Your first day at home with your newborn baby as a first time mum - what did you do?

[Saffra]

I'm now 38+2 and trying to imagine what it will be like to come home for the first time with our new baby. Would love to hear what you did on that 1st day, how you felt and whether you had ANY visitors at all....!

My dd (now 13) was prem so she was already 5 weeks old by the time she got to come home. All I really remember doing is sitting there with her and DH and thinking 'oh my God, look what we made' and feeling rather overwhelmed by it all.

Woke up in my own bed as had a home birth.
Weed in the shower.
Drank a can of coke.
Ate a brie sandwich. And some smoked salmon.
Attempted to bf. Attempted to sleep.
Repeated the above for some days, especially the brie.

Me and DH watched a lot of crap telly cuddled up on the sofa with DS and the rather appalled cat.

About three days in my sister came to see us. I got up and dressed for the first time that day.

I am a bit worried about how different it will all be second time round...

First day home with first baby / sat on sofa in absolute shock. My mum came round and made sandwiches. I sat in my dressing gown all dAy trying to feed and feeling like I'd been hit by a bomb. House was a shit hole. D h and I in shock, both of us incapable of anything other than dealing with the baby.

First day home with second dc - came home, did play doh with toddler, cuddled baby, d h popped to m and s and bought steak cos i was very anaemic. Had a lovely steak dinner and a glass of wine, watched a bit of telly, cuddled my dog while baby slept. Had a c section second tome round too! Seriously the shock only hits you the first time round!

had endless streams of visitors. my husband got in abut 10 am....then my mum, brother and dad..then my BIL - then my husband and BIL went out, and din't come back until very late. drunken twats.

though the birth of DD1 was easily the happiest moment of my life, the day that followed was shite and it is still a sore point between self & DH.

Our first day at home was Christmas Eve. In-laws came over and Mil cooked a roast chicken dinner.

Next day they came back and Mil cooked a roast goose.

The next day we went to theirs and she cooked a roast beef dinner for us plus about four others.

I'd had an emcs and couldn't laugh without hurting. I didn't lift a finger all over Christmas. My Mil (and my dh, to be fair) was an absolute star.

Cooked a meal for DH's boss and wife that DH had invited round - actually a good thing as after six days in hospital - mostly lying in bed - all I wanted to do was stand up and move around .

First day alone when DH went back to work I cried (familiar theme on this thread) - we had fairly recently moved house and had no family nearby, DS had been born with a serious medical problem - fortunately a lovely neighbour turned up and we had a good chat (she was a nurse which helped ).

second time round was much much better.

Another vote for crying am afraid. Hideous! Had an ECS and returned home to find DH had prioritised renovating the bathroom but our fridge and cupboards were bare. DH slept downstairs on sofa while I struggled upstairs with night feeds - didn't even take the monitor downstairs with him so I had no way of summoning help/support and he never checked on me once. Called the answerphone of MW at around 2am sobbing and begging her to visit me first on her rounds the next day. She arrived first thing and gave DH a verbal kicking! Safe to say day two was far more of a success....

EggyAllenPoe - ditto re the sore point!

Well my baby was very early - 10 weeks - and they said he could come home at 6 weeks i.e 4 weeks before edd! We stayed the night before discharge to make sure we could cope with medicines etc - this is normal for most hospitals - and then we spent the day doing paper work and learning resuss / drugs / what to do when/ gave ds his first ever bath (he only been washed with cotton balls) and fully dressed him in his tng baby going home outfit - he was 1.95kg! We finally left the hospital with a baby at 6pm after six long bloody hard weeks. Getting teary - pull yourself together mrs pear! - we then took him to see great grandparents and to collect the pram and other bits from my mums - we refused to have them at ours in case he died - and we finally got home at eight. It was time for a feed and as i heated his milk - he was too small to breastfeed so we had to give him expressed milk in a bottle - and dh did nappy change. Then i heard a scream - ds was laying on the mat dh had jumped back wards and poo was spraying out which dh was trying to stop w

Came home lateish from the hospital after a cs and house a bit cold and uninviting, so went ot bed very early, then spent the whole next day in bed, cuddling and feeding. MIL came to visit, so held court in bed, whilst she spent half an hour telling me about how the elderly lady, who i dont know, that lives down the road from her, had some manky leg sore and was taken into hospital;) social skills noT heR strong ppint!
It was lovely, and that is my chief bit of advice for new parents...if the day is tough and the place a mess, just try to tidy your bedroom a bit, take up everything you need, and stay in bed with your baby for the day!

with dd1 i could never be dressed by lunch time as i was forever in my dressing gown cos of feeding my dd1 and tidying. i didnt nap properlyly till my dd1 was 4 weeks old cos I was in awe with my dd1 as it felt so surreal having your firstborn in your arms... . As soon my Dp came home from work, he took dd1 off me and i had a nap. Once i slept for 6 hours solid !!

Slept, fed, cuddled DS, lay in the bath, stayed in my PJs, sat on sofa talking to DH, allowed my parents to visit for one hour max.

I didn't start crying until day 5 or 6, although it took a long while to stop then.

The first day I was truly on my own and dh had to go back to work, I was in a cold sweat of fear at being left with dd and and just sat with her (sort on on guard) I was there for her instantly at the merest peep. I barely dared to go to the toilet and leave her.

I remember wondering if I was going to have to keep up that level of survellance up for the next 15 or so years, thinking that yes, I probably would be expected to to that, or I'd be deemed an awful mother. I really believed that I'd never be able to do anything else ever again

All pre mumsnet. Blimey MN would've set me straight on one or two things in those days, looking back.

DD ~ cried
DS ~ cuddled, ate chocolate and watched pixar movies

Am now sweating with terror at the sudden realisation that this is going (all things remaining well) to be us in March. Eeeeep.

Cried. Panicked as DS would not stop crying. Called my mum for help. Had a shower as every muscle in my body ached. Cried again.

I have to say the first 8 weeks were the worst of my life. I wish someone had told me how hard it is at the beginning.

DS is 7 months now and I'm def having the best time of my life :)

Felt as though a bomb had gone off somewhere in my life and that it would never be the same again - a feeling of overwhelment and abject despair - why had I sacrificed my lovely life for this? Agony over breastfeeding, lots of crying. Elderly neighbours came around (just what I needed) to give my DS a coin (some tradition I think?). Sent DH out for lansinoah. Experienced gutteral terror when heard DS cry, knowing I had to breastfeed again.

Wasn't great tbh, first couple of weeks hardest in my life, for both me and DH, physically and emotionally. Got better though - love it now!