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!

So many things!
Wore a bracelet that I changed wrists each feed to make sure my breasts didn't end up lopsided.
Cried in the shower the day after he was born because I was about to talk to my bump and realised he was asleep in my bedroom.
Ironed muslin cloths and vests
Nervously asked the health visitor at every appointment whether I'd put the right number of layers on him.
Before my first solo trip out with him spent an hour on the phone with another mum from antenatal class talking about what to pack in the baby changing bag and whether he should wear socks.
There are loads more but my 15 year old wants the computer.

DS was born not long before Mother’s Day. Almost commented to DH when we passed a place that was advertising a Mother’s Day special that included a glass of wine: “Why do that when a large proportion of mothers would be breastfeeding?” My last couple of months had been filled with so many “new mother” things, I’d temporarily forgotten that there was any other sort of mother in the world!

I emailed CBeebies asking them to stop playing a cartoon as it scared my toddler 🙃

Carrying this enormous baby bag everywhere, with everything under the sun inside including my Miriam Stoppard Baby/Childcare book.

By my second I used to shove a nappy and mini pack of wipes in my handbag and a spare in the glove compartment of my car.

I have DGD one day a week now, and went straight into the baby 2 method of travel.

Completely organic diet for their first year, cost me a bloody fortune in Sainsbury's organic produce! Think I was spending about £100/week on food for 2 adults and one baby back in 2010!

Kept meticulous notes on sleep, expressing and feeding schedule. Still got them somewhere (PFB is now mid teens!) I couldn't bear to throw that info away as the work it took to express (see below)

Baby was a little bit early and couldn't breastfeed. So, nearly finished myself off by expressing day and night for 8 months while also having to also sterilise pump equipment AND bottles to top up with formula. For the last few months, I was only able to express about 1-2 oz per day. The relief I felt when the Health Visitor told me that I'd done my best and that it was okay to stop! She must have thought I was mad but it was the guilt trip the NHS put you on for not breastfeeding that did it!

Not using anything second hand unless it came from family and friends. Wasted alot of money buying new and not getting even 10% of it back when I sold it on.

Made tortilla wraps from scratch because I didn't want my baby having the preservatives in shop bought ones. I think it took me half the day to make enchiladas 😂. We were only a couple of months into weaning and he probably ate 3 bites total.

We went to a dietitian appointment when my son was just under 1 and she struggled to control her expression when I told her he'd only ever had homemade bread, not shop bought 🤣🤣🤣.

It didn't all last once I was back to working 40 hour weeks. I hope I'll be a bit less intense weaning my second, because I put an awful lot of pressure on myself and it did suck the joy out of it a bit!!

I'm still a convert to the bread maker though - so much nicer than any cheap shop bought loaf. But I'm less puritanical about using it every single time now 😂

Oh, and peeling (organic) grapes before giving them to the baby to eat...

in hospital my first night with DD2 just after she was born, I spent the whole night crying at the sad thought of my PFB, DS1, alone and abandoned at home, his place stolen by the usurping new baby. With nobody but Daddy and Grandma showering him with fun toys and special treats..(!)...how confused and sad he would be...

My mum was set to look after my ds for a few hours when he was a couple of months old. I recorded all of his different cries and narrated what they meant and what she needed to do for each type of cry. She still laughs about it now, he’s 24!

Taking over 15 minutes trying to buckle the baby in the stroller just for a casual walk, and I couldn’t figure out how the clips worked. I was sleep deprived and my hormones were all over the place. I called DH quite in a bit of a state and eventually I managed to slide the clips in the buckle in order. I think now a few years later I don’t know why I couldn’t figure it out but maybe it was all a bit overwhelming!

DS1 (my second baby) - I had severe postpartum anxiety and he was a slow weight gainer, so I was constantly weighing him/measuring his head circumference etc. at the community centre drop in. One day, I was measuring his head and interpreted the measurement wrongly because of the way the markings were laid out on the tape measure. A cold wave of dread rushed through me as I thought for a few minutes that his head circumference had shrunk since the previous measurement...

DD1 (first baby) - postpartum anxiety to blame again, as well as her poor weight gain making me very nervous, I was utterly convinced that she must have a life limiting genetic condition which was why she was 'failing to thrive'. One particular condition I was terrified of, according to my extensive internet research, had the symptom of baby lacking a response to loud noises. Consequently, I spent at least an hour walking round my tiny apartment and making loud sudden noises on purpose to check that DD would react appropriately...

I also kept accurate fluid charts for both of mine 🤦🏻‍♀️
How many oz milk taken, time and total it up for the day
Could see the pattern of less feeds and larger vols ! It was totally nuts but
crit care nurse so it made me feel organised and in control
oh and if DH hadn’t noted down how many oz overnight they’d be trouble!!
I still have the recordings 😂

I did that, except mine was a salad bowl from Dunelm and I use it as a fruit bowl now.

My husband very diligently tucked in the ‘frills’ around the legs. I had to explain this was why the nappies kept leaking.

I made salt free bread for my eldest when he was a baby (it was revolting and he mostly just threw it on the floor anyway). My youngest just got whatever I was eating, I remember licking the salt off of a chip for her 😂

@KookyOliveSwan i swear parenting is a mine trap 😂😂 my two ate everything then they hit 4 years old and food was a nightmare. They are now 18 and 21 , taller than me so something went right 😂

I had so many… the one that stands out though was when he was learning to pull up on things. He slipped, and bumped his head on the edge of a wooden stair post. I then almost immediately slammed MY OWN HEAD into the edge of the same stairs post, so I could “check how much it had hurt him”.

I called the HV in a panic because the rest of his umbilical cord came away when i was bathing him. I was crying. She said they are meant to do that.

There’s no need to be mean. We do daft things as first time pet owners as much as first time parents. And puppies definitely have their similarities with new borns.

TBH I wish I had done so- because we got lumbered with old, stained, broken crap that people should have taken to the tip but thought we would like 'for the baby' instead.

I wrote down every poo she had, what time, what colour it was. And every ml of formula she drank. Needless to say, I wasn’t doing that by the third baby.

Honestly, exhausted myself and beat myself up over struggling to breastfeed, spent 5 months trying to express milk, hired a lactation consultant who made me completely cringe by saying thing like ‘your baby needs to fall in love with your breast’. I was so much happier when i decided to just stop.

DC2 i expressed a tiny bit of colostrum for first feed and then didn’t bother. So much better for my mental and physical health.

Love this! What cartoon was it?

I remember a thread on here when DS1 was teeny (so much be 15 years or so ago) and there was a FTM who drove her weaning baby to the nearest hospital carpark before testing him on a new food just in case the baby was allergic. I read it to DH and he said 'Why didn't WE think of that??!!'. TBF DS1 does have food allergies. But we both thought it was eminently sensible!

Yes i broke my heart over breastfeeding. I once pumped for nearly an hour and got something like 10 mls out.

DS2 - didn't even bother trying. Felt so much better.

I wasn't sure if I needed a jacket or not (wasn't sure how warm it was outside). I had read babies should always wear 1 more layer than you. I thought 'well if I wear a jacket, I'll need another layer for DD, so I won't wear one'.