Tell me your honest to god experiences with your newborn

[Mitsufishi]

I am going through hell for the third time around with a newborn.

Everyone says 'sleep when they skeep'. But how? Mine would never sleep, in bed, on me, maybe in a buggy or sling if in constant motion. They all went on to be horrific sleepers so 'this too' did not pass.

My mother says 'all newborns are like that, people who say otherwise are lying'. So it's just me who can't cope then?

Honestly tell me, what was your experience with a newborn. Because I have friends who seem to have had it easy and have seen evidence of it. My mother insists people are lying to show off. But I don't think there's such a fashion for that any more and that actually if anything people often tend to make things sound worse than they are these days rather than the other way around. In any case I've seen friends newborns and babies that effortlessly doze off and wonder a thousand times over what I'm doing wrong.

Ha ha, yes. Get a TV is the best possible advice for someone coping with a newborn and two older ones.

Preferably one with built in iplayer. Possibly Amazon too.

Second day of pre-school and DS2 vommed all over the floor within seconds of walking in. But actually he's been a really little dear since we got home and we've had a lovely playdate with DS1 and he had a great swimming lesson. Throughout all of which, DD has slept. Or been coo-ing. Tonight, be damned! We've had a good day with three!

P.s. I have actually started to think Ben and Holly humour is quite grown up and acerbic. Time for me to cut back!

Ooh, I don't know if this was said, but one thing that worked for me is one of those light show things that projects shapes onto walls/ceilings, it had soothing music too. I don't think black outs are good as they're not everywhere baby will sleep but if you can get her to a dark room/area for naps when she is tired, it may calm her down enough to get a proper sleep in?

You can buy one when you buy the TV

I know precisely why GF isn't spoken of around these parts but this 'dick' happens to have a sleeping-through-the-night exquisitely contented baby, so perhaps it is you who should go and have a little lie down and ask yourself why, exactly, you feel the need to be quite so angry all the time.

I'm not angry all the time, only when I see people berating someone asking for Advice and support, and forcing their unwanted opinion down their throats.

People a bit wiser and with a bit more experience with children under their belts, realise there is no point being smug about your PFB as 1, it will bite you on the arse later for sure and 2, you look like a twat.

Have you read the full thread, Rude? Because if you had, you would see that I have tried to comfort the OP, shared my experiences of MH issues, posted photos of book pages, offered suggestions of further reading (not GF), have sympathised and offered lengthy details (when specifically asked) of trouble-shooting.

Whereas you have offered precisely nothing except the bile from your nasty mouth...oh, and the earth-shattering revelation that those light show things that projects shapes onto walls might work when a woman is deranged from sleep deprivation. Genius, that.

Oh, and having a family the size of Guernsey doesn't give you the monopoly on parenting prowess, love.

Way to go Dilys!! glad to hear you had a good day.

My day involved some (private) tears from me (but none from DCs!).

NB the lack of television is not me being noble. We are having extreme building work done so don't have a living room so nowhere to put TV.

Love it. Thanks pistol

Mitsu, you are brave having building work done with a newborn and two bigger ones! We need to do our kitchen and I am dreading the upheaval. No TV.... to you during this difficult time!

I only have one baby, but I watched a looooot of 90s TV shows on iTunes after we brought DD home. Had these visions of me sitting feeding her on a sun-drenched armchair nibbling on healthy snacks and singing lullabies - nope, hour after hour on the sofa mainlining ER and NYPD Blue and eating cake, with a baby suckered on to me like a remora. Highly recommended

Building work. Holy cow that is brave.

Cbeebies on the laptop?

Suits you, Bile. Might I suggest VickyPollardRentsMyGob(AndProbablyMyTracksuit) as your next moniker?

Shock horror babies under 6 months may want to feed in the night! Have a word with yourself! It's entirely in the realms of normal for some babies.

cannot Haha! Sorry. Lurking.

TeaParty, my breastfeeding TV treats have included (over the years) America's Next Top Model, The Bachelor (+ette), MIC and Columbo.

Breastfeeding has been sodding hard at times and although I bristle at the way it is rammed down our throats at times via NCT etc, and despite the fact that I might ditch it fairly soon as formula is bloody fab, there is one bloody fucking ace thing about it: being able to watch shite TV for hours on end.

OP if you are having extreme building work as well as a newborn, I salute you, no wonder you are knackered. I hope it gets better for you, this too shall pass is cold comfort when you're in the middle of it!

Pistol, as entertaining as you are, I'm not going to engage any further with you as it's derailing OPs thread and I think you have done a good enough job of showing what sort of person you are. I would seriously ask you reread your posts and Ops replies to you and ask if you have actually helped her.

I was on the thread earlier on. I've read the intervening pages. I stand by my comment.

Seriously, Vicky, who do you think you are? I'm sure you've somehow convinced yourself that you've got the Mumsnet sneeriness and sweary gob off to a tee but you just come across as someone who watches too much Jeremy Kyle. Your go-away-you're-a-twat posting style isn't spunky or intimidating, it's boring

I feel your pain. My dd was a monster when newborn. Never slept for more than 10 mins constantly hungry always wanted body contact. I was soooooo tired and when she was asleep I couldn't sleep because I needed to clean and steralise bottles do the washing etc. Nightmare.

I hated all the mums who thrived with their fabulous newborns who slept through the night at 2 weeks blah bah blah.

Your not doing anything wrong. Hang in there

Look st my name
Eff all sleep until we got professional help
BUT deludes self as thinks about potential next child a lot I believe was due to awful silent reflux which knowin the signs I Would deal with so much sooner with more the gavisgon (it's cheap and easy to prescribe unlike specialist meds) by pushing for a referral
Most friends babies were a dream honestly
I do think sometimes there is an underlying complaint, but look at it as you're such an amazing mother they just wasn't to always be near you as you rock yourself crazy
Honestly if dc1 had been a better sleeper we would have had more
Even now he usually is ok once asleep but miss the magic bedtime slot and it's a game which I lose
I do get sad that other people seemingly loved the whole baby experience whereas we were just in survival mode for lost of the time

hi, mitsufishi, you are doing a great job, the newborn stage is tuff on its own without throwing into the mix 2 older ones and massive building work!!! Fair play to you.

my dc 3 is now nearly 8 months and those first few months were really tough, having older ones aswell that need attention does make a difference. hang inn there though it should start getting easier.

I have bf all 3 of mine but have also used some bottles with them (apart from dc 3 who is a complete bottle refuser dispite doing exactly the same things as I did with the other 2!)

I am not a bf counsiller or anything but am just doing my peer supporter training. there is a lot of confusion over how long a baby should bf for and lots of confusion over foremilk/hindmilk. There has been lots of research into this and how breast produce milk etc. This article tries to explain some of this.
So feeding very often when bf IS very normal for newborns.

fwiw my experiences have been different with each dc. my first was a milk monster but would be satisfied and go 3hr between feeds. I did use a gina ford routine with him and he sloted in really easily to it, was sleeping through from 5/6 months etc. HOWEVER my dc2 would not slot into any of her routines no matter how hard I tried! He fed little and often and I despeared over it. He did follow the gina daytime sleep routine though but his nights were awful even after night weaning he would still wake up for a couple of hrs at night and nothing I did would work. ( I tried all the sleep training methods bar just leaving him to cry all night!) He just wasn't a sleeper and never slept through consistently until he went to school!

my 3rd dc started off as a little and often girl but would only take one side each time and n amount of trying to get her to latch onto the other side would work, she just clamped her mouth shut and turnrd her head! she new what she wanted! this time I just went with the flow abit as I still had to sort the other dc out with school runs etc. When she was older (prob bout 4/5 months) I started trying to get her into a nap routine in the day which is loosely based on a gina routine but didn't stress if she didn't sleep for the 'right' amount of time. (she spent a few months just having 3 naps of about 30/45 mins each day.) We did a bedtime routine from about 14 wks as she seemed to be starting to get more settled in the eve and I wanted my eves back!

HTH