What's the best bit of advice anyone have you for a newborn?

[Pocket1]

DD is 6 weeks old and I'm just loving being a mum - whilst discovering just how hard it all is and how little I know. I'm often googling, posting on mn or reading books and have loads of advice from my mum, friends and hv - but what was the best bit of help or advice you received for your newborn?

TIA

I can echo what others have said. Trust your instincts.
Everything is a phase and it passes and changes. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not!
If you are really at a loss and need advice, my dad told me to either listen to one person who you really trust, or listen to everyone and take what you want.

Naice Me either! Although I'm no longer sure that's true now that DD is nearly 6mo and a right old chubster...

Newborns often cry a lot. It's normal.

Agree with wellie. My DD was awake for near enough 8 hours one day when she was 6 weeks old. Had friends over to visit so there was so much going on that she couldn't settle to sleep. As a result I had a very grouchy, miserable baby. I soon learnt that baby's need to wind down and need help to settle to sleep.

DD is 7 months now and has a great nap routine, sleeping every 3 hours.

And you can't spoil a newborn!! The amount of times I've heard that I'm spoiling her because I'm holding her, rocking her, grrrrr......

Good luck and enjoy.

Co-sleeping is not the end of the world if it means you & baby get sleep! Do read guidelines & do it properly but I got a lot more sleep once I accepted it.

Get a good sling.

Food spoils, babies don't. You can't cuddle a baby too much.

Sometimes the only way to get all the poo off is to bath them.

Your baby, your way (whatever your mum/health visitor/ next door neighbour says)

The days drag but the months and years fly by- so true. Try to find a "special"/nice moment each day (even if its just a sleepy feed in your arms) because too soon you forget it all.

You can pull down most wideneck babygros down over the baby's body after a poo explosion avoiding further spreadage. I did not know this with DS1 and spent a lot of time wiping poo out of his hair .

Oh, and your baby hasn't read any of the parenting books so don't worry if they don't conform. My five month old DS2 believes it is his human right to be fed every 1.5 hours and has not read everything about how he "should" be able to last three or four hours. It will pass.

Also, nothing is set in stone forever. I had a co-sleeping, 45 minute waking, bottle-refusing, dummy-refusing eight times a night breastfeeding DS1 at six months. People kept telling me I had made a "rod for my own back" and he would be a nightmare forever. Now he is three, loves his own single bed, has never needed to be weaned off bottles/dummies and so some common toddler issues have been easier for me in that sense. What I mean is that it all works out in the end one way or another.

Last one - don't compare yourself to others. For ages, I thought my friend's DD was so much easier than DS1. Turns out she just doesn't moan as much as me.

Take each day as it comes. Go with the flow.

If you're used to being organised, achieving things and being in charge, forget it. Your baby is the boss of you now (until it learns what No means!) and there will be days when you'll count having a shower as a major achievement.

Congratulations first of all! 2 bits of advice I was given and always worked are to always trust your instinct, mums do know best and also to enjoy every minute you can when they are tiny because all of a sudden they are walking and talking!

The days are long but the years are short. There are things to be done but bear in mind that this summer is the one and only summer you'll ever have with your dd as a tiny baby. Next August she will be a whole new person, slowly getting more and more independent. Take time to sniff her head, cuddle her play with her toes. Soon that little baby will only exist in pictures and she'll never come again.

If you find yourself floundering, and haven't gotten dressed in days read Gina Ford. There's some useful stuff in there and some total bollocks like every other baby manual

1. Envelope neck vests pull down in a poonami incident or always if you're me

1. babies don't come with instructions, and each one is different.

1. listen to people, nod along then do what you think is best!!!

Oh and TIME FLIES - like, vanishes and you'll never get those days back so, if baby wants a cuddle, cuddle them. If baby wants to be held, hold them, if baby is screaming the place down, that day will soon end

Everything is a phase. Never get too despondent or smug, because whatever is causing that will pass. Maybe tommorow, maybe next year.

Do not accept any advice from anyone with a child over two. They don't really remember!!

Not all babies like slings. It's ok if they don't.

Be kind to yourself - it's ok to walk away from unwanted guests and hide.

It does get easier, and you get more used to the peaks and the troughs.

It's so much fun!!

Always store your wipes upside down. All the liquid in the pack goes to the bottom so the first wipe you always use will be lovely and moist (same goes for all types of wipes).

Naice, I'm a nanny of 15 years and am also pregnant with no 3, I also did not know this:) but will be remembering it!

Do only one thing a day. Whether its having a visitor, going to baby group thing, doing the shopping... I found if I had planned 2 or more events on same day I was exhausted and baby wasn't that happy either. One thing a day kept me sane and baby happy

By the way I think naive deserves prize for best bit of advice- news to me too and would have saved a LOT of poopy heads!!

plip that's genius!

Naice not naive -

Sleep when they do, if at all possible.