What should I be achieving with a 5 week old?

[Hollyhop17]

I am a very stressed first time mum to a 5 week old. My house is a tip, we are living off junk food. He is currently going through a growth spurt so is crying a lot/awake a lot/difficult to settle.

I am so upset at all of this. I feel like I should be doing more but there never seems to be anytime. My DH is back to work tomorrow so Ill be on my own with him for the first time.

What realistically should I be doing? Cleaning, cooking, leaving the house? I had HG throughout my pregnancy so the brunt of all cooking/cleaning fell to DH. I am keen to 'make up' for this, but finding it hard.

What are others able to do at this stage?

TIA

you sound to me like you're managing brilliantly. Fingers crossed for a good night tonight.

I feel your pain OP. My DD is 7 weeks tomorrow and I always feel I'm not achieving enough during the day. And mind I'm the kind of person that can get a huge amount done in 5 minutes!

My dd has had a tongue tie so that combined with growth spurts literally keeps me sat in front of me tv all day trickle feeding her as she's too tired to feed properly but not full/tired enough to go in her basket. Plus the whole point of her constant feeding dirkng growth spurt is to up my milk supply so just have to accept it.

I only get dressed if I leave the house

DD spends most of the day in her nappy and only has clothes on if we leave the house

In fact I'm mainly topless as either feeding or airing out my nipples 😂

My DP does all cooking and gets me a weeks worth of ready meals every weekend.

I've found my sling the most amazing thing ever as if DD won't go down, I put her in that and we go for a good long walk so I get a 'break' that way. Or a drive in the car works well too.

Showering is normally done after early morning feed if she goes to sleep in her basket...if she doesn't I wait until she's in a smiley happy place, stick her in her basket with her slumber buddy playing some tunes and jump in shower for 4 minutes. She hasn't even noticed by the time I'm out and I don't panic as the worse she can do is cry and she's totally safe in her basket.

Showering daily helps, makes you feel human.

Going for walks helps as gets you out of house

The sling is singly the best bit of kit I bought!!

You're doing great...don't feel bad about having a good cry now and then...I cry daily and it makes me feel better.

The pampers advert got me yesterday, made me realise how lucky I am to have a healthy baby and puts the growth spurts into perspective a bit

I think 5 weeks is a shit time. I had a bit of a breakdown then and cried about not being able to keep the house functioning properly and cope with a newborn and how much I wasn't enjoying it. That was also the time DH was going back to work, I think the apprehension and hormones just collided badly.

Two weeks on and we're doing better. Getting out of the house does help, as does eating decent food which you enjoy and makes you feel better. Whatever that is, wherever you get it from.

I think an HG pregnancy followed by a baby is a really hard thing to go through. Don't put yourself down. Yes your DH did lots of housework etc BUT... he wasn't feeling like hell for 9 months, didn't go through a section and isn't looking after a small human 24/7. I'd take an extra bit of housework over that collection of joys.