Seeing DC for the first time

[amrscot]

What is that feeling like when you see your DC for the first time?

My mind can't actually comprehend it and I can't imagine what it's going to feel like when I do finally give birth!

I'm dying to know what he's going to look like 😍

I had been so focused on staying pregnant (bicornuate uterus) that meeting DS was a real shock. I remember thinking where’s this baby come from?

I remember looking at her and thinking "It was you all along!"

My first thought was 'is he really mine? ' like I never thought I'd be capable of looking after an actual baby when I didn't know the first thing about them . It never actually feels really until they are born! I used to wonder what he'd look like too, like it's just so impossible to imagine it . He is 10 weeks old now and amazing 😊

With DD1 - forceps delivery my first glimps of her she was just kind of hanging, being passed to another doctor and I actually said ‘is that it?!’. In my defence it had been an incredibly long complicated labour and I expected her to be bigger.

DD2 - normal delivery they went to put her on me and I remember shouting ‘no, give her to him’. Not sure why I wanted DH to hold her first.

With both I wouldn’t say I had a rush of love, I already loved them, it’s was a weird mix of protectivness and pride. With both I kept repeating I’m your mummy, just to make sure they knew

I remember saying to the the midwife in disbelief “is that really her?” as she was so beautiful and I couldn’t believe that she was so perfect and wonderful after 9 long months of wondering what she was like. Best feeling ever!

So lovely

DD (feels crazy writing that!) was born two weeks ago via emergency section. At first I just couldn't believe there had actually been a baby inside me this whole time. Seeing one suddenly appear was surreal. The first real emotion was relief because her heart rate had been dipping (hence the EMCS) and I was just so glad that she was still alive when they got her out. Then it was just total overwhelm.

I don't think I got that big rush of love everyone talks about, probably due to the traumatic nature of the birth, but I was aware of being very fond of her.

Now, a couple of weeks later, I sometimes find myself being a bit overwhelmed by my feelings for her. DP has found me crying once or twice just 'because I love her so much'

After a very long labour and ventouse delivery, I was amazed to see a little angry faced boy (hadn't found out what we were having). Exclaimed that looked exactly like my dad, thanked DH for giving me my son (should have been the other way around) then fed him for a minute. When my shaking got too bad, asked nurses to take him as I feared he would fall and they said welcome to motherhood and walked out!

Thank God you're alive!

That they looked like a stranger. You think you'll know what they'll look like. You've thought of nothing else for months.

Then they're born and you don't recognise them and realise they're a human in their own right, not just an organ.

THAT was mind blowing.

They held him up to me and his eyes locked on mine! My first thought was, how in the world can people get babies mixed up and go home with the wrong one? I knew him in that moment and knew I would always know him.

I think I was quite 'surprised' actually, that I had just exerted a proper full size baby. I'm not sure what else I was expecting but it just seemed surreal to me that this baby was in my stomach a moment ago and here he was fully formed with massive feet. I said "Oh! Hello!" in a really surprised way, like you do when you bump into a friend in the shop.

And then he wouldn't latch on immediately so I started worrying and had this overwhelming feeling of responsibility, knowing he depended on me, and this was a new feeling I'd never felt about anyone before. 13 years later and I haven't stopped worrying.

OP I think it’s important to remember that we all feel different things, and don’t go in with a set of expectations.
With both of mine I felt literally nothing when I first saw them. I just felt numb and detached. I wasn’t (and never have been) depressed, they were both very much wanted. But my brain’s way of coping with the enormity of producing another human being was to shut down. It only lasted a few hours, and then of course the overwhelming love kicked in. But those first few hours I felt totally detached.

Lovely thread.
DS 1 (we didn;t know sex in advance) - "hello baby!" Couldn't get over the pointyness of his head - like a traffic cone with loads of wet black hair and how intense and black his eyes looked as he looked into my eyes first time as I held him all slippery and slimey. Midwife said as he was my first he had been in birth canal a couple of days hence the pointy head. It didn't stay like that!
DS 2 - just massive relief as he was a big baby and I'd been scared I wouldn't be able to birth him. As it was it was fine. He did look about 2 though! Loads of hair again but without the pointy head!

@MadCattery thats lovely ❤️

I had an emergency c section 5 weeks early and it was such a shock that I don't really remember my first thoughts. I know when they pulled him out he cried and I definitely thought 'He must be ok if he's crying (I'd been given steroids for his lungs)' and I think that when they finally showed him to me I was just so overwhelmed with love that I didn't think anything! I didn't see him for almost 24 hours after that - he was in the NICU and I couldn't stand up but when I did finally get to see him my thoughts were definitely 'Oh my god I have a son!'.

He's 5 weeks old tomorrow and I'm sad that his birth is so hazy 😢. I hope yours is much nicer!

My ex and I were both tall and slim and ex dark haired so that's how I'd pictured my first. He was bald fat and yellow due to jaundice...I was a bit shocked tbh! The love kicked in when it was just him and I.
DD was incredibly beautiful huge brown eyes. The midwife brought other nurses in to look at her because she looked like a doll. Again the rush of love came when we were on our own.
Currently expecting DD2 with second husband. Exciting isn't it?!

First thought was why isn't he breathing... Water birth and he decided last second after his head was out to get a bit stuck and my contractions seem to stop so he got pulled out by the midwives and had maconium so needed some pats.

2nd thought was of fuck what do I do now

3rd thought was your a chubster with a lot of hair.... (over 9lb baby which wasn't expected)

I couldn't really vocalise anything though as I had a quick and intense labour (4hrs first baby) and also lost quite a lot of blood so was very pale and faint.

'I don't want it, take it away from me'

He is now 2 and I love him to bits and he was a very wanted pregnancy/child. The panic and sheer terror of actually having a living, breathing baby that I was responsible for just smacked me straight in the face post-birth. It lasted probably 10 seconds before I wanted to cuddle him and pour all of the love from my heart straight into him forever.

She looked exactly like her last ultrasound pic! We got lucky and caught a full face shot in 3D a few weeks earlier. With a small amount of Photoshop it could be a newborn pic. Didn’t know she was a she though.

She looked calmly straight at me and seemed to say ‘Wow, that was a tough 26 hours, hey mum?!’. Then she looked around the room and her expression was a clear ‘So this is the world. Very cool, I like the bright lights and all the noise and people alot!

She’s the same now at 8yo. Extrovert and analytical, with a great team spirit!

It really manages to be the biggest moment a woman can have in life, just a shame our bodies are usually in shock and we can’t totally indulge in the joy of it. At least that’s how it felt for me. She had to be given to her dad after a few seconds so they could work on me, but those few seconds were very very precious...

Now, of course, I’ve had to go and look up her baby photos, first day photos etc. I’m in tears reliving it all.

Good tears, tears of awe and gratitude. And a bit of self-pity for the things that could have gone better in the hours before I met her. And tears of sorrow for the women who’ll never meet their babies, or who lost them. It’s just all so freakin’ emotional to look back on.

God help my poor child when I pick her up from school today, she’s going to have the stuffing hugged out of her!

Nothing that I can put into words, just a great feeling of awe.

With my first, my very first thought was “oh I know you!” He was so like the 3D scab image of his face, especially his little nose that I just instantly felt like I knew him.

My second labor was harder and DS2 got stuck on exit, cue every doctor, midwife etc in the entire area rushing in, the pain was so bad that honestly when he came out my actual first thought was “thank f**k”! When he was first handed to me his little face was all bruised and bluey/purple from delivery that he looked like he’d just won a fight. The rush of complete and absolute love was immediate then and I just thought “no matter what happens, I will love you till the end of time”.

I thought that someone had left someone’s baby in my room.
I’d had a general anaesthetic so had no memory of the birth.
Then I saw his face. I wanted to inhale every inch of him, to mould him to me, to never let him go. He was perfect and amazing to me.
I was frightened of how much I loved him.
I was frightened of loosing him to both death and someone taking him from me.

2nd time round I was presented with a pair of balls in my face.
We didn’t know what we were having so they presented them to me to show me. I quietly asked if he had a face as I’d quite like to see that thanks!
Then disbelief that he was even there, that we had finally FINALLY done it after years of infertility and then 7 miscarriages, we finally had our miracle that we had given up all hope of ever having.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

I spent both my pregnancies thinking of my child as a weird squishy alien that had nothing to do with me (both wanted and cared-for pregnancies, I just have difficulty connecting with fetuses or thinking of them as being truly human somehow). The moment they were born I thought they were wonderful and beautiful and all that.