To wonder how the hell people have spotless houses with a newborn?

[sepa]

I'm lucky if our morning routine takes less than 2hrs in between crying, feeding, showering with more crying
9:40 and about to start my breakfast

Tidiness? - who gives a toss. Just go with the flow and ditch the guilt.

To be honest, during the brief spell when I was SW with children's dept, I was always a bit worried if their were small children in the house and the place was really tidy and Mum had her make up on and her nails long and painted - none of this seemed to tally with real mothering in my book!

Mine was good with a newborn -I found I could do a lot during naps and with a sling on/carrying the baby. When they started crawling/toddler age was a bloody nightmare though! They would get stuff out quicker than I could put it away and I needed eyes in the back of my head. At least I knew when I put my newborn down that they wouldn't be in the bathroom filling up the loo with toiletries when I got back!

My youngest is 10 and my house is still a tip. I am waiting for the organised post-baby phase to arrive!

I'm more interested in why anyone with a newborn would give a tuppenny shite how spotless their house was. On the rare occasions I was able to detach newborn DS from me, I took endless baths and went to the cinema. Why is the cleanliness of your house more important than doing something fun/stimulating/relaxing?

Oh how different motherhood is than what I thought. I believed that my house would be spotless and dinner would be in the oven waiting for OH to get home from work

I don't worry about the house normally but then I get a glimpse of it and daydream that the house fairies will come and help me out

How old is your baby sepa?

I didn't even manage to shower till 11 at night when dd was a newborn, if you're managing a shower before 9.40am you're doing very well!

They are secretly a physical wreck!

Mine was up yesterday from 3am. Screaming all day with bad teething.

Thank god I got a dishwasher!

My DD is 8 weeks tomorrow!

champagne how are you and your DD getting on? Are you healing up well?

With a newborn? Well i was starting from a spotless house thanks to nesting crazy. It was simply maintenence 5 min jobs etc. Now, 9 weeks in it's gradually slipped. I'm still pottering and busy (it all needs doing with 2 older dd's) but less showhome. Lawn not mown in a fortnight. Coffee table a pile of things "to do". It happens gradually, then i've got a weekend away planned, my efforts will go into packing & planning = a little bit more corner cutting!
It's only easier when family come round as it gives me the much needed arse kick!

I don't like untidiness. So it was important to me. DH is quite untidy and wouldn't have cared. DH would wake up, put a load of laundry, tidy up the previous load, empty the dishwasher. I would wake up, feed, hand baby to DH for 40 mins. Quick cup of tea and toast. Quick whizz around the living room. And a quick tidy upstairs. Have a shower and take back baby. DH would then prepare a sandwich for me for lunch and head off. So by 8:30 the house was clean, laundry done, my lunch in the fridge and I was showered and clean. It sounds mad but once we got into this routine and used the time from 7-8:30 well, it made a big difference. When he had his morning nap I chopped up stuff for dinner. When he had his afternoon nap (so yes he did nap regularly) I made dinner, quick tidy again, cup of tea and join him for a nap. I had a cleaner once a fortnight. The good thing about that early morning madness was that even if DS was stuck to my boob all day, there was lunch for me, I had eaten breakfast and had a shower and the house was fairly clean. DS is 4 and the house has never, other than brief spells when we have both been ill, ever been untidy.

Newborn was easy for me, cleaned while she slept or sat in the sling. They don't have much stuff. Now tidy with a toddler and all her toys is much different!!

I've never understood how people get much done with a sling on. None of mine really loved the sling anyway but even if the angry writhing and screaming stopped found it like being 9 months pregnant again.

For what it's worth OP the only people I know with truly spotless houses,
are at work all day and out all weekend so the house is mostly empty,
are retired,
have a cleaner or parent to clean for them,
don't cook from scratch.

Mine was spotless because DH did it all - he's much more bothered by mess than me!

I found newborn is harder than a few months because you're so tired. But yup toddler it just feels like constant tidying

I think it's quite 'easy' with a newborn, they generally sleep a lot and don't move or make any mess.

I now have a toddler and pre-schooler, completely different story!

You shouldn't feel any pressure to keep everything spotless and just enjoy spending time with your newborn.

Saying that We either kept up with housework with DH doing in the evenings or I would do while he watched DS-it shouldn't all fall on you!

Our house was pretty clean for the first few months. In our case, it was a baby who slept and BF well (so no need to spend time washing and sterilizing bottles), helpful parents and visitors, and DH who felt a bit of a loose end during paternity leave. Also, I wasn't doing much other than sitting on the sofa and feeding, so there wasn't much mess to tidy apart from the lovely cards and presents we got which all got thrown in the nursery. (Pre-DC, a day's activities for me seem to involve a train of mess around the house). Actually it was cleaner and tidier than it has ever been before. At about 3 months when she started having 'naps' not just sleeping most of the day, things started to slip, then the 4m sleep regression so I was too tired to do anything much, now at 18m with a "helpful" toddler and me back to work 3 days a week, we're now to our usual slovenly standards of once a week hoover (not enough with two cats), wipe down the kitchen couple of times a week and do the bathrooms when we have guests over.
Basically it was purely the luck of the draw! But it is great if visitors help out. Even if they just wash, dry and put away the tea cups you've used.

A cleaner and lots of cupboards to hide stuff in

Newborns sleep about 20 hours a day and don't make any mess. So its not that hard to clean a bit of you're healthy and dont' have any other children.
Nothing to say you need to though.

"I was always a bit worried if their were small children in the house and the place was really tidy and Mum had her make up on and her nails long and painted - none of this seemed to tally with real mothering in my book!"

Ugh. Judgmental, much?

I actually did loads of Spring cleaning when DS2 was newborn (less so with DS1).
I had him in a sling most of the time so just pottered around cleaning (God, that sounds great, doesn't it!).

I do believe it was the last time I cleaned the glass on the stereo cabinet actually. DS2 is 7.

it's a fucking mess now

Newborns sleep 20 hours a day?!! Maybe yours did, none of mine got that memo.

Depends on the baby - my first was un put downable unless you had a heart of stone, but when I had my DC2 I discovered that people who claimed to be able to put their newborns down without them screaming themselves purple and hoarse and / or throwing up might not having been lying just to make me feel bad :o I also discovered slings.

As I had a small toddler by then I still had an excuse not to spend my time trying to achieve a spotless house though...

I suppose if you have an easy DC1 who sleeps a lot, sleeps decent stints at night too so you are not exhausted before you even start the day and hence unmotivated and is happy to be put down then babies don't actually make mess, so it would be quite easy unless you are lazy like me :o

There are of course also the people who have spotless houses cleaned by other people.

Looking back, my house has never been so clean as it was in the second half of my first mat leave. Newborn days were a completely different story. Honestly, it is a few weeks of your life.