waitrose crying looking at the formula milk after the health visitor told me to bottled feed (I really didn't want to).I was also rocking my trolley backwards and forwards for a moment till I realised DS was home with DH!.

Spent five hours one night researching how to make the best bottle of formula. Baby wasn't even born.