When did you start enjoying your baby?

[mrshope]

Hi - this is my first post and I was just wondering when you starting to enjoy your baby? I am a first time mum to a 9week old and while I love him dearly I am definitely not enjoying myself! It seems so relentless! Is there light at the end of the tunnel?!?

There are several landmarks like this. Is he smiling yet? That's a big one.

Personally I found 6mo onwards much easier because you see them learning new things every day. Once they can sit up, once they can crawl, walk, talk...and then later at school milestones like reading, numbers, writing.

IME I found the bit up to 6mo a bit of a (dare I say it? boring!) slog.

How are you feeling? Have you questioned your feelings to make sure it doesn't go deeper, to PND or similar?

Congratulations

I enjoyed mine from the off, I have to say. I do LOVE babies though

When they reached 3, however...

Each to their own Bernard - personally I was very happy to get 3rd birthdays behind us!

Firstly congratulations on your baby boy

It is so hard in the early stages - but it does get easier and it does get better. And it gets massively more fun too!

I had a really tough first 4 months as DD had undiagnosed food allergies so her feeding and sleeping were a nightmare. But when that was fixed it improved quickly. I'd say i started to really enjoy her at 6 months. She's just turned 1 and she's getting even more fun by the day.

Make sure you have a good network of support - friends, family etc. And if you can manage to get to any parenting groups that's good too - its helpful to spend time with other mums and it puts where you are in a context.

Good luck

I had pnd so not sure if I have a balanced view, but I definitely found things got easier with him from about 7months, even though I was still struggling in myself. So much more fun and interesting and now he's nearly a year he's an absolute joy. 9weeks is such early days. I found having coffee with other mums an absolute life saver and forced myself to go to baby groups etc. regularly.

I totally get how you feel. It is relentless, monotonous, exhausting and lonely. Especially in the middle of the night! I found it got a lot easy when ds (now 4 months) started to properly smile and laugh, as I got positive feedback. I can see that the more interactive he gets the more fun things will be. Also things like having a stronger neck mean lots more positions you can prop them in to play, their grasp gets better and you can hand them toys and see them smile etc. I really loved three months as I felt thats when the crying reduced and smiling increased.
Do you go to any baby groups? I found meeting babies that were a month, two months etc older than mine gave me great motivation as I could see what he would achieve next

For me 3-4 yrs old was a killer. For dc1 and dc2 anyway. They drove me round the bloody twist!

Also do you have the wonder weeks app? At 9 weeks you are right in the middle of a leap, so your baby will be extra tearful/grumpy/unsettled/needy. The app explains exactly what's going on, why, and when it will be over. It helps my patience immensely!

I've never been a fan of the new baby stage! Dd2 is 7months now and just perfect - more interactive, sleeps better (sometimes!) and lots of fun weaning!

Agree - a support network is essential. You need to find some mums with babies the same age who are happy to sit, drink coffee, eat cake, and discuss the ins and outs of every baby-related detail for hours.

I remember the actual day, as I have a photo in my bedroom! He was 4 months, I heard him cooing, rather than screaming when he woke up, and when I picked him up, he smiled at me!

DS is 9 weeks tomorrow and I admit I have enjoyed him from day 1, for various different reasons over the weeks. At the moment he's really smiley and we have fun playing on his playmat and in the bath.
We also go to baby sensory and swimming which we both really enjoy. It's lovely watching him get pleasure out of new experiences.
I would definitely recommend organised activities, it gives me structure to the week and alleviates boredom.

I've found that ds just keeps on getting better and better as far as enjoying him goes. He's 9 months now. I didn't enjoy the first couple of months much though.

We had a really tough first 4 months or so with DS due to reflux and Drs who wouldn't treat it! Once they did things improved massively and I found I really started enjoying him from around 6mo like the others on this thread..each month thereafter he seems to get more and more awesome and at 14mo is amazing and I love every minute!

I also recommend the wonder weeks app for improving patience levels!

I'm finding 12 weeks is starting to feel much easier and therefore more enjoyable because she's sleeping more!

1 and a half for me

Ds1 from the beginning.
Ds2 became more endearing at 10 months when I went back to work.
I went right off ds1 for those 10 extremely long months too.

Thanks for your replies!
I am lucky I have a lovely nct group but their babies all seem a lot better than my ds. He refuses to be put in his basket in the day to sleep, will only catnap for 45mins, seems to get very overtired and grouchy. He won't sleep in the day anywhere but on me and that makes getting out very difficult.
When I have met up with people he will be the only baby screaming. I think this is what gets me down. I am literally always holding the baby.
I guess I didn't imagine my mat leave would be like this.

It's good to hear that other people didn't enjoy this stage! Thanks!!

I found the first 3 months very very tough. A massive change for me was at 5 1/2 months when my DD learned to sit up unaided. Everything just seemed so much easier as she could sit and play with toys by herself. At 10 months she is now crawling/cruising around furniture/trying to take first steps and while it's absolutely exhausting and still relentless, I am finding it so much more fun and rewarding now.

CurlsLDN - I have the wonder weeks but I haven't noticed any difference in him between the stormy periods and the sunny periods
He is smiling which is nice. He just is rarely that settled.
Will hold out for 6 months!

DS was your baby, mrshope--so unsettled, would only sleep on me etc. I promise it won't be forever. DS really settled into life once he could move a bit and communicate a little.

Hard up until 4 months - to some extent when I accepted he would only nap on me and started watching film whilst he slept -( maybe I would have been happier if I'd realised this sooner and just enjoyed the cuddles rather than feeling trapped ) managed to start going for walks etc with him in a carrier - tried to intro 234 nap routine -all around 4-6 months I loved weaning too!
However from 1-2 I have loved - ds is great, funny - even the occasional tantrum doesn't get me down to much

I have an eight week old and if it's anything like last time, I'll be gritting my teeth for the first year - that's when I seem to hit my stride. I'm not a big fan of new babies and all the crying makes me very irritable. I much prefer it when they get old enough to reason with! My two year old is a joy but this is bloody hard.

6 months or so. Which is also when I went back to work and could drink tea and pee in peace. But I have really really enjoyed everything after 14-15 months. I adore the toddler stage.

I could have written outflew's post. I have two dc and was counting down to the year mark with my second one as I knew it was when it would click for me.

If it makes you feel better I never once got to sit down with a cup of tea at nct meet ups. However, Ds1 was a far easier toddler than my friends. He never got the hang of a good tantrum.