Newborn wake windows

[Loopyloo349]

Hello!
First time mum as of 6 days ago. I'm trying to avoid getting sucked into social media over-informatiojn, but it's hard. My baby girl is 6 days old and I'm struggling with wake windows. Sometimes she wakes up, eats and goes straight back to sleep for another 3 hours. Sometimes we do contact naps, others she perfectly content in her cot.

Today we managed quite a long awake window. We did some face time and some eye tracking with black and white flashcards. In another awake window, my husband and I were both very tired and just snuggled with her. Afterwards, I felt guilty that we didn't use the window to stimulate her. Should I be trying to take advantage of all her awake windows at this age? I feel like at 6 days old, they aren't predictable or long enough to do different activities in each window and I also don't want to over stimulate her!
Just looking for some reassurance for this very early mum guilt.

You don’t really need to stimulate a baby that young -they’ll find that just being awake for brief periods and looking at your face or the trees on a walk stimulating enough. In fact, they can easily become overwhelmed if there’s a lot going on. You’re very much in the fourth trimester where babies only need cuddling, feeding, sleeping and changing. You’ll find your baby sort of comes out of their shell at around 4-6 weeks and then they’ll be more interested in things like black and white flashcards. But right now don’t put any pressure on yourself. I learnt from my own that lots of instagram baby advice is rubbish and piles unnecessary pressure on parents

In those early days all they really want is to eat sleep and cuddle. As she gets a bit older her routine will be a bit more predictable and she'll be more interested in different things. For now just enjoy those precious cuddles!

Please don’t worry about wake windows or stimulating your little one - plenty of time for that! At 6 days old they’re still getting used to being out in the world and recovering from birth, just enjoy the cuddles and connections you’re building!

Congratulations on your new DD @Loopyloo349

I can understand you want to do your best for your DD but honestly, at this age, those activities will make zero difference to her long term health and well-being.

By all means cuddle her, let her look at your face and sing to her, take her out for walks, or better still get DH to take her out whilst you have a bath or a nap.

Concentrate on recovering from the birth and getting to know your LO. These early days are too precious to be worrying about whether you managed to do flash cards or not