AIBU to have no idea what to do with my 4 week old...

[Binglesplodge]

... when he's awake?!

For the first few weeks with him, it was a case of changing, feeding, and he'd drop back off to sleep. He wasn't often awake and alert unless he was crying, in which case feeding usually sent him back off to sleep! Obviously as he gets older he is awake and calm for slightly longer periods but I find most of the things I try (cuddling, time on the play mat, time in the bouncy chair, making faces, chatting to him) result in crying within a fairly short time. Then I find myself feeding him to settle him and hoping he'll fall back asleep.

How can I enjoy the awake time? I've begun to dread it because I know it will fairly quickly end in tears. Is it unusual to enjoy feeding and putting baby to sleep but to be nervous of spending time with them when they're awake? I need to figure this out because the awake time will only get longer as he gets older and I don't have any real strategies for filling it...

Have you got the Wonder Weeks app or book? It's brilliant for telling you why babies are fussy at certain ages and what games and objects they might like? It was a lifesaver for me in the first few months when I felt clueless.

DS loved to watch the soaps when he was tiny I think he liked all the faces and the different voices.

I'm with you on this one, OP. Little babies are diabolically boring!
Pop him in a papoose and go for a walk. Go to a cafe. The swing chairs people have mentioned are fab too.

It does get better as time goes on (they start to get interesting at around 9 months IMO )

Re bathing, having a nice warm dressing gown handy for yourself is the key. No soap - you don't need it anyway.
Get out, put baby on towel on floor and wrap, pull on your dressing gown and you're off. It's actually much easier than you imagine it will be - most things with babies are. Just give it a go! What's the worst that could happen? You and baby get cold for a minute or two? So what?

Try and relax and remember it's just a small human, not a nuclear missile - it's not going to explode if you don't do everything perfectly the first time.

Enjoy (or if you're like me, just suffer through it until they can talk! )

Sling
Go for a walk
Look out the window & talk about what you can see
Sing to him
Buy jungle gym & leave him to play
Read to him (he'll like the sound of your voice)
Kisses, tickles, round & round the garden on his hand & this little piggy on his toes. This is quite nice lying on your own bed. Gives you a rest!
Peakaboo with a cuddly toy
Get a scaf or muzzy & gently glide it over his face & coo / do peekaboo. They like the sensation!
Tummy time

It is hard sometimes but once you get into it there's so much fun to be had ;-)

I have a 7 week old. We spend awake time dancing to radio, cuddling whilst I watch the west wing (I'm sure he loves it), singing and playing on mat with overhead toy rail. or I shove him in pram and walk into town. then I stress that it's been a v boring time for him.

I wrote this post 13 years ago about my dc! My dc wasn't into cuddling either, at least not the way I wanted to! I remember asking my ped. about it, and he said, "Look, some people like to be cuddled and some do not. This might change, it might not. Accept dc how they are at that stage!"

He HATED slings, anything that made him feel constricted in any way. Anyway, just holding him when he wants to be held, also - I loved reading to him! I could spend tons of time reading to him and he loved that.

Oh and bouncy chairs and totally agree about the running commentary. I talked to ds a LOT, mainly to keep myself from going insane and talking to myself!!

Oh, I'd forgotten that. Yeah, when mine suddenly started looking at me, I suddenly felt like I was on a stage in front of a huge audience!

"What do I do now? He's awake and not hungry!"

I can't remember what I actually did now, of course. [helpful]