...To ask if anyone enjoys the newborn baby stage?!?

[Flamingo1980]

I'd be genuinely interested to hear stories from people who truly loved the newborn stage. It seems to me that childless people believe it's magical and you should 'enjoy every minute' and people who have had babies mostly seem to agree that it's hell on earth.
During my newborn stage I thought it was wonderful, but with hindsight I can see now it was dreadful but in comparison to most I think I actually had an easy time... So I don't know what to think.
Did anyone truly love it and if so what was it that happened or didn't happen to make that happen?

[Sparklingbrook]

DC1 it wasn't how I had imagined. I had gone from working full time in a job I knew inside out to working 24/7 in a job I was crap at. BF was a nightmare and not all lovely as i was led to believe. No sleep, much crying, I wondered what the hell I had done.

DC2 much better up until 5 weeks when he had to go into hospital for a week for an OP. All was fine but it interrupted the flow so to speak.

[SallyStarbuck]

Didn't mind it. With hindsight it wasn't amazing, but mainly because newborn equalled not working and being alone a lot with OH doing stupid shifts, and that didn't suit me at all. Though DD was an angel baby, really.

Loving 3-4 at the moment, it's a fabulous age.

1-2 however.... fuck me, I hated that year. Just that stage where they can kind of move and kind of know what they want to do but can't actually do it or communicate it at all and just sort of whine a lot

TTC#2 at the moment. Would like to just fast forward until 2yo please!

[pretend]

Urgh! No.

It's just a lot of crappy jobs, done on no sleep with a background of screaming baby.

Give me a toddler any day. Or a ten year old, or a teenager.....

[5madthings]

I love it, it's tiring and relentless but the gorgeous snugglyness of a newborn, you just want to breathe them in.

I am 22wks with no 6, our bonus baby as my youngest turns five next week... And I am looking forward to savouring the newborn stage, it will be my last.

Tbh I love it all, each stage has its own challenges and joys.

[CoodleMoodle]

I hated most of it. DD had CMPA and reflux, and spent most of the time screaming and being sick. I spent all day walking her around the living room. She screamed if I sat down. She screamed in the various slings we tried. She screamed if we put her in the Moses basket for a minute.

Then we got her tummy troubles sorted and things were better (apart from her sleeping). They've steadily improved and now she's a gorgeous, funny 21mo who still screams a lot but only when she's not getting her own way (same as when she was tiny, I suppose ).

Things are better now. But I do miss snuggling on the sofa watching The Bill...

[Bunbaker]

I hated it. The lack of sleep made me want to cry. DD would cluster feed until the early hours every night. It was awful, as I didn't know about cluster feeding and felt that I was at fault.

I agree that looking after a newborn is boring and exhausting.

[nooka]

I seem to remember that the first couple of weeks were quite nice, both my babies slept most of the time, it was lovely not to be pregnant (although I had c-sections so not that easy) and dh was around for company. The next period of babyhood especially second time with dd in the mix as well as ds were pretty hellish.

Once dd hit around about two it's been mostly fairly enjoyable, and right now I am finding the teen years pretty cool (ds is 16, dd 15).

[umiaisha]

Loved it x 3! Easiest bit in my opinion!

[MrsGentlyBenevolent]

Up to this week (6 weeks), I have found it to be a lot easier than people told me it would be, I would say I enjoyed it. This week has been difficult though, suddenly fussy, not settling back to sleep, not wanting to stay on either breast too long - it's been a bit of a shock to the system! To top it off, I've seriously pulled my shoulder today - a 12 pound baby and awful neck pain do not mix. Still wouldn't change any of it, making the most of this stage whilst looking forward to him growning further as well. Dreading the teenage years, but thankfully that currently seem a long way off.

[Flamingo1980]

Wowsers - four pages of responses in just over an hour! Very interesting answers. I can honestly say I've never really heard anything good about the newborn stage so it's nice to know it isn't all awful for everyone. Mine would have been much better if my hormones didn't completely over react and made me cry or fret so much as my daughter was technically very easy.
I'm debating having another but I just can't stand the thought of going through that again so it's nice to see some positive stories as well!

[KitKat1985]

I hated it. I hated BF and found it painful (in the beginning) and hated being on 24-hour feeding duties. DD was an awful sleeper so I was permanently exhausted. To top it all DD had colic and screamed for literally HOURS every evening (regularly from 5pm - 2am). I much prefer motherhood now she's a toddler.

[flanjabelle]

I loved it. Absolutely adored it. Even though bfing was hard, dd was so squishy and tiny and all she wanted was cuddles. We just snoozed together all the time and got everyone else to do the housework etc. It was fabulous. Makes me broody thinking about it.

[Madratlady]

I don't and I have a 12 day old. Didn't with ds1 either.

I'm tired despite co-sleeping to get any sleep at all, breastfeeding is really not the easy option but I intend to stick with it and I don't feel like I'm giving ds1 enough attention. And newborns are dull. Cute, but not in the least bit interesting.

[stabbybitch]

Me! I wouldn't stop having babies if someone else could do the 6months - 16years bit then give them back!

[PatrickPolarBear]

Much preferred it to the toddler years, personally. My son turning into the Tasmanian Devil in human form around his first birthday was an unpleasant surprise. Everyone had gone on to me about how hard having a baby is and the sleepless nights and so on but no-one talked about the utter terror and hell of a non-stop 18 month old who never listens, has tantrums and runs off on you constantly. He is now a pleasant, fun 4 year old but, man, that year between 1 and 2 was HARD!

So I think it depends on the child. I enjoyed the newborn phase with my second child because it was so wonderful to remember what it was like to be able to go to a restaurant while she sleeps in the stroller or just be able to leave her on her baby gym for 10 minutes while I made a phone call and not be followed around by insane chatter. Both babies were relatively ok sleepers though and didn't have colic or any other major problems. That helps!

[HaydeeofMonteCristo]

Very early bit was nice both times, I.e. first couple of weeks. After that the high wore off and it was really hard.

I like them more and more as they get older (so far, dc1 is 7).

[Mulligrubs]

With my DS, now 2, I did not enjoy it. I felt like someone had thrown a grenade into mt life. He was colicky and barely slept for a whole year. I'd had a traumatic EMCS birth and now I look back I was so anxious and mentally ill for the newborn stage.

With my DD, now 5 weeks, I am loving it so far. I feel way more prepared, she is a great sleeper with no colic or anything so I think that makes a huge difference. And the fact I had a lovely ELCS and have recovered 10x faster has helped immensely. If all newborns were as easy as DD I would have loads!

[Justaboy]

As a dad of three lovely daughters I loved every moment of their young lives right from the get go thru to the deliveries. They were some of the most profound experiences I've ever had and now despite them being so many years ago remember them all.

Dun my fair share of getting up in the diddle of the nite, feeding nappy changing comforting and the only regret i now have was how quickly it all went by as time is so fast moving;!-(

[Needmorewine]

No not really. Love my toddler to pieces though find this stage much more fun. Tonight when she said "I luffs you lots mummy" and put her chubby little arms around my neck I feel like I could explode with love for her and I'm finally starting to get it right. I feel a bit sad reading through some of these lovely messages though from people who did enjoy it, my experience eas nothing like that, but who knows, maybe next time (if there is one) it might be, I like to think so

[Mamia15]

Loved it both times - all that lovely special bonding time, breastfeeding and being able to go out lots with baby being so portable.

Later stages of babyhood and toddlerlhood were very different and hard work though - teething, poor sleep, tantrums, lack of me time etc.

[LaurieMarlow]

I found it very hard. The broken sleep, the anxiety, the sudden curtailing of my freedom all hit me like a brick shithouse. I couldn't make sense of my feelings at all which left me feeling v confused and alone. And I had an easy peasy baby - Christ only knows how I would have coped with colic, reflux or a non sleeper.

In retrospect, it's obvious I had pnd - and I guess I was dimly aware of that at the time but never sought help. In fact, I'd say establishing breast feeding is the thing that really helped and got me out of the slump.

18 months is a joy. But I dread going back there for no. 2.

[Essexgirlupnorth]

Hated the first 6 weeks the sleep deprivation was torture and it's putting me off having another as would have a toddler to look after too. Found it much easier after she turned 6 months and could do more.

[TheEagle]

I was shellshocked after a horrendous birth with DS1 and we loved with my PILs at the time which was frankly horrible. I didn't know what I was doing and I cried all the time.

Weirdly though I loved so much of that time, mostly the time spent holding a sleeping DS1 on my chest.

I liked the early weeks better with DTs but their manic evening cluster feeding nearly finished me off physically and mentally.

DS1 is 2.1yo now and I adore this age. He's so articulate and funny and sweet and loving. Yes, he's like a little dictator as well and can be spectacularly uncooperative bug I don't have to stress about naps/feeds any more and it's all much easier than the first year IMO.

DTs are 7.5mo and I spend a lot of time wishing they were older!

[WhamBamSpam]

Absolutely love it. The happy hormones are flying, the weight is melting off you, this amazing little slug of body warmth is asleep on your boob, or your chest or in the sling. The little breath on your neck. The weight of them on your shoulder. The way they yawn with their whole heads. Their little bums in the air when they sleep and their legs all curled up. Oh god I could list a thousand things I love about newborns.

[CakeMountain]

My God, such an emotionally, hormonaly charged time. It was amazing, incredible, wonderful, but soooo hard too, just from lack of sleep.