Solo Parenting Newborn & Social Distancing

[mustangcanwait]

Hi everyone. I'm a first time mum to a 5 week old little girl. My partner is a key worker, which means I'm home alone with the baby from around 6am until 10pm. My vision of spending maternity leave going to baby groups, meeting with friends and going to see my parents has well and truly gone out of the window, which sucks but I do understand and will continue to follow guidance.

It got me wondering though, is there anyone else on here in a similar situation, who has literally been left holding the baby with nowhere to go?

I thought I'd create a thread so we can all come to one place and chat. Either rant about how bloody difficult and lonely it is, or to talk about our babies (because let's face it, at the moment what else do we have to talk about?). Maybe we can keep each other going and share ideas about what we have been doing to keep sane whilst social distancing?

I have a 17 month old and am struggling having him at home during isolation. The baby groups and soft play are much more helpful now than they were when he was a newborn. By no means am I saying that it's not shit, but it won't be forever and you'll be so grateful when you can finally take your little one out. The best thing I ever bought for my son when he was tiny was a space blanket! You can get them for £1.99 on eBay :) best of luck ok. Congrats and look after yourself.

OP not ok!

I have a newborn and a three year old. Today was day 1 of having them both in the house all day. We don't have a garden. Baby cried, toddler cried, I cried... 🙁 I want to get a routine in place and to try and make the days more structured, especially for the 3 year old who is normally at nursery. but I really struggled today to figure out what works for both of them that doesn't involve parks and long walks.

Newbie and a 1year old... I’m more worried about dp working from home. There’s not a snowballs chance in hell I’ll can keep them quiet if hes on a call for hours.

Was ds1’s first birthday over the weekend, felt so weird just sitting with him and no one popping into see him/not taking him to soft play or his baby group (every birthday gets a mini party). We’d got a cake and obviously he’s over the moon that he got cake and couldn’t give a flying feck about anything else.

Oh no, I feel sorry for you! Getting out for a daily walk with the baby was the main way I stayed sane when my DS was a newborn. I was in a new city, new country with no friends or mothers groups I knew of and it was isolating but at least I could get out for a walk in the city we lived in, grab a coffee or take a look around the shops. Hang in there! Do you have family or friends you could FaceTime with? On the upside, with a newborn you mostly stay home a lot anyway but still, it can be isolating. Try to talk to people on the phone or FaceTime as much as you can. Or just hang out here on MN

2 year old and expecting baby in June. My son keeps asking to go to grandpa's house which is hard. Other than that I don't think he's noticed much difference. It's more me missing the friends I made at soft play and playgroups. I'm looking forward to baby coming so he has someone other than us to interact with! Also mentally preparing to give birth alone so husband can stay with toddler instead of family.

I am lucky that not much is needed to entertain DD other than my boobs, bum changes and tummy time it must be tough with older kids. And at least I don't need to limit what I watch on tv at the moment lol, sang dd to sleep with the theme tune to orange is the new black earlier lol.

Thanks for the suggestion about space blankets, I'm going to order one now!

Three week old here and while I am lucky my DH will return to work next Monday (WFH) I am sad that absolutely no one from our families has met her. She was in NICU for the first two weeks and when we finally got her home CV had well and truly kicked off, so no visitors allowed (family lives two hours away).

Also sad that I won't have baby groups. I wasn't looking forward to the actual content, but moreso the meeting new mums bit so I could branch out my social network while on maternity.

We took her out for her first walk around the park today, and it's upsetting that it could be taken away if we go into full lock down tonight.

If you scrunch it up so it's all crinkly, then get under it like a tent with you little one, take your phone and turn the torch on pointing it at the space blanket... So much fun! My son loved it :)

Hey OP, I'm currently expecting and worrying about this isolation. I spoke to NCT who said they're going to be putting all their courses and networks online, so you could see in a couple of weeks if they've set up any new mum online groups near you?

5 week old baby girl here too 😊
This is definitely not the maternity leave I was imagining, but trying to hang on to the positives and think that me and baby are doing lots of lovely bonding.
Feels very odd to think that we don’t know how old our little babies will be when we can finally see family again.

My baby girl is 7 weeks tomorrow and I also have a 7 year old. Was looking forward to spending my maternity leave with my newborn while dd1 was at school and getting out and attending baby classes. I’m a bit worried this situation is going to cause me to have pnd though don’t feel to bad at the moment.

I've got a 3 month old baby girl - was just starting to feel confident to go out and about, and do some classes!

My parents live about 3 hours drive away so feeling a bit glum that they may miss a large part of her first year...

That said, our day to day routine won't change much, I usually get out for a walk with her in the sling once a day in the afternoon, so pretty much business as usual for us.

I'm being induced in 10 days. And I'm single! Fairly sure baby will have no idea other humans exist at all except on screens...

Feel so much for you all! As a positive, am guessing that this “generation of newborns and mamas will have a very special bond forever. If you do feel yourself going under then reach out to family or neighbours or anyone, or midwife/health visitor if necessary. They will be very aware of the problems which could arise. Take care.