2nd time around: newborns are harder than I remember!

[KandCsMummy]

We have a new baby who's 13 days old and a 2 year old girl. The new baby has 'colic' (whatever that means! Basically 'too bad, babies cry' as far as I can tell) and it's exhausting. Our first had similar problems, but it's loads easier when you don't have a toddler. I know I still have the baby blues, but every time I think about how well our first is doing and how lovely she's been it the face of our grumpy exhaustion I just burst into tears.

I guess I'm just looking for words of encouragement, it won't be long before it gets better... Will it?

The first bit is utter crazy and exhausting. When you see your DC2 give their biggest smile to your DC1 you'll burst with happiness :)

Hang in there, it gets better soon!

Yep it gets better. My dd was a colicky baby so she lived in the sling a lot. Colic is a catch all term for unexplained crying but I think the crying is usy overtiredness (newborns get tired very easily. If dd was awake for two hours just once a day, that would set her off even if she'd napped). Can be reflux too or intolerance to cows milk. I kept her colic at bay by having her in a sling almost all the time for the first 12 weeks. Really really helped as I had a 2.2 year old too!!

Now I'm 9.5 months down the line and life is so much easier. Hard to juggle them both but It's easier!

Go easy on yourself, set small targets and try and get out of the house once a day.

Colic is just awful - I went through 2 month of it and it was depressing. The sling was the thing that helped the most though. I think it was overtiredness as he is not the sort of baby that just falls asleep when he is tired, he needs a good bit of helping to sleep. It got so much better very quickly after 3 months once the 4th trimester was over. Hang on in there and get a nice stretchy wrap sling to use as much as possible.

If you remembered how hard it was with the first you would never have another. We are designed to forget to preserve population numbers.

I remember walking up and down with ds3 thinking he was much harder work than either of the others, but, looking back I think they were all much the same

Sorry, posted too soon.

Get as much help as you can. Forget housework and sleep whenever you get the chance. Simple meals are fine. Things will get better.

Congratulations on your new baby.