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!

You've just reminded me of my own PFB madness! With DD1 I remember the midwife specifically saying she needed to feed from each boob for at least 10 minutes. So in the night if I fed her and she fell asleep, I would try and wake her up by tickling her feet and stroking her face.

I even had DH wake up for each feed to time how long she was feeding for, many tears were had when I couldn't get her to feed that long and I thought I was starving her.

All of a sudden I realised how mad it all was, and if she was asleep she clearly wasn't hungry!

DD1 paved the way for my "go with the flow" attitude for DD2 🤣

Enrolled in a baby massage group! What silliness that was

I also decided not to use wipes and only took out cotton wool, I ended up somewhere with no water and a baby that pooed four times (this was before I had worked out that the frills on the nappy need to be untucked to stop leakage) in about 20 minutes, I ran out of nappies and couldn't clear up properly and had poo on my skirt. After that I got wipes.

Those frills

Left 10 day old dd1 in her pram in Boots, having completely forgotten that I had her. Luckily I was meeting my mother soon afterwards. so her aghast ‘Where’s the baby?’ sent me scooting back in a panic - luckily no harm done, I doubt anyone had noticed an abandoned baby in the shampoo aisle.

I also made too many PFB notes (thanks mum!) and wrote a whole page about how upset I was that MIL gave DS1 a biscuit when he was 6 months old. She was doing one day of childcare a week but the biscuit 'incident' nearly made me rethink the plan!

Being a first time Mum almost 50 years ago I was spared all the books, internet etc., I just went with the flow. I looked at some people who managed babies and thought it can't be that difficult if she can do it and I was very lucky; The one time I recall doing something remotely silly was with the second, we were in Germany teaching Forces children, I was walking to the medical centre and library in camp and I saw a friend who asked where I was going. She looked puzzled, they were in the other direction, I was walking round the one way circuit as though I was in the car!

Absolutely. I had my new kitten sleep on the pillow next to my head in case she missed her siblings 😭. I did a lot of foolish things as first time mum too including rushing DS to the GP for nappy rash 😁

These are definitely valid because i do the same with 4 month old DD. Nothing worse than your baby smelling like Jimmy Choo

Oh god I’m so embarrassed about this one but also very relieved that I only ever thought it and never said it aloud to anyone who knows me in real life. But I took my newborn to visit a friend with a 4 month old baby and remember so clearly thinking that she was probably jealous because my kid was ridiculously cute whereas hers just looked like an average baby. Years later looking back at my eldest’s baby pics and he looked like Les Dawson with acne - I can guarantee my friend was not sitting in awe at my kid’s cuteness!

Honestly I think it was pretty inconsiderate for people to come and meet a baby so heavily perfumed anyway! I have no regrets for the extra baths and outfit changes haha

Forgot to strap car seat into car when we brought newborn DC1 home from hospital.

Put DS down for a nap in only a nappy and he took it off post poo! There was poo everywhere including some on his face.

I wanted to take him to hospital...

Grapes should always be quartered for children, they are the perfect size/shape to complexly block a child’s airway, and really difficult to remove when stuck.
A child died in Pizza Hut from a whole grape stuck in his airway, that he got from the salad bar, this was despite paramedics attending.
Sorry, I don’t mean to sound preaching, but as a childminder it makes me shudder to see children eating grapes whole!

I used to dress my PFB is ugly outfits and plain bibs etc for the baby group I went to. It wasn't fair to the other mums with their potato babies to see my gorgeous girl, so the least I could do was give her plain clothes.

Once time passed I realised she was just as much a tattie as the rest of them, but I didn't see it at the time.

This is brilliant 😂

I thought my eldest was just gorgeous, I found a pic of him as a baby recently and realised he actually looked a bit like ET.

I didn't stop going, but I do remember thinking how hard it must be on the other mums in the group to see how gorgeous DS1 was when their babies were so ordinary looking.

8 years on... I no longer think every other mum was staring in envy, but I do actually still think he was an cuter than average newborn when I look at photos. I may still have some hormonal dregs skewing my view. DS2 genuinely did get an unusual level of fuss and attention as a baby, but that was because he was astonishingly chubby. Strangers used to tell me they wanted to eat him, which in hindsight is odder than I found at the time!

Packed a full changing bag to walk to the corner shop!
My SIL took her 18 month old to the cinema and asked them to turn the volume down! Although DN is a teenager and she still maintains it was a reasonable request.

Me too, but you are correct it would have done, not least as it would have divided your attention away from serve and return with baby

I did this! DS1 slept through the night from 6 weeks. Fed like a dream, would breast feed or take a bottle. Was in a great routine. I was sure it was our superior parenting and was probably horribly smug. DS2 didn’t sleep through the night till he was 6 years old! It turns out all children are different, who knew 🤷‍♀️😂. Lesson well and truly learnt!

I was so hormonal and tired everything would make me cry, I remember crying because I’d expressed milk and I felt like I was stealing her milk from her and she was going to be hungry…

After taking ages to get my daughter off to sleep I woke her up after a wee while to give her a bottle as my mother said she had to have a routine and be fed at 8.00, 12.00, 4.00 etc

First time I took my DD to a supermarket I turned up at Tesco, went to get a baby seat trolley but decided they were all too dirty so got back in the car, and drove to the other side of town to the Morrisons because they have an underground car park where I knew there would be trolleys that were not exposed to “outdoor dirt”. Then decided she would be better staying in her car seat inside the trolley anyway

A mum friend at a baby group told us how she had discovered her baby was dairy intolerant so she had to put herself on a dairy free diet as she was breastfeeding, so she had ended up thawing and chucking all her pre dairy free expressed breastmilk down the sink, which made her cry. She then started crying again telling us the story so several of us started crying too at the thought. A whole room of crying new mums!

I sterilised everything. Used sterilised tongs to lift teats then couldn't figure out how to put bottles together without using my hands . So upset .
Bought organic only for weaning. Peeled and pureed everything . But she actually preferred the Heinz crap out of a can .
Also felt sorry for my SIL whose baby was ugly compared to mine .

Dismantled the crib mobile , took all the bedding to replicate her cot when travelling to my mother's as thought she would be familiar then .