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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think newborn babies are weird

53 replies

MyNameIsRachel · 23/07/2019 19:27

I’ve got a 6 month boy and much prefer him now.

When he was born the up all night thing I wasn’t prepared for, then the freaky startle reflex.

I’ve got videos of him with his arms waving everywhere and cross eyes and I get a bit weirded out.

As soon as he started smiling and the reflex went he seemed a lot less scary.

Am I weird ?

OP posts:

SuzieQ10 · 23/07/2019 20:01

Much preferred it once my DC were over 8 or 9 months. So much more enjoyable and cute.

cakesandphotos · 23/07/2019 20:02

My DS didn't smile until 8 weeks. Until then it was pretty unrewarding. The newborn cuddles are amazing but my word are they hard work! Building up the courage to go for a second

NoSauce · 23/07/2019 20:02

I do love a newborn baby. My favourite age is 4 though, still very cute and not as exasperating.

Original poster

MyNameIsRachel · 23/07/2019 20:05

@Malyshek my son is cute but it’s the weird movements I mean really.

Also, most other mammals come out walking and with teeth.

We humans think we are so all that, in reality pondscum really

OP posts:

Original poster

MyNameIsRachel · 23/07/2019 20:07

@cakesandphotos we are definitely not.
I’m not even having sex til he’s had the vasectomy

OP posts:

Celebelly · 23/07/2019 20:07

God I loved the startle reflex, it was hilarious! She used to do it every time DP burped her and the pair of us would laugh like morons. We had to try not to laugh when they tested it in the hospital as I think they're used to parents looking concerned when they pretend to drop the baby to trigger it.

CoodleMoodle · 23/07/2019 20:13

Mine are 5 and 1 so the newborn stage is quite a long way behind us, but I agree. I thought DD and DS were both beautiful yet weird looking when they were born. Sort of an alien, garden gnome mix. DD's eyes focused fairly quickly but DS's took a long time.

And the snorting. Oh God! DD was bad for it but DS was worse, he used to make goat noises. Sometimes machine gun noises. At 5am. Hideous! They also both had this horrific noise they used to make in the buggy when I was trying to get them to sleep - a "meeerrrrrr" sound. Made me want to pull my hair out, and they both did it for a LONG time.

Cantbebotheredtogotobed · 23/07/2019 20:18

Yeah, I'm a bit baffled by the widespread obsession with newborns! I mean, I was absolutely fascinated by DD at the time because of hormones and the sheer incredible novelty of it all, but, objectively, teeny babies are weird little boring aliens. I look at mums out-and-about with newish babies and I think "how did I do that? I must have been so stressed. It can't even hold its own head up! And what's that weird thing it keeps doing?"

Kids are so much more interesting once their personalities start to unfold. Newborns have distinct personalities, of course, but only to the extent that you can get a relatively calm one, a constantly shrieking one, or one that's somewhere in between. DD was absolutely magical from around six months when she developed her own unique sense of humour, favourite song, favourite animal, etc.

RedTrek · 23/07/2019 20:21

I like them but I think they are hilarious - definitely super weird. Some of the noises they make are absolutely ridiculous.

Lockheart · 23/07/2019 20:23

All newborn babies are odd looking. They all look like angry Winston Churchill. They don't get cute for a few weeks!

YouSetTheTone · 23/07/2019 20:27

My baby is 14 weeks and I’m so excited to be moving out of the newborn phase! He’s finally a bit chunkier, smilier and a bit easier.
He loathed the car from the get go and the pram, and feeding was a PITA to get established due to tongue tie blah blah. Nipples in shreds and weight gain stress...

Now he can yank my nipple while squirming mid-feed and I don’t blink. He’s finally allowing his older brothers to entertain him in the car and even grudgingly lets me put him in the pram without too much screaming. Happy days!

I much much prefer babies from 6 months onwards. But then ALL THREE of mine have been lousy newborns (sob). And the older two have been fab toddlers (and onwards) so I’m hoping number three follows suit!

(Ps hormones are odd though as I do feel nostalgic about the immediate newborn period and I really don’t know why! It was hell!
And DH has already had the snip so NEVER AGAIN!)

mogtheexcellent · 23/07/2019 20:37

I loved the newborn phase i was in hospital for 3 days after C Section. My bed was beside the nurses wash station and the bin really clanged. Each time they shut the bin all the babies arms would jerk up in the air and then flop back down. It was amazing. But then i was still on drugs.

SorenLorensonsInvisibleFriend · 23/07/2019 20:38

YANBU - and yes to 'odd little alien pet'!

I was crap with both mine (until they hit eighteen months), but I did absolutely LOVE the kisses they do when they've sort of figured it out but not quite. Basically planting their whole mouth haphazardly on whichever bit of your face they chance to land on. The most gorgeous heartfelt kisses I've ever had!!

museumum · 23/07/2019 20:40

Mine sounded like a baby t-Rex. Pretty weird really.

Youwantshoesinashoeshop · 23/07/2019 20:46

I HATED the newborn stage.

I think it is probably great if you are hard as nails or have a baby that sleeps and only cries for like, 3 hours a day. If you get yourself a screamy refluxy model you'd have to be a true masochist to enjoy that.

With both of my children I loved them straight away but when I look back through the pictures it's like oh feck I am glad that is over. I found them much much easier at every stage once past 5 months. A total pleasure.

goodthinking99 · 23/07/2019 20:46

YANBU! Newborns are weird, and I hated having something so dependant on me, and so vulnerable. Mine had a perma frown, looked disappointed in the whole lark and frankly looked like a grumpy William Hague, especially when I was feeding her . And don't get me started on prams...little miniature carriage things for teeny tiny alien like creatures who are completely defenceless/unable to move under their own volition.

To be honest I think I was a bit off my head for the first six months , so much so I can fully remember my incredulity at the total weirdness of it all a decade later. I think I've got a bit better at the parenting thing over the years though...hopefully the (not so) small person agrees!

AllTheWhoresOfMalta · 23/07/2019 20:48

Yeah they’re well weird at first. Both my daughters got less alien like circa 12 weeks.

Cantbebotheredtogotobed · 23/07/2019 20:50

goodthinking99 - huh, mine was the image of William Hague too! You don't think they're related, do you?

foreverhanging · 23/07/2019 20:51

Yeah I didn't get on with the newborn bit at all

foreverhanging · 23/07/2019 20:52

Oh! And I also had that whole body nerves feeling. Every time she cried it set off something in me that would make me so distressed. Was awful.

user764329056 · 23/07/2019 20:52

Love newborns, love the snuffling and little expressions on their faced

Knittedfairies · 23/07/2019 20:53

I think the weirdest thing about my newborns was that they were beautiful at the time and all the other babies looked like squashed Winston Churchills. Looking at the photos years later, mine were indeed Churchillian too...

MangoSpice · 23/07/2019 20:53

Newborns are funny! Mine all used to try and latch on to anything/anyone. Had to prize one baby off my cheek once!

Champagne791 · 23/07/2019 20:54

My DD was 4lb8 and she was a scrawny little alien with a full head of black hair. Her cry was more like squeaks. Now she’s a feisty little 4 year old now and I adore this age, shes a beautiful little thing, she’s full of personality and not too big for lots of cuddles.

Cantbebotheredtogotobed · 23/07/2019 21:02

Knittedfairies - I remember one of my friends confiding in me that she felt sorry for the other mums from her NCT group because their babies all looked like little red, wrinkled old people, whereas her baby was so exceptionally beautiful .

(To be fair, her baby wasn't bad-looking in a red, wrinkly kind of way).

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