How old was your PFB before you felt you'd got the hang of it?

[drawohamme]

PFB is five weeks today and I still feel almost as clueless as the day I brought him home, is it like this for everyone?

Yes. I find little babies very difficult. Things got a but better around 4 months.

Mine is 9 and I'm still not sure! :-)

22 years and counting.
Yes, parenting is really like this for everyone, and you blunder along just trying to do your best and worrying that you aren't.

Around 2 years - just after I had psb - I honestly felt like I was in the dark and everyone else was an amazing mum and I hated it to be honest. Then all of a sudden when I had DD2, I found I knew what I was doing and I wasn't clueless and then everything sort of fell into place.

I found things got easier around 3 months. my bab is 4 months now and getting easier.

he only has five bottles a day now so that has cut down my washing up etc

hr sleeps eleven hours at night which is really good for feeling like yourself again!

I can put him on his play mat or jumperoo and he will play for a while.

he doesn't seem to puke wee or poo on all his clothes so not creating ad much washing!

he still has good long naps throughout the day.

just waiting for everything to go tits up at six months when I wean him and put him in his own room.

baby not bab!

I had a second. Makes babies easier. No clue about kids. Eldest still only 2 and its hard still there.

At 4 mths, things got a bit easier I think, constant feeding and cluster feeding slowed down. I think I'd healed as well and got over my baby blues. I still at 12 mths feel out of my depth but not so much so as I did at the beginning!

At 6mo I felt like I felt like I suddenly got the hang of it a bit. And then she suddenly needed weaning and I was clueless again!

Now at 2.9yo she needs to be potty trained and I have no idea what I'm doing!

My DD is 7 months. For me, I felt like I started to get the hang of it around 6 months. I started to get her into a feeding/ sleeping routine based on her natural cues and i think since then i have felt a lot more confident in understanding what she wants. Who knew a baby cried when they wanted to sleep? Or that some babies don't just fall asleep, they need to be coaxed?

I still have issues and doubt myself all the time, especially when I'm with company or out and about. But we are getting there. I'm enjoying motherhood a lot more now compared to the early days.

Hmmm got better at 3 weeks, (slightly less terror) 3 months (some sleep) 6 months (food!), 11 months (sleeping through the night mostly), took a dip at 18 months (tantrums, refusing to walk) and better again after 2.5. Knowing what I'm doing, no, still have no idea.

lol... my eleven year old is still hard work. Worrying about your child is part of motherhood.

Seriously within reason there is no "right" way to parent. The early weeks are really hard, especially with a first baby. I promise it will get easier as your baby gets bigger.

I found that my second baby was easier as I spent less time and (energy!) worrying. Inspite of having more work to do, I was less tired.

I found my PFB incredibly easy

She was BF but rarely cried for food, I had to remember to feed her every 3 hours. She slept 8 hours at 8 weeks and 12 at 12, 2 long naps during the time too, I remember sitting my feet up spotless flat thinking "what's do hard about this?" 9 years on she still is an angel (mmm think it'll hit in the teenage years)

She was so good we decided to TTC#2 when she was 9 months old, 18 months later DD2 came along, that'll teach me completely different baby and child, some days I could open the door, shove her out and close it again

No it does get easier

He's 11 and I still haven't.

With my first it was around the 1 year mark as I had serious PND that made everything 10 times harder. The second was a much, much harder baby but felt like a doddle compared to having my first!

With dc1 I think it was about 12 weeks until I felt I knew him, his personality and his needs. Then it seemed to get really easy really quickly.

Then I had dc2 and I found it very difficult to adjust to being a mother of 2 under 2 and it took ages before I felt confident and comfortable with her. She had reflux and also caught several lung infections which landed her in hospital so fir the 1st 6 months she seemed to be a little ball of scream and I felt completely out of my depth, like the worst mother in the world.

Now that dc1 is in his terrible 2s and tantrums on a regular basis and dc2 is mobile and beginning to cruise around the furniture, I feel like I have the hang of being a mum, like I kind of know what I'm doing, but I don't always enjoy it and find the monotony of daily life and routine stressful. I look forward to going back to work in September and them being at nursery 3 days a week. I find I'm a much better mum if I've had time away from them.

About 8 months - I suddenly felt I was really enjoying things ... He slept better , he could eat normal food so all the worry over milk/ constant breast feeding was gone ...he could amuse himself and bounce in the jumperoo

And I had childcare ! Think that made a major contribution to enjoying the time I had with him. !

I felt that at 8 weeks the really hard, really dark and scary cloud lifted. I don't want to sound dramatic but lack of sleep and being clueless really stressed me!! DS also started properly smiling at that point which helped loads.

In many ways it has kept keeping easier since then (although new things keep cropping up to scare me too!!)